The musician who sold himself

He knew exactly what he was doing when he chose to wear that slim-fit suit with the bronze jacket, his hair perfectly faded and coiffed.

He knew exactly what he was doing as he upturned one corner of his smile, giving us eyes that said he knew us.

He knew exactly what he was doing as he exploded onstage, with his theatricality and his intimacy and his smirks and his swagger.

Oh, how the lights and sounds electrified us. Their pulse directed our hearts.

The magnet in his voice, drawing us closer.

He knew exactly what he was doing as he gave us no other choice but to fall in love.

Music snobs condemn musicians who choose the "sell-out" path. They criticize the musician's choice with a funereal disapproval. These musicians become dead to the snobs.

Screw the snobs.

I think the sell-out path suits Brendon Urie, frontman of Panic! at the Disco. 

It fits him almost as well as that slim, shimmering suit.

Brendon walks down the sell-out path with style.

He chooses to sell himself. And he's so incredibly talented at it; it's the center of his artistry.

It reminds me of Andy Warhol. Art critics would be crazy for calling Andy Warhol a sell-out, because that was the point. His art was about selling out. He made art that seemed to warn against the harm that fame, money, ubiquity and objectification could bring. 

Some might say he warned against selling out. But there he was, making art that objectified; and selling pieces for as much as 105 million dollars. His own actions added to his commentary on our culture. Andy Warhol's life was a performance piece.

Brendon is no Warhol, but he's a master of his own craft. And, like Warhol, his life is a performance piece.

He sings about Vegas. He sings about selling oneself, figuratively and literally. He smirks at fake displays of intimacy in one song, and praises the thrill of night life in the next. Through his artistry, he examines a culture. He takes his audience on a tour. But he's not one-step removed; he has lived in the thick of it. He knows how it works.

So he does what he knows best, and he sells himself.

And it makes for an astonishing performance.

Please enjoy these tiny videos I took at their recent Salt Lake concert.