Outsider music (from " outsider art ") is music created by self-taught or naïve musicians. The term is usually applied to musicians who have little or no traditional musical experience, who exhibit childlike qualities in their music, or who have intellectual disabilities or mental illnesses . The term was popularized in the 1990s by journalist and WFMU DJ Irwin Chusid .
55-415: Daniel Dale Johnston (January 22, 1961 – c. September 11, 2019) was an American singer, musician and artist regarded as a significant figure in outsider , lo-fi , and alternative music scenes. Most of his work consisted of cassettes recorded alone in his home, and his music was frequently cited for its "pure" and "childlike" qualities. Johnston spent extended periods in psychiatric institutions and
110-540: A flexidisc of The Smiths on the front cover. He instead started his own zine , The Legend! , under which name he recorded the single "73 in 83", the first to be released by McGee's Creation Records . In 1984, he released a second single, "Legend Destroys the Blues", but his performing career did not take off. He puts this down to that he "didn't like to perform a song more than once", although he has continued to make occasional appearances. In 1983, Thackray began working at
165-553: A mural of the Hi, How Are You? frog (also known as "Jeremiah the Innocent") from the album's cover. After the record store closed in 2003, the building remained unoccupied until 2004 when the Mexican grill franchise Baja Fresh took ownership and decided that they would remove the wall that held the mural. A group of people who lived in the neighborhood convinced the managers and contractors to keep
220-468: A Brian Wilson song." (Moore's father, Bob Moore , was a consummate musical insider, having worked as a session musician with the Nashville A-Team .) Related topics Documentary films Everett True Everett True (born Jeremy Andrew Thackray on 21 April 1961) is an English music journalist and musician. He became interested in rock music after hearing The Residents , and formed
275-458: A Multi-Arts Production/ MAP Fund grant to work with Johnston to create a rock opera based on his music, titled Speeding Motorcycle . In 2006, Jeff Feuerzeig released a documentary about Johnston, The Devil and Daniel Johnston ; the film, four years in the making, collated some of the vast amount of recorded material Johnston (and in some case, others) had produced over the years to portray his life and music. The film won high praise, receiving
330-485: A band with school friends. He has written and recorded as The Legend . In 1982, he went to a gig by The Laughing Apple and met the group's lead singer Alan McGee . According to McGee: "there used to be this guy who'd stand at the front of all the gigs and dance disjointedly". They became friends and when McGee started the Communication Blur club, he offered Thackray the role of compėre , stating that Thackray "was
385-482: A book titled Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music , which attempted to introduce and market outsider music as a genre. He summarized the concept thus: ... there are countless "unintentional renegades," performers who lack [an] overt self-consciousness about their art. As far as they're concerned, what they're doing is "normal." And despite paltry incomes and dismal record sales, they're happy to be in
440-643: A collaboration that began in 2008 when Kim first met Johnston and began photographing him on the road and at his home in Waller, Texas . On March 13, 2013, this photography book was published, featuring five years of documentation on Johnston. The opening exhibition at SXSW festival featured a special performance by Johnston along with tribute performances led by Jason Sebastian Russo formerly of Mercury Rev . The second exhibition ran in May and June 2013 in London, England, and featured
495-476: A day after he had been released from the hospital for unspecified kidney problems. Daniel Johnston is buried at Magnolia Cemetery in Katy, Texas . Studio albums Official Other Outsider music Outsider musicians often overlap with lo-fi artists, since their work is rarely captured in professional recording studios . Examples include Daniel Johnston , Wesley Willis , and Jandek , who each became
550-461: A deal had been struck with the Converse company for a "signature series" Daniel Johnston shoe. Later, it was revealed by Dick Johnston that Converse had dropped the plan. In early 2008, a Jeremiah the Innocent collectible figurine was released in limited runs of four different colors. Later in the year, Adjustable Productions released Johnston's first concert DVD, The Angel and Daniel Johnston – Live at
605-567: A deal with Atlantic Records in February 1994 and that September released Fun , produced by Paul Leary of Butthole Surfers . President Danny Goldberg, who championed the signing of Johnston left Atlantic. In June 1996, with Goldberg no longer making A&R decisions, Atlantic dropped Johnston from the label. In 1993, the Sound Exchange record store in Austin, Texas, commissioned Johnston to paint
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#1733084823068660-524: A few acts in the definition that broke through to mainstream fame as novelty acts; Tiny Tim , for example, is included despite a consistent three-decade career in the music industry that included a major chart hit, Joe Meek was one of the United Kingdom's most influential and successful sound engineers of the 1960s, and the Legendary Stardust Cowboy had a brief moment of widespread fame in
715-452: A framework through which outsider recordings are understood ... [They] seeded many ideas and practices, affirming them as desirable in the context of rock mythology." In 1969, Zappa co-founded Bizarre Records , a label dedicated to "musical and sociological material that the important record companies would probably not allow you to hear," and approached the production of Trout Mask Replica like an anthropological field recording . Beefheart
770-617: A group that had been influenced by his music: The Preservation All-Stars in New Orleans, The Districts and Modern Baseball in Philadelphia, Jeff Tweedy in Chicago, with Built to Spill for the final two dates in Vancouver, B.C. and Seattle, WA. On September 11, 2019, Johnston was found dead from a suspected heart attack at his home in Waller, Texas . It is believed that he died overnight,
825-648: A job at McDonald's and passed out tapes in the store. When Johnston moved to Austin, Texas , he began to attract the attention of the local press and gained a following augmented in numbers by his habit of handing out tapes to people he met. Live performances were well-attended and hotly anticipated. His local standing led to him being featured in a 1985 episode of the MTV program The Cutting Edge featuring performers from Austin's " New Sincerity " music scene. In 1988, Johnston visited New York City and recorded 1990 with producer Mark Kramer at his Noise New York studio. It
880-496: A plum support to Kate Nash midway through 2010. For several years, he was the main editor and writer for the Brisbane-based online magazine, Collapse Board. His most recent project is Rejected Unknown, a media/publishing company set up in response to the 33⅓ series of music books; it takes its name from the album by Daniel Johnston . The first book came out in 2016, and is entitled 101 Albums You Should Die Before You Hear ,
935-515: A possum has of skittering safely across a six-lane freeway. ... The outsiders in this book, for the most part, lack self-awareness. They don't boldly break the rules, because they don't know there are rules. As was common with journalists who championed musical primitivism in the 1980s, Chusid considered outsiders more " authentic " than artists whose music is "exploited through conventional music channels" and "revised, remodeled, and re-coifed; touched-up and tweaked; Photoshopped and focus-grouped" by
990-510: A private two-seater plane piloted by his father Bill, Johnston had a manic psychotic episode; believing he was Casper the Friendly Ghost , Johnston removed the key from the plane's ignition and threw it outside. His father, a former U.S. Air Force pilot, managed to successfully crash-land the plane, even though "there was nothing down there but trees". Although the plane was destroyed, Johnston and his father emerged with only minor injuries. As
1045-400: A resident in a mental hospital at the time, there was a bidding war to sign him. He refused to sign a multi-album deal with Elektra Records because Metallica was on the label's roster and he was convinced that they were Satanic and would hurt him, also dropping his longtime manager, Jeff Tartakov, in the process. Ultimately he signed with new manager Tom Gimbel who subsequently negotiated
1100-463: A result of this episode, Johnston was involuntarily committed to a mental hospital. Interest in Johnston increased when Kurt Cobain was frequently photographed wearing a T-shirt featuring the cover image of Johnston's album Hi, How Are You that music journalist Everett True had given to him. Cobain listed Yip/Jump Music as one of his favorite albums in his journal, in 1993. Johnston's profile
1155-433: A short documentary about Johnston's life, was released featuring Johnston as his 2015 self and Gabriel Sunday of Archie's Final Project as Johnston's 1983 self. The executive producers for the film included Lana Del Rey and Mac Miller . In July 2017, Johnston announced that he would be retiring from live performance and would embark on a final five-date tour that fall. Each stop on the tour featured Johnston backed by
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#17330848230681210-511: A single with Calvin Johnson and Tobi Vail 's band The Go Team . In 1991, he introduced Kurt Cobain to Courtney Love at a Butthole Surfers and L7 gig. The three became close friends, and, in 1992, True wheeled Cobain on stage at the Reading Festival . In 2006, True published Nirvana: The True Story , a book about his personal relationship with the band and the grunge scene. In
1265-632: A special performance by Johnston along with tribute performances by the UK band Charlie Boyer and the Voyeurs with Steffan Halperin of the Klaxons . On October 10, 2013, Jason Pierce of Spiritualized hosted the New York City opening of the exhibition, which included special tribute performances led by Pierce and Glen Hansard of The Swell Season and The Frames . In November 2015, Hi, How Are You Daniel Johnston? ,
1320-481: A two-disc compilation. The first disc featured covers of his songs by artists including Tom Waits , Beck , TV on the Radio , Jad Fair , Eels , Bright Eyes , Calvin Johnson , Death Cab for Cutie , Sparklehorse , Mercury Rev , The Flaming Lips and Starlight Mints , with the second disc featuring Johnston's original recordings of the songs. In 2005, Texas-based theater company Infernal Bridegroom Productions received
1375-559: A year as music editor for The Stranger , before heading for Australia, where he freelanced at Melbourne broadsheet, The Age . He also recorded an album under the name The Legend!. Back again in the United Kingdom, he set up the magazine Careless Talk Costs Lives in 2002. Issues of this publication began at No. 12 and counted down, claiming that "we have set out to replace the decaying music press in Britain, so by issue zero we will either have achieved our objectives or given up trying". By
1430-443: Is rarely captured in professional studios. Harper credits the discourse surrounding Daniel Johnston and Jandek with "form[ing] a bridge between 1980s primitivism and the lo-fi indie rock of the 1990s. ... both musicians introduced the notion that lo-fi was not just acceptable but the special context of some extraordinary and brilliant musicians." Critics frequently write about Johnston's "pure and childlike soul" and describe him as
1485-783: Is similar to Frogger , but features Johnston's art and music. Johnston played it during its development and liked it, although he was not familiar with the iPhone. On March 13, 2012, Johnston released his first comic book Space Ducks – An Infinite Comic Book of Musical Greatness at SXSW, published by BOOM! Studios . The comic book ties-in with the Space Ducks album and an iOS app . Johnston collaborated with skateboarding and clothing company Supreme on numerous collections (consisting of clothing and various accessories) showcasing his artwork. On March 1, 2012, Brooklyn -based photographer Jung Kim announced her photo book and traveling exhibition project with Johnston titled DANIEL JOHNSTON: here ,
1540-566: The New Musical Express . In 1988, he was sacked from the paper, and instead took a job at its rival, Melody Maker . He was told to adopt a new pseudonym, as the "Legend!" name was too closely associated with the NME . He chose "Everett True", from the early twentieth century cartoon The Outbursts of Everett True . Within months, he was sent to Seattle to cover the emerging grunge scene. In 1989, as The Legend!, he performed guest vocals on
1595-507: The "Brian Wilson" of lo-fi. R. Stevie Moore , who pioneered lo-fi/DIY music, was affiliated with Irwin Chusid as well as being associated with the "outsider" tag. He recalled "always ha[ving] the dilemma that [Irwin] did not want to present me as an outsider, like a Wesley Willis or a Daniel Johnston, or these people that are touched in the head and have a certain gift. I love outsider music ... but they have no concept as to how to write or arrange
1650-509: The 1960s with several national television appearances. Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys is regarded as the most famous example of an outsider musician. Chusid felt that "it's difficult" to argue for Wilson as an outsider due to his popularity, but acknowledged that his struggles with mental illness and the widely circulated bootlegs of his unreleased 1970s and 1980s demos "certify his outsider status". Chusid credited outsider musicians for
1705-667: The 20th century", and "the fifty most significant indie records". Lester Bangs famously praised the band as better than the Beatles , and Zappa also held the band in high regard, much higher than the Shaggs themselves, who were embarrassed by the record. In the 1990s, interest in outsider music was spurred by books such as Incredibly Strange Music (1994) and compilations devoted to obscure musicians such as B. J. Snowden , Wesley Willis , Lucia Pamela , and Eilert Pilarm . Outsider musicians tend to overlap with " lo-fi " artists since their work
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1760-462: The Director's Award at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival . The film also inspired more interest in Johnston's work, and increased his prestige as a touring artist. In 2006, Johnston's label, Eternal Yip Eye Music, released his first greatest-hits compilation, Welcome to My World . Through the next few years Johnston toured extensively across the world, and continued to attract press attention. His artwork
1815-583: The Shaggs , Harry Partch , Robert Graettinger , Tonetta and Daniel Johnston . Conversely, the book Faking It: The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music (2007) argues that "few of the outsiders praised by their fans can be called innovators; most of them are simply naïve." Skip Spence 's Oar (1969), Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica (produced by Frank Zappa, 1969), and Barrett's The Madcap Laughs (1970), according to music historian John Encarnacao, "were particularly important in helping to define
1870-675: The Union Chapel , featuring a 2007 appearance in Islington , London. Is and Always Was was released on October 6, 2009, on Eternal Yip Eye Music. In 2009, it was announced that Matt Groening had chosen Johnston to perform at the edition of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he curated in May 2010, in Minehead , England. Also that year, Dr. Fun Fun and Smashing Studios developed an iPhone platform game called Hi, How Are You . The game
1925-463: The early 1990s, True lived in Brighton , East Sussex, with members of the band Huggy Bear . Leaving MM in the late 1990s, he became editor of Vox , reverting on this occasion to his real name. It has been claimed that the band theaudience were formed after founder member Billy Reeves bet True £100 that he could form a band and get it signed. In 1998, True returned to Seattle, where he worked for
1980-623: The existence of dub reggae ("invented by an outsider, Lee "Scratch" Perry "), the K Records and Sub Pop record labels, and the "punk/new-wave/no-wave upheaval that undermined prog-rock and airbrush-pop in the mid- to late-1970s [and] hyped itself with the defiant notion that anyone―regardless of technical proficiency or lack thereof―could make music as long as it represented genuine, naturalistic self-expression." Specific acts that "significantly contributed―directly and indirectly―to contemporary popular music" include Syd Barrett , Captain Beefheart ,
2035-523: The game. The family subsequently returned to the United Kingdom. True currently contributes columns to Sweden's Go Magazine, New York City's Bust magazine, the Something Awful website and writes for various Australian online publications including Mess And Noise and The Vine. True also fronts two Brisbane bands: The Deadnotes and The Thin Kids , the latter of which caused some controversy when they picked up
2090-483: The late 1970s on a $ 59 Sanyo monaural boombox , singing and playing piano as well as the chord organ . Following graduation from Oak Glen High School , Johnston spent a few weeks at Abilene Christian University in West Texas before dropping out. He later attended the art program at Kent State University, East Liverpool , during which he recorded Songs of Pain and More Songs of Pain . In 1984, Johnston took
2145-537: The latter, entering into conflict with Australia's music street press. There was also a fair amount of controversy over some unguarded remarks True made on Twitter with regard to the usage of Kurt Cobain's image in Guitar Hero 5 . These led to immediate furious denials from Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic . Later, Courtney Love denied that she had anything to do with the matter, but it was then revealed that Love had worked with Activision on crafting Cobain's look for
2200-504: The mentally ill. The word "outsider" began to be applied to music cultures as early as 1959, with respect to jazz , and to rock as early as 1979. In the 1970s, "outsider music" was also a "favorite epithet" in music criticism in Europe. By the 1980s and 1990s, "outsider" was common in the cultural lexicon and was synonymous with "self-taught", "untrained", and "primitive". Although outsider music has existed since before written history , it
2255-418: The most un-enigmatic, boring, kindest, shyest person you could ever meet – and it just appealed to my sense of humour to make him compère." He was originally billed as "the legendary Jerry Thackray", eventually shortened to simply "The Legend". McGee also offered him a column in his new fanzine , also called Communication Blur , but Thackray left after two issues, because he objected to McGee's proposal to put
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2310-506: The mural intact. In 2018, the building housed a Thai restaurant called "Thai, How Are You". Thai, How Are You closed business permanently in January 2020. In April 2023 the building was razed, but the wall with the mural was left standing. The owner said that there were no current plans for development, but that the wall would be integrated into any future designs. In 2004, Johnston released The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered ,
2365-405: The same line of work as Celine Dion and Andrew Lloyd Webber . ... Their vocals sound melodically adrift; their rhythms stumble. They seem harmonically without anchor. Their instrumental proficiency may come across as laughably incompetent. ... They get little or no commercial radio exposure, their followings are limited, and they have roughly the same likelihood of attaining mainstream success that
2420-455: The subjects of documentary films in the 2000s. The term "outsider music" is traced to the definitions of " outsider art " and " naïve art ". "Outsider art" is rooted in the 1920s French concept of "L'Art Brut" ("raw art"). In 1972, academic Roger Cardinal introduced "outsider art" as the American counterpart of "L'Art Brut", which originally referred to work created exclusively by children or
2475-602: The term "incorrect music" for music that is intentionally recorded to draw bad reactions, from non-musician celebrity entertainers attempting to cross over into music , or from artists who are talented and self-aware enough not to produce such music but do so anyway. Works are usually sourced from home recordings or independent recording studios "with no quality control". In Songs in the Key of Z , Chusid explicitly avoided discussing "unpopular", "uncommercial", or "underground" artists, and disqualified "just about anyone who could keep an orchestra or band together." He did include
2530-508: The time it reaches the listener, to the point that it is "Music by Committee". On the other hand, outsider artists have much "greater individual control over the final creative contour", either because of a low budget or because of their "inability or unwillingness to cooperate with or trust anyone but themselves." Outsider music does not generally include avant-garde music , world music , songs recorded solely for their novelty value , or anything self-consciously camp or kitsch ; Chusid uses
2585-539: The twelfth issue (#1), it was clear that it would not achieve its ambitions, and True instead founded Plan B . Between 2004 and 2009, True has also written books, including ones on the Ramones , The White Stripes , as well as an account of his time with Nirvana. In 2008, he relocated with his family to Brisbane in Australia. Up until the start of 2009, he wrote a weekly column for VillageVoice.com, and The Guardian – with
2640-525: The world. His struggles with mental illness were the subject of the 2005 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston . He died in 2019 of a suspected heart attack . Johnston was born in Sacramento, California , and grew up in New Cumberland, West Virginia . He was the youngest of five children of William Dale "Bill" Johnston (1922–2017) and Mabel Ruth Voyles Johnston (1923–2010). He began recording music in
2695-628: The writing prefigures similar commentary on "the also mentally ill Daniel Johnston." After a 1980 reissue on NRBQ 's Red Rooster Records (distributed by Rounder Records), The Shaggs attracted notoriety for their 1969 album Philosophy of the World , which received prominent national coverage. It was referred to as "the worst rock album ever made" by the New York Times and later championed in published lists such as "the 100 most influential alternative albums of all time", "the greatest garage recordings of
2750-467: Was Johnston's first experience in a professional recording environment after a decade of releasing home-made cassette recordings. His mental health further deteriorated during the making of 1990 . In 1989, he released the album It's Spooky in collaboration with singer Jad Fair of the band Half Japanese . In 1990, Johnston played at a music festival in Austin, Texas . On the way back to West Virginia on
2805-532: Was diagnosed with bipolar disorder . He garnered a local following in the 1980s by passing out tapes of his music while working at a McDonald's in Dobie Center in Austin, Texas . His cult status was propelled when Nirvana 's Kurt Cobain was seen wearing a T-shirt that featured the artpiece "Jeremiah the Innocent" from Johnston's 1983 cassette album Hi, How Are You . Johnston also created visual art, and his illustrations were exhibited at galleries around
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#17330848230682860-420: Was further raised by Kathy McCarty 's 1994 album Dead Dog's Eyeball: Songs of Daniel Johnston . It contained 19 renditions of songs written by Johnston. McCarty became aware of Johnston when he opened for her former band, Glass Eye, in 1985. McCarty supported the album with a North American tour, and also issued an EP of additional Johnston material, Sorry Entertainer in 1995. Despite Johnston's having been
2915-564: Was not on the Bizarre label, but Larry "Wild Man" Fischer was. Fischer was a street performer discovered by Zappa and is sometimes regarded as "the grandfather of outsider music". In the liner notes of the 1968 album An Evening with Wild Man Fischer , Zappa writes: "Please listen to this album several times before you decide whether or not you like it or what Wild Man Fischer is all about. He has something to say to you, even though you might not want to hear it." According to musicologist Adam Harper,
2970-516: Was not until the advent of sound reproduction and music exchange networks that such a genre was recognized. Music journalist Irwin Chusid is credited with adapting "outsider art" for music in a 1996 article for the Tower Records publication Pulse! . As a DJ on the New Jersey radio station WFMU in the 1980s, he had been an influential figure in independent music scenes. In 2000, he authored
3025-498: Was shown in galleries such as in London's Aquarium Gallery , New York's Clementine Gallery and at the Liverpool Biennial in 2006 and 2008, and in 2009, his work was exhibited at "The Museum of Love" at Verge Gallery in Sacramento, California . In 2008, Dick Johnston, Johnston's brother and manager, revealed that "a movie deal based on the artist's life and music had been finalized with a tentative 2011 release." He also said that
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