The Audacity of Rock: Part 4

Hey guys! Let's wear masks!

This is probably the most ridiculous connection I've made yet. Mostly, I wanted to use bands I hadn't used before in making a connection through rock's past and present. Please enjoy the result of me searching the internet and racking my brains.

Genesis "The Musical Box" (I believe this is a truncated version)

Peter Gabriel was a big fan of dressing up, negating the positive, upbeat, only mildly strange music of Genesis during his era and making it super-weird. But you've got to love it. Here he is in a Fox mask (and red dress). Whether it was because he was shy or just trying to make some sort of statement, who knows? But I do know that I kind of love how mismatched his outfit seems to the rest of the band and the music. To be fair, he's kind of weird without the mask, too.



Slipknot "Psychosocial"

Before today, I had no idea there was a band out there that wore Michael Myers masks. But then again, I don't like screamo very much. At least Slipknot gives me the relief of a sung chorus. Anyway, with the masks, notice that they're all different. Much like BSB, you can pick your favorite one. My favorite is is the zanni inspired executioner mask--adorable! Or absolutely frightening. I can't decide.

Slipknot |MTV Music

Questions to Ponder:
1. While I understand that Slipknot is attempting to make their hard core even hard corer by wearing these masks, does Peter Gabriel have any good reason for wearing one?
2. Is Slipknot scary or just hilarious? How does the choppy editing and quickly changing focus of the video help the scariness or hilariousness?
3. In fact, who would be scarier to encounter: the 9-masked-man band Slipknot or Peter Gabriel in a fox mask?

Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of The Audacity of Rock.