"We started combining the use of light and the use of theatrics and the use of as many art forms as possible, and it's still growing - that's the whole idea of it"
About this Quote
The subtext is defensive and ambitious at once. Cooper came up in an era when “serious” music culture prized authenticity as minimalism: stand there, play, mean it. His answer was to weaponize artifice. The guillotines, the makeup, the lighting cues aren’t distractions from the music; they’re a way to make the music unavoidable, to turn sound into an event you can’t replicate on a record. That’s why the phrasing “combining” matters: it’s collage logic, the same cultural impulse that built music videos, arena tours, and eventually today’s pop megashows.
Contextually, this lands as a statement about escalation. “It’s still growing” acknowledges that spectacle has an arms race baked in: audiences acclimate, tech advances, and what once scandalized becomes standard production grammar. Cooper’s “whole idea” is less about shock for shock’s sake than about evolution - rock as a multimedia machine that survives by mutating, staying one step ahead of boredom.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Cooper, Alice. (2026, January 17). We started combining the use of light and the use of theatrics and the use of as many art forms as possible, and it's still growing - that's the whole idea of it. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-started-combining-the-use-of-light-and-the-use-37772/
Chicago Style
Cooper, Alice. "We started combining the use of light and the use of theatrics and the use of as many art forms as possible, and it's still growing - that's the whole idea of it." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-started-combining-the-use-of-light-and-the-use-37772/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"We started combining the use of light and the use of theatrics and the use of as many art forms as possible, and it's still growing - that's the whole idea of it." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-started-combining-the-use-of-light-and-the-use-37772/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2026.







