Mystique

I’ve talked before about the Rock mystique, or the myth of the rock star.

It’s an old story by now : with Twitter and vlogs describing the minutae of your favourite artists, where is the mystique, the awesome “otherness” that surrounded visionaries like Page and Morrison?

Watching The Fiery Furnaces at ATP last weekend, it confirmed to me just how false, and ridiculous, the idea of “mystique” is.

Mystique is manifest not in the artist but in the music and the way it’s presented.

It’s created in the feeling of “why are they doing THAT?” “how are they making that sound?” and most universally “how are they making me FEEL that way?”

Bottom line: Forget about the image. Make amazing music, dangerous music, nonsensical music. The music will take care of the mystique.