Girl Talk

[manny at garfieldartworks.com]

> You compared Girl Talk to the conductor of a Symphony Orchestra. Heh.

Well, technically, you said he is an example of celebrity.

So I merely brought out an example with which I thought you'd resonate,
that is the function of a symphony orchestra conductor as celebrity, which
is quite common. They don't put the entire orchestra on billboards and bus
stop ads, they put the face of the conductor, who is the face of the
orchestra, even though he does not perform on an instrument, nor create or
perform his original music. The conductor, unless he is conducting his own
music, has nothing to do with the performance of original music creations
(and neither do the symphony players), only with the reinterpretation of
others' works, like the 18th century equivalent of a DJ.

And therefore, the conductor is more about celebrity, and less about
performance, than Girl Talk is, who performs his own original works live.

In other words, the medium of performance has changed so much - from
orchestra, to rock band, to banks of synths and drum machines, to a laptop
- that the frame of reference has to change radically as well. The
performance should be put in its proper contemporary context (and not
misunderstood), which is that of a single guy using Ableton Live to play
his music on stage in a performance setting.