Artists Must Get Fans Immersed In a Great Story
"People want to be immersed. They want to get involved in a story, to carve out a role for themselves, to make it their own. But how is the [artist] supposed to accommodate them? What if the audience runs away with the story? And how do we handle the blur — not just between fiction and fact, but between [artist] and audience, entertainment and advertising, story and [the music]?" – Frank Rose, author of The Art of Immersion.
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Is this true, at all? Radiohead fans? U2 fans? Aren’t they all just fans of the band to varying degrees? Do they all want to be “immersed” and does the artist have to construct something to that end? Blur between fact and fiction? It’s entertainment. Acts of the past have simply entertained people.
I’ve been following along with the storytelling discussions for about two years now. It’s gotten a big boost from the interest (or hype) in transmedia. Compared to film and games, storytelling has not gotten as big a push in music.
There’s a band whose press I have been reading for about a year who incorporates their “story” into all their press/promotion, but I have found that little details change so I’ve become somewhat skeptical about how much of the story is true. So I keep thinking I’d rather have the real details than the spin.
On that note, I’ll provide this link to the pitfalls of creating a story which is presented as real, but isn’t. It’s okay to have a fake or embellished story if your fans know that. But if you are telling them what you maintain is the truth and it isn’t, then you come across as insincere and they may discount you for that.
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/03/cautionary-tales-in-transmedia-storytelling/