The Power Of Sia

What she’s figured out (and maybe not even on purpose) is what stardom and The Artist can look like in “today’s hyper-media landscape”

She’s the first real example we have of an artist living in the twitter age, and succeeding. She realized that artists are now allowed to just draw their own box around themselves, define how they choose to interact with the world.

Yes, Prince and many many before did this.

But they were ostracized, outcast geniuses.

Sia is celebrated because of it.

People my age (30’s and above) dig it partly for the spectacle (and it is a very savvy spectacle.) But the amazing thing is that people a generation or two younger don’t. There isn’t a spectacle of non-interaction. There’s just an artist. One who chooses a few places to interact with the world, makes amazing music and visual art, and is.

Without apology or reservation.

Sia is a new kind of role model. A new kind of artist that wasn’t possible even ten years ago. The Artist without The Celebrity.

Gaga tried to shape the future - The Artist As Celebrity. But she’s largely faded and failed because Celebrity, by nature, expires. Art is supposed to transcend time, be something Other that causes everyone to stop, breathless, say dear god when they see it. Sia has pulled that off.

For all the kvetching that’s happening about the death of the artist , I’m not hearing very many people excited, celebrating the reality that’s being created.

It’s as obvious as the seasons. As one thing, one Archetype of Artist dies, the space for a new one is created.

And if Sia is the first one we get to see of this new breed, a new type of artist that’s allowed to be disconnected from the destruction and chaos of the 24-hour news cycle, we are in for some absolutely amazing years to come.