You’ve probably figured this out, but the Internet has ruined privacy. For artists -- as in musicians, visual artists, performers, and writers -- this is both a blessing and a curse.
Obviously, artists have been able to share their lives with the public for a while. For example, many musicians have been asked about their lives in interviews, and writers have told personal stories in their memoirs.
But the Internet’s taken that process to a whole new level. Now, artists don’t need to wait for an interviewer to ask about their childhoods or a publisher to accept funny stories about their families. They can share all those details directly with a blog or social media.
The question is, when does this sharing become too much?
On one hand, it’s important for professional artists to give out enough information that people connect with them. This allows people to become fans, which makes them more likely to buy whatever the artist creates. Writers are particularly encouraged to use social media so they can “build platforms,” create networks of fans before their books even come out.
On the other hand, there is such a thing as sharing personal information no one needs to know. Some loved ones don’t appreciate being mentioned in blogs and Facebook posts. There are some topics (such as mental illness) which make for good stories but can’t be shared online without violating trust and privacy.
Where’s the balance then? How do artists keep some privacy and yet connect with fans?
I think what all artists need to do is seriously consider what they’re comfortable sharing. This may include long discussions with family and friends about boundaries. After that, artists must decide how they’re going to strategically use what they share to gain fans. If this is done right, one artist can share very little while another shares almost everything and both can be well-known. There are successful artists who do either one.
One artist who shares very little is Francis Farewell Starlite, lead singer for the alternative band Francis and the Lights. He rarely gives personal details in interviews -- we know his legal name is Francis Farewell Starlite, he dropped out of Wesleyan University before moving to New York to pursue music, and he’s a huge fan of "Elements of Style" by Strunk and White. That’s about it. He’ll often pause when interviewers ask him a question and say, “Let me think about how I want to answer that.”
But this privacy works, because Starlite’s not just being guarded for the sake of it. As I said, he’s heavily influenced by "Elements of Style" which argues writers should “omit needless words,” and be concise as possible. So, Starlite follows that ideal by being a minimalist-- he only says what he thinks needs to be said. This, as one journalist noted, gives him a unique "man of mystery" persona in a world where many musicians never stop talking about themselves. The fact that every Francis And the Lights music video shows Starlite obscured somehow, usually going from in shadows to directly under a spotlight, hits this idea home even further. He is enigmatic, which makes him all the more interesting.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is renowned fantasy author Neil Gaiman. Gaiman shares almost everything with the public -- his friend Stephen Merrit once told “The New Yorker,” “There’s no hard line between his persona and his private life.” While Gaiman’s tactful when talking about fellow artists, he’ll gladly discuss his favorite TV show in a podcast, tweet scraps of his current writing projects, and share pictures of his wife and young son on his blog.
This is a huge amount of sharing, but it helps Gaiman to really connect with his fans. He can simply post that his new book is coming out and hundreds (or more) fans immediately buy it. He has such a large social media following that some organizations ask him to do things -- such as visit Syrian refugee camps in Jordan -- simply because they know he will draw attention to those causes on Twitter. He’s mastered the art of being like a dear friend, even if you never officially meet him.
You don’t have to throw privacy out the window to be a successful artist. You don’t have to be a recluse either. You just have to decide how much you’ll share with people and turn that decision into a well-used strategy.
