Robot or Spaceman Alter Ego
Since Kraftwerk began presenting themselves as robots circa 1978, a number of electronic bands have adopted robot or spaceman alter egos.
Compare Kayfabe Music, the Super Trope.
Examples of artists with robot or spaceman alter egos:
- Daft Punk: Since 2001, although they claim they were transformed into robots in a Freak Lab Accident on 9/9/1999.
- Kraftwerk: Duh. Especially since they use synthetic vocals extensively, any vocals performed by a person try to sound like they're synthetic, and many of their live shows actually do involve robots controlled through midi software to play backup; the four robots have molded replicas of the real men's heads.
- Rockets.
- Moog Cookbook: These guys even had names for their alter egos: "Uli Nomi" for Brian Kehew and "Meco Eno" for Roger Manning Jr.
- Mr. Pacman: Defunct-ish video game rocker(s) from Denver.
- Ace Frehley from Kiss originated the Spaceman.
- Not an electronic band, but Jason Pierce of Spiritualized goes by his nickname of "J. Spaceman" quite frequently.
- Janelle Monae's alter ego is Cindi Mayweather, the android protagonist of her four-part Metropolis concept album.