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Several other musicians have done the same through mask wearing. Gene Simmons of Kiss was probably rarely recognized in public before, much later in life, he st
by Mediterraneo10 6y ago
Several other musicians have done the same through mask wearing. Gene Simmons of Kiss was probably rarely recognized in public before, much later in life, he started appearing in television programs without his makeup.
MF Doom, Sia, the list goes on.
- agumonkey 6y agoSia was face on during most her first years
- dajohnson89 6y agoshe did some amazing work with zero-7.
- agumonkey 6y agoHonestly I can't fathom her solo career, the zero seven era was so brilliant. I'm happy she gets some wide recognition, wealth and comfort, but musically she is off now. Her gamut is trimmed it's all loud and no subtlety.
- navbaker 6y agoHoly cow, I didn't know until your comment and I subsequently looked her up on Wikipedia that she's the vocals on "Destiny"!
- agumonkey 6y agoEnjoy the others man, worth your time and ears
- ragebol 6y agoGorrilaz don't even both with that, just animation
- toyg 6y agoDamon Albarn was already famous by then.
- mytailorisrich 6y agoIt took me some time to discover that Gorillaz was his band. That's a great proof of talent, isn't it?
- toyg 6y agoHis talent for obfuscation, you mean? Gorillaz definitely benefited at bootstrap from being "the new project by Damon Albarn of Blur".
- mytailorisrich 6y agoNo, I mean people being drawn to the music, not the famous name (even if the famous name helped promote the band)
- freewilly1040 6y agoI wonder if this is a 2021 view of Gorillaz possibly being more famous than Blur at this point. Though, for sure there were plenty of contemporary Gorlillaz fans who didn't know anything about Blur.
- jdminhbg 6y agoGorillaz have always been more popular than Blur in the US at least, where their only hit was Song 2.
- toyg 6y agoAnd Song 2 broke only because of the infamous FIFA game, I guess... although they actually recorded that album in the US. In Europe (UK but also elsewhere) Blur made it big with "Girls & Boys" (#1 in UK, massive hit). The chorus was an absolute meme where I lived.
- ehsankia 6y agoNot everyone who wears mask ends up sticking with the anonymity though, I can imagine the pull of fame can be irresistible for some. Deadmau5 for example. Others have managed staying hidden just by not appearing anywhere, like Burial.
- dijksterhuis 6y agoPretty sure burial once tweeted a selfie to say he was taking a break from music to play diablo or something
- imwillofficial 6y agoBest way to announce a tour break ever.
- ehsankia 6y agoTour break? I don't think he's ever played live. Maybe anonymously. Kode9 sometimes plays his new songs but that's it.
- imwillofficial 6y agoI have no idea, I’ve only heard songs, no sets. Good to know!
- ehsankia 6y agoIt was Dark Souls 2 but yeah, it was kinda hilarious, since it was basically the first time we ever heard directly from him or got an "official" selfie in almost a decade of him making music, and it was just to say "I'm not sure if I will have many new tunes for a while because I need to play that game a lot", even though he already had the reputation of not putting anything out for long stretches of time. It was so bizarre.
- sjm 6y agoIt is hypothesized that Burial made a little guest appearance at a James Blake boiler room set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8idi7PcsbU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8idi7PcsbU It definitely looks like him, but who knows.
- greggturkington 6y agoDOOM (all caps when you spell the name) even had other people play sets for him because the mask worked so well (according to rumor and REALLY convincing video w/audio)
- blackearl 6y agoI believe it's more than just rumor - https://pitchfork.com/news/hannibal-buress-was-an-mf-doom-imposter-at-adult-swim-festival-watch/ https://pitchfork.com/news/hannibal-buress-was-an-mf-doom-im...
- colinmhayes 6y agoI've seen some "MF DOOM" sets that were clearly not him under the mask.
- Blikkentrekker 6y agoThis was parodied in The Good Place when an obvious parody of Deadmau5 payed others to wear his mask on stage since the audience couldn't tell anyway.
- Wohlf 6y agoDeadmau5 himself has parodied it live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7tI1E6kp0o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7tI1E6kp0o
- lghh 6y agoI'm having trouble finding the article now, but he said that later in his life he had lost quite a bit of weight so when he did do his performances himself, people didn't believe it was him and got mad.
- mabbo 6y agoI remember reading a wonderful article of a guy running a recording studio and being excited because Kiss is coming to record there. Then 4 normal looking guys show up and he's like "Oh right, they don't dress up like that all the time".
- deepstack 6y agoGood idea to make it anonymous, that way you can swap out your friends when you get sick and tired of performing.
- blacksmith_tb 6y agoCan't forget The Residents[1] - they were/are instantly recognizable (as eyeballs in tophats, that is) but had a rotating crew inside the masks. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Residents#Identity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Residents#Identity
- weinzierl 6y agoTaken to the extreme I've heard the Blue Man Group is more a franchise than theatre group which recruits the the personnel for their shows locally.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- acomjean 6y agobucket head: A guitarist with a bucket mask. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckethead https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckethead
- grawprog 6y agoWho's this guitar playing sonzabitch?" Is a question common asked On his head a bucket of chicken bones On his face a plastic mask He's the bastard son of a preacher-man On the town he left a stain They made him live in a chicken house To try and hide the shame He was born in a coop, raised in a cage Children fear him, critics rage He's half alive, he's half dead Folks just call him Buckethead!
- DonHopkins 6y agoThe Unknown Comic on The Gong Show, with a paper lunch bag over his head. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unknown_Comic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unknown_Comic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BBZVQ4zBcU&ab_channel=RBArchives https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BBZVQ4zBcU&ab_channel=RBArc...