This evening I pulled myself from out of a pit of despair and watched a couple of things including a video of a creation called Chapell Roan. There she was on stage, well maintained voice, gorgeous tumbles of red hair, wearing some Cherie Currie style lingerie – I suppose that translates to Anne Summer’s style ‘Street Sweetheart’ undies. This was the first pointer that Chappell was in fact a corporate plant masquerading as a backwater 25 yearwas in fact a corporate plant masquerading as a backwater 25 year old of humble roots. Of course, at some point Ms Roan had been a genuine talent or she wouldn’t have been groomed to become a robot version of her past self. What big business fails to understand is that in the good old days, those gifted enough to succeed in the music industry such as Emmy Lou Harris or Debbie Harry who both excelled in being themselves and not record company makeovers. Amy Winehouse might have had a stage school background but her soul and song craft where her own. Younger audiences have been duped into believing that authenticity doesn’t matter, only it does because without it, there can be no real brilliance, no breath-taking moments of Leonard Cohen style calibre. As I watched Chappell Roan going through a series of well-tutored moves a little of my own soul died on behalf of the kids neutered into believing that careful corporate business constructs are real and not pre-programmed. Chapell Roan is neither particularly good or bad, she is merely a product of the times in which we live but without humanity, there can be no great art, only the tolling of an empty bell.
Nina Antonia 