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When I grew up, outside a few precious Rolling Stone photos and some album cover art, I didn’t have much of a look into the lives of the artists I listened to. And I didn’t have much of a desire to. I suppose, in retrospect, that Bob Seger was a little too tall and could have used a few pounds, but at the time, honestly, I just didn’t care.
Because music, then, was mine, no one else’s. I had my own life to live and I used music simply as emotional fuel to heighten the experiences I was having for myself. Every song was about me.
MTV, of course, changed the course of our relationship with artists and paved the way for an era where the personality, and really success, of an artist became intertwined with the music.
Lifestyle as music as lifestyle.
So, when Joe Walsh (I still don’t know what he looks like) sang about his Maserati, it was satire. But when Drake (who I see pictures of constantly) sings about his Rolls Royce, it’s a proud, enticing display of wealth. An invitation into not just his music, but his lifestyle. Music becomes more than an opportunity to escape your own life, it demands you escape into his.
And this is the same transition that is happening in photography.
Enter the Age of Hip Hop Photography.
