"The most important thing is that it's much more fun to play in a band than to be in an audience in a club. That's the main thing I think, that you can do it"
About this Quote
Ikue Mori is smuggling a DIY manifesto into what sounds like a casual preference. She’s not arguing that bands are cooler than crowds; she’s reframing music as a participatory technology. “Much more fun” is the sugar, but the payload is permission: the “main thing” isn’t mastery, taste, or pedigree. It’s that you can do it.
That last clause matters because it punctures the club’s usual hierarchy. The audience is trained to consume: pay cover, watch, judge, leave. Mori flips the power dynamic by treating the stage not as a pedestal but as an accessible platform. Coming out of New York’s late-70s/early-80s downtown ecosystem - a scene that prized noise, experiment, and cheap gear over conservatory chops - her insistence reads like a quiet attack on intimidation as a cultural gatekeeper. If you’ve ever felt that live music is something happening “to” you rather than “with” you, she’s diagnosing the problem.
There’s also an emotional pragmatism here. Mori doesn’t romanticize authenticity or “art.” She sells the bodily, social fact: playing is fun, and that fun is political. It builds community, makes failure survivable, turns spectators into collaborators. The subtext is anti-genius, anti-passivity: the real divide isn’t talent versus no talent, it’s participation versus consumption. In an era where music is increasingly mediated by screens and algorithms, her line lands as a reminder that the most radical instrument might be the decision to join in.
That last clause matters because it punctures the club’s usual hierarchy. The audience is trained to consume: pay cover, watch, judge, leave. Mori flips the power dynamic by treating the stage not as a pedestal but as an accessible platform. Coming out of New York’s late-70s/early-80s downtown ecosystem - a scene that prized noise, experiment, and cheap gear over conservatory chops - her insistence reads like a quiet attack on intimidation as a cultural gatekeeper. If you’ve ever felt that live music is something happening “to” you rather than “with” you, she’s diagnosing the problem.
There’s also an emotional pragmatism here. Mori doesn’t romanticize authenticity or “art.” She sells the bodily, social fact: playing is fun, and that fun is political. It builds community, makes failure survivable, turns spectators into collaborators. The subtext is anti-genius, anti-passivity: the real divide isn’t talent versus no talent, it’s participation versus consumption. In an era where music is increasingly mediated by screens and algorithms, her line lands as a reminder that the most radical instrument might be the decision to join in.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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