Emotional value in music – connection to the performing artist

All performing artists want their audience to love them. It is one of the top reasons why they do it in the first place. Another reason is for being famous, celebrity, or just slightly known among music lovers.

But what most of them do not know is that it can’t be one directional.

A lot of artists/singer/songwriters go on stage with a feeling that they have to blow away their audience… That’s 100% true. But the sad thing is that lack of charisma and insecurities about their ability to blow away the audience might create a certain “character” that may not be in line with the artist’s true personality. The artist tries to impress the audience with a cocky, over enthusiastic, over confident version of himself. This, in turn, creates a feeling of alienation and insincerity at the audience.

It is important to have a good performance and unique stage presence. But every artist must know that the audience needs a sincere emotional connection to the performing artist, be it at a show, recording or television. When the listener doesn’t get it, he will look somewhere else.

It is true that it is not always necessary to build such a connection. There are successful artists in the mainstream market that sell a hyped up, self centered character, that only cares about making everybody shake their bodied and have a party. Again, we are not here to discuss party music, but music of the deeper, more sincere kind.

Artists that manage to build such a connection with their audience will mostly be able to sustain a long career, and their fans keep going to their shows even when they get older. They never grow too old for the music or for the artist. Starting to see any point here?

Is there any artist or band you loved when you were a teenager, and went to see their show after you grew up? If there is any, you’d probably agree with me.

So over the next few weeks I will bring a few strong points to look at while trying to create such a connection. It is not easy, but if you follow these guidelines, chances are that your audience and listeners will start to feel emotionally connected to you.

Remember, being a performing artist, standing in the front line and communicating with the audience is NOT for every one! But if you do choose to be the front man – you must deliver, or else – you better off stay at home.

You can turn out “big” if you try to sincerely connect with your audience – but you can not connect with your audience if you’re trying to be “big”.