History Main / KayfabeMusic

* IndustrialMetal artist Music/{{Mortiis}}, for a long time, was never seen without his troll mask on, with it's pointed nose and big ears. In 2005 for his album ''The Grudge'' his mask took on a more artificial appearance, looking like it had been stitched and stapled to his face. After that, however, he finally removed the mask.

* ''Music/{{ManowWar}}'' consists of really manly men, fantasy heroes who are always ready to kill anyone. With STEEL, of course.

* ''Music/{{Manowar}}'' consists of really manly men, fantasy heroes who are always ready to kill anyone. With STEEL, of course.

* The band ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k9UveuX1Po Rolandz]]'' has developed a quite solid discography and even been on tour. It's singer, Roland, is a character from a comedy movie. The real singer is the same actor who played Roland in that movie.

* In a 2012 interview with OprahWinfrey, Music/FiftyCent says that his onstage "thug" persona is this. His real self, Curtis Jackson, is a family man.

* ''{{Music/Manowar}}'' consists of really manly men, fantasy heroes who are always ready to kill anyone. With STEEL, of course.
* ''{{Lordi}}'' are [[PeopleInRubberSuits monsters]]... who have sued to bury images of them out of costume.

* {{Music/Kraftwerk}} are robots, who became less human as time progressed. They even give interviews as their mechanical robot selves.

* IndustrialMetal artist {{Music/Mortiis}}, for a long time, was never seen without his troll mask on, with it's pointed nose and big ears. In 2005 for his album ''The Grudge'' his mask took on a more artificial appearance, looking like it had been stitched and stapled to his face. After that, however, he finally removed the mask.

* At the live {{Vocaloid}} concerts, the band is real enough, but the lead "singer" is a projected image (and not really a singer at all).

* {{Buckethead}} is the persona of Brian Patrick Carroll, who is so socially awkward that he invented the character to hide his face and distance himself from his audience. People who know him, however, say that his behavior "in character" is basically just him being himself.

* Singer EmilieAutumn seems to always be in character as Emily-with-a-Y from her book to some extent.

* {{GWAR}} has a long backstory about them being aliens banished to Earth, and like Lordi are never seen out of costume.

* Music/{{Gorillaz}}, are a BandToon in the real world, which means that their members are a group of four cartoon characters.

[[AC:ComicBooks]]
* In ''{{Pondus}}'', Pondus believes that a certain rock band truly lives the creed of "Drugs, Sex & Rock'n'Roll". In one strip, the band is shown working out and eating healthy food. Suddenly their manager come in and yell at them that the journalists will be there any minute. And thus, they quickly trash themselves down to look as if they have been partying and boozing up all night. Then the scene switches to Pondus and his wife watching the television. A journalist is (or probably rather is pretending to be) surprised that the band members manage to stay healthy with this lifestyle. The singer explains this with "It's rock'n'roll", baby. It becomes a lifestyle." and Pondus tries to get his wife to accept this message as gospel.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* In ''Film/TropicThunder'', Alpa Chino is a rapper [[spoiler: who is overly heterosexual in his music and videos, but is secretly gay.]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* Lead-singer Jem from WesternAnimation/JemAndTheHolograms (is a holographic projection protecting the identity of Jerrica, the company owner).

* The County Medical Examiners are two {{Carcass}}-loving physicians joined by a much older, avant-garde physician who play DeathMetal based on what they see in their field. After years of mystery, it was implied in 2012 that the whole band was simply a side-project of musician Matt Widener (ex-Exhumed/Cretin).

* Servotron performed as a band of robots, whose music was meant to promote [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters robotic uprisings against humans]], as well as to encourage humans to become {cyborg}}s.

Compare "{{Kayfabe}}" from ProfessionalWrestling. One subtrope is RobotOrSpacemanAlterEgo. Contrast AnonymousBand, where the mucicians simply hide their identities, and FakeBand, where the band itself is fictional.

* Music/{{Devo}} has gone through a few permutations of this; it's essentially them, except with sci-fi bases, an idiot manager that doesn't understand them, a giant baby (Booji), and their...uh...leader, General Boy. They always did claim to be a corporation, which got a lot funnier in the mid-90's when they reformed as a soundtrack company.
** And then there's bass player Jerry Casale's side-album as Jihad Jerry, essentially Stephen Colbert as a Muslim blues musician.
* Music/TheResidents are never seen in public without their trademark eyeball masks.

* {{Buckethead}} is in fact the guitarist from...Guns 'n' Roses, I think. On stage, however, he is a frightening man with a KFC bucket on his head and a thoroughly disturbing oeuvre.

* {{Music/Kraftwerk}} are robots, who became less human as time progressed.

* Faxed Head supposedly met as teenagers in Coalinga, California, had a BungledSuicide pact that left them [[BodyHorror deformed in various bizarre ways]], then decided to form a death metal band together. Thus they'd typically perform wearing strange masks and costumes. In reality, their lineup included Music/MrBungle guitarist Trey Spruance and [[NeilHamburger Gregg Turkington]]. They would also sometimes open for themselves as their supposed "rival" group The Bon Larvis Band, removing the masks, dressing more like a typical bar band, and playing an OverlyLongGag-laden parody of blues-rock.