Alter Egos as a Performance Strategy in Pop Music
Introduction: The Power of Persona in Pop
Pop music is not just a cultural force but also a fluid artistic medium that has continually evolved along with societal and technological changes. It has always been deeply interlaced with performance, where the visual and theatrical aspects play a vital role in how music is heard and understood. From the extravagant and theatrical styles of 1970’s glam rock icons such as David Bowie and Freddie Mercury to the super choreographed, visually stunning performances put on by modern-day pop divas such as Lady Gaga and Beyoncé, pop music has always pushed the boundaries of self-presentation, identity and artistic expression. Throughout the decades, one of the most interesting and effective methods employed by pop artists has been the use of alter egos: personas built with the purpose of allowing performers to step outside their “normal” selves and explore new sides of creativity, narrative and personality. Said alter egos often work as means for experimentation, allowing artists to challenge the norm of society and expectations around “polemic” topics such as ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and fame.
This project’s purpose is to analyse how alter egos work as deliberate performance strategies inside the pop music scenery, enhancing not only the vocal delivery and stage presence of the artist but also promoting a more detailed, more sophisticated emotional expression. Through the embodiment of alternate identities, artists can develop stronger connections with their audiences, providing richly layered storytelling and immersive experiences that align with both personal and collective levels. Fundamentally, this project aims to spotlight the transformative power that alter egos have, and how they elevate the artistry and impact of performances in pop music.
Being a singer, songwriter, and performer myself, I have always been amazed by artists who go through extreme transformations in order to embody fictional personas. This interest comes from not just a desire to escape who I am, but more profoundly from a curiosity about what can be discovered (or unlocked) when an artist steps into a different identity. My goal through this research is to comprehend how and why pop artists use alter egos, and then, through practice, explore how doing so can influence the voice, body, and the emotional state of live performance. This research takes an artistic-research approach, and combines theoretical study with experimental practice. I will analyze the work of artists such as David Bowie (Ziggy Stardust), Beyoncé (Sasha Fierce), Madonna (Dita Parlo), and Tyler, the Creator (Igor). Although they all have styles of music and artistic approaches that differ a lot from each other, all of these artists and performers have made use of alter egos to push their artistry into new limits. At the same time, I am also working on my own alter ego, Lilly, and documenting how it influences my vocal delivery, my body language and emotional access on stage. This research provides an embodied perspective into the outcomes and prospects of performative identity.
Pop artists are often expected to present an enhanced, consistent brand of self: a public image that meets the industry requirements and audience demands. The problem is, such pressure can control experimentation and limit authentic expression. This is when alter egos usually offer a curious solution: by creating a character, artists can dodge the limitations of their “true” identity and venture into new creative freedom. This sparks critical inquiries: what is the meaning of performing as someone else? What is the impact this has on the voice, the body, and the emotions being transmitted? Could an alter ego become more genuine than the original self?
Despite the general public having a higher interest in persona in pop culture studies nowadays, most of the literature tends to focus on branding, image or cultural symbolism. There is a lack of information when it comes to analysing the embodied, vocal, and emotional aspects of alter ego performance, especially from the artist’s point of view. This research aims to fill this gap by combining performance and vocal analysis, literature, interviews and experimental practice. In a field as obsessed with “authenticity as the music one,” the use of alter egos provides a paradoxical fact: at times, we must transform into someone else in order to express ourselves in the most truthful way. Through the analysation of how alter egos impact performance, this research seeks to contribute to a deeper and wider comprehension of creativity, identity and embodiment in pop music. It also offers a framework for performers, such as myself, to take control over their artistic voice and emotional expression.
Research Question: how do pop artists use alter egos to enhance their stage presence, vocal delivery, and overall performance?
General Topic: the use of alter egos in pop music as a performance enhancement strategy.
Research Focus: this study will explore how alter egos function as a performative tool in pop music, examining how artists embody these personas vocally, physically, and emotionally. It will investigate the relationship between alter egos and:
Case Studies
David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust – How Bowie used body language, fashion, and vocal techniques to construct an alien rockstar persona.
Beyoncé as Sasha Fierce – The impact of her alter ego on her stage presence, dance performance, and vocal aggression.
Madonna as Dita Parlo – How she used this persona during the Erotica era to explore themes of power, sensuality, and reinvention.
Tyler, the Creator as Igor – How adopting a theatrical character changed his stage performance, vocal style, and audience interaction.
Methodology
Performance Analysis: break down video performances of artists before and after adopting alter egos (e.g., Bowie pre- and post-Ziggy Stardust).
Vocal Analysis: compare vocal choices in studio recordings vs. live performances when alter egos are used.
Interviews & Literature Review: study interviews where artists discuss the role of alter egos in their performances, plus research on performance studies and persona theory.
Experimental Practice: test the impact of alter egos on performance by embodying different personas in your own artistic work. Justification for Methods
The methods chosen collectively provide a thorough approach to comprehending alter egos in pop music performance. The fusion of performance and vocal analysis can provide a detailed understanding of how alter egos shape an artist’s vocal delivery and stage presence in both recorded and live contexts. Reviewing interviews and literature can supply theoretical and contextual insights into the artistic purposes behind choosing to adopt alter egos, basing the research in existing scholarship on identity and performance. Lastly, experimental practice enables self-reflective and practical application evaluation, providing direct experience of the performative effects of alter egos. This mixed-method approach can grant a multifaceted and comprehensive research into how alter egos work as performance strategies in pop music.
Self-Reflection / Artistic Process
My interest in the use of alter egos in pop music is not just academic. It stems from a personal place, a place where vulnerability, performance and creativity merge. As a performer, I’ve always felt a tension between my inner, private world and the external stage. There is a strange paradox when it comes to performance: at the same time it provides space connection and authenticity, it also requires control, refinement, and poise. I was drawn to alter egos due to the fact that they seemed to provide a way out of this paradox, or maybe, a way through it. I was first attracted to artists such as David Bowie and Beyoncé not just for their artistry but also for the ways in which they seemed to free themselves through persona. Ziggy Stardust and Sasha Fierce were not mere aesthetic choices, but rather portals through which these musicians could communicate emotions, sounds, and gestures that might have been too risky or exposed if they had done it on their own. Analysing them made me question: what aspects of my own self remain unexplored because I don’t feel safe or because they might not be “acceptable”? Could building an alter ego help me access those sides of my being? Could it make me more courageous, not only on stage but in real life?
With the above mentioned questions in mind, I started the process of creating my own alter ego. It was essential for me that my character wasn’t a random costume or mask. It had to be rooted in emotional truth, even if aestheticized. I began this journey by journaling about the sides of myself I suppress: the sides that are angrier, louder, more dramatic or more unapologetic than the version of me that normally performs. I dwelled on types of voices I don’t commonly use, emotions I suppress, and postures I do not adopt out of habit or fear. Slowly, a persona began to form. I named her Lilly: a version of myself who is fearless, performative, expressive, and not afraid of emotional intensity. Lilly has her own sonic universe (darker themes, more vibrato, theatrical cadences), her own style of body language (shoulders back, slower and more deliberate gestures), and her own emotional palette. She is not a cover-up. She is a digging-out. Adopting this alter ego wasn’t always smooth. In the beginning, it felt fake, like I was pretending. However, I eventually realized that performance is always, in some way, pretend. The trick was not to imitate a character but to become one by merging with her emotional truth. One big hurdle was vocal: I had to adjust my technique to align with Lilly’s expressive needs without damaging my voice. She demanded more vocal color shifts, more sustained breath control, and sometimes, more controlled aggression. I rehearsed singing and phrasing with more drama, altered articulation and experimented with vibrato length.
Another obstacle I faced was physical, as in the first rehearsals I noticed that my body wanted to go back to familiar patterns: the same hand gestures, the same posture. It took time and repetition to stop those habits. I practiced in front of a mirror, analysing how Lilly would walk, stand, and gesture. Through time, her stance became my own, at least inside the frame of performance. Emotionally, the biggest challenge is allowing myself to feel without limiting myself. Lilly is exaggerated in a way I was taught not to be, but it was liberating to perform as her. In one rehearsal, I sang a ballad I’d written five years ago, a song I’d always had a hard time connecting with vocally. However, as Lilly, the song all of a sudden made sense. The persona allowed me to fully inhabit the song’s emotion, without any sort of judgment. Over the course of this process, I am conducting a myriad of experiments:
Performing the same song once as “myself” and then as Lilly;
Recording both versions and analyzing the differences in coloratura, tempo, dynamics and expression;
Performing small live sets, alternating personas between songs;
Connecting with peers and asking them to describe what they noticed or felt during each performance.
I have already started initial testings and the results were extremely interesting. Audiences repeatedly described Lilly’s performances as “more intense," “more engaging," and “more lively.” They were not always aware that I was alternating between personas — which reinforced the idea that emotional embodiment was more apparent than costumes or aesthetics. As for me, I realised that my voice is more flexible than I thought, not just technically, but also emotionally. As Lilly, I let myself use vocal colors I would normally not adopt: growls, exaggeration and scooped notes. This project is helpiung me let go of a super polished, academic point of view of what “good singing” is, and start using performance as emotional storytelling. Above all, I learned that alter egos are not escapes, but instead, mirrors: they show us what we are capable of doing when we let go of control, fear of judgement and perfection. They let performers hold more than one truth at once. And in that multitude, I found freedom.\
Audio and Video Documentation:
First perform, without the use of the alter ego: https://youtu.be/ApreKtl8DLI?si=rnD4qYscFdLlYdcO
Final Performance of first year MoM (to be added):
Song written without the use of the alter ego: https://youtu.be/4ikJLz6svyU?si=yK9QFs7weSQg1yJw
Song written with the use of the alter ego: https://youtu.be/Ee6ZfhqFhY4?si=-p2XejmWwJ-HQMCs
Practical Application
Develop your own alter ego to explore how it changes your performance style, stage movement, and vocal delivery.
Create an artistic presentation (live or recorded) showcasing performances with and without an alter ego to analyze differences.
Research Domains
My research fits primarily within:
Creative Musical Practices
Training, Performance, and Cognition
And secondarily within:
Musical Interpretation
Music and Society
Justification
Primary Domains:
Secondary Domains:
Outline/Timeline for Written Thesis
Introduction:
Problem Statement: my research project explores the challenge of understanding how the use of alter egos in pop music influence and impact performance dynamics, analysing the ways in which said constructed identities build and shape artistic expression, audience perception and stage presence.
Research Questions: as a result, I am asking the following research question: how do alter egos affect stage presence, vocal delivery, and emotional expression?
Proposed Solutions: to address the research questions, this project proposes to:
Carry out performance analysis of video footage portraying artists before and after they started using alter egos, with the purpose of identifying changes in gestures, movement and stage presence overall.
Conduct vocal analysis by comparing studio and live recordings, in order to analyse vocal modifications (such as dynamics, phrasing, timbre, etc.) that are related to alter ego adoption.
Study interviews and literature where artists address their use of alter egos, accompanied by academic research on persona theory, performance studies and identity construction.
Take part in experimental practice by creating and performing as my own alter ego, chronicling how this affects my vocal delivery, stage presence and emotional expression.
Do artistic performances with and without the alter ego in order to clearly compare and reflect on the performative impact of the persona.
Relevant Literature and Terminologies: I will also reflect on concepts such as persona theory, performance theory, audience interaction and emotional authenticity in pop music.
Brief Literature Review (deeper analysis will be done further)
Relevant Literature: the literatures relevant to my research include works on performance studies, persona theory, and case studies of notable pop artists using alter egos. My position within the subject area is that of a researcher aiming to bridge performance theory with practical applications in pop music.
Reynolds, Simon – Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and Its Legacy, from the Seventies to the Twenty-First Century Covers the glam rock movement with a deep dive into David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, focusing on the creation of alter egos and how they challenge identity norms.
Frith, Simon – Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music Addresses topics of performance, authenticity, and identity construction in popular music, and it is pivotal for analyzing how artists discern between their “true” selves and alter egos in performance.
Schechner, Richard – Performance Studies: An Introduction Provides a theoretical structure for analyzing performance, embodiment, and role-playing. Topics such as “restored behavior” and “performance as twice-behaved behavior” are beneficial for comprehending how alter egos are intentionally built, rehearsed, and presented as multi-layered performances.
Irizarry, Larissa A. - Performing Political Affect: Alter Egos and Black Feminism in Popular Music Irizarry explores how Black women in pop music utilize alter egos as a form of political and creative expression. She introduces the concept of “alter egoing” to describe how these artists engage in world-building and identity-shifting to critique race, gender, and power structures in American culture.
Main Body/Evidence/Data Collection
Main Body: in the main body of my research, I will utilize the following activities to build and support the proposed solutions to my research problem:
Take part in performance analysis by thoroughly examining video footage of selected pop artists before and after adopting alter egos, focusing on changes in stage presence, gestures and movement.
Perform vocal research comparing studio recordings with live performances, pointing out vocal modifications connected to the use of alter egos.
Study interviews and literature where artists comment about their use of alter egos, mixing these findings with theoretical viewpoints from performance studies and persona theory.
Carry out experimental practice by creating and embodying my own alter ego, documenting how this persona affects my stage movement, vocal delivery and emotional expression.
Methods/Tools: Video performance breakdowns; Vocal analysis comparing live and studio recordings; Interviews with artists and performance experts; Literature critiques of existing theories.
Conclusion/Discussion In this section I will discuss how the results of my research and the data I have collected contribute to solving the problem of comprehending the role of alter egos in pop music performance. The contribution I hope to make with my work involves providing a wider understanding of how alter egos can transform and enhance audience experiences and performance dynamics. The outcomes of my work for the future might include influencing how pop artists approach their performances, encouraging discussions on identity in music, and the potential for alter egos to engage audiences on a more meaningful emotional level. Considerations for future research could address the evolving nature of alter egos in the digital era and their repercussion on live performances.
Written summary of reflections:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQy8Jtzqkgf5huUeSJWD3t0IDbQLhcLWG3XrMp4D_UyzOrtLMEs0UZmRmeuCRCNsNRlk2HEqCRtU-pr/pub