It’s unfair to fans, the ones who have loyally supported your career, to hint at music that does not have a release date or even a chorus.
In recent years, artists have taken to unveiling snippets of songs, just to wait months on months to even begin conversations around releasing an album. But, to taunt fans with new music that isn’t coming anytime soon is entirely unfair.
There has been a shining star when it comes to this conversation: Chappell Roan. She released her debut album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” and it took over the charts and people’s hearts. Roan’s career has skyrocketed, leading to her having the largest audience in Lollapalooza’s history. During this record-breaking performance, she played one of her unreleased songs, titled “The Subway.”
Additionally, while being the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live,” Roan played another unreleased song. This one titled “The Giver,” was a little country diddy that quickly had fans flocking to find any way to stream the song.
Roan has not set a date for the release of her second album nor has she announced anything similar. Roan has kept her second album very hush-hush, only making a small reference to it in an Instagram post. To listen to these unreleased songs, fans are forced to make fake podcasts accounts and create “episodes” that are the songs, which are occasionally struck down by the Spotify overlords.
While Roan might hold the gold medal in this department, silver easily goes to Noah Kahan, another notorious teaser. Well into his second tour, “The Stick Season (We’ll Be Here Forever) Tour,” Kahan began to play unreleased songs that had only been teased on social media.
In the last two years, Kahan has released four albums, most of them being re-publications of his previous works. In these four albums, only eight new songs that had not appeared on previous albums. That number is incomparable to the amount of songs that have been played on Instagram livestreams or teased on TikTok.
As many as three unreleased songs were played sporadically throughout his tour, only one of them making their way to being released. The most infamous of the unreleased songs, “The Great Divide,” still has yet to be fully produced, despite being played at 33 shows.
Following the release of his latest album, which lacked “The Great Divide” despite being played at the show that was recorded live, Kahan had to defend himself for leaving out the fan favorite.
“I didn’t realize how much people would love this song and I just started playing it on tour because I was trying to keep myself excited. It’s my fault for teasing it without the right plan in place to put it out,” Kahan said on X (formerly Twitter).
Fans are naturally hungry for any new work from their favorite artists. You cannot blame them for being eager to consume all possible media. Their dedication is clear in the ways that they still managed to find ways to stream the music, even if it’s struck down eventually.
There are very few ways in which these fans’ hunger can be satiated, either by releasing the music or keeping the teasing to a minimum. Otherwise, it’s unreasonable to drag it out, leaving both the fans and the artist unsatisfied.
