exploring the art of alter egos.
Beyoncé voice* — “People don’t make alter egos anymore.”
When I say ‘famous alter egos in music’ who do you think of? Deepening on who you are, your age, your music taste, there’s quite a few names that would first come to mind. Some probably said David Bowie, who created characters such as Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, and the reoccurring Major Tom. Others might’ve mentioned Nicki Minaj, who is also known for her catalogue of egos, her prominent personas being Roman and Barbie. There’s also Beyoncé’s über-confident stage persona Sasha Fierce. Yet, there’s another underlying link between these three musicians I’ve just named. As of 2024 they’re established legacy artists, none of them are new to the industry.
I’ve realised newer artists don’t really experiment with the concept of alter egos as much as older artists have, and to me they’re such a fun concept, instead they’re opting to define clear cut eras as they happen instead of create alter egos. Now an ‘era’ can’t replace what an alter ego is, they aren’t interchangeable at all. An alter ego in its plainest definition means alternate self, and is a separate distinction from a person’s original personality. In music, the alter ego would be separate from the artists on stage persona, because we can already argue that for many the on stage persona of an artist is already another after ego in itself. Reasons for creating an alter ego vary between individual artists; the alter ego acts as a creative outlet that usually indicates a new musical (or visual) direction for the artist, a way to channel or explore various emotions in their music or onstage (or both). An artists ‘era’ essentially spits up their discography into small descriptors, and is mainly done upon retrospection. It doesn’t dictate the creative direction of an artist, in fact the era is dictated and defined by said artists choice in creative direction.
Musicians having alter ego has been used enough times over the years for it to become a ‘thing’ in music. Whenever an artist revealed an alter ego to their audience, especially someone considered mainstream, it would always be treated as something still novel. I believe the early 2000s is when music saw the greatest influx of, both mainstream and lesser known musicians testing out the concept; Christina Aguilera had Xtina, Ciara tried with Super Ci, MF DOOM had his lineup, and Eminem would sometimes unleash Slim Shady. However, once we crossed over into the 2010s, the concept was even less explored than before, especially within the pop sphere.
Now when it comes to artists creating alter egos there are levels of effort to it, different artists have offered us varying takes on the concept, and for the sake of length I’m going to merge the levels into two categories. The first one being called ‘minimal change’ and is self explanatory, where it comes off as more a gimmick or marketing trick than creative expression. These are the more common ‘alter egos’ that we see a lot of artists dabble with, they are the personas that don’t enhance the artist in anyway except for a change in name and maybe appearance, there’s nothing that distinctively drives the creative direction from what it already is. A lot of the times alter egos in this category help an artist to shed their previous, usually more restrictive image.
Our first exploration into ‘minimal change’ alter egos is Mariah Carey’s Bianca. Carey debuted Bianca in her music video for Heartbreaker in 1999, styling dark hair, heavier makeup, and a British accent. Bianca would be the prime example of a ‘minimal’ change alter ego, and hasn’t appeared in any of her work since. I have to say I’ve never really considered Bianca to be an alter ego as opposed to just a character in a music video — in the same vein as Avril Lavigne’s Girlfriend doppelgänger. However, I do believe that Mariah had the potential to properly explore the concept of an alter ego had she been able to release Someone’s Ugly Daughter. The album was a side project that Mariah was working on alongside Daydream in 1995, and would’ve been a massive shift from Carey’s R&B-pop fusion being an alternative rock album.
“I created an alter ego artist and her Ziggy Stardust-like spoof band. My character was a dark-haired brooding goth girl who wrote and sang ridiculous tortured songs.” — Mariah Carey in her Memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey.
‘Dark-haired, brooding goth girl’, it’s highly likely that Bianca was birthed from this rejected project, and was Mariah experimenting with alternative stylings, which was obviously toned back in Heartbreaker to make it more palatable. Carey has stated how the album was inspired by bands such as Hole, Garbage, and Sleeter-Kinny, channeling her own feelings of frustration and misery into “breezy-grunge, punk-light” songs. With Someone’s Ugly Daughter Mariah had no intention of shedding her main image, rather it would’ve been another layer added to her musical expression. If given the freedom, it would’ve been interesting to see how she would’ve developed this brooding alter ego and where else she would’ve taken it.
Christina Aguilera’s Xtina was born out of a desire to rid herself from the Britney-esque teen idol image, following the rollout for her 2002 album Stripped. Xtina is bold, she’s empowered and she’s carefree. Characterised by her black hair (later black streaks), body piercings, risqué clothing choices, gave Christina a means to display autonomy and freedom within her music and stage presence. From her pop heavy past, Aguilera stepped into a sound that incorporated hip-hop and R&B influences, rappers Lil Kim and Redman being the only credited features. You can see an influence in style from the popular female rappers and R&B stars of the time, for example the featured Lil Kim or Aaliyah. In all fairness I think Xtina was the perfect way for Christina to shed her teen idol image, she herself never thought of herself in the same vein as early Britney, considering herself more of a “younger Mariah Carey-type” which I agree with. The shift in appearance and attitude was drastic and widely criticised by media outlets, but despite everything eventually became one of her strongest charting albums.
However, Xtina wouldn’t be the last time she dabbled with creating an alter ego, and for Back to Basics she decided to retire Xtina for Baby Jane. Xtina served her purpose and there was nothing more for Christina do with her. At the end of that day, Xtina was about the freedom Christina wanted for herself in her image and music and she got that. This new persona saw her dyeing her hair platinum blonde, remove her piercing and adopt elements of vintage glamour to her style and makeup; and in her music adopted a fusion of jazz, soul, and pop. I think for Aguilera her egos personify her sound, the creative direction dictates the alter ego.
U2’s Bono had three alter egos used all on one tour. He created The Fly who wore all leather, Mirror Ball Man who wore a silver lamé suit that had matching shoes and cowboy hat, and lastly MacPhisto who donned an all gold suit with pale make-up and horns. Similarly to Xtina, these characters were a more lighthearted attempt to try and escape the groups overly serious reputation, and emphasised the ridiculousness of rock stars and rock & roll. When you’re known as the band who consistently writes politicised songs and have deep message within your work, there’s a silent pressure to always be serious and it becomes incredibly limiting for the artists, and any attempt to branch from that even for a few songs isn’t taken seriously — hence the unserious alter egos.
In the same way Xtina helped for Aguilera to feel bold and empowered, Sasha Fierce helped Beyoncé channel her newfound confidence, and was strictly an onstage persona that gave her performances a new level of fierceness and attitude. Now Sasha Fierce’s lifespan only spans the rollout of Beyoncé’s 2008 release I Am.. Sasha Fierce. In terms of music, Sasha wasn’t helping Beyoncé debut a new sound, we know that she’s far from afraid of experimenting with her sound as evident of works like Lemonade and Renaissance. The album is split into two sides, I Am bares the more balladic songs and was more in tune with her r&b roots while still carrying a pop element to them — think Halo, Broken-Hearted Girl, and If I Were A Boy. While Sasha Fierce debuted a sound from Beyoncé that toyed with electropop, a sound that was emerging around that time, and is an obvious shift from her traditional r&b roots. On this side we hear songs like Diva, Sweet Dreams, and the iconic Single Ladies where her confidence greatly contrasts the softer side of I Am. So while she was shifting the gears on her sound, Sasha strictly remained an onstage persona.
Now Sasha herself has no physical attributes, not like Bianca or The Fly where we know that they’re channeling this persona when dressed a certain way, Sasha remained an intangible entity that Beyoncé just called from within. She’s not a separate persona, rather she’s just Beyoncé’s confidence with a named attached to it, I can’t say personified when she possesses no physical attributes. Beyoncé is a fierce performer, and she always has been from her start in Destiny’s Child, but there is a shift in the level of confidence and boldness that happens in her performances post I Am…Sasha Fierce. The shift is very clear when you compare performances before and after, from the sharpness of the choreography, the performance adlibs, down to the musical arrangements there is a shift. You can see it on the tour that she did for I Am…Sasha Fierce, and while she maintains that she ‘killed off’ Sasha Fierce in 2010, Sasha was definitely onstage with Beyoncé during her 2011 Glastonbury show and most definitely her 2013 Super Bowl performance too.
I think Sasha Fierce was just Beyoncé coming into herself as a soloist and her artistic choices, being in a group for so long to suddenly be on your own (no matter if that was the goal) can be daunting, especially when you’re now tasked with finding your sound and your image separate from what was created with your former group.
“A songwriter is a novelist. You invent characters, because they’re born out of your brain, they reflect you. But good characters are independent of you and live lives on their own.” — Janet Jackson, speaking about the personas on her album Damita Jo.
The second category is called ‘actualised characters’ where artists have put in the work to create these alter egos. They’ve created actual characters, and there’s a level of eccentricity and dedication that these artists will have to turn an idea or emotion into an actualised alter ego. Which is why, for most of the time, the alter egos that are remembered are from the musicians that tend to work outside of the box, who have somewhat of a discipline to their craft. David Bowie is probably the artist most revered for his alter egos, setting the standard characters that go beyond being just alter egos, they’re a physical manifestations of what project he’s working on. The creativity and influence he used to create the personas inherently influence the music, and vice versa, to then culminate into alter egos such as Ziggy Stardust or Aladdin Sane. His prolific use of egos would be impossible to cover, but it’s vital that he’s mentioned because he’s become the reference point for what people, both artists and audiences alike, look for in an alter ego.
Throughout Hip-Hop’s now 51 year history many rappers have crafted alter egos, and really deserves its own thought piece because there is a rich history that should the be explored, there’s something about Hip-Hop that lends itself to having alter egos. In the same vein as Gorillaz, Madlib has his animated alter ego Lord Quas who’s higher-pitched voice differentiates and often interacts with Madlib’s regular voice. Tyler, the Creator has garnered a reputation for creating characters for different projects, and has a slew of eccentric alter egos from Dr. TC, Wolf Haley, Igor, and most recently Tyler Baudelaire. Even in Kpop BTS’s resident rapper Suga has his counterpart August D, who has as a more aggressive, heavier cadence and more personal lyricism than what Suga does with BTS.
Daniel Dumile created MF DOOM and is his main moniker, the alter ego combines elements of the Marvel Comics supervillain Doctor Door along with the likes of characters from the Phantom of the Opera, and would refer to himself (Dumile) in the third person while in character. As DOOM he wore a signature metal mask, similar to the character of Doctor Doom, which can be seen on the cover Operation: Doomsday and and was rarely seen without it. After MF DOOM, Dumile had a string of other persona’s that followed; Viktor Vaughn was just a typical rapper, King Geedorah was a monster from space and it’s perspective on humanity, along with DANGERDOOM and Madvillian.
It seems for MF DOOM that the creation of these alter egos is all about telling a story, with these different personas he can come at topics from different perspectives and have them interact and disagree with each other, which he successfully does. In the same way a film or a novel will have multiple characters pushing the story forward, DOOM applies the same logic to his music. If there’s a perspective that needs to be told, he’s going to create the character that can tell it.
“Roman is a crazy boy who lives in me, he says the things that I don’t want to say. I think he was born out of rage […] so he bashes everyone […] he’s violent.” — Nicki Minaj on Roman, My Time Now Documentary.
While Nicki Minaj is well know for her catalog of characters, Roman is her most infamous ego to dates and could also have her own written piece. Full name Roman Zolanski, he is harsh and blunt, what Minaj doesn’t want to say Roman will say for her. He is characterised as a an aggressive homosexual man from London, and defined by his abrasive flow, in songs that feature Roman there is a lot of ‘theatrical’ shouting and frantic tone changes. It’s probable that Minaj might’ve took inspiration from Eminem’s Slim shady, an equally abrasive and eccentric character, who joins Roman on the grand introduction that is Roman’s Revenge. I think what separates Nicki and her egos from others, and adds layers and reality to them, especially within her earlier days, is the small narratives she gives them — the most famous example being the video for her verse on Kanye West’s Monster, where Roman actually kidnaps Barbie (another Nicki ego). It’s similar to how MF DOOM often has his egos reference each other in different songs and projects, there’s a sense of interconnectedness. In the beginning of the video for Moment 4 Life, Martha (Roman’s mother, who’s also at the end of Roman’s Revenge) mentions how Roman is off to boarding school with Slim Shady for the havoc caused from Roman’s Revenge, and in the later single Roman in Moscow he’s escaped, her Grammy Awards rendition of Roman Holiday saw Roman getting exorcised at Martha’s request.
Through the many egos she channels in her music, it allows her to experiment even more with her visual style, further than what other artists may get away with because each persona has their own personality. It gives her power over her image, and I think this is a big reason for a lot of the these creations. Nicki, especially earlier in her career was incredibly creative and eccentric in her sound and appearance, she wasn’t afraid to have fun, we hear how she plays with different flow styles, accents, tones and is very theatrical with it — something she’s seems to have lost a little bit with recent releases.
Janelle Monáe ventured into a world of afro-futurism, queer exploration and self discovery through her cyborg alter ego Cindi Mayweather, and honestly doesn’t get talked about enough. Her world ‘Metropolis’, plagued with racism, sexism, and homophobia mimicked our own, and kept “creativity and self-expression regulated to the underground”. Cindi Mayweather is meant to represent all of those who are marginalised, a universal character for the repressed. Through these albums there’s a journey of resistance, fighting the powers that be and releasing creativity and self-expression to the world. This sentiment culminates into Dirty Computer, and conceptualises a Metropolis where it let love win, put no boundaries on creativity or self-expression. In this intricate narrative, Janelle also uses this journey to critique and pick apart Womanhood and Blackness, which becomes more evident from 2010’s The ArchAndroid and onwards. It’s through this Journey of Cindi Mayweather, Janelle created the perfect experience to discover herself, both personally and as an artist.
Within this era Janelle was incredibly immersed in the portrayal of her alter ego, we saw her exclusively wear a monochromatic wardrobe and in may interviews refuse to stray from the music — and purposefully made it difficult to differentiate between Cindi and Janelle. She’s talked about how her signature black and white wardrobe was worn as a tribute to the working class, drawing on the uniform used in industries predominately manned by said class, the tuxedo is Monáe representing her rejection of the gender-normative expectations of her. In history (especially circa 19th and early 20th century), whenever women have worn suits, what comes with it is an androgynous appearance and queer associations which she embraces here. Monáe put incredible effort into constructing this world upon the release of her 2007 EP, where everything is thought out.
To understand more about Monáe and Cindi Mayweather, there is a piece called Alter Egoing: The Shifting Affect of Janelle Monáe that I highly recommend, as trying to squeeze into this overview does it an injustice.
Like the rest of the artists mentioned in this section, Prince could easily have a whole piece dedicated to his use of the concept. He’s explored it in the typical fashion, creating characters like Camille, who is defined their altered higher pitch and almost androgynous-like vocals, and is often said to be Prince furthering his exploration of femininity in his music. Then there’s also Gemini whose creation was intended for his work on the soundtrack for Tim Burton’s 1989 film Batman, and appears in a split costume and face paint to match; one side representing the Joker (evil) and the other Batman (good). But Prince was so prolific in his craft, his abundance of creativity was so intense that it seemed like alter egos weren’t even enough for him; and he created bands and developed artists where the music he created was performed by other people. It would be an artist like Prince to transcend the boundaries of what could be an alter ego. This includes names like The Time, The Family, Madhouse, Vanity / Apollonia 6, and Shelia E. He maintained tight control of these artists’ image, as a regular musician would of alter egos attached to themselves. Upon hearing these works you’re instantly able to recognise that is was a Prince project, because of his signature Minneapolis stamp that would be on the production, or his vocals in the background.
It’s clear that alter egos give artists a strong sense of creative freedom over their art and themselves, to express themselves how they see fit, and give them power over their own narrative or image. By constantly being in the spotlight people are going to create their own perceptions about an artist. I think the adoption of an alter ego, even the half-hearted or ‘minimal’ attempts, indicates (even at least a desire for) growth in a musicians artistic development, something artists should always strive for. Other simply have a story to tell, and need characters and perspectives beyond themself to help tell that story, and I think it takes special and very talented artists to do it right. In a potential continuation, I’d want to explore current artists that I would like to see dabble in the concept, and ponder how they might go about it.
