EPISODE 87: CULT OF PERSONALITIES

What happens when the artist becomes bigger than the art?

In Episode 87 of Why Make Music, Willa May and ThinkTimm pull apart the machinery behind celebrity, branding, mystique, fandom, and the dangerous rise of parasocial devotion.

There was a time when artists existed at a distance. Mystery was part of the magic. You heard the records, saw the album covers, maybe caught an interview, and that was enough. But in today’s world, access has replaced mystery, and personality has become product.

This episode explores how icons like Prince, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Madonna, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and Kanye West built, maintained, or became trapped inside the personas they created.

Topics include:

• The death of artist mystique • How hip-hop turned music into testimony • Parasoc ...