By Harvey Wilsoncarr
Content warning: This article contains brief references to sexual assault.
If you’ve spent any time on social media lately, you will have noticed the sudden “downfall” of certain female musicians and artists. Whether it’s Megan Thee Stallion, Ice Spice, Nicki Minaj, or anyone else, your For You page is bound to be flooded with endless videos with “how [x] is a horrible person” or “[x] is causing their career suicide”-adjacent content. Here, I will analyse some artists such as FKA twigs, Chappell Roan, and Doechii to find common ground between them, seeing why they have been scrutinised by the media despite garnering massive commercial success.
Let’s start with FKA twigs. If you are unfamiliar with her and her work (you’re missing out if so), you may know her song “cellophane,” her feature on Ty Dolla $ign’s “Ego Death,” or her recent album EUSEXUA, all of which went viral on TikTok. Her recent commercial acclaim is long overdue, and after 13 years since her first releases, it is right that someone with as much artistic integrity as her is rewarded.
Despite this newfound success, Twigs’ reputation and image started to crumble after certain recent actions. A precursor to the more severe aspects of her image decline was her chosen collaborators in the last year such as Nicki Minaj and North West, daughter of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. Twigs’ career is one of artistic vision, uniqueness, relatability, being inherently anti-mainstream. Due to this, liaising with these people is deemed as a reduction to her art, in a similar case to Grimes’ association to billionaires such as Elon Musk.
Twigs’ career is one of artistic vision, uniqueness, relatability, being inherently anti-mainstream
FKA twigs has been branded out of touch following a situation arose during her tour dates in America where she cancelled several dates to logistical Visa issues 24 hours before the first show. Fans, who paid several hundreds of dollars to accommodate themselves and attend the shows, were understandably upset, but this is not where most of the scrutiny and backlash came from. After the unfortunate incident, Twigs had posted on her Discord server boasting about her unique skillset, coming across egotistical, entitled, and out of touch critiquing her fans’ criticisms who were supposedly “turning on mother” and saying they should be “celebrating” her.
This out of touch claim is not helped by her recent actions in interviews either. In an interview with Resident Advisor in April, Twigs made a comment asking, “Where are the great thinkers?,” acting oddly pretentious and out of touch, a stark difference from the personality fans know, love, and expect from her. As a result of this, people online sent immense amounts of backlash on reposts of the clip, with some memeing it, but others being concerned, considering whether to stop listening to her since she has become so “out of touch” and “unbearable.” The criticisms lied primarily with Twigs’ ignorance towards societal problems, with many claiming that the ‘great thinkers’ are stuck working minimum wage jobs or having their educational funding cut by universities for a plethora of reasons. Whether these actions will negatively impact Twigs in the long run or whether they will continue to snowball into more intense criticisms is unknown, but a stain has certainly been made on her EUSEXUA era and her career as a whole.
Twigs’ situation inspired me to pursue similar cases, such as Doechii, who also seemingly suffered a similar loss of popularity in the last few months. Doechii, undoubtedly more well-known than Twigs, had an incredible musical track record in 2024. Her GRAMMY-award winning mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal, singles “NISSAN ALTIMA”, “DENIAL IS A RIVER”, and feature on Tyler, The Creator’s “Balloon” allowed her to start 2025 off on a strong foot with a cult following.
This winning streak continued with the release of the Gotye-sampling “Anxiety” released in March that catapulted onto the charts. The song, despite obtaining commercial success, was universally panned though, with many calling it a damper on her career. Dislike was shown primarily towards the usage of the heavy “Somebody That I Used To Know” sample, a song that many love. I even had an experience in Trevelyan College’s bar where a groan was let out from a nearby table when it was realised that it was Doechii’s song instead of the original when she started singing.
The criticisms lied primarily with Twigs’ ignorance towards societal problems, with many claiming that the ‘great thinkers’ are stuck working minimum wage jobs or having their educational funding cut by universities for a plethora of reasons
Doechii, like Twigs, is not immune to controversial collaborators either, having songs with Kodak Black (who has been arrested several times on charges ranging from firearm possession to sexual assault) on her original breakthrough hit “What It Is (Block Boy)” and with Katy Perry on “I’M HIS, HE’S MINE”, which was produced by Dr. Luke (who was in a very public court case with Kesha for sex-based hate crimes).
Most notably, though, is her incident at this year’s Met Gala where she was caught on video demanding and shouting at her staff members. Public response is still mixed on this, with many branding her entitled, rude, and disrespectful but many understanding that it was a tense environment. Many claimed that now that “Anxiety” had provided her with immense success, the fame had gotten to her head and her lack of morals were seen. Her ‘response’ on TikTok didn’t help her cause, where she disregarded the situation and didn’t really respond, which people did not appreciate.
Another musician who has semi-recently experienced this is Chappell Roan. The extremely publicised situations Chappell has faced with paparazzi and fans initially provided her with positive press, with many people praising her for having boundaries and criticising paparazzi for their intrusive nature. Despite this, many tend to critique her for being overly aggressive and borderline disrespectful towards people who want to support her.
Also, we have the controversy she faced regarding her lack of endorsement for Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential election. Although many argue that Chappell has no responsibility to endorse a politician, many (with whom I agree with) claim that as a lesbian woman, she should advocate for a future where both lesbians and women have access to their rights. After enough public pressure she did endorse her, but the aggressive nature in which she did left many people under satisfied and felt like she was only acting because of pressure and not because of her own morals and beliefs. Her public perception has soured as a result of all these issues, making people less likely to check out her music and support her.
This cycle is bound to repeat endlessly
Stepping back from all the intricacies of these individuals, there is a strong current that links them all. All three of these artists are women in music, specifically pop music – an industry which is historically cruel towards them. You might notice that no male pop star is critiqued on the same level as someone like Chappell, and even if they are, it is forgotten about a week later. This is not just a recent trend, as we can remind ourselves of the treatment faced by the likes of Britney Spears and Janet Jackson in the 2000s where they faced criticism for wanting to exist. They all worked for years to get recognised, with Twigs starting in 2012, Chappell in 2017, and Doechii in 2018. Too, the influx of criticisms occurs after a rollout by the artist, with Doechii’s “Anxiety,” Chappell’s “Good Luck, Babe!” and Twigs’ aforementioned EUSEXUA album. These coincidences lead me to the conclusion that it is not entirely an issue with their own actions (which are often inexcusable) but rather society’s incapability to uplift female artists, opting to drag them down instead. This cycle is bound to repeat endlessly, but despite their controversies and criticisms, I would highly encourage you to support these incredible women as they are some of our greatest talents out currently.
Image Credit: Bobo boom via wikimedia commons
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