Amanda Palmer (TED): Art of Asking

        Amanda Palmer reshapes the “business” of music by doing what no other music label or company will do: which is to ask for what they want. Labels are constantly trying to find new and inventive ways to get the people to pay for music, through advertisements or newly launched music websites, but none of them ever thought to just ask. This is what Amanda Palmer does. Her band had signed with a major label and sold 25,000 copies on the release of their new record. However, what the record saw as a fail Amanda and her band saw as a triumph.  This is when she began to sell her music for free, but she asked her fans to help her. And they did.  Through her twitter account and her blog, she is able to raise over a million dollars with just a little over 25,000 backers. 

It all started with her act as a street statue. Amanda would stand all day as thousands of people passed by, some stopping to throw money into the hat and some to yell “get a real job” at her. She loved what she did because it gave her a new outlook on the relationships between people. When someone would drop money into the hat, she would in return hand them a flower. She describes this exchange like falling in love, because in that moment of exchange she knows the pedestrian has seen and acknowledged her much like she is saying she sees them too.  In that intimate moment she creates with a complete stranger, they both feel recognized and important.

Much like in her music, in exchange for money, food, or a place to sleep she would produce music. She has the closest kind of contact with her fans possible by sleeping on their couches and eating their food. This kind of relationship, on both sides, requires a lot of trust.  She shows her trust to her fans in an extreme way one night in Berlin when she strips completely naked and lets everyone draw all over her body. Most would never even think to do something like this nevertheless actually go through with it, but it was her way of saying “I trust you” and she knows that her fans will take care of her.

Her presentation style on the TED stage very much reflects the trusting relationship between her as an artist and her fans. She comes out it is immediately apparent that she has her own style and is not afraid to show it in front of the audience. The performance she gives is in a casual form, reminds me a lot of Shane Koyczan and is "To this day" TED talk. They are both just being who they are and relaying their message in a performance manor with a lot of passion behind their message. We see her style as very punk and quirky with the grunge pants and chains to her penciled on eyebrows.  She moves about the stage with great theatrics and passion. It is easy to see that she is a performer and is not afraid to hide who she is. This is exactly how she interacts with her fans. She trusts them enough to be exactly who she is around them, nothing fake. Everything about her is very straight forward, which describes why she is not afraid to ask people for help. 

Most people, including myself, would be hesitant to ask strangers for money; because that would in a way say that I could not provide for myself and I need help. But why is asking for help a bad thing? And this is what I think Amanda is trying to ask us and explain to us that it is not necessarily bad because in the interaction of asking someone for something you can form really great and meaningful relationships with people who would have otherwise been strangers.