The Appeal of Anonymity

#1

A big daft sweeping question… but anonymity of an artist does seem to work in favour of the music made by those artists and producers that choose to avoid publicity, but why?

#2

The same reason that you like an artist until your friend with bad taste tells you about a track that they are into – and it is your favourite track at the moment and they have just gone and ruined it for you. Everyone wants to be a part of a club, and that club is especially interesting when no one knows who is in charge of it.

#3

There’s definitely something in that… though I think that the taste in music of the recommender plays second fiddle to the fact that most folk enjoy discovering music on their own terms and any form of recommendation feels a bit hollow in comparison.

Easiest way to put it, I guess, is that where an artist refuses to show face or speak out publicly then only the music is there to be judged. No other baggage or background noise hangs around it.

I had an old playlist on in work last week and Boards of Canada, Burial and Aphex Twin all played back to back on it, their collective anonymity got me asking the question because each of them are as amazing as they are unknown.

#4

Right. I get that, but I would contend that you can pick out the same amount of artists that are amazing that are also well known.

To an extent, everyone is anonymous the first time you put it on. The mythology of the person builds things, but again, there are plenty of well-known people with mythology surrounding them.

Maybe just a certain type of music works really well when there is a mystery you are trying to unravel when listening to it? Almost like you are listening more intently to try and discover what the artist is all about?

#5

Yeah this is definitely more restricted to certain types of music and there is of course room for speculation and mystery behind any artists that appear more public. The ‘listening more intently’ bit you say at the end there though, that might be what i’m getting at.

#6

I think not knowing anything about music and film going into it is always the best way to experience it. But when someone has a reputation, it can work really well in favour of their work. Especially if they are mysterious.

#7

ive met a couple of people I’d consider heroes in my life, and they have all been pretty terrible people tbh. produced art that i truly love but it is inevitable that afterwards no matter what you say, that it is tainted with your new perception of them as people.

Also a well put together aesthetic is really appealing and that having nothing to do with a ‘person’ who might have tastes outwith that particular project, or even politcal ideas you might not agree with, is really a part of what draws you in to something, I guess?

#8

Something that happened to me is a good example of how it works…

I work near a very busy and cultural neighborhood and sometimes I just jump into any bar or whatever after working.

One time I grabbed a beer and asked who was going to play that night and the lady said just “two rock bands” and I expected something cheesy and not original at all.

Then I danced to their crazy experimental sound, had a laugh with some of the members and had a really great time just to discover later that the frontman is son of one of the most legendary singers of my country and I know that if I had any idea about it beforehand I wouldn’t have had half of the experience.

I think the less you know about anything else other than the sound the more you focus on appreciating the music. I love hidden DJ booths in clubs, mysterious artists etc

But I only really love them if they are good, obviously. The anonymity is just a detail that helps focusing on the music.

#9

I’ve never met any but certainly tried following some musicians on social and realized that as much as I like their music the fact that they’re complete wankers really puts a stain on it. This is not much different than some known musicians releasing music under an unknown alias or just someone that hides it entirely (pretty much Burial.) Various arguments can be made about music appreciation of anonymous artists but, I think the more important thing, to me, is the prevention of me finding out people I respect creatively are fucking tossers.

#10

While I agree on everything that has been said further up I think it’s important to point at how anonymity is now used to a big extent as a marketing gimmick in the more “mainstream” spheres. Funny how it turned on its head…

#11

I’ve always had a psychological approach toward this subject:
I believe it’s the fact that it leaves certain aspects of the artist out and open to interpretation, so that the listener’s subconsciousness may adapt said aspects as he wills, or even completely leave out.

It much easier to relate to a symbol, bc it is you(aware or unaware) who fills the gaps left out.
Whereas the more you know about an individual, the higher the probability to find something that you will dislike or that will interfere with how you judge or evaluate his/her performance.

I’m not saying this is always the case, but it can backfire.

#12

I’m a big fan of ‘Ways of Seeing’ by John Berger. He was a don went it came to interpreting the communication of art, media and publicity.

I think this comment backs up a lot of the comments on here

In ‘Ways of Seeing’ Berger gives an example of Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Wheatfield with Crows’. When we view this painting we think of sun, a farmers harvest. Then he informs us that it ‘is the last picture that Van Gogh painted before he killed himself.’ (J.Berger, 2009. P.21) This ultimately changes our point of view of the painting.

I think the same effect applies with any behavioural insight of the artist analysed in tandem with their work. There’s a fair bit of crosstalk between the two.

#13

Lots of musicians are anonymous for me because I rarely make an effort to find out about them. I didn’t even realise Burial was anonymous until I read this. I’ve been told that what I thought was an individual was actual a collaboration/group or what I assumed to be a collaboration or group is actually an individual a fair few times (the joys of electronic music pseudonyms). I’m interested to read stories about the music, if that is like intrinsically linked to the person that made it, that’s cool. Aside from that though, I guess I’m just not fussed about knowing too much about the person that makes it. I don’t know the first thing about many of the people that make a lot of my favourite music, often including their real names.

As for the appeal of anonymity to the people making the music, I’d imagine for the main, it’s simply because they have no interest in celebrity or being public figures rather than an artistic decision. I can’t think of anything worse than being a celebrity.

edit.

I do hate finding out that people whose music I like are tossers though.

#14

If it’s so effective to be anonymous, why do publicists and PR folk put so much effort into branding/image? Genuine question. I’m assuming the average PR person knows more than me about generating publicity (or do they?!), so what is it that means some artists do better with less publicity?

#15

I think the anonymity helps attracting true music appreciators while publicists sell images to people who cares more about status and less about the actual music and whatever message it is passing.

Some of my favorite artists are minimalist and don’t appeal to the media too much and that tends to stick them to the underground but its in the underground where I meet the most open minded and music loving people.

So yeah, kind of subjective but I think the anonymity can be pretty good if not forced as the selling point

#16

I think branding and marketing is mostly all about face value and keeping up appearances with the definite contrived end goal of selling. Talk of that takes the debate on a different path into commercialism. A more contrived, formal and mainstream ploy by an artist or their reps to secure attention.

#17

Don’t make the false correlation that anonymity = no branding…

#18

I did say mostly…

Aphex Twin, mentioned earlier, is a good example of a low key artist with a strong visual identity.

#19

When Aphex Twin started out, RDJ wasn’t anonymous — he was probably as much or more public than any other electronic musician at the time. He didn’t go low profile until the late 90s, and his success was all built before then.

There was a totally different kind of audience for electronic music and totally different expectations. Even mainstream-oriented ones stayed anonymous. That was just the normal thing. Burial also started out before all that changed, and in a underground field too.

As for anonymity helping anyone’s success these days — there are thousands of unknown producers on YouTube and Bandcamp who are anonymous. It’s not the thing that gets their music heard in the first place. If there’s a marketing angle, it’s probably just trying to make the best out of wanting to stay low profile in the first place. PR at some scale is a necessity for everyone, whether you have commercial intent or not. It isn’t automatically bad or inauthentic.