Looking for SF short story: rockstar with a neural link to audience
May 20, 2019 7:52 PM Subscribe
I've been trying to find a short story that I would have read in a library book during the 80s. The premise was that rock concerts in the future would involve a neural link between the performer on the stage, and every single member of the audience. The audience would get to feel what it would be like on stage performing for a concert hall of adoring fans, but the link is two-way, and the performer ends up feeling the rush of emotion and excitement of everyone in the audience, all at once.
There were supposed to be filters in place to keep the stage performer from being overloaded with sensation, but those filters also kept the audience from getting the full experience of the performer. The story builds up to one performer's decision to cut the filter and give the audience 100% of themselves. The title of the story might have been "All of Me", but I haven't had any success searching for that as a title.
I'm reasonably sure that this short story would have been collected in one of the hardcover"Best of" anthologies put on an annual basis out by one of the SF Short Story periodicals like Analog or the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, which is the book I would have checked out from the public library in the late 80s. The cyberpunkish themes should also narrow down the timeframe, but this was before I was aware of cyberpunk as a distinct literary category, so it could have been part of the New Wave SF movement instead.
There were supposed to be filters in place to keep the stage performer from being overloaded with sensation, but those filters also kept the audience from getting the full experience of the performer. The story builds up to one performer's decision to cut the filter and give the audience 100% of themselves. The title of the story might have been "All of Me", but I haven't had any success searching for that as a title.
I'm reasonably sure that this short story would have been collected in one of the hardcover"Best of" anthologies put on an annual basis out by one of the SF Short Story periodicals like Analog or the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, which is the book I would have checked out from the public library in the late 80s. The cyberpunkish themes should also narrow down the timeframe, but this was before I was aware of cyberpunk as a distinct literary category, so it could have been part of the New Wave SF movement instead.
Best answer: I think it's "Rock On" by Pat Cadigan.
posted by lefty lucky cat at 9:39 PM on May 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by lefty lucky cat at 9:39 PM on May 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Seconding Pat Cadigan. Possibly an out-take of Synners, which has a similar scene.
posted by unknown knowns at 10:43 PM on May 20, 2019
posted by unknown knowns at 10:43 PM on May 20, 2019
Your description sounds very familiar to me, but I don't have a guess at a name or author. (However, the descriptions of Rock On don't ring a bell like your description does.)
It's unlikely, though, I would have read it during those years in Analog, F&SF, or another magazine. Those were hard to find in my small town, though it's not completely impossible. If the above suggestion isn't correct and you need to hunt for it, you might try Writers of the Future or Year's Best anthologies... I *did* read a lot of those, especially Writers of the Future. Or if there are any other short story anthologies that would have been published during those years and likely to be sold in the book sections of grocery stores...
posted by stormyteal at 10:52 PM on May 20, 2019
It's unlikely, though, I would have read it during those years in Analog, F&SF, or another magazine. Those were hard to find in my small town, though it's not completely impossible. If the above suggestion isn't correct and you need to hunt for it, you might try Writers of the Future or Year's Best anthologies... I *did* read a lot of those, especially Writers of the Future. Or if there are any other short story anthologies that would have been published during those years and likely to be sold in the book sections of grocery stores...
posted by stormyteal at 10:52 PM on May 20, 2019
The time frame is totally off but Dangerous Space by Kelley Eskridge is very similar; it's in her collection of the same name.
posted by Gin and Broadband at 5:40 AM on May 21, 2019
posted by Gin and Broadband at 5:40 AM on May 21, 2019
It's not exactly, but kinda similar to 'Little Heroes' by Norman Spinrad.
"Rockstar" cyberpunk is a fun sub-genre.
posted by ovvl at 5:47 AM on May 21, 2019
"Rockstar" cyberpunk is a fun sub-genre.
posted by ovvl at 5:47 AM on May 21, 2019
This sounds really familiar to me too, but the story I'm thinking of is definitely Dangerous Space mentioned above.
posted by The AhForgetIt Tendency at 6:19 AM on May 21, 2019
posted by The AhForgetIt Tendency at 6:19 AM on May 21, 2019
Sounds kind of like the Who’s Lifehouse project. Unfortunately Pete Townshend had trouble explaining what it was and how it would work, and had a nervous breakdown, and eventually a lot of it became Who’s Next.
One of the songs from Lifehouse was “Join Together”.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 6:48 AM on May 21, 2019
One of the songs from Lifehouse was “Join Together”.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 6:48 AM on May 21, 2019
Very recent but Nexus by Ramez Naam has a chapter where people at a rave feel what everyone is feeling when they all take a nanodrug.
posted by nikaspark at 7:48 AM on May 21, 2019
posted by nikaspark at 7:48 AM on May 21, 2019
Response by poster: I finally got ahold of an anthology with Cardigan's "Rock Star" in it. I can see how it fits some of the details I gave above, but alas, it is not the one I've been looking for. I will still try and look into some of the other answers given here. Other things I remember is that I'm nearly positive it was first person, and I believe the story implied the performer died at the end by being overloaded by all the positive emotions of the audience.
posted by radwolf76 at 6:01 AM on July 26, 2019
posted by radwolf76 at 6:01 AM on July 26, 2019
Best answer: And by "Rock Star", of course I actually mean Pat Cardigan's "Rock On" (mentioned above several times), which coincidentally happens to be the title of the anthology which I had gotten to be able to read the suggested story. And while, like I said, it wasn't what I had been remembering, as I was going through the anthology, I found that it did have the story I was looking for.
It was the 1978 Nebula Award Winner for Best Short Story: "Stone", by Edward Bryant, originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February 1978 (Vol. 54, No. 2). The book I would have read in the 80s at my local library was The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction, 23rd Series published in May of 1980. The story's a bit more explicit than I had remembered.
But as the Pat Cardigan suggestions are what got me there, I've marked them as best answer.
posted by radwolf76 at 4:25 PM on July 27, 2019
It was the 1978 Nebula Award Winner for Best Short Story: "Stone", by Edward Bryant, originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February 1978 (Vol. 54, No. 2). The book I would have read in the 80s at my local library was The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction, 23rd Series published in May of 1980. The story's a bit more explicit than I had remembered.
But as the Pat Cardigan suggestions are what got me there, I've marked them as best answer.
posted by radwolf76 at 4:25 PM on July 27, 2019
« Older Help me find a specific book about Russian history... | What to expect from a real estate agent? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
Is it a Pat Cadigan story? Haven’t read all her stuff but seems likely.
posted by q*ben at 8:01 PM on May 20, 2019