In a recent interview with Vice Magazine’s music website Noisey, Columbia, SC native Chaz Bundick of Toro y Moi spoke a little on the importance of image in music.
“The internet is definitely bringing it at a fast pace. Instagram, too, because the visual aesthetic is the first thing you notice with a musician—it completes the picture.” said Bundick speaking on the subject.
It’s something a lot of new bands, and bands in general, have trouble grasping. Sometimes it isn’t a thought, and sometimes it’s something bands focus on too much. With social media tied into music as much as it is today, the way you present yourself on the internet ties in heavily with the music you create. It’s also something that should be as carefully curated as much as your music is. You want to identify with your fans, and pull them in for a listen. You want to keep them updated and give them a glimpse inside the creators of the music. Like Bundick says, it completes the picture.
In a lot of ways, it’s always been this way. Looking back at The Beatles for example, everyone recognized them and their iconic haircuts. That was a curated representation of them at the time, but maybe a bit more clean cut than they turned out to be. Now with social media you get to watch your favorite artists change and mature in real time. You experience life with them in a lot of ways. If you’re following them from the start, you watch their followers rise, their image become more carefully curated, and their fan base grow. It can be an invading feeling in some ways to lose a band you felt like was yours, but at the same time you don’t want anything more than them to find that success.
Image is as important now as it’s ever been. It’s something that follows each band member all the time, unless they aren’t on social media. If you move into the public light, you have to be smarter about what you post. It’s just the way it is these days. Hopefully, we’ll all improve when it comes to internet etiquette.