Usually, the route to fame requires help: Publicists, pluggers, and plenty of public appearances (cf. Lady Gaga). But in the ultra-short attention span world of today’s music, I’ve noticed that an increasing number of performers are becoming famous by staying anonymous.  

The publishing world has known about the marketing power for anonymity for decades. Now some quarters of the music world seem to be applying the same methods. Smart, this, since the intrigued are forced to embark on competitive detective work that may go on for weeks or months, creating buzz and increasing chances of a breakthrough in a noisy market.

An example is Cults, the boy-girl indie pop outfit from Manhattan who created a stir in the hipster blogger community when they released a well-received EP in 2010 without offering any information about themselves. That mystery parlayed itself-intentionally or otherwise-into a major label deal.

Summer Camp, another secretive boy-girl group, hid their identity by refusing to offer up their names or even a blurry picture. Instead, they issued a series of what looked like Polaroids of teenagers from the early 70s. They’ve since been outed as a couple of shy Londoners who were scared by all the early attention.

The British music media recently fell for Manchester’s Wu Lyf. They gave no interviews and made no appearances.  All communication was one-way through their website, which consisted of weird mission statements in language that bordered on nonsensical. There was one picture: four people wearing bandanas in a smoky parking lot. Only now that they have an album coming out has Wu Lyf has begun to talk. Their manager has been revealed as the founder of a creative agency whose clients include Adidas and Virgin. All this was carefully staged.

At first, all anyone knew about Brighton’s YAAKS was that the line-up included someone named Thom and five mates. Their identity is still pretty unclear, but that hasn’t stopped a sizeable number of people from freaking out about a single called HRHRHYTHM.

Lest you think that this a new thing, consider the Residents, the San Francisco art collective whose members have never been identified through the more than 60 (!!!) albums they’ve released since forming in San Francisco in 1966. Public appearances are done in disguise and all requests for interviews are denied.  

Hey, who says you have to be famous and recognizable?