Anonymity in Music (Letter from a Fan)
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- Опубліковано 27 сер 2018
- Today I'm responding to a letter from Shun, who wonders how anonymity or lack thereof impacts the likelihood of an artist's success.
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The real mystery here is who was that guy with the orange beanie who reviewed memes
MC RIDE, BITCH!!!
I was just watching reuploads
Lord I miss that. Why was the channel ever deleted?
Uh The Fader piece. Anthony claims it's because he couldn't monetise those videos but that's bs
All we know is that he had very good teeth. Perhaps the best teeth in some sort of game, but what game could this be? A game of the mind I conclude.
The only popular artist that I can recall who STARTED out as completely anonymous was The Weeknd. He was , if I recall, 3 mixtapes in before he even showed his face. No interviews, no pictures, no birth name. Of course that changed, but I remember being so intrigued by his whole rollout at the time.
SOPHIE is another one who was anonymous for years before her recent album. However, I think the act of revealing her identity definitely helped her gain some popularity.
Burial is an example, he didn't want to be known either but was found out about. He's an amazing artist, his album Untrue is one of the best electronic albums ever.
Even him it barely lasted. Fan pics popped up on forums and he did a show pretty early on. All those mixtapes were released in 2011.
Goldlink too
Same with Burial until people freaked out and tried to give him awards
So we just found out Anthony has a mask kink.
basically , LOL
In a culture that idolizes and worships celebrity, artists that maintain complete anonymity are truly unique.
Except, if you talk about one, nobody knows who you mean. For an artist to become non-obscure, there has to be a means of commonality among potential appreciators. And, as the melon implied, the art on its own ain't quite enough; even if it's really good.
Don't be anonomous. Show feet
don't ask me why I remember this but he does in the filthy frank video Human Cake at 3:56
calm down dan schneider
If the melon was anonymous, would there be any seeds?
🧐🤔
We are the seeds
If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around to hear it, do you still get an erection?
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Theodore Grundy LMAO
"Aging Frenchmen" made me laugh way more than it probably should have
"Burial" Is or was rather anonymous for quite a long time
Was about to comment the same thing.
theres still like 2 pics of him in total online
his picture and name are out there. not anonymous
he is definitely an anonymous artist. his name and picture are disjoint from is image as a musician
He was anonymous for a very long time
You’re right Fantano, I have to agree cabbage can be spicy at times.
Don’t even get me started on ketchup 😖
The Weeknd originally started out 100% anonymous. People didn't even know if he was a band or just one guy.
Fantano even mistakenly called him a band in his "House of Balloons" review lol.
And to this day he rarely does interviews.
The Weeknd was anonymous at one point. Man he was so mysterious back then, and now he's everywhere XD
woah, really? that's crazy??
I mean he livestreamed for the first time like a month ago. He rarely does interviews, he is still laying low.
So what happened was that during the house of balloons mixtape, no one knew who the weeknd was. No photos, no name and some people questioned the gender. It was crazy because some ghost just started to put out amazing revolutionary r&b music and just became massively popular
This is exactly what I thought of
I like artists who portray a character, or at least keep their real life concealed. I feel like having a person who actually exists and has a character or at least a different part of themself perform and create their music. It also allows the artist to maintain a normal life and also have less stress on their appearance. I also find it more entertaining to discover a character and their music along with it that creates a specific experience for their music. Sia is very successful as a pop artist and thanks to her now partial anynomymity she's very successful in her 40s.
I agree; although my main example for this is the Irish new-age composer Enya. Her near-total refusal of 'celebrity culture' has served her and her music's success very well for more than 30 years. The only problem is that fringy devotees of that culture tend to hound people like her and Sia for refusing it; which tends to disrupt the "normal life" aspect in sometimes harrowing ways.
So someone like mr. Fantastik who has been featured on MF DOOM songs like rap snitch knishes would be more of an example of an anonymous artist
Darian Rivas respect
there's so many theories on Mr Fantasik shit is crazy
I would have loved to hear Anthony's views on Frank Ocean in terms of anonymity, with his lack of internet presence (ignoring his unfrequent tumblr profile) considering his huge popularity.
That's not necessarily anonymity as much as it is just some level of mystery
Frank ocean is still frank ocean
He's not anonymous at all lmao.
@@samaraisnt That's true he's not that hidden anymore, and I guess anonymous is the wrong word. I just mean in terms of his choice to be so far under the radar compared to literally any of his contemporaries. I think I'm less interested now though lol
You really didn't have to say that Daft Punk hide their faces because they're a couple of 'N word'.
They're french, close enough
@@Meervo I thought all french people are black.
Meervo he called them the f word ...
these jokes are redundant, spice them up
Upper Lip Earl exactly
The Residents is the only band I can think of as being truly anonymous whilst still being physically visible, that's no small feat considering they've been around for 52 years
Jack Towers I think they follow a similar band dynamic to the likes of Eurodance where they have many producers and creators but are still under one band/project. As someone who’s seen them live that’s the case because like two of the original members have retired.
Homer flynn hardy fox
Burial was for some time a successful enigma.
My first thought, Burial was completely anonimous for a while
We still pretty much know nothing about him
@@kiruakiller3 he actually have a pretty in depth interview at some point in print
Hello Anthony, I hope you are in great health. I think I’m getting the hang of this humour thing. Your fan base really is clever and I would like to thank you all for the 73+28 likes on the last video. I’m so glad to be apart of the melon culture. Thank you Anthony, have a nice day.
Thank you.
You’re welcome
Melon Cultural Appropriation
Why is this comment so fucking weird?
Thank you
I know you like Daft Punk but I don't see how this relates to migrant crisis in France, I'm not comfortable with you getting political when you're whsipering in my ear
Always watching lmao
Always watching hahaha
Shiloh Dynasty, the artist featured on X’s 17 album and thereby receiving a lot more mainstream attention, has managed to remain incredibly anonymous. It’s a shame that they’ve stopped posting on their Instagram as I really enjoyed some of the snippets. Hopefully the person behind the artist is doing ok.
The most anonymous band in music, The Residents. Look them up! 😀
Yes! One of my favorite bands, I'm surprised Melon didn't mention them but maybe he's unaware.
Nevermind he just mentioned them haha.
MAN OF CULTURE
One of my favorite bands, but one that also lost their anonymous status with the internet. Homer doesn't really try to keep it a secret anymore :P
Buckethead was anonymous for a good while, (although everyone knows who he really is now) I consider him semi famous.
Honestly, i feel like artists that use masks or other means to hide their true identity are way more interesting.
Like, everything seems more mysterious and real when you don't know the actual person's visage or motives.
Zhu is also a quite good example
I remember Captain Murphy was unknown for a minute. Those sick instrumentals on [adult swims] bumps where super memorable only credited to the mysterious Captain Murphy. I remember everyone thought he was Tyler, the Creator for a minute. Anonymity done right by Flying Lotus.
You should have used Ghost as an example but the same thing goes for them too. We know papa is Tobias Forge and we know what he looks like when you do some research.
There was a time when they were mostly anonymous- only really hardcore fans had rumors of identities. (turned out to be right)
He did mention Ghost as an example. Around 9:30 .
Nathanael de Boer oh I tuned out halfway through. Good to know.
I would say the closest perfect anonymous artist is Buckethead. If you look up online, there’s only a handful of photos of him and it’s him when he was a lot younger. The only thing that’s generally understood is his name, but there’s no way you could pick him out in a public space. Even though he is freakishly tall on stage and long black hair. Even as a massive fan like I am.
But he’s still one of the best guitarist alive. And his image with the mask and bucket is so iconic. Goes to show how image is so important! Good video melon 🍈
The weeknd early on in his career we knew nothing about.he did not interviews or anything.we though he was a group
I feel like Death Grips does a good job at this despite us knowing what they look like , they’re names, and some of their pasts on wiki. They’re still so mysterious.
Around the time Exmilitary was released, they were anonymous. The only known member was Zach Hill.
I've allways seen anonymity in music as kind of a gimmick, or an aesthetic choice if you want to be generous. People that opt for that are usually experimental outfits (you mentioned the residents and clutchy hopkins comes to mind). Maybe they're not successful because they're not interested in the things that come with commercial success, hence they choose anonymity. But if they happen to be well known, then the media eventually figures out who they are. Seems like you either have one or the other.
Great work as allways. Keep it up!
Actually anonymity was something I found really intriguing about The Weeknd's early work. He did have one or two music videos out where he showed his face but there was NO information about him, no interviews, nothing. I remember when Kiss Land came out and he gave his first interview, but even that wasn't on video or anything. He just had a Skype call with a few reporters who where only allowed to transcribe the interview into text. All of this really added to the experience with the type of music he was making back then.
Review Odell Beckham Jr's contract
Dab Savage very good for the jets, patriots, and entire nfc in about two years time. Once Eli retires and they have no qb, the giants will regret passing on a qb and taking a running back and paying a wr qb money. The jets will finally get to be THE team in New York, the patriots get to watch their biggest rival fall with them, and the nfc gets to play a subpar team on a regular basis
I'm feeling a strong 7 to a light 8 here. Tran-.......
@@colinhall5338 The jets will never be New York's team, the giants wrapped that up with their many super bowl wins
i dont know why you have this purist idea of anonymity. people usually say the internet is anonymous even though people have screen names and avatars and so forth. a persona can still be anonymous, the key thing is that it's not tied to your actual identity
Just about everything and anything you do is tied to your identity in some way. Unless you randomly generated a profile picture and username, the username and profile picture you choose is still a reflection of your identity, either something you thought about or something you relate with.
I think fantano was pointing out that having any visual personality attached to your music is still giving listeners a human visual (or something relatable to the human experience) to identify with.
So, even artists that keep their face out of their music will usually have a different face for people to relate back to the music.
Even if that artist is anonymous in most people's view, the fact the artist puts a face on their music will still invoke a personality or even parts of the artist's personality, which still allows that artist to have close to the same potential as an artist who chose to attach their own face to their music.
In the case of Gorillaz, I think the animated band might actually have a wider range of appeal than a standard band, or at least, there's market for people who like watching animated characters.
GigaBitor - I didn't mean that it's not tied to your identity in terms of it being a reflection of yourself, I meant it's not easily traceable back to your government name and face, therefor you don't have to be accountable to people in your real life. that is what people mean when they talk about online anonymity
@@HolographicSweater Ah, okay. There are probably some artists who are anonymous in that sense, but if you're an artist looking to make money off your work, I'd imagine you could have your identity exposed in a financial transaction (or something along that line) quite easily.
Being truly anonymous as an artist in our current culture seems less and less tenable unless you're very deliberate about pre-planning and recognizing all potential leaks.
I was thinking the same thing
Melon wouldn't have made it as far if he wore a hat to shield his melonhead from the memes
Holding out for real teeth reveal.
DrumWild you’re really doing the best teeth in the game like that smh
Shout out to Mr Fantastik! Everybody's favorite rapper no one will ever know
I'm loving these! Any deep form of discussion with the main legend Melon is truly a blessing.
anonymity works better with obscure genres. Think vaporwave, Trilogy era The Weeknd etc
I just wanna clarify my question because i see some people getting confused, my bad guys. Anthony focused more on the physical anonymity which is good but I failed to clarify more of the persona part. Yes, people know Daft Punk’s real names and where they’re from but people know next to nothing about them as people. What I was focused on more is Who people are vs What they give to the public.
If X or Kurt or anyone else only put out music and only talked about their personal lives in song form and did no interviews, no talk shows, no live streaming, no nothing and strictly used the media for promotion like music videos and album releases; would they still be able to have as big a fanbase as they had?
(Examples like The Weeknd early in his career)
I'm a simple gal, I see daft Punk, I click
Phantom Party same
That’s good
The only thing that stops me from shooting myself is knowing that I live on the same planet as MELON
PortalSe7en? More like Portal Cobain.
Hey Anthony, great video. Thank you for putting out this free, and thought provoking entertainment. You are appreciated.
What an interesting question
Nice hair
BlackOverBlueSkies Antonio Fandango always has the interesting opinions
Because some peoplw want to be famous but dont want their face being shown by public
I'm surprised you didn't really touch on Burial. He's one of the most critically celebrated electronic artists of the past 15 years or so and there's really not a lot known about him. I think at most there's about 3 known pictures of him (some of which people thought were faked for a while). Rarely ever gives live performances and interviews are few and far between. I would argue he's the best example of being "successful" while remaining effectively anonymous.
Burial comes to mind. Boards Of Canada are quite secluded too but not anonymous. I like those qualities in those artists. I want to listen to their art and not make assumptions about what the music is about. Just listen and make it my own experience.
The question is off. The anonymity is a huge selling point of masked artists/ fictional character-driven music. Yeah, DOOM makes great music but his anonymity is part of the overall lore of his music and helps his music sell a lot more than it doesn't. And more to the point, I don't think Sia or Lady Gaga have much of a career if they weren't cloaked. They make pretty standard pop tunes hidden behind a mask and people think it's avant-garde.
I really appreciate the work of the ambient artist unforseen. Being that there aren’t even lyrics to his/her music I cannot find a single thing about them except that I believe he/she comes from Canada as per unforseen’s soundcloud bio.
Within my favourite genre of music (drum & bass), there is a successful anonymous group called Dawn Wall. Their music is very popular in the dnb community and they've done remixes for acts such as Nero and Chase & Status. Naturally there are theories as to their identities, but I feel their anonymity makes them more alluring and mysterious.
I still remember back in the day when Signal, FORMER, Richie Brains were anonymous. Im so happy Dawn Wall keeps it
Buckethead
Early Burial and Early Death Grips are examples of this being relatively successful.
MapleMilk yessss burial
How did Death Grips not pop up in this discussion about anonymity and artists?
The Residents
ZHU and H.E.R. come to mind. While not particularly "big" artists, when they first arrived on the scene they remained anonymous for the most part. Especially ZHU from what I remember during his initial rollout.
They aren’t really anonymous though (Daft Punk and MF Doom), as their masks actually transcend pure iconography and become their personas as artists. I know without a doubt most people wouldn’t even recognize these people if they encountered them without the masks.
Also, it’s not just a mask either, because again, iconography. Daft Punk wear these super recognizable space helmets and MF Doom’s mask is instantly recognizable.
To his day, we still have no idea what Buckethead's face looks like.
THROW BACK!
When I think of anonymous music I think of vaporwave and internet sub genres. A lot of that is very anonymous, using the nature of the internet to obscure rather then reveal themselves. They also hardly use their own vocals or undistorted vocals
The Weeknd was super anonymous in the very beginning of his career. I remember ppl online trying to dig and find a picture of him and they couldn't. Him showing his face and going to more public events advanced his career but it was the mystery that initially got ppl into his music.
I think someone's identity can be a distraction to what they're doing. I strongly feel like if I go to a concert, I'm there for the music. If I throw on an album, I'm there for the music. There's something more authentic and real about an artist being anonymous.
Daft Punk and MF are my favourites and I feel that the anonymity surrounding them makes me enjoy them even more so than I might otherwise
I think you're kinda misunderstanding anonimity. Is not about the imagery of the face or the mask, but like a public persona that it's shared via media.
You know who X, Kurt and Travis are. There is plenty of content of them on the internet talking and sharing "personal" stuff. Daft Punk are not a public persona, yes they're hiding their faces and all but that's not exactly anonimity. I think the question was aimed more to the public persona of an artist than its imagery.
Elmilkio Gonzas neirus That’s actually what I was hoping he would focus on a bit more but my apologies I’m not too good with words, could have worded my question better
Shun 俊 Yeah, that's why I came to see the video, really interesting topic, but I guess Anthony didn't understand you.
I immediately think of Michael Jackson when I think of anonymity in that way. But I guess you can say it's that same as the intrigue of being "elusive" or "unattainable". Like even if the public has known of Michael Jackson and many people grew up with his I'm their childhood (and still are) it was still difficult to really think of him as a human being that did normal human things say like...pooping lmao. I hope I'm making sense 💀
Burial was anonymous for quite a while; so was SOPHIE IIRC
No image is still an image.
Yep. We see meaning through our ideological unconscious. Even the most abstract of images in art (that is, in our historical conjuncture) will have the meaning of the "free-self-expressing-subject".
I've recently been getting into some indieish japanese music and I've noticed a lot of them are pretty anonymous. I'm not from Japan so I don't know exactly how popular they are over there but it seems to be at least a lot more common there. Some examples are Kami-sama I've noticed, Cider Girl, and Soutaiseririon. Kami-sama perform in masks like Daft Punk but I don't their names are known like DP. Soutaiseririon have done performances live without masks but the audience was asked not to take any pictures or videos of the members.
So nobody is truly anonymous because even the music you make can be considered a representation of yourself?
Kurt Cobain has thousands of videos and written interviews. Not only that but on stage his personality shines through, along with stunts like not playing smells or calling out axl rose. Comparatively to Daft Punk. The two dudes we have a few video and pictures of from the 90s and have had almost no interviews since then even rare live concerts that they dont speak at anyways.
Kurt gives a personality. Daft dont. Theres basically nothing you can grasp onto.
Why is that necessary? Do you just not like their type of music? I mean, that's fine, but I don't see how anyone's personality would add to that. Besides, you can express emotion and personality through music without vocals.
Im not saying its necessary but Anthony was saying the DP route is somehow saying something more than a Kurt Cobain. They might stand out more but ultimately I don't think people will be as interested in the short term or long term.
i liked finding this band and liking all their music without going after to find out more about them, it gave an specific feeling to the songs that may feel different once u sense their actual personalities.. i think the answer to the question more directly would be no, their personalities and image are more attractive to people than their music, but that's not a bad thing, we have figures and thats valid we dont have to just consume a tangible product for people to be valid
Idk melon, I think a mask or chosen gimmick warrants anonymity. Same way a graffiti writers art represents who they are without the public knowing who they are exactly.
Daft Punk even before they became robots tried to use their logo as the face of the band. We know who they are and stuff but at the end of the day when you think of Daft Punk they don’t want you to think of their faces. They want you to think of their music, the robots, or the logo.
Every time Melon mentions the Residents I feel compelled to comment "DUCK STAB FOR CLASSICS WEEK"
1788-L and ZHU in the edm scene have remained mostly anonymous.
Kraftthony Punktano
Anonimity can be a great selling point and can add to your character/identity as an artist.
I’m happy you acknowledge The Residents on this video
Anybody know the band "This is serious mum" or TISM.
In the 90's they released a bunch of relativity edgy stuff rebellious Australian teens would eat up. Such as _I'm on the drug that killed River Phoenix._ They remained anonymous, but turned out to be a bunch of middle aged University lecturers.
The guys from Portal and Summonning are to me the ones who managed to pull off the anonimity thing the best. (even though you can find a few old and dark photos of Protector and Silenius if you do a little digging)
"No one cared who I was before I put on the mask"
-anonymous melon
Anthony could you list just a few of those somewhat successful artist who are working in total anonymity? Or at least somewhat close to that?
I guess one could name Spark Master Tape. Though I haven't really tried finding out who he is.
Burial would be one of the biggest IMO.
Why ohhhh why! Why did you have to take off all your clothes in the middle of the video just to show that you are human
2:06
Everyone knows they don’t do shows
Yeah, I'd agree that whether its KIss, Daft Punk, GWAR, Deadmau5, Slipknot, Ghost, Gorillaz, or whatever. ITs not so much anonymity as presenting the music as separate from the individual behind it. Sometimes its an enhancement to a more glam or stage show oriented production, sometimes it just separates an aging or arguably "uncool" looking artist from the image. Or allows for a steady cycle of session or just rotating talent to go in and out of a project (Gorillaz, or Blue Man Group, or the more recent incarnations of Ghost)
What's the album at 2:39?
Jandek's first album. Don't remember the title, sorry
Ready for the house
ua-cam.com/video/e8mPu9RX_Pg/v-deo.html
Daft Punks identities have been known for years... Thomas Lennon and Guy Fierri
Burial tried to be entirely anonymous, he just got so popular that people doxed him. He's still super private as a musician, he doesn't really play shows or do interviews.
Jandek, The Residents, Burial, Captain Murphy and the Weeknd at first
Hey melon quick question are you ever gonna release an album playing your bass
Anonymity is the main selling point of some bands like The Residents. The obscurity is the reason they have this much of a cult following
I agree, baths had a hint of anonymity until you did some digging. And tbh the only real reason to disassociate an image (authentic or not) is on the chance of some meta-philosophical message coming through. Which would be more widespread through some sort of artistic contrast of your persona. And that’s always up for interpretation.
Some people just wanna put music out for the listeners to enjoy and not have it affect their grocery shopping or their daily life in general. You might not really know x but could he take a walk on the street as a normal person without been swamped by fans?. Anonymity is dope
The melon never ceases to amaze me
Keep up the good work, Fantano
Has anyone else here heard of Magic Sword? Really cool semi-anonymous synth wave group with daft punk-esque helmets
Honestly death grips are the most anonymous group today
I miss that mystique in music
Like back when black metal bands were actually scary
Burial is an interesting example. He puts less focus on visual and his pure focus on music really - though he did come out and post his Identity and do various interviews but it's not important to 'Burial' at all
Great video! Kinda inspiring as a music producer, in some way.
Buckethead?
I just played Welcome to the party through my earbuds and turned it all the way up at lil pumps verse and now my ears are ringing
Thinking abt blending some melon in a kale mango smoothie. What u guys think? Should i go for it?
I feel like it still goes on in the electronic music scene.
Burial was anonymous for along while, and even now that we know his face, I’d still say he’s anonymous.
While guys like Vril and Polar Inertia are pretty active and perform live, pics of their faces are pretty much nonexistent and there aren’t really any interviews or the like with them.
And how can you talk about anonymity in music without mentioning Traumprinz? The man makes some of the best and most influential electronic music of recent years, if not ever, without having a single things known about him, no name, no face - nothing. And all this under not one, not two - but three projects.
the weeknd blew up while remaining completely anonymous and releasing his stuff on youtube. no one knew who he was until his first show. so yea its rare but possible to be successful under anonymity