The Good Musician

Musician Confusion - Artist, Composers and Interpreters Explained

by Arjun Muralidharan on July 23rd, 2007

Reader Shankar recently chimed me via IM to ask about the difference between artist, composers and interprets. While I thought the distinction to be rather straightforward, it actually can be quite confusing and isn’t always second nature. So here’s a round-up of these terms, and why they mean different things in the music world.

In 1989, Milli Vanilli played a concert in Bristol, Connecticut during which the track of “Girl You Know It’s True” began to skip and repeat the “Girl you know it’s…”-part, thus revealing that Milli Vanilli were not singing live.

The scandal led to grounding of the group and a miserable attempt by the real singers to ride on the established fame of Milli Vanilli.

This story nicely illustrates how the modern music business has warped the terms of artist and composer. Fabrice Morvan and Rob Pilatus were neither, they were but the two guys who raked in the money for songs someone else composed and someone else had sung.

So what’s the exact definition, already?

• The Artist: The person who performs on stage. In modern music, artists are credited with having created the music as well, but in most (super-successful commercial) cases, this isn’t true.
• The Composer: Someone who creates and writes down music for reproduction.




• The Interpreter: He/She takes previously written music and plays it. He is therefore, also an artist. But he usually plays music that other people have performed as well, in his own, unique way. Britney Spears songs are only performed live by Britney herself. Beethoven Sonatas are interpreted a thousand times over by many pianists.

Defining your role as a creator, recreator or just a flagshipman for music is important in realising your areas of responsiblity. Most of us want to be great artists, but if you’re especially talented at creating music but miserable on stage, then you’re more of a composer.

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