Musical Performances

[justinaqui]

I had a class in college called "Music as Performance". A major point of the class was that all performers have a persona, and that if they can at all help it, the fans will only ever see that persona. On-stage or during interviews or in music videos, no matter how hard they might try to be casual or even if they do it subconsciously, they are always putting on a performance.

Do you think this is true? Does it matter to you?

Another point of the curriculum was that different genres had different rules. Authenticity might matter a lot in metal music or rap, but less in pop music, so if you post your opinion maybe give me an idea of what you like.

Do you think musicians ever change their persona? Do you think its a conscious decision if they do?

I don't really expect this to get to a second page, but hell, maybe some of you have opinions on this stuff. I think about it all the time, and while I do believe that almost everything I see from musicians is probably rehearsed or at least thought out, I hate to actually think about it when I'm watching someone on stage.

Sorry for the ramble.

[Mr. Dylanja]

Maynard James Keenan is one big act.

[CalmerThanYou]

As has been stated here before, Bands Like Music

[wmgaretjax]

This is why liberal arts should be shot in the face.

[amyzzz]

I am a golden god!

[justinaqui]

Maynard James Keenan is one big act.

Had him in mind recently. Think it's always been that way? I am not lucky enough to have seen any of his bands early years.

[MissingPerson]

I had a class in college called "Music as Performance". A major point of the class was that all performers have a persona, and that if they can at all help it, the fans will only ever see that persona. On-stage or during interviews or in music videos, no matter how hard they might try to be casual or even if they do it subconsciously, they are always putting on a performance.

Do you think this is true? Does it matter to you?


It's absolutely true, and it's something that interests me a lot, but I'm gonna have to give you advance warning that the example I'm going to use is the one I'm most familiar with.

Folks of a sensitive disposition would do well to bail now or scroll down to the next post.

The most obvious way a performer projects a persona is visually, so for that, an interview with Win Butler and Régine Chassage:


When did the dress code enter the band?
Regine: Oh, dress code is annoying.
Win: It’s in flux.
R: I’m tired of wearing the same thing all the time.

Do you, though?
W: No, you don’t.
R: I change my socks.
W: Oh, everything’s annoying, Regine! Dress code; annoying. Playing keyboards; annoying.
R: Oh, what do you want? No, I love playing keyboards. I just want to dance too. That’s my problem.

Did you always want the presentation of the show to be theatrical?
R: For me, I don’t think about theatrical. For me, it’s not something that I put on. It’s not much of a game or a character. It comes out theatrical, but I don’t think of that way.

Maybe just compared to every other band?
W: Maybe. The clothes we wear is more for us than the audience. It’s important for me to put on clothes that I’m not already wearing. It puts you in a different mode. There’s a difference between playing a show and walking down the street. You have to appreciate your audience, which makes it different from playing in your living room. What we’re actually wearing is abritrary, and it will change. It’s more for our own headspace, to make it special. Also, I was a teenager during the grunge thing, which was a reaction to hair metal and glamourous crap, and everyone wore whatever they felt like. I think it would have been unusual in the 60s to see a band not wearing some kind of stage clothes. Maybe I’m wrong. Jimi Hendrix wore really weird, exaggerated clothes.

He’d also wear that on the street, though.
W: That’s true. He lived the part.



It's important from their point of view to get into a different mindset than the one they're in when they're buying toilet paper or cleaning the fridge out or whatever. Not necessarily pretending to be somebody else, just presenting yourself in a more deliberate way. It's like a ritual thing, part of the sense of occasion.

To illustrate, at some point this guy:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/jill_valentine/earlyAF2-1-1.jpg

Made a very conscious decision to start being this guy:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/jill_valentine/446311-1.jpg

Even though when when no one's looking, he's still secretly this guy:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/jill_valentine/1293410832_f0324394ee.jpg

I used to have another interview to hand that I can't find now where Win and Tim were discussing whether or not they should start acting more confrontatively with their audiences for the Neon Bible tour; they were trying to tweak their onstage personalities/ personas to match the material. I know at least one of the band members went to a couple of those hysterical evangelical preachers to take notes, and they certainly used 'em.

Win Butler's not even a Christian; not that he would ever let that slip in an interview.

Alright everyone, you can come back now.


Anyway, yes, I'm pro-persona, particularly if it generates a bit of mystique, which is a good thing for music to do. I don't think a performer's persona is necessarily a disingenuous or insincere thing; but it is part of the voodoo of what they do. I don't think they're necessarily just playing a character who happens to make music; it can be part and parcel of their artistic output as much as the album art or anything else, something that feeds into and out of the music itself rather than something just tacked onto it. For somebody like David Bowie, it was an integral part of the whole project.

Still though, on the other hand, you've got somebody like Lady Gaga, who has perfected the art of acting like a complete fucktard to such a degree that by now I'm wholly convinced. She's got the persona idea down flat, now if she could only get some fucking music to go with it...

[justinaqui]

I know at least one of the band members went to a couple of those hysterical evangelical preachers to take notes, and they certainly used 'em.


That's pretty interesting. Doing research for the part..

[BROKENDOLL]

To be honest, I'm more curious about the personas on this message board than those I see up on a stage at a show...:rolleyes

But, in reference to your question... I mean, c'mon, it is a show afterall. A performance. You almost expect to see a persona of some sort. If anything, in regards to someone on a stage, I may wonder if they ever actually sit around in sweatpants and socks with holes in them, more than whether or not they always parade around in glitter or leather.

And, if you're referring to personalities, the first ones that come to mind in projecting a persona far different than themselves would be Michael Jackson, Prince, and David Bowie, for instance.

[MissingPerson]

That's pretty interesting. Doing research for the part..

I guess if you're looking for tips on how to work a crowd, you want to learn from the guys who can make people talk nonsense in public and try to pray away diabetes.

[PJandBompton]

i know mentioning his name on here will get myself flamed on...but John Mayer taught a class on stage performance at Berklee for a few classes last year and he said some really really good stuff...

[algunz]

The stage is much like the camera. The moment either medium becomes a part of the scenario it will inevitably change the person/performer. Whether deliberate or not, you can never be "yourself" once you step in front of an audience or in front of a camera. Occasionally, a still camera can capture a moment of vulnerability, but it's guaranteed to be a fleeting moment of the true self.

:2c

[mountmccabe]

I had a class in college called "Music as Performance". A major point of the class was that all performers have a persona, and that if they can at all help it, the fans will only ever see that persona. On-stage or during interviews or in music videos, no matter how hard they might try to be casual or even if they do it subconsciously, they are always putting on a performance.

Do you think this is true? Does it matter to you?

There are some artists that live as a performance... but then that kinda means that's who they are; they make themselves into the performer.

But, fucking shit, even in that interview with W and R their off-stage personas are shining through. And that right there contradicts the "the fans will only ever see that persona" bit. They're giving an interview using their Clark Kents. Not only that they're talking about their tights and cape. If that's a fucking performance that's some next level shit.


And I've seen far too many artists that aren't acting, aren't playing a part, aren't trying to specifically create anything other than music. Granted these tend to be the smaller bands so maybe that means that they're small because they'ren't giving the fans an archetype that they can worship/hate/etc but maybe it's more that the smaller bands are easier to see in their off-stage moments because they're the ones selling the t-shirts and moving their gear and asking about nearby cheap hotels/floorspace.

[JebusLives]

Trent Reznor is a great example, I think. He presented only a persona for over a decade before reemerging as a human being about 5 years ago. Some fans are still upset with him for being normal.

I was pleased to find out my rock n roll idol was in fact just a computer geek at heart, like me.

[rskapcat]

In Fargo Rock City, Chuck Klosterman touches on the difference between interviewing Marilyn Manson right after Portrait of An American Family came out and again after Antichrist Superstar. It was like interviewing two different people.

[bleep]

ga ga all the time, every time
http://thestylepenguin.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Lady-GaGa-Kermit-the-Frog.jpg

[Alchemy]

http://www.normanmusicfestival.com/home/images/stories/19580605-19580610-slarge.jpg

[MissingPerson]

But, fucking shit, even in that interview with W and R their off-stage personas are shining through. And that right there contradicts the "the fans will only ever see that persona" bit. They're giving an interview using their Clark Kents. Not only that they're talking about their tights and cape. If that's a fucking performance that's some next level shit.


And I've seen far too many artists that aren't acting, aren't playing a part, aren't trying to specifically create anything other than music. Granted these tend to be the smaller bands so maybe that means that they're small because they'ren't giving the fans an archetype that they can worship/hate/etc but maybe it's more that the smaller bands are easier to see in their off-stage moments because they're the ones selling the t-shirts and moving their gear and asking about nearby cheap hotels/floorspace.

Good points.

It's worth mentioning that interview is a very old one - whether through interview fatigue or just acquired media savvy, I can't imagine Win or Régine being as forthright about the artifice of it all these days. Miroir Noir, for instance, is all about the persona and they only really let it drop a couple of times.

It's a little bit easier for them to project a more carefully chosen image when they aren't having to slug their own gear in through the audience before the show or whatever.

ga ga all the time, every time
http://thestylepenguin.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Lady-GaGa-Kermit-the-Frog.jpg

I still can't decide whether this is a stroke of genius or just regular idiocy. Her expression tilts me towards the latter.