MF DOOM was a genius with his alter egos not just for making them but now if you look under related or similar artists it is just more of him as the alter egos
I'm surprised that David Bowie was only really mentioned in passing. He could be a video like this on his own. Davie Jones (not to be confused with Davy Jones), The Man Who Sold The World, Ziggy Stardust, Alladin Sane, Halloween Jack, The Thin White Duke, The Berliner, The Pop Megastar, the singer from Tin Machine...then we get onto "Outside" where he plays about 7 characters just on that 1 album including Nathan Adler, Baby Grace Blue, Ramona A. Stone, Algeria Touchshriek, Paddy and Leon Blank...then he reinvented himself again as The Tao Jones Index, Rock God, Thursday's Child, The Heathen, Button Eyes...and I'm sure there's a few I've missed.
David Bowie should be the first name that comes to mind when alter egos in music are mentioned. Mentioning him and only one of his several personas for less than 30 seconds is selling him short.
tell your truth. kind of disappointed that someone would make an extensive video about the art of alter egos in music and just barely mentioning Bowie on the side when every single one of his characters deserve a video this length of their own!
The alter ego Roman Zolansky by Nicki Minaj is so effing genius. The vocal inflexions, the constumes, the twisted story behind the character, the lyrics, all gathers to creat an unforgettable and recognizable persona
Taylor Swift saying ‘the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now’ has to be one of the most nothing nothingnesses of ‘alter egos’ because it isn’t even an alter ego but she expected people to view her with an edge from then on
As the lead single of her album, it set the tone for a majority of her songs and was at that point the most self reflective she had been on any of her albums. That line is her shedding her "skin" and becoming the villain of the narrative that kim and kanye had spun. There are multiple references to different celebs that she's softly dissimg. They are like soft diss tracks, but I like them. I think it would have been way too unsettling for her fans if she came out cussing and wearing way too skimpy outfits
@@2-Way_Intersection lmao no, she already moved to pop with her album 1989 which is ger first full pop album, red had a few pop songs but 1989 really was just pop. With lead singles like Shake it off, Blank space, Out of the woods and Style there was no way anyone would mistake ot for country.
David Bowie is THE ARTIST of alter egos. He did so much with them and he used them all to such great effect in his art. There will never be an artist that can do it as effectively as he did.
@@yourboibigbrain7353 Ziggy Stardust and The Thin White Duke alone are more iconic than MF DOOM as a whole. No artist had as many iconic personas as Bowie.
@@yourboibigbrain7353 I’m not the most knowledgeable in regards to MF Doom, I only know a little bit, and I do know Bowie, and I find it hard to believe that anyone could even come close to his masterful use of his characters. Bowie was a performer, and definitely had more of a performance art style than MF Doom, so I think that Bowie undoubtedly made better use of his personas through his performance style. Bowie built characters, and he used those characters to built who he was as an artist, always changing, and always coming up with a new, intriguing way to express his ideas. Know one has, nor will anyone ever do what Bowie was able to do, there is a reason he is one of the most iconic and interesting artists of not only the 20th century, but in art period. It’s also worth noting that people know who Bowie’s personas are, but not many people know MF Doom’s.
@@yourboibigbrain7353 Cuz. You obviously don't listen to Bowie. DOOM is the master in Hip Hop, no doubt. But...yeah. Dig you some Bowie: David Jones, David Bowie, Ziggy Stardust, Thin White Duke, Aladin Sane, Leon Blank, Algeria Touchshriek, Ramona A Stone, Nathan Adler...need i go on?
electra heart was an alter ego with 4 different archetypes inside her which was insane! and every marina + the diamonds album is a different era/persona (less so for her MARINA albums which are just her lol)
Prince was a rare case who not only performed as "other people" but *wrote* as other people. We all know that Prince wrote "Manic Monday" (and even offered a full backing track that he performed) for the Bangles but he wrote it under the alias of "Christopher" and he used the name "Alexander Nevermind" as the songwriting credit for Sheena Easton's "Sugar Walls" and "Joey Coco" for Sheena's "101" from "The Lover in Me" album.
The weeknd - Abel tasfey is a great one.The two are at this point a different person as we saw through after hours and dawn fm.He is telling his story through the character.
always been a sucker for alter egos. such a fun way to be creative. the stuff people come up for their alter egos is amazing. a weirdly specific one i always liked is dan tha automator alter ego for is oh so horny album "lovage: music to make love to your lady by". a shit ton of other artists show up, also under different names, the entire thing is a weird camp fever dream that i just love.
Great video! I do wish you mentioned Kool Keith, Del the Funky Homosapien and MF DOOM though. I know they're more underground then everyone discussed here but you're definitely aware of them and they get incredibly deep into their alter egos.
Forgive me for being how I am sometimes, but I never thought of all those bands Prince was behind or even Damon Albarn creating Gorillaz as being their alter egos. I just thought of them as projects they were involved in on the side of their main careers. I don't know, though. Maybe the best alter egos are the ones where you don't even realize that's what they are. Oh, and by the way, I love this intro you've got now! 👍
One of my favorite alter ego’s is Dan Campbell’s (The Wonder Years) Aaron West character. Such fantastic music and such a believable and organic feeing character
Great video, but it's a crime that you didn't mention MF DOOM and his alter egos in Viktor Vaughn and King Geedorah. Even DOOM himself is a character, and went by the name Zev Love X prior to becoming the villain
What's the difference between an alter ego and an era, what if it's not an alter ego but them just feeling like going outside their usual music once in a while like Tyler's Igor and Lil Yachtys let's start here
Well Eminem told us that Slim Shady is a demonic persona and entity. So what does that tell us about the other celebs and having an “alter ego” in general? Hint word: ego
Well Nicki Minaj is a complex and talented woman and her alter egos are quite famous in the overall pop culture realm. Especially Roman and Barbie. I get you not liking Rap music but why must you put her down and not respect her hard work and marketing skills?
Really felt like you should have mentioned Kiss, their whole entire thing has been about their alter egos. More people know them as Starchild and Demon than Gene Simmons And Paul Stanley.
One example I can think of with alter-egos that has been blowing up in the underground black metal scene on Bandcamp over the past 5 years is with Damían Anton Ojeda. This guy has many different projects, but the most successful ones by far have been his emo-tinged blackgaze/depressive black metal project Sadness and a project caled Trhä where he records under the name Thët Älef and does vocals in a constructed made-up language that he created. He even dons corpsepaint as Thët Älef, too!
One of my favorites is when tte Meridian Brothers “collabed” with El Grupo Renacimiento to make a salsa album even though both groups were the same band to begin with
Pleaseeee listen to DEKO and his alter ego yameii online. This kinda proves what you say at the end of the video where "ai" is front and center. his album Nu Radio is so hard
you actually really don’t have to do this, but can you talk about lil yachtys new album? it was obviously the most left turn thing in his career, but it’s also weird to think of the future of his career
Uuuh….the fact you only mentioned David Bowie once in this video is so wrong. The name David Bowie is itself an alter ego. Then he was Ziggy, then the Thin White Duke, then he had his Berlin Period where he got straight. Then he was floundering a bit, then he was broke and decided he needed to make money and put out the Lets Dance album, and became the soot suited, bleached haired pop star which was a huge departure from what came before. Then on his next album he was Screaming Lord Byron and a geek in the same video. Then he grew his hair long (again) and put out some stuff he wasn’t too proud of so he could be shot of his label commitments. Then the 90s came along. He changed again. Created a rock band that some fans didn’t seem to like (why I dunno. Tin Machine was brilliant). He did the whole NIN nails thing after that. I know I’m missing some things. But it just kept going and changing and seriously, there’s a reason Bowie was called the chameleon of rock. One tiny mention. SMH.
I thought you were going to talk the great artist to include alter egos, MF Doom. He's like Nicky if she fully became his alter ego as if the ego over took the man in the public eye. The world doesn't know Daniel Dumile it knows Doom. You don't say Victor Vaughn or King Ghidra are Daniel's alter egos. You say they are MF Doom's alter egos. His legacy is exactly like a comic book hero or villain. They are forever known as the Alter Ego throughout history.
Beyoncé/Sasha was more than a physically different alter ego. The way you just undermined her OWN perspective of having an alter ego is just..not cute.
