For example, whilst listening to "Nothing Compares to You" would it honestly sensitise or amplify the wide-eyed compassion of Sinéad's beautiful performance were we able to watch social-media-video of her lollygagging the night before or bitching about her record label? (no offence Sinéad, merely hypothetical)... so thank goodness it doesn't exist!
Am I being naive or is every listener of these times completely convinced that the artists of today are all actors - entertainers even? Does this celebrity-oriented era keep us removed from the true content of an artist's words and emotions?
For those of us that love to lose ourselves in music, the moment that a song really hits home is often a complex one... although it may not seem to be, it is full of all the abstract connectivity that music plays upon. A song, for example, may have a melancholic feel in just a couple of lines but it is at that moment that the underlying sadness of your day finds a connection. Some songs may have the ability to touch us in several ways simultaneously, each contact reaching deeperj inside us.
Like reading a book, listening to music creates mental pictures, raises ideas and questions within us. At these moments it is tremendously helpful if the voice behind the lyrical delivery stays clearly communicative - focused, not confused by contradictory, or at best irrelevant, images in the side-bars of our life.
Whereas, seeing the artist or band appearing live in concert can, with even the simplest stage presentation reflecting the mood of not only each song but individual lines, magnify the lyrical and emotional sensibilities. I don't think we need to see writer/performers 'looning around' backstage on someone's hastily uploaded iPhone.
Of course, artists are 'real people' and they have 'ordinary lives' - but that information should be saved for 'revealing' books written many years after the event. Something for the die-hard fan who needs to know everything about their favourite 'legendary' artist.
Let us grow into an 'awareness' about the artist through their music - with that understanding being born of a gentle musing, often sub-conscious, on how they are as people, not just how they look, but how they behave, how they laugh, whether they can show joy, or seem sensitive.
Is the singer actually as confused by the subject matter of their current song as the lyrics suggest - or is it fiction? For me, we should be left to wonder.
To many, it may not matter either way. But for those of us that like to believe in a story, film or song, this extra everyday interference seems invasive... or, at the very least... unnecessary. With each day, harder to avoid.
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