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"Have you ever seen a violinist really rock out??"
—YouTube tagline

Lindsey Stirling (born September 21, 1986) is an American violinist, musician, dancer, performance artist, and composer, usually described as a "dancing electronic violinist". Her music is mostly Instrumental Hip Hop combined with classical-style violin. She has also arranged film and videogame themes and incorporated dubstep in some pieces, e.g. her most popular track "Crystallize".

Shortly after her performance on the fifth season of America's Got Talent in 2010, cinematographer Devin Grahamnote  contacted her via Facebook in hopes of making a YouTube video together. A few months later, Stirling replied to him and they scheduled to shoot a music video for her new song, "Spontaneous Me". It was filmed the week of May 9, 2011 while Graham was on a nearby business trip. The video gave a major boost to Stirling's popularity and she began making music videos for her YouTube channel regularly.

Her main YouTube channel can be found here, and her vlog/behind the scenes channel, Lindsey Time, can be found here. She also has her own website.

She frequently collaborates with other artists, including The Piano Guys, Halestorm, and Pentatonix, and has a longstanding friendship with Imagine Dragons.

Her autobiography The Only Pirate At The Party, which she co-wrote with her sister Brooke S. Passey, was released on January 12, 2016.


Discography:

  • Lindsey Stomp EP (2008)
  • Lindsey Stirling (2012)
  • Shatter Me (2014)
  • Brave Enough (2016)
  • Warmer In The Winter (2017)
  • Artemis (2019)
  • Snow Waltz (2022)


Tropes found in her music and videos:

  • Abandoned Warehouse:
    • "Spontaneous Me", along with a couple of other pieces, includes her dancing in empty parking lots or on abandoned and run-down buildings.
    • Her video "Celtic Carol" uses a warehouse as Santa's workshop, which Lindsey spends the video decorating for Christmas.
    • The "Song of the Caged Bird" video is set in a warehouse filled with candles, lightbulbs, and a violin.
  • Action Girl:
    • The video covering the The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim theme portrays her as a "Master Bard", wielding her violin as a magical weapon against a bandit chief played by co-artist Peter Hollens.
    • The video covering the Dragon Age: Inquisition theme portrays her as the protagonist of the game, wielding the iconic green fire against a dragon.
    • The video covering the Mission: Impossible theme portrays her as a spy/catburglar.
    • The video covering the Assassin's Creed III theme portrays her in Connor's Assassin outfit, stalking and (offscreen) killing two British soldiers.
    • The music video for "Heist" portrays her as a video game protagonist, defeating waves of villains using her martial arts before getting a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from the boss. After she gets a bonus life thanks to the game's player, she discovers a violin powerup and mops him up handily.
    • The music video for "Roundtable Rival" portrays her as the guardian of a stereotypical Western town, using her musical prowess to defeat a notorious bandit.
    • "Til The Light Goes Out" has her and her Amazon Brigade face off against a barbarian army led by an Evil Sorceress.
  • Adaptational Attractiveness: In "Star Wars Medley" Lindsey is dressed as Leia, with the iconic long white dress and hair coils. However, her dress is fitted and she wears heels, unlike the original.
  • Adrenaline Time: The video for "Shatter Me" portrays a slowly spinning porcelain ballerina in alternating slow and rapid motion, symbolizing her frozen outer existence as it intercuts with her inner exploration of her confined world.
  • Affectionate Parody:
    • In the behind-the-scenes for her Assassin's Creed III medley, one of Stirling's crew dances about whilst holding two sticks to imitate bowing a violin, in a parody of her own moves. Everyone ends up laughing, though Stirling also pretends to be indignant and say she doesn't look like that.
    • Her collaboration with The Piano Guys, Mission Impossible, is an affectionate parody of the Mission: Impossible movies, notably the Cable Drop as well as Latex Perfection.
    • The Piano Guys' recent video "CelLOOPa" has cellist Steven Sharp Nelson practicing various cello moves in a futuristic simulator. One of the moves the computer throws at him is the "Lindsey Stirling Challenge", consisting of "Tasty Violin Riff", "Lost Look" and "Back Bend".
  • After the End: The setting for her and Pentatonix's cover of "Radioactive". The video is filmed around some old graffitied buildings and junk in the middle of a desert, and the desolate feeling is enhanced by the heightened contrast in the video.
  • Agony of the Feet: Although it can't be seen in the finished video, the behind-the-scenes for "Elements" shows it was rather painful to make — she wore thin sandals in a forest full of prickly plants, and had to dance and spin barefoot on a salt flat. The salt flat was really nasty in this respect, because she says "my feet were all cut up" after dancing on the jagged caked bits of salt and had much cause to protect her feet rather than suffering for the art in later videos.
  • Alice Allusion: Hold My Heart (featuring ZZ Ward) has this theme, with Alex falling down the rabbit hole and chasing after the rabbit (Lindsey) who is going for a tea party, while ZZ Ward plays the Red Queen as she sings.
  • All Just a Dream: The zombies in "Moon Trance". Lindsey's friends are surprised to see her fall over when they vanish, and don't appear to have noticed anything odd.
  • Anachronism Stew: “Roundtable Rival” is set in the Wild West but everyone plays modern electric instruments, there’s a wagon with a stack of modern amps and the costumes have some steampunk details like goggles.
  • The Apunkalypse: The music video for "The Arena" takes place in a rare semi-peaceful, bandit-free version.
  • Ascended Fangirl: A big fan of Evanescence, she collaborated with them in the summer of 2018.
  • Barrier Warrior: How the protagonist's powers first manifest in "The Upside" video - she shields herself and her companion from the bad guys.
  • Behind a Stick: In her Pokémon cover, she and Kurt Schneider (also in costume) search for a giant yellow Pikachu. Pikachu hides behind a tiny, thin plant, but is apparently completely invisible.
  • Be Yourself:
    • The main theme of "Transcendence" is about being who you are and the happiness and freedom that comes with that, rather than trying to fit ideas other people project onto you or how culture says you should be.
    • "Shatter Me" is a direct metaphor for Stirling's struggle with anorexia and her realization that she had to accept who she was inside in order to "break free" from the face she put on for the world.
  • BFG: Lindsey in the "Halo Medley -- Firefight" video, using a dismounted chaingun just like the SPARTANs. Except she's doing it without the benefit of Powered Armor.
  • Bittersweet Ending: "Song of the Caged Bird". Lindsey's still trapped in the building with no signs of rescue on the way, but at least she has a violin.
  • Book Ends: The Phantom of the Opera video begins and ends with aged footage of Lindsey entering and leaving the theatre place.
  • Bowdlerise: Due in part to Lindsey's devout Mormon upbringing, her cover of Thrift Shop with Tyler Ward is cleaned up considerably.
  • Buffy Speak: When explaining the process of making her music, she describes how she will just do away with dictionary words altogether when trying to express what she wants to do. This is followed with a rather amusing demonstration.
  • The Cameo:
  • Cheerful Child: "We Found Love" was made in Kenya and includes a number of local people. Some are children who she holds briefly or plays with. She also performs in their classroom, and they clap along happily. Later, she describes what an honor it was to be with them.
  • Christmas Elves: "Celtic Carol" shows her as one of Santa's elves trapped in a workshop. She entertains herself through decorating the area and non-malevolent mischievousness.
  • Christmas Songs: She has produced some memorable arrangements of traditional carols. Her best known example would be "Celtic Carol", a medley of several familiar carols in an Irish jig tempo.
    • "Warmer In The Winter" is a album dedicated to Christmas Songs with a mix of original songs and her renditions of classic Christamas songs.
  • Clark Kenting: "Phelba, Lindsey's biggest fan," aka Lindsey with really dorky glasses and messed up hair.
  • Clock Punk: The "Shatter Me" music video shows Lzzy Hale as a steampunk mechanic inside a gear-filled chamber; this is a metaphor for the mechanism that is running Lindsey-as-porcelain-dancer.
  • Color-Coded Elements: The music video for "Elements" uses this a lot, with water, earth, fire, and air having different dominant colors. For fire and water, she also uses face paint/makeup in blue or red.
  • Comical Angry Face: The behind-the-scenes for her "Radioactive" cover features a "super frown count" of Sher and several members of Pentatonix doing their comical angry faces for various reasons. Final tally? Four.
  • Concept Album: Artemis, which has a proper Story Arc, comprising of "Underground", "Artemis", "The Upside", "Between Twilight", "Til the Light Goes Out" and "Lose You Now". The main character, Artemis, discovers herself and changes, and stands up to Nyx, who opposes change.
  • Concept Video: Apart from the Artemis stories, which are sort of like episodes of a fantasy series, there are one-shot fantasy stories, like "Love's Just a Feeling", "Heist", "Roundtable Rival" or "Take Flight".
  • Cosplay: In her various cover videos of video game, opera, and film songs, she dresses as characters from those works. These include The Legend of Zelda, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Phantom of the Opera, The Lord of the Rings, Assassin's Creed III, Pokémon, and Star Wars.
  • Costume Porn: Lindsey is prone to wearing flashy or intricate outfits when she performs.
  • Cover Version: As well as working with other musicians, she has covered arrangements of themes from several films and videogames. Stirling has also stated that she enjoys adding a violin part to popular radio songs.
  • Creepy Cemetery: "Moon Trance" features a misty and dark cemetery, and she's creeped out even before the zombies come.
  • Dark Is Evil: Nyx, the villain in "Artemis" series, is the goddess of the night and dressed accordingly. Her minions tend to have Casting a Shadow powers.
  • The Dead Can Dance: The aforementioned "Moon Trance" features a circle of dancing zombies. They then set up a band, and she joins on her violin.
  • Deliberately Monochrome:
    • This is used at the beginning and end of the Phantom of the Opera piece along with artificial aging to make it look like the film is old. Color is introduced when the texture and tempo pick up as the band appears.
    • The entirety of "Shadows" is done this way, since it is about the shadow and color isn't needed. It adds to the surrealism of that video.
    • The opening of "Masquerade" is done in the style of a black-and-white silent film, with actors being silent and having their dialogue appear in text on screen afterwards. Brief parts of the music video also jump between full-color and black-and-white.
  • Double Vision: Several videos, e.g. "On the Floor Take Three", feature multiple versions of herself dancing or playing the violin, usually using split screens over several takes so it appears she has clones even if they're dressed differently.
  • Dressed to Plunder: She sports a fancy pirate jacket and tri-corner hat in "Master of Tides"
    • She wears a different pirate outfit on the cover of her autobiography, The Only Pirate At The Party.
  • Dubstep: Some of her pieces are self-described dubstep violin, with synthesizers used for some rhythm/base instruments and sounds.
  • Dutch Angle: A variety of angles and dynamic shots are used in her videos, including this one. It's especially noticeable in "Spontaneous Me", where the camera ends up rotating nearly upside down while going into this shot.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: On Tay Zonday's song "Mama Economy".
  • Electronic Music: She has at least two electric violins — one is bright purple and shows up in the Phantom of the Opera piece — and many more electric instruments feature in her songs. A video about making her music shows the layering process using computer programs and a keyboard set with weird sounds.
  • Epiphanic Prison: The video of "Shatter Me" combines this with Body Horror for Lindsey's character, whose face becomes shattered to match the globe enclosing her as she attempts to break free.
  • Exposed to the Elements: When cosplaying Misty in her Pokémon video, she and Kurt end up in a city covered with snow and the river frozen over, yet they are still only wearing T-shirts and shorts. The cold does not appear to affect them at all.
  • Facial Dialogue: Can reach narm levels in themed videos like Pokemon.
  • Faint in Shock: One of her dancers in "Snow Waltz" is prone to fainting when sufficiently startled, whereas everyone else is able to keep their footing.
  • Fairytale Wedding Dress: One shows up in her remix of The Phantom of the Opera, when she stands on the stage of an empty theater.
  • Fake-Out Fade-Out: "Roundtable Rival" fades to silence just before the final chorus. In the video, the fade-out begins at the heroine's Darkest Hour and ends with her Heroic Second Wind.
  • Fantastic Light Source: The "Song of the Caged Bird" video features many lightbulbs and candles packed into old crates. After Lindsey finds a violin and begins playing, they slowly come on until the tiny room is full of light. At the end, her violin glows too.
  • Fashionable Asymmetry: In the form of odd socks.
  • Faux Horrific: In "Snow Waltz", Lindsey and her girls approach a present in trepidation, and when Lindsey opens it to find a Precious Puppy, they all scream (one even faints) and run away. To be fair, the girls in the video are Halloween-themed skeletons, so their fear of dog is understandable.
  • Friend to All Children: Most overtly displayed in her "We Found Love" cover.
  • Gale-Force Sound: The guitarist's amplifiers in the "Roundtable Rival" video.
  • Genki Girl: She has a very energetic performance style, involving lots of quick motion and dance on her part and exaggerated body movements, often with a big happy grin on her face while doing so.
  • Genre Mashup: Puts violins in songs of different genres. She takes it up to eleven with her cover of "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons, incorporating her dubstep backing tracks and A Cappella group Pentatonix.
  • Goggles Do Nothing: Subverted in the "Roundtable Rival" music video where she uses her steampunk-themed goggles to actually protect her eyes from flying sand and debris.
  • Gorgeous Garment Generation: This happens in the music video for the orchestral version of "Transcendence": when Lindsey picks up an old and dusty violin to start playing, her dull raggedy clothes transform into a blue and gold outfit during her first twirl.
  • Grave Robbing: In "Moon Trance", Lindsey scrabbles at a grave and steals a violin from it to defend herself.
  • Group Hug: When Pikachu comes back at the end of the Pokémon video, sending Team Rocket up in lightning, they all have a celebratory hug.
  • Happy Dance: Lindsey sings about how "We're in Europe! We're here in Europe right now, gonna be awesome, so excited!" whilst doing some kind of dance across the screen and back again.
  • Happy Rain: The water part of "Elements". To make the rain show up on camera, the rain is actually two people with hoses and sprinkler nozzels, backlit to highlight the drops. It's also more reliable than real weather.
  • Hoist by Their Own Petard: Durango Black and his goons in the Roundtable Rival video are defeated by their own giant speakers being turned against them. Shouldn't have thrown away that remote, boys!
  • Hypocritical Humor: In this promotional video, she admits to being a fan of Evanescence, but she wouldn't say she's obsessed with them. While in a room plastered with Evanescence posters.
  • I Call Her "Vera": Stirling has a small arsenal of violins, and she names each of them.
    • "Excalibur" is her primary acoustic Roth violin.
    • "Ingrid" is her stunt violin (for videos where it could get wet or dirty or banged around).
    • "Nero" is her primary carbon-fiber Luis & Clark violin.
    • "Paris" is a custom LS-shaped electric violin (gifted to Lindsey by Parisian fans).
    • "Cleopatra" is a rhinestone-encrusted electric Yamaha violin.
    • "WALL-E" is an orange electric Yamaha violin that glows in the dark.
    • "Anastasia" is a violin painted with an autumn nature pattern (gifted to Lindsey by Russian fans).
    • "The Black Goddess" is a black carbon-fiber Wedenstein violin with gold leaf embellishments.
    • The "Violumpet" is a horn-fitted Steampunk violin used in the "Roundtable Rival" video (it's actually an old electric Yamaha that Stirling owned for years, refitted).
    • "David", a lightweight electric violin refitted with a small wooden bow so it would resemble a crossbow, featured in the video for "Artemis" (the name is a pun; she named it after David Bowie)
  • Ice Palace: The setting of "Crystallize". She prances through the (man-made) corridors and in the courtyard, and at night the palace glows.
  • Idea Bulb: Inverted in "Song of the Caged Bird" — the initial lightbulb she finds by accident gives her the idea of opening the rest of the crates.
  • Instrument of Murder:
    • The Skyrim video includes an acted battle between Stirling as a bard and Peter Hollens as a bandit. She uses a violin bow as her weapon.
    • "Roundtable Rival" has her going up against bank robbers in a Steampunk-flavored western town. The outlaws use sonic blasts from their guitars to attack her, and she retaliates with an electric violin outfitted with a trumpet bell.
  • In the Style of:
    • "Elements" got a remix ahead of the premiere of Dracula (2013). The new version features a much darker video involving vampires, and the music is orchestral rather than dubstep.
    • "Transcendence" got a remix, with a music video featuring Lindsey inspiring people on the street to perform with her.
  • It Will Never Catch On: In her appearance on America's Got Talent, the judges said this, basically. And then Lindsey subverts it.
  • Jedi Mind Trick: Just like The Piano Guys did, Peter Hollens (in Obi-Wan costume) pretends to pull one off in the behind the scenes of the Star Wars video, gesturing and saying that, "You will like this video a lot. You will share this video."
  • Jump Cut: She tends to use these if talking to the camera in a personal video, since they make it more lively and remove unnecessary pauses.
  • Laser Hallway: One of these features in her collaboration with The Piano Guys, with the red lasers contrasting with a predominantly black-and-white video. Lindsey carefully plays her way through, around, and under the beams, but the cellist simply turns off the alarm system to walk through.
  • Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: In the Star Wars medley, she as Leia, Peter Hollens as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Josh as Darth Vader costume all draw lightsabers but then politely gesture that the others go first, obeying rules of etiquette even when hoping to attack one another.
  • Little Red Fighting Hood: Implied in the Into the Woods video, as the Little Red Riding Hood suddenly has a wolf hat a few scenes in.
  • Living Shadow: The aptly-named "Shadows" doesn't have as many quick cuts and varied angles as some other videos, since it's just her and her shadow projected on a piece of plywood. They start out in synch, but soon the shadow does movements in canon and then puts down its violin to just dance. Lindsey's expression is one of bemusement as she watches, but she keeps playing.
  • The Lonely Door: In the music video for "Take Flight", a single door with lightbulbs hanging in front of it is seen at the end of Lindsey's journey. The door leads back to Lindsey's own house.
  • Match Cut: Several of her videos jump locations whilst having her choreography match in each shot, but "Minimal Beat" takes the cake. It features 17 countries from her time on tour, and the camera will cut between all of them in just a few seconds. In each, she wears a different outfit, but will be walking across the screen or turning her head in perfect time in order to make a smooth video. The behind-the-scenes video explains that it took many hours of editing and careful positioning to make this work.
  • Mean Character, Nice Actor: Kandee Johnson, who plays Nyx, the goddess of the night in Artemis videos. Lindsey always underlines how kind she is in the behind the scenes.
  • "Mission: Impossible" Cable Drop: This features, fittingly enough, in the Mission: Impossible video. Lindsey is lowered on a cable to steal music off the pianist's stand, throwing a small object to distract him long enough for it to be snatched. She plays her violin whilst being dropped.
  • Mobile Shrubbery: When infiltrating the building during the Mission: Impossible piece, both Lindsey and Steven carry potted plants with them briefly in an attempt to hide themselves.
  • More Dakka: During her Halo Medley - Firefight with Devin Super Tramp, Lindsey gets to go all out carrying a rotating gun turret and blasting a bunch of enemy-team Spartans with it. This only appears in Devin's version of the video though.
  • Mundane Made Awesome: Many of her music videos have her utilize her violin skills to do things like fight zombies, obtain top-secret information, grab the attention of giants, etc.
  • Muppet Cameo: Her cover of "Pure Imagination" features her and Josh Groban alongside the classic Muppets. Even Statler and Waldorf get a piece of the action.
  • Musical Assassin: "Roundtable Rival" features a wild-west showdown using Steampunk-inspired sonic weaponry for a quite literal "battle of the bands".
  • Not a Morning Person: Well, she is, but others aren't.
    • For Easter 2013, Stirling arranged an Easter Egg Hunt for everyone else on the tour bus. She was up bright and early setting out eggs, baskets, and a trail of footprints supposedly by the Easter Bunny, but trying to wake up those touring with her didn't quite go so well. They wondered at how she could do it given that they'd done a show the night before.
    • Played for Laughs in the music video for "Masquerade", where Lindsey plays a lead actress for some kind of performance. Her supporting actresses are passed out on the staircase, and she calls them up because she can't sleep... so they're going to do the routine again.
      "NOW???"
  • Of Corsets Sexy: A lot of her outfits (especially the more steampunk ones) include some kind of corset, most notably in the Roundtable Rival video.
  • Ominous Owl: A couple videos, e.g. the Zelda medley, use owl hoots to set the scene and make it seem scary.
  • The Oner: Her video for Warmer In the Winter.
  • Opening Scroll: Naturally, the cover she and Peter did of some Star Wars music featured an opening scroll on half the screen, beginning, "Not long ago in a suburb...." It sets the scene for the song as part of YouTube's Geek Week.
  • Orbital Shot: There's a particularly large one is in the Lord of the Rings medley. She stands in the wind on a hill by the sea, and the shot goes around and above/below her, showing off her dress and the beautiful scenery.
  • Or Was It a Dream?: At the end of "Hold My Heart", Alex realizes he has been dreaming about his jourey to Wonderland, only to find out that the pocket watch he picks up down there is still in his jacket.
  • Over-the-Shoulder Carry: When she's romping around with Tyler Ward in "Thrift Shop", he briefly carries her in this fashion.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Used for fun when Lindsey dresses up as her own #1 fan Phelba — the only disguise is that Phelba has thick black glasses. A few people realize that Phelba and Lindsey look rather too similar, but since not enough people know them, it generally works.
  • Pimped-Out Dress: In her The Phantom of the Opera medley. Justified as she's emulating the beautiful performer Christine Daaé.
  • Playful Pursuit: In Between Twilight video, which culminates in Dance of Romance with lots of magical light butterflies.
  • Playing with Fire: "Elements" features a lot of fire that she dances around, based in a frame quickly constructed from Home Depot materials.
  • Pointy Ears: She wears these for her elf cosplays.
  • Prefers Going Barefoot: She often goes barefoot on stage and in videos and photos.
  • Proper Tights with a Skirt: As revealed in her autobiography, Lindsey has all her stage and video clothes specially designed to be "modest in a specific way", in keeping with her Mormon faith. Bare arms are fine (though she rarely bares her shoulders), and even when wearing a skirt she almost always is also wearing something on her legs (pantyhose, tights, yoga pants, jeans); there are a few pictures out there of her with bare legs, but not many. About the only time she goes bare-legged is in her "Carol of the Bells" video, where she wears a blue ballerina-ish leotard, and in that one she covers it up with a transparent gauzy skirt. She also never wears anything that reveals any more than the absolute barest hint of cleavage.
  • Pygmalion Plot: "Transcendence" resembles this in that the man at the computer projects whatever he wants onto Lindsey and she moulds to fit it, and when she breaks out of this he is angry.
  • Rack Focus:
    • The Game of Thrones [1] done by her and Peter Hollens used this when the latter finds a chess piece; it moves the focus from his face near the ground to the small brown chess knight.
    • The Assassin's Creed III cover focuses first on two British soldiers searching for her in the background, then it focuses on her dressed as Connor holding a pistol and tomahawk as she passes by in the foreground.
  • Reality Is Unrealistic: In the making-of video for the Zelda medley, they explain how they wanted to only light the dark scenes with torch light, but often this left Lindsey's face in shadow, so they would hold an additional torch just above and in front of the camera to light her and make it "look natural."
  • Retraux: Her Pokémon dubstep remix sometimes used video effects like pixellation and overlapping frames, along with eight-bit sprites, to honor some of the older games.
  • Robbing the Dead: In "Moon Trance", Lindsey is desperate, what with zombies coming at her, and scrabbles at a grave to get a violin from the ground, with which she defends herself.
  • Roundhouse Kick: Her dancing often involves a few of these, though they're done more as delicate pirouettes than vicious attacks. When a video includes her in several places, she sometimes cuts to each place while continuing the spin.
  • Rubber Woman: Thanks to her dance training, she's very flexible; in the video for "The Arena", she actually leans back and kicks higher than her own head.
  • Rule 63: She sometimes plays gender-flipped violinist versions of male characters, like Link in the Zelda music video or Connor in the Assassin's Creed III video.
  • Scenery Porn: Lots of videos are filmed in wild and beautiful locations (most of them reachable within an hour's drive from Provo, Utah), and the camera makes full use of this; it's part of the reason for the Orbital Shot mentioned above.
  • Scatting: Occasionally used in otherwise instrumental songs - For instance, in "Stars Align" the only lyrics are a Title Drop and "da da da da da da".
  • Scooby Stack: Although it only has two people, one of these is featured in the Mission: Impossible cover, with her and Steven peering around the corner of a deserted corridor when trying to infiltrate the building.
  • Self-Backing Vocalist: In her collaborations with Peter Hollens on the Skyrim, Game of Thrones, and Star Wars covers; and with Tyler Ward on the "Fields of Gold" cover, multiple vocal tracks by the male singer are mixed together.
  • Self-Deprecation: "Masquerade" has Lindsey as a lead actress, waking up her fellow performers to run through a number again. Her backup dancers are visibly upset with her.
  • Self-Titled Album: Her debut album is Lindsey Stirling, released in September 2012.
  • Sexy Whatever Outfit: Although it's not as skimpy as some examples, "Hold My Heart" has her wearing a White Rabbit costume that features a miniskirt-thing with tights and a corset under her jacket.
  • Shattering the Illusion:
    • "Transcendence" shows Lindsey discovering that the projected clothes, backgrounds, places, and so on are not real. When she realises she can step outside the image of a dress to reach for her violin, she is at first hesitant because of the shadows this casts on other projections, but then dances over the scenes like nobody's business, to the anger of the man creating the illusions.
    • "Shatter Me", the title track from her second album, portrays a porcelain ballerina trapped in a music box, hoping that someone will come along and free her from the glass, but comes to realize that the only way to escape is to break the glass herself.
  • Shout-Out:
    • "Song of the Caged Bird" is named after and inspired by Maya Angelou's poem "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings".
    • The "Moon Trance" video is an obvious homage to Thriller.
  • Single Stanza Song: "Stars Align" is mostly instrumental, but has some vocals in the form of da-ing followed by "when the stars align". This is repeated a couple times without changes.
  • Skip of Innocence: Her dances often include skips and jumps as she plays her violin, grinning.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: In the Lord of the Rings medley, the only costumes she wears are pretty and innocent dresses in a Hobbiton setting — slightly out of place when the piece moves on to battle themes.
  • Steampunk: "Roundtable Rival" has a very steampunk aesthetic to it.
  • The Stoic: Her "orchestra face" is a deadpan, focused expression that she used to use when playing the violin. It's clear that she's gotten rid of that habit, though!
  • Suddenly Voiced:
    • The Shatter Me album has two songs with full sets of lyrics (written by Lindsey, but sung by other artistsnote ). Brave Enough ups the number of songs with guest vocalists to eight, making it just about evenly divided between vocal songs and instrumentals.
    • "Firefly" has Lindsey singing herself.
    • She joins Tyler Ward in some of the rap lines in their cover of "Thrift Shop". "That's fifty dollars for a t-shirt!"
    • She sings again in the song "Warmer In The Winter", as well as her cover of "Santa Baby".
  • Tick Tock Tune: "Shatter Me" opens with sounds of gears ticking and turning, like a music box being wound up in order to play it.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Lindsey's bandmates in "Moon Trance" decide to take a shortcut through an ominous graveyard in the middle of the night.
  • Trash-Can Band:
    • She recorded an orchestral version of her song "Transcendence" alongside the Landfill Harmonic.
    • Her 2014 tour includes a version of "Transcendence" with three components; her on her violin, her pianist (Gavi) on his piano... and her drummer (Drew) banging on a crate he's sitting on. This is inspired by a time when the crew found a piano on the street while out walking and started fooling around.
  • Unlimited Wardrobe: She has a different outfit for every video, not even counting dressups, and sometimes appears with a variety of costumes within just one.
  • Virtual Paper Doll: In the original "Transcendence" music video, Lindsey is being used as one through wearing plain white and having various outfits projected onto her. She will even change her pose to fit them better. During the song, she realizes what is going on and escapes.
  • "Wanted!" Poster: The Assassin's Creed III theme arrangement includes her cosplay character (the assassin Connor, though she called herself Connie instead) finding a poster for himself and ripping it off the tree.
  • When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Fighting zombies, charging light bulbs, breaking glass. If there's a story in the video, Lindsey's character is likely to realize the solution to her problem is her violin.
  • Wipe: As an homage to George Lucas, her Star Wars video uses the wipes found throughout those six films to change scene, even though such transitions are now rare.
  • Word Salad Title: "Electric Daisy Violin". The title fits rather well, actually.
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are: According to Word of God, this is the theme of most of her songs. Her past experiences with eating disorders made her want to inspire other people to find inner beauty in themselves.
  • You Wake Up in a Room:
    • The beginning of the "Song of the Caged Bird" video features this, with Lindsey getting up off the floor and unaware of any way out.
    • Likewise, "Celtic Carol" has her waking up in Santa's workshop to discover she has been locked inside for the holiday.

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