Derrick Gee's Myers–Briggs...for Artists

Dear readers! Happy newsletter day. I have a confession to make.

I’ve been thinking too much about Matty Healy from the 1975. Which is odd, because frankly, I’m not a fan of his/their music. The reason why, is that I have been served enough of him on TikTok that I now think about his persona, his self proclaimed character and performance artistry, and how there are a multitude of ways one can exist as an artist in the public eye. Let’s explore.

The Case Study

It was this video that really stuck in my mind and motivated this month’s topic:

@venusdaydreamsthe next time someone tries to shit talk matty’s live performances just show them this from his most recent interview! i think he’s a creative genius ok bye #mattyhealy1975 #the1975 #the1975tiktok #mattyhealylive

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In the video, Healy speaks on being in character a lot, as his experience is so full of highs and lows (infatuation/loneliness), and that it is somewhat easier to play a character to keep his surreal existence almost…more fun for everyone. It’s performance art. It’s Kaufman-esque. He contributes to entertainment and to the public discourse through his “character” and his “role in culture”. He recognises that the internet is a powerful medium, so why not make the most of it?

His thought process got me thinking. Firstly, that it’s the perfect time to be an obnoxious artist, as there are more platforms to propagate your toxicity and/or controversy and stir the pot. But then I also wondered...is this even necessary for increased success? Let’s explore four types of artist.

The Gobby/Toxic Artist

The classicists would say this is the proto-typical blueprint of a capital A Artist. The Rockstar.

If you asked someone to define a rockstar, they’d say it’s tangled in a chaotic, debauched, greased and tortured soul, who is at odds with their art, self worth and ego. The Gallagher’s for example, possess an ability to stir up controversy through a very self-aware, knowing “I-can’t-help-what-comes-out-of-my-mouth…but-I-also-know-there’s-a-microphone-in-front-of-me” bravado.

For example, Noel Gallagher knows what he’s doing every time he opens his gob. The more he talks, the more people listen to Don’t Look Back In Anger that afternoon. The machine is built for you and if you aren’t greasing the gears then you may as well seize and go to the scrappers.

What’s interesting about this type of rockstar is that they are either:

• dead at 27, having lived the nihilistic life they publicised, or,

• are somewhat ordinary people who, away from the camera, admit to living a very domestic life - normally living opposite some expansive public garden, picking up their royalty cheques on a Wednesday afternoon. Their mouth has done the earning, so when the mic is off, they enjoy a nice oat latte and mind their own business.

The Office Hours Artist

The Office Hours Artist is definitely my advised choice for a sane Artist existence. Firstly, it’s important to acknowledge that being “normal” in the bright lights of the Billboard charts is next to impossible. People are throwing their minds and bodies at you all over the globe, and it seems quite easy to descend into egomania and paranoia. But! I do believe there are many clever artists out there that understand, acknowledge and comprehend (or perhaps have a core group around them to keep them on the ground) that you are merely a fantasy built by the marketing machine, and that, at the end of the day, you are only human, and that everybody poops.

Ed Sheeran is probably the best example of this. He poops. The man has made more money no matter how you add, subtract, multiply or divide. He probably poops quite comfortably on one of those high tech Japanese toilets. But outside of his music, he’s quite…boring? No one would call his personality exciting. But it does seem as though he lets his music do the talking, and his property portfolio the accruing. It’s smart. It’s an acknowledgement that your life is surreal, and that your privacy is sacred - a cloak that shields you from insanity. One can be a huge star but invisible simultaneously.

The Weeknd is also (weirdly) an example of the Office Hours Artist. Yes, he always plays characters - most recently a washed-up-Vegas-residency-plastic-surgery-addict. But since his very public dating tabloids with Selena and Bella, he has very much hidden “himself” from the public eye. The Office Hours (not After Hours) Artist expresses the chaos and duality in their music, in their marketing. But behind the Howard Stern-interview mic, they are just a person, trying their hardest in their 9-5 to live the life they love. They have said what they have needed to on wax. Everything else is just…meaningless PR fodder.

The “Artist” Artist

This, this is Healy. This is Kanye. Immediately after watching the video at the top of the newsletter, I remembered the easter eggs Kanye dropped in 2018 that referenced, among many performance artist’s - Andy Kaufman - the western world’s most heralded performance artist.

The “Artist” Artist is the individual who claims that their persona “blurs the lines” between fact and fiction. It’s performance art. They say their character manipulates our fascination with fame, our obsession with controversy and gossip, our trained understanding of “a rockstar’s life”, and takes advantage of it so that we obsess over a troubled, visionary and chaotic soul. You can’t pin them down because they are a moving target, philosophically, politically, physically. They are an exploding star.

I mentioned Healy in my end of year newsletter, where I said:

“I find the 1975 Matty Healy’s ironic/not ironic rockstar persona hilarious and ultimately genius. It’s like the perfect in-joke. If you get it, you get it. If you don’t get it but like him, then you get it. If you don’t get it and don’t like it, you don’t get it. Got it?”

Sadly, more I think about it, the more I think it’s not genius, but dangerous. And I’m not sure if it’s actually performance art, or just what he tells himself. For the mental health of the Artist (in this case Healy) and for the things that their “character” allows them to say. The Kanye timeline shows you where it can end up.

The ruse of the “performance” allows the artist to indulge and blur the lines between fact and fiction. But is this just an excuse to be obnoxious without consequence? Performance art, or it’s sibling “method acting” ends up having a secondary tremor where the impacts aren’t immediately measurable, but surely felt. Either by an impressionable audience or susceptible performer. If you are an open wound, something is going to get infected.

Ultimately this position is destructively smart. Be larger than life and reap the rewards of virality and attention without saying “virality and attention”. But also suffer the deafening reverberations when the exploding star fades, and the artist desperately continues to find new ways to explode some more, only to realise you are stardust.

Being an Artist Artist takes guts. You can read that last line one of two ways.

Finally, and humorously…

The Synecdoche Artist

This…this is a very unique timeline. This is the artist that is trapped INSIDE the character they created. Allow me to paste my reference here:

Synecdoche, New York (dir. Charlie Kaufman, 2008): “A theatre director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he creates a life-size replica of New York City inside a warehouse as part of his new play”.

Coincidentally (or not) this is another type of Kaufman-eseque performance artist existence. Not Andy Kaufman but Charlie Kaufman.

My prime example of this type of artist is Drake. I actually think that Drake is similar to Healy in many ways - except he’s not aware that he’s playing his character. It’s almost like he started method acting and has now built a life-size replica of Toronto in his ginormous palazzo. My interpretation of Drake is that he’s quite nice - intelligent, driven, introverted, shy. But I believe he has “allowed” his alter ego and method acting muse - the braggadocios, flexing rapper-type - to consume him. The duality of what he dreamt of being and what he actually is…deep down.

Taylor Swift feels similar. Again - probably very sweet, highly intelligent, somewhat goofy, but is also very much “the main character”. Donald Glover…being an actor like Drake, also has this feeling of being a person-playing-a-person-acting-like-a-real-person…person.

Drake, the Russian Doll of music.

WHICH ONE ARE YOU?

I leave you with this - the internet has produced almost infinite ways to exist and be interpreted online. More than ever, the intelligent, narcissist or insane artist has found ways to pierce through the noise in order to line their pockets. But does it heal their soul?