T.E.D. talk post on Amanda Palmer

In the music world, most musicians look down on the whole idea of free downloading songs and albums. However, Amanda Palmer reshaped the “business” of music by encouraging people to download her songs for free. She only asked for people to donate money. She ended up making over one million dollars from about twenty five thousand people which is ironic because when she was signed with a record company she only sold twenty five thousand copies of her album and the company called it a failure. She also did something that most people do not really think about when it comes to musicians. She was interactive with her fans but she was more interactive than most musicians are. She is not afraid to tweet or ask someone if she can stay the night at one of her fans houses. She kind of broke the traditional view of how a celebrity sees a fan. Not just as someone who has his or her support just on, stage but also in ordinary life.

            Palmer’s style during the speech was filled with a lot of hand and arm motions. I liked how she had the flower with her from the beginning to the end. She started her speech by talking about her job before music. She was a street performer known as the eight-foot tall bride. She would stand there on a box while people would pass by and some would give her money and when they did, she would hand them a flower and make eye contact. Her vocal tone seemed pretty warm and welcoming. She seemed like one of those people that you would want to sit down with and have a cup of coffee. Her physical presentation was very informal. She walked onstage with a t-shirt and jeans with boots and very weird looking eyebrows. However, she was able to present her speech with confidence. Her tone was a more formal tone than a comedic tone. There were moments in the speech that she told a joke and it turns out that she was actually kind of funny. She was able to make her point about being the street artist and showing compassion for the people who took her flowers; she was able to connect with her fans not just as an artist but also as a friend.