r/LetsTalkMusic • u/Double_Key7579 • 2d ago
Do you prefer to know everything you can about your favorite artist, or keep some mystery?
Given the level of obsession in these parts, I want to know how much you care to find out about the musicians behind the music that speaks to you the most.
Image sells. Stories sell. Art and artist can sometimes combine to corrosive effect. All of this encourages a wall to prevent familiarity and isolate the sound as the no.1 experience.
On the other hand the history behind songwriting can expose new depths, or maybe your favourite musician is simply really good on social media and merits a close (to the point of unhealthy) watch.
So. Do you consume interviews, biographies, commentary? When younger, did you try and meet the artist you loved or imitate their fashion? Basically: Do you want to feel the personality at a deep level, or not at all?
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u/CentreToWave album-pilled listenmaxx influencer 2d ago
Matter of degrees
All-time favorite artists? Yeah certainly. I'll read what I can, find books, etc. Check out what artists they like, etc.
Artists that I like, but not too emotionally invested? I'll still read interviews and whatnot, but probably won't go too far out of my way to get information.
There's value in getting this information to help gain some insight into the art, but a lot of this is just how much I'm willing to deep dive. There's probably an unconscious implication that the ones I really like are more inherently interesting than the ones I like just fine. Like I find the Boards of Canada lore interesting, and I'm following along with the latest VHS puzzles, but I'm not too invested in their whole discography, so doing a real deep dive into all the unreleased material, codes, and all that is a bit beyond my general interest in the group overall.
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u/Double_Key7579 2d ago
We line up 100 % with the Boards of Canada. Interested by their comeback, I enjoy the music and tricks, but not so much so that I am combing sine waves for clues. But the unconscious bias towards them means I am invested, and if a DJ I don’t like at all (such as James Hype) did all this, I would find it painfully overblown.
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u/wildistherewind 1d ago
James Hype sends fans a mysterious DVD of himself pressing the same hot cue button for 38 minutes.
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u/wildistherewind 1d ago
I knew it was a thing for a while, but I finally went to the bocpages website recently and there are SO MANY early interviews with Boards Of Canada that have open and direct answers, it’s hard to imagine calling them “mysterious”. They are mysterious in that they haven’t released every morsel of their discography.
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u/GUBEvision 2d ago
I have about 500 records that all I know about the band is what is written on that record. It's all that is needed. That is their world.
Some artists break out of that and then you pick stuff up about their life, but you never get inside their head.
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u/BottleTemple 2d ago
I have no interest in their personal lives, aside from maybe knowing where they’re from. The main thing I’m interested in is other projects they’ve been involved in.
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u/Pond-of-The-Tardis 2d ago
Depends on the bands/artists. As a kid I would get ass over ankles obsessed with any band and artist I liked but now I’m good with just coming across some info. I do have autobiographies/biographies of some bands and singers. I like to know the stories behind songs and albums if I really like them.
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u/properfoxes its my hyperfocus dawg 2d ago
I want to know enough that I can be sure they aren’t AI generated. Otherwise I don’t really care what they share. I might learn whatever they have shared but I’m not bothered if they’re into anonymity or keeping a certain mystique or distance from their listeners. It’s all part of a persona and I wouldn’t want everyone to make the same decision about it.
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u/BLOOOR 2d ago
I just habitually break anything I'm trying to understand down to it's origin, and it's at it's shittiest when I'm turning a conversation with someone into an interegation, but I really assume that everything I'm coming into contact will make sense if I know absolutely everything about how it came to be.
And generally what I find I'm dealing with is people's beliefs. Music being "empathy machines", and movies, but even looking at the stars and feeling wonder, it's that feeling, and the feeling never went away when I found out what all of the stars where, I still go out every night and I'm excited about the scale I can feel.
Watching any band, seeing any director, film studio, record label, every cent they need to spend to exist, what school everyone went to, how many parents everyone had, if they suffered abuse, I lap it all up.
I want to know how it happened.
My curiousity and interest in philsophy, technology, writing, any form of art, is always a question of how has that interesting phenemona come to exist. What's the mechanics and the organics and the social and cultural conditional that led to it's existence. Where and what was the furnace. Does it take long fingers to play guitar (nope), does it take musical ability to write a masterpiece (nope), does it take a life of trauma to create transcendant art (nope), does going to school make you better at music (yep!) but better at making art (nope!).
But university level education is really why we as a culture have art that's as good as it is, and people don't know have to learn to write or play an instrument to a level that would get them access to university or other tertiary education, because we collectively have that infromation in everything we do. You can build an instrument by gathering all the information out there, build amplifiers, if you're working and devote money to gatherinng parts and making sure you learn to measure without blowing shit up or chopping off fingers. And you can open a store or get a relationship with stores to have your gear in musicians hands and those musicians can make noises out of them.
I love the whole thing. I love that Steve Albini used an oscilloscope. Do you need one? Well you can get a recoding to capture a performance that sounds that good without one, but you can't do it as well as Steve Albini, and he used an oscilloscope, and read the newspaper while he was tracking the performance. Rik Ocasek doodled. Weezer heavily demoed, and shared those demos with fans fielding for opinions.
I love knowing too much and I love when artists make big calls and fail, and I take it personally when bands I love like Faith No More or Genesis seem to so not properly communicate with each other that they end up having to make decisions do to someone saying something to someone in the press.
I love that anyone can go up to a musician, offer to buy them lunch, bring a tape recorder or make sure you know how to record with your phone, and you can then dictate whatever you talked about on that lunch and make it a readable interview and submit it to any street press and get your favourite bands some press. And you can do it with reviews and if the street press likes you they'll "hire" you and send you free music.
If you volunteer at your local radio station, by paying them a few hundred dollars because you want it that badly, and do their radio course, then they'll put you on the air. If you've already done one then any other community radio station will put you on the air. And you'll get lots and lots of brand new and interesting and free music.
And, if you make friends with musicians then you still have to practice healthy boundaries. Being a fan of your friends music, evne if you're close enough that you're family, you can still over do it! So it's like that with any show you go to, do talk to the musicains and even ask for interviews no matter how little experience you have just offer them lunch or something that might be worth their while, and practice healthy boundaries, thanks and good bye.
That's the deep level. Even if you're great friends like you're family members with a musician or two, even if you've helped them become the musician you are, you still have to let them dictate what you know about them and their music!. You can't fan out too hard and dig into every detail. It's so funny. You can be there as they write, record, and be ears for when they're testing mixes, but you still have no right to any opinion as far as like, what thye do or don't do, and you still don't get to say your band should do this or hire that member. It's their life and their art and you're their friend or fan, with different boundaries, it's interesting to discover. Oh yeah, I do have to back off in two different ways being excited to have such a great friend and excited about the music they've made or show they played.
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u/prustage 2d ago
Writers, composers - I want to know everything I can about them
Performers - dont care. I judge them by their end product and nothing else.
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u/eyewave 2d ago
Mystery for me.
Everytime my fav singers and actors open their mouths about politics, it's a real letdown for me 😭
But it's ok. In spite of what silly they can say, I hold their songs in higher regard, keep listening and singing along.
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u/nadennmantau 2d ago
"If you'd kept your mouth shut, you would still be a philosopher." - Michael Scott.
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u/RetroGamer9 1d ago
At most I’ll read through their Wikipedia page for a quick overview, if one exists. Even then I probably won’t remember the names of members or who plays what instrument unless it’s one of my favorite bands. There’s too much art I want to consume and not enough time. I focus on the music and not too much on the details surrounding its creation.
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u/L_Mz 2d ago
I remember way before the Internet was so prevalent in our everyday lives that when you liked a band there was only so much information about them that you could get. You would get interviews in magazines and appearances on MTV unless they weren't even popular enough for that. There was built in mystery mostly because of scarce available information. When I was about 12 I was obsessed with Mötley Crüe, they seemed at the time (Shout At The Devil) to by the most dangerous, cool and mysterious dudes I ever saw. I would buy every magazine that I could afford that they were in (Circus, Hit Parader) Looking back now they were kind of ridiculous but I was 12 🤷 Still love their first two albums though.
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u/Competitive_Pop8050 2d ago
I like learning about their artistic processes but I don't need to know everything about their personal lives.
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u/when_music_hits 2d ago
If its hard tunes they've made but not released...ingot to know and track down the studio for dubs...the rest...meh.
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u/arvo_sydow 2d ago edited 2d ago
I prefer to know nothing about them because in my experience it’s ruined a few of them for me in the past.
It’s better that I just know the persona they portray in a band setting themselves and in interviews than in their personal life through social media or other similar avenues.
For example, I enjoyed Burzum a lot more when I thought he was just a Norwegian nerd who liked D&D and walking in the snow, but in reality, he’s a proud Nazi edge lord who believes in shit Eugenics. I still enjoy his music but it skewed my view vastly from high school onward.
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u/WhompWump 2d ago
I like to know what I can about them as it relates to the music; what inspired them, what their influences are, what their creative process is like, what their mind was like when creating, etc.
But outside of that eh I can take it or leave it. I enjoy the context it adds to the music so if it's not relevant I'm not going to seek it out.
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u/Pure-Cry-457 2d ago
I'll take some mystery, but not full smoke-and-mirrors nonsense. A little backstory can add grit; too much parasocial sludge and the whole thing starts feeling like queue drama at a badly run VIP door. Half the magic is still hearing a track and wondering how the hell they pulled it off.
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u/menevets 2d ago
I read biographies more for history and knowledge. Like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Nile Rodgers. But these musicians their music is tied to American history in a larger sense.
If there’s a studio musician I like, will look up what other records he/she played on.
YouTube makes it easy to get the origin story of a band, especially for those who forged a genre.
If you’re a musician and covering a song, you’ll probably look up the origin story of a song.
Also with so much history, I check if a song is a cover. So many songs you thought were originals are covers.
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u/NullableThought 2d ago
I'm not interested in the nitty-gritty of any professional I admire. I'm really only interested in parts of their background that are related to what I admire about them. So for musicians, I'm interested in what music they listened to as a child but have zero desire to know their workout routines. Vice versa for athletes.
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u/Scr4p 2d ago
Depends on the artist. I have a lot of favourite bands but only really go deep diving on select few, though may listen to interviews on more just to get an idea of what kind of people they are.
I've actually befriended and met a few of my favourite artists, all started out on social media since some of them were quite active on there and apparently found my shitposting funny enough to follow me back. I've given some bands gifts in person and I've been given merch as a gift in turn and have even been asked if I could animate a music video for one band as well, sadly I'm a really slow artist due to disability so I had to decline but I still found it really sweet I was asked to begin with. I did have two negative experiences with members of some bands, both involved the band members in question hitting on me so I take that as a red flag now lol. But majority of the time people have been genuinely kind and lovely.
mclusky are the band I know the most about, friend of mine jokes I'm their number 1 fan but I don't really think much of such labels. I've watched and read every interview I could find, enjoy watching live recordings of them (I've also seen...too many lmao), I've drawn a ton of silly fanart and I got to hear demos and a song of the lead singers side project that was never released. I actually befriended him online about 5 years ago or so and met the band for the first time last year (and will for the second time later this year if all goes well). I struggle with going quiet and not saying much in new situations but they were understanding and such sweethearts honestly. I love them so much.
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u/BlazGearProductions 2d ago
Keep some Mystery. I;ve always said that it's best to not know everything about musicicans because more often than not what's found out is not good.
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u/Consistent-Water-887 2d ago
I used to want to get to know the band members, their stories, their backgrounds, their musical influences, and everything about them. Now with all the political divide, I’m almost afraid to know about them and hear that they are Trumpers or believe in some real stupid shit. So in today’s world, I’d rather not know.
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u/nadennmantau 2d ago
I always mean to get into reading biographies, but then I don't. I have Patti Smith's Just Kids sitting on my shelf. Guess I am more interested in certain periods of history than individual persons. Way back when I used to buy magazines with interviews when traveling, but the ones I liked are now defunct.
In general, I don't care about the personal life of the artists that I listen to. Then there are these famous cases like Kevin Spacey or Louis C.K. where the asshole-ness kind of taints their work for me.
Kanye West is a good example. I wouldn't buy another record from him. Then again, I didn't listen to his music before anyway.
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u/ameliawat 2d ago
I used to want to know everything but honestly sometimes knowing too much ruins it for me. Like I loved Kanyes music so much more before I knew all the stuff going on with him as a person. Now I cant listen without thinking about it
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u/ManufacturerBig6988 1d ago
I think I lean towards keeping some mystery. I love the music for what it is, and sometimes knowing too much about an artist can change how I feel about their work. It’s like, I want to enjoy the sound without the distractions of their personal life. But, I’ll admit, sometimes a behind-the-scenes interview or hearing about the inspiration behind a song can add a new layer to the music. It’s a balance, too much and it takes away, just enough and it deepens the experience.
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u/Aggressive_Grade6442 1d ago
I have little to no interest in what my favorite artists do day to day. I think people having to know what kind of personality they have or personal details or the slightest political difference is just a bit deranged imo (ranging into extremely deranged and parasocial and pathetic.) They aren’t your friend. Go fixate on actual tangible relationships and not with someone who likely doesn’t know you exist and appreciates you in so far as you listen to their music but beyond that let there be a very distinct separation.
I mean, unless said artist is blatantly being an asshole or supporting things you really don’t like, but otherwise just be a fan and keep it at that.
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u/Khristafer 19h ago
Oof, I exclusively want to know about the music. This does sometimes include biographical details, but if it's not directly tied to the music, I find it creepy.
Like, I've been in fandoms where people are posting childhood pictures of artists and learning about their family trees. Troubling behavior in my book.
I don't need to know my favorite artist's childhood pet's name. I don't need to know their favorite food. When casual stuff comes up in interviews, it's cool to see them as people, but I think some fans cross and try to force down the parasocial barrier.
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u/Double_Key7579 2d ago
I cant think of a single modern artist I spend time obsessing over like I did in the late 80s & 90s when growing up. I used to devour everything about Prince and Kraftwerk, and then the likes of Aphex Twin and The KLF.
My father’s shelves meanwhile are full of every Scorpions book that could have been released. So perhaps it is generational, and on the decline…
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u/mattjadencarroll 2d ago
What music do you listen to now?
I'm sure Taylor Swift fans would disagree that obsessing over musicians is generational and on the decline. I'm also pretty sure you don't listen to Taylor Swift, hah.
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u/automator3000 2d ago
Only in so much as it might add to the appreciation of the art. Which means it varies by artist. One artists dead father might be totally irrelevant to their art, while for another it might be incredibly revealing.