Musicians Are Extremely Tired Of Obsessive Fan Behavior

Pop singer Chappell Roan has some harsh words for obsessive fans as she continues her rapid ascent to superstardom. 

“I don’t want whatever the f–k you think you’re supposed to be entitled to whenever you see a celebrity. I don’t give a f–k if you think it’s selfish of me to say no for a photo, or for your time, or for a hug,” the American singer said in a TikTok video Tuesday. 

“That’s not normal; it’s weird. It’s weird how people think that you know a person just ’cause you see them online or you listen to the art they make…. I’m allowed to say no to creepy behaviour, OK?”

Roan joins a growing list of musicians, including Halsey and Tyler, the Creator, who have expressed frustrations with rude and overzealous fans in recent weeks. 

In another Tiktok posted the same day, the Good Luck, Babe singer asked viewers whether they would approach a random person in public the way they approach celebrities. 

Would you stalk her family? Would you follow her around? Would you try to dissect her life and bully her online?” 

Roan disabled comments on the videos, which have around 12 million views each. 

Roan’s criticism not typical of celebrities: marketing prof

The 26-year-old has been recording music since she was a teen but has seen a meteoric rise to fame this year.

She released her debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess in September and saw a steady climb into 2024, but her monthly listeners on Spotify jumped from just over a million February to almost 21 million by June, according to music data analytics platform Chartmetric.

Jenna Drenten, a marketing professor who studies digital consumer culture at Loyola University Chicago, says it was powerful for Roan to speak out in a video without her signature stage makeup, at this point in her career, about the way fans treat her. 

I can’t remember a time where a celebrity at the height of their career, with such a following, has come out so boldly in admonishment of the sort of parasitic relationship that fans expect to have with celebrities,” she said. 

Roan offered some details last month about fans acting like “freaks,” telling The Comment Section podcast that she “pumped the brakes” on what she shares in public.

“[Fans] follow me and know where my parents live, and where my sister works. All this weird shit,” she said.

Drenten says people have had a longstanding perception that celebrities have opted into or “asked for” a lifestyle of judgment, scrutiny and criticism from fans and onlookers as a tradeoff for fame and fortune. She says fans also believe celebrities are beholden to them in some way, taking credit for their fame.

Social media has magnified its effects, turning it into “obsessive fan behaviour on steroids,” she said, by giving unprecedented access to celebrities’ personal lives and breaking down people’s perceptions of intimacy.

Rapper Tyler, the Creator shared similar sentiments last week about “weirdo” fans on the Mavericks podcast.

“They want to know who your sister is, and like what you ate for dinner. Like, mind your f–king business,” he said. “Because of the internet, people don’t know personal boundaries anymore, and it’s normalized.”

Halsey said fans are ‘meaner’ to her than anyone else

Pop singer Halsey called out her fans in a Tumblr post last month, saying cruel online comments had made her regret returning to music. 

Halsey took a break from the spotlight after being diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in 2022, then later with “a rare T-cell lymphoproliferative disorder,” and returned in June with new music that didn’t go over well with some fans. 

“My own fans are hands down meaner to me than any other people on the planet,” she wrote in a post that has since been deleted.

“Not speaking for all of you, of course. But it used to be just a minority that were awful to me and now it seems like a majority have only stuck around to chime in occasionally with their opinion of how much they hate me or how awful I am.

“It’s hard to want to engage in a space that is completely devoid of any kindness, sympathy, patience or, to be honest, human decency.”

Canadian pop star Justin Bieber has publicly set boundaries with fans, speaking out about harassment on several occasions dating back to at least 2016 when he said he felt like a “zoo animal” and was “done taking pictures.”

When fans continued to harass his wife, Hailey, last year and push Bieber to get back together with his former partner, singer Selena Gomez, Gomez pleaded with fans to “please be kinder and consider others’ mental health.

How social media changes celebrity culture

Jordan Foster, a research fellow in the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University who studies culture, new media and inequality, says celebrities clapping back at fans for crossing boundaries is part of a broader shift in celebrity culture.

While obsessive fan behaviour isn’t new, online platforms have allowed new types of celebrities and micro-celebrities to emerge, he said — and for some fans to feel like they know them personally even though they don’t. 

Foster says that Twitter, now X, began the shift by allowing celebrities and fans to interact with each other directly. That accessibility has evolved with Instagram and TikTok.

“Fans began to feel that they have this very intimate relationship with the celebrity who was more accessible,” he said.

But if their comments or online behaviour cross a line of decency, they’ll likely never know exactly how it affected the recipient. “We are none the wiser to the damage that we do.”

WATCH | Chappell Roan on CBC’s Q with Tom Power

Foster says in the case of Roan and Halsey, who are both queer — Halsey also uses both she and they pronouns — their identity markers make them more susceptible to criticism from the public, as they “embody these status characteristics that have historically and continue to be subject to harassment, to bias and to discrimination.”

Foster suspects Roan’s comments in particular may split her growing audience, but are unlikely to do a lot of damage. In fact, it may help propel a broader conversation about bullying and harassment.

“She has a persona that is based around this resilient character, this outspoken character, this individual who is capable of pushing against traditional notions of gender and sexuality and binaries. And so in that respect, she’s actually well positioned to be quite vocal,” Foster said.

“It does not mean that she’s immune from fallout. There will be audience members who feel that her pushback is uncalled for.”