Performance Art Now Known As Over-Acting and Over-Singing

I’ve had multiple comments from strangers along the lines of “this would be great if it weren’t for the over-acting” or comments simple as “oversinging,” period.

When I started releasing music and content as Chad Rising, I did not expect to be part of the scene/group that I was placed into by default as an “Instagram artist.” Artists in this group are not to be taken seriously, as they don’t adhere to the unspoken boundaries that modern musicians should stick to. I’ve been lumped in with satire acts, amateurs who don’t know the joke’s on them, and have even been accused of using AI to write my lyrics. I never imagined me or my music would not be taken seriously. This is alarming because I have been putting out serious work since I was 20 years old (2010.) I never once thought, “let me write this song or do this dance in a way to make people laugh.” Still, I’m discovering that to be taken seriously, you must not take your work seriously. And those that take their work seriously, are in turn, not taken seriously and made fun of.

• When, why and how did this happen?
• When did it become uncool and cringe to sing with a full voice and tasteful vibrato?
• When did it become lame to maintain eye contact with the camera while singing a serious lyric?
• Why is it only cool to be unserious, topical or funny? (or talk about 1:1 relationship issues and feelings.)

These questions have dozens of thoughts popping up in my head. I know there are artists that do this now a days but until you ARE there, you are labeled as xyz. I believe part of the answer is that non top-40 music (and creative art in general) has been deemed financially and sentimentally worthless. Adults that live and die by the technocracy and now younger generations by default are set to that mindset; that serious music is uncool. That music is for background noise or filling the gaps between more important events, like hitting a vape or watching the next funny video, or god forbid, their next 4 hour shift at a job.

Performing Positive Messages is Cringe

When did it become cringe to perform along with just singing? Lady Gaga made a name for herself doing just that. Freddie Mercury. Michael Jackson. (Notice how there are no recent examples that come to mind?) Kids these days simply don’t know what authentic, deep and intense performance is. There is little genuine soulful connection between fan and artist. Would Gaga be taken seriously if she was served up as a nobody on a 10 second clip wearing any one of her outrageous outfits from her debut years? It’s hard to tell, but I’d wager that social media would tear her to bits for myriad reasons. She would be the pinnacle of cringe and the biggest butt of the joke.

The problem here is that what is seen and deemed, in my case, as over-acting and over-singing is actually full and deep expression from the heart, not the ego; something that is missing from the majority of mainstream music. Social media and technology has made the status quo of media and entertainment so superficial that a tiny prick below the skin sets off alarm bells in the nervous system of the sleeping masses. If music/lyrics or content makes someone feel something they’re not used to, they are quick to swipe it away. “OMG, I felt something deep! GET IT AWAY!! That’s CRINGE!!” This is an example of what I believe are the thoughts happening in the split second decisions and judgments we’re being trained to make on social media apps and platforms.

If we aren’t able or interested in feeling the breadth and depth of human emotions, where does that leave us as a society? As a species? If we close off and reject art or content that triggers the deepest, complex part(s) of what makes us human, what does that make us?