Artists whom you're pretty sure are sometimes trolling us
 

Which isn't necessarily a negative thing. Trolling folks has a long tradition in the arts, not just in music, and I think it has some value. For example, think of Marcel Duchamp.

An obvious musical choice is John Cage, but let's focus on more recent examples.

My nominee is Xiu Xiu/Jamie Stewart.

Stewart has done things like releasing albums consisting solely of sounds made by vibrators (well, though electronically processed at times), which is Kling Klang, and albums comprised entirely of field recordings he made in Peru, which is Tired of Your World... Peru. (Neither of these seem to have any tracks on YouTube, unfortunately.)

He's also done things like "Fortune Teller," which is 21 minutes of him simply saying "Yes," "No," "Perhaps," and "Maybe" over and over, with no processing, no significant variation in any musical sense, etc.:


Even on "normal" Xiu Xiu albums, where Xiu Xiu is functioning more like a(n experimental indie/pop) group, Stewart seems to do quite a few things in the vein of trolling.

Or take Stewart's Nina Simone tribute album, Nina, where he sings every song in what seems to be a caricature/parody of his already highly unusual voice:



Again, I don't at all think that artistic trolling is necessarily a bad thing. After all, I'm very pro experimentalism, weirdness, etc., and I like people doing it with a sense of humor or mischievousness, too. I like Xiu Xiu quite a bit overall, even if they'd not be among my top couple hundred artists (I consider myself a fan of well over a thousand artists). And out of all of his trolling, I only think that "Fortune Teller" is garbage. It's really the only thing Stewart has done so far that I don't think has any aesthetic merit at all.

But I think that musical trolling is relatively unusual. Maybe unfortunately so. So who is an example or two (limit yourself to a couple to give other folks an opportunity, too, if you don't mind) of more recent artists that you believe are at least sometimes trolling us?

Neil Young. There's no way he expects to be taken seriously singing like a muppet.

Captain Beefheart and Tom Waits. There's no way they're not doing it just to sucker people into thinking they're good.

I lol when people do.

Kanye West tricked millions of people into thinking that My Beautiful Dark Tepid ****ing Piece of Garbage was a good album, so that's my choice.

Aw man I've been suckered in by Beedheart and Waits with their brilliant music. Shucks.

John Cage may seem like a good example but that man is very serious and passionate about everything he does.

Again, I'm not meaning something negative, not meaning people "tricking" or "suckering" anyone (especially into "thinking that something is good"), and the idea isn't just to rag on someone you don't like. I was hoping for sincere answers, because this can wind up being a list of interesting artists to check out.

Also, Cage was very impish/mischievous with a great sense of humor. (Which I know first-hand, even, from a limited bit of personal interaction with him.) But I don't mean that folks don't have serious points with their work, too.

I guess I don't really understand then. Do you see a difference between having fun with your music or a sense of humour about it and trolling?

Pretty sure I am

Gwar is a good example.

Well, I tried to explain it in my initial post with the examples I gave. There's an element of fncking with people to it, it's something that you know is going to cause a lot of negative reactions, via doing something kind of risky and (literally) experimental and boundary-pushing/paragidm-testing in some way (paradigms of what music is, what art is, etc.), though also done with a sense of mischievousness--kind of a playful, jesterish quality to it, but that's not to imply that there aren't serious motivations too.

Also, it can be relatively subtle, a la the example of Xiu Xiu's Nina. The trollish aspect of that album, aside from the general way that they're handling a Nina Simone tribute album, given Nina Simone's niche, is the way Jaime Stewart is singing relative to how he "normally" sings. That's subtle because it hinges on being able to contextualize it with the rest of Xiu Xiu's vocal-oriented stuff.