Does changing your persona mean you need to change your music? David Bowie is a classic example of this...every new musical idea has a new persona connected to it. The chameleon becomes his persona.
Tom Waits is a performer that's kept the same persona throughout his career, yet his music changes fairly significantly with each new album.
I'm just throwing things out there...
I'm interested in the fact that Klaus made up his character and lived in the limelight, died in the limelight and will forever (for as long as he is remembered) be known as Klaus Nomi. What was his goal in keeping such a rigid persona? His costume, his voice, his emblem, his music all stayed consistent during his career. The documentary made it seem like fame was his ultimate goal. I guess to reach this goal, you need to remain fairly consistent so more and more people grow accustomed to your particular form of strangeness. If you have only a few tics, people will recognize them the more you do them publicly.
Whether you like it or not, the more famous you get, the more you're pigeon-holed. People need categorization to keep them sane. Our entire way of thinking is based on different levels of categorization...
Some intriguing Pop Personas:
Madonna
John Lennon
Prince
Prince
50 Cent
These days, reality television is all the rage. I wonder to what extent the lead characters from shows such as 'Daisy of Love' and 'I love New York' are real. Would you suppose that they would also fall under the category of 'intriguing pop personas' even though they are being marketed on their authenticity?
ReplyDeleteReal reality would most likely be too boring for television. Your examples make us think it is all armor....
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