In 2023, the singer-songwriter Noah Kahan leapfrogged to superstardom following the release of “Stick Season,” a COVID-era LP full of claustrophobic, lovesick folk songs. During the pandemic, he started uploading funny, unfinished snippets of songs about Vermont to social media and became a phenomenon. “Back then, it was still the Wild West days of TikTok, and fame came fast and hard,” Amanda Petrusich writes. “By all accounts, virality is violent for its subjects, and building a sustainable career from sudden celebrity is a formidable task; any sensible person would be wise to distrust such an instantaneous anointing.”
“Noah Kahan: Out of Body,” a documentary débuting on Netflix today, explores Kahan’s feelings of belonging, or, more accurately, of misbelonging—to his home town, largely, but also on stage, within the context of his family, and in his own body. In the documentary and in his new songs, Kahan considers how the misery of fame can make you yearn for the place you meant to escape. Read more: www.newyorker.com/culture/pop-music/noah-k...
