LET’S CELEBRATE & COMPARE-‘Pink Pony Club’-Chappell Roan M/V and SNL Live Performance
Added 2024-12-16 18:27:37 +0000 UTCChappell Roan double header today! On the YT channel I posted a single listen through to the SNL performance, but I thought I’d go a bit deeper over here for you all!
I did a fun comparison of her performance from SNL versus her music video. I found lots of interesting things between these two performances.
Let me know what you think!?
Comments
To me, the Pink Pony Club video (and the other early performances) represent the *revelation* of a wide-eyed ingenue who had just truly experienced freedom for the first time. Today's Pinky Pony Club performances are a *celebration* by an artist now fully confident in herself sharing what she has discovered.
Cory Wagner
2025-04-05 17:31:30 +0000 UTCTim, this is a live performance of Chappell doing Pink Pony Club that is from almost the exact time as the original video that you cross compared. In fact it's from a tiny bit earlier as she's still not finalized its final form in this performance differing with how she ends it. But in this rendition you'll hear none of the hesitancy that you see in the video, as she is not nervous and in a comfortable performing setting. It's also from the period where she plays the piano while she sings, something that she has stoped doing in her current performances with the exception of Kaleidoscopes rare appearances. This is another hallmark of her transition between her 1st and 2nd eras. This is still Kayleigh singing. Chappell has not gelled up yet. I figured you might like to hear it, as we've developed a number of Pony clips here and you can see how the song actually developed and how she came to find her chosen voice and sound for it. Oh. that sharp intake of breath is here in that last verse, just like in the SNL performance. It's clearly a choice she is making for the performance, and it was made VERY early. I hope you enjoy and I'm dropping this here for your and the communities entertainment. Not for review, though your thoughts are always welcome to be heard. I always learn one or two things when you speak. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=372cWoExizE
Jevon Kasitch
2024-12-30 06:44:23 +0000 UTCI cross posted my comments over to the YT post of this you put up today to help with the discussion there, and did some engagement with the posters there also. Hopefully we can get more folks to pop over here. Hope the Holidays are good to you Tim
Jevon Kasitch
2024-12-28 23:35:21 +0000 UTCThanks for all of your Chappell love, Tim! I always look forward to new reactions from you. Did you see the recent interview with her producer, Dan Nigro, on NPR? He told a little anecdote about the guitar solo in Pink Pony Club being Chappell's idea: https://www.npr.org/2024/12/23/nx-s1-5206672/dan-nigro-chappell-roan-olivia-rodrigo-grammys-2024
Marie Caswell
2024-12-26 15:40:38 +0000 UTCI surprised myself today, I could actually see all the differences you were pointing out. I would be hard pressed to pick one I liked more; they are both so good. As for the thanks you give us at the end of each of your reactions, it works both ways, you drew us to you, and I am learning so much about music that I never would have considered before, and I love that.
William Hall
2024-12-18 23:36:47 +0000 UTCI think you would find her Casual music video really cool. It's like a mini movie.
Julianna
2024-12-17 17:24:02 +0000 UTCYou are so lucky you can hear all the things you point out. I have ringing in the ears and I miss slot. The MV reminded me of Flash Dance.
j f
2024-12-17 05:52:44 +0000 UTCA beautiful edit of Pony's evolution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jrCYp4WItk
Jevon Kasitch
2024-12-16 21:46:27 +0000 UTCHowdy, Let me supply you with some context for both vides, and Pink Pony Club itself to give your observations solid foundation to pop off from. The video is almost half a decade old now. And was made while Chappell was still under her first label, Atlantic. They had signed her based upon her YouTube performances of original material. Her 'first era' was in the Cursive singing style that was popular in the early 10's, and her general presentation was gothy and sorta dark. Eventually they would release an EP (School Days) with plans for a full album to follow. The EP got little traction, though Chappell did gain a distinct and loyal following with it. She'd moved to LA to work with the label more closely, and started to find herself, and her sexuality. She visited 'The Abby" which is a very prominent gay bar in West Hollywood, and was infatuated by the Go-Go dancers there, and the general feeling of freedom and so forth she found there. Not being a dancer, she wrote a song about the place, which was Pink Pony Club. And it was a massive break from her cursive style. And Atlantic was not pleased. They felt that it would confuse her fans, and that it was non-viable. (Two guitar solos??? They said, no one wants that) They released it right in the face of the Pandemic in 2020 and it died the death, and Atlantic chose to toss her overboard and killed her contract. But because they had not produced the contractually agreed album for her, they returned all of her rights to all she had done with them in full. Also Pony was produced by Dan Negro, and was the start of Cappell and his relationship which would eventually Blossom into her first album. She'd eventually place Pony on that album, and here we are. History lesson done. Now some context. She has stated in interviews that she terrified when filming the video, and especially at its start. She said she channeled it into the performance, and if you watch the first segment you can honestly see her nervousness. It did have an impact on the performance a bit as you noted in your comparison. She was not confident here, unlike on SNL which was after she had close to 100K people sing pony with her at ACL and she knew Pony was loved and accepted. The video is very much her conception, as all of her videos are. And if you want to go down that rabbit hole, watching her other formal videos will probably please you. Some of them are really artistic. (Casual we are looking at you) As to the SNL performance her costume and set was designed to reflect The Bride of Frankenstein, which is a surprising early lesbian icon, due to how the bride rejected the plans of her creators to wed the original. Her dress split from neck to the small of her back about 20 minutes before the performance, and they ended up sewing her into it. She said it was 'pretty tight'. I'm surprised that you didn't pick out the fact that she threw a verse to the audience with 'sing it!' which is exactly how Freddie Mercury, one of her musical heroes often did the exact same thing. But more impressively an SNL audience DID 'sing it'. Which has never happened in my memory. It was a highly special moment, and it's one of the things that I and others point at when saying that she is probably one of the most able motivators of audience participation in the industry today. (Also reflected in the Hot to Go dance) and has commanded 10's of thousands in crowds to 'sing it' and they did. Not many can say this. The 'chirp' you noted her making after that sing along verse may well be an artifact of her excitement at having pulled the sing along off with the audience. She has a tendency to trend toward laughter when she gets anxious. Which..... we get to see after the 2nd guitar solo. She was on her knees bopping out to it and when she went to get back up almost fell, and you can see her suppressing her laughter as she sings the next verse. It's VERY Chappell. If you track Pony thru her festival performances over the summer, the guitar has been present in it since almost the beginning, differing from the studio track. Lucy's drums also take over for the synth 'boom-boom' in the ordinal studio track. The studio track was designed to sound like an 80's throwback piece in many ways with emphasis on the gay club synth love. Once on the road and tour, her three piece reworked it into the sound you hear on SNL. Pony is special to her because it was the first song in her new voice, that started her 2nd era formally, with the discarding of the cursive sound of her 1st. It was the first track she released of her 'new self' and playing it on SNL was her specific choice, as it represented a closing of the circle there, being her first and last pieces done in the 2nd era, before she went on to do "The Giver" as her second song, and officially start what will be her 3rd era. She's very sentimental, and gestures like this are very common for her. One thing that I enjoyed from your comparison is the fact that you noted how close the two performances were, even separated by half a decade, and how assured the SNL one was. I also liked seeing your auto-tune discussion over on YT. That was the sort of eduction that people need to see to understand and be able to make choices with some information in my opinion. A good thing. Oh yes. SNL is amazingly firm on no one ever getting to say "Live from New York...." etc except the person chosen to do it in the cold open each week. She wanted to do it and they said no, and no you can't do it later either. So she did what Chappell does. She did it anyway and baked it into the end audio of the track so they couldn't cut it without it looking like shit. I can imagine they were grumpy about that. But then she delivered the best ratings they had in years for that episode. And I'm sure they forgot about it :) Also as I mentioned with the giver, she had HER people mike the studio, and control her mix, and fed that back into SNL's soundboard. It's why they had the audience so well miked for the sing along, and that she sounded so much better than many do in that acoustically cursed performance studio. As to what you should do next Chappell wise? I think you should do the Last Christmas cover with Sabrina next. It's a light thing, but it's interesting to see Chappell working with a second singer, and how she adjusts around it. Also the sheer looseness in that piece is amazing. It looked very much like a bit from a 70's variety show that had one rehearsal at best. But both women carried it well with pure ability. I feel it would be a good addition here. After that, I do feel that you should do a whole festival show. I favor ACL week one, but almost any will do, and give you an idea of how she maintains flow in her shows, and it's all live. This will also fill you out on several of the album tracks you've not heard before. I think you should review one or two pieces from her Cursive first era (I'm more then ready to suggest which) to provide some context of where she was coming from before she became what we see now. And she'll be doing something at the Grammy's live. With 5 nominations across all the major categories there is no way she won't. That should be interesting also. I'm glad that you enjoy her so much, and it's helped you find the footing for this community that you wanted.
Jevon Kasitch
2024-12-16 20:05:23 +0000 UTC
