Philip Auslander: Musical personæ

Who is Taylor Swift?  The simple answer is that Taylor Swift is far more than one person.  ‘That’s ridiculous!’, you are probably thinking, ‘That Capital One credit card commercial is stupid and there’s only one real Taylor Swift, the one who speaks through her music.’  Yes, that’s exactly the point: when Taylor Swift (the musician) sings, performs physical gestures on stage, or dresses the part, her “musical persona” is a completely other person than, say, the Taylor Swift who visits the dentist’s office.  Philip Auslander (Georgia Tech) is the pioneering performance studies researcher who introduced the influential concept of musical personæ.  He joins Vienna Live to discuss his referential book on the topic: In Concert: Performing Musical Persona.  And especially for those classical musicians who despise exhibitionism: let’s get to know why, if you take the “guitar face” out of the guitar solo, it just doesn’t sound as good… 

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