Live Performances (Blog Entry 11)

This music blog entry is dedicated to live musical performances! Can you feel the excitement?

Unlike music videos or film, which are edited, live performances take place in real time: they provide experiences for the audience. There are many kinds of live performances, as we’ve touched on in the content of our course and your assignment this unit, but in general: we can assume that the performer has a specific purpose in performing and will behave accordingly to produce an intended effect on the audience. Your goal: pick a YouTube clip from a live performance (which cannot possibly capture the real experience, but try to go with it) and analyze the relationship between the artist and the audience. Is the live performance effective in creating an intended experience for the audience? How does the filmed version of this live performance aid or dampen our ability to appreciate the recorded live performance?

As we’ve been doing this week, continue to use your skills of visual rhetorical analysis! Critically engage with all of the details of the live performance (colors, clothing, setting, body language/facial expression, lighting, sound quality, improvisation, juxtaposition, set “flow” etc.) to evaluate the performance’s effectiveness. Remember to consider the audience and context of the performance in your analysis.

Chose wisely and, and as with all of your writing, make this posting analytically rich! In commenting on 3 of your peers’ posts, enjoy engaging in conversation with them!