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    Bo Burnham

    Until last night I had no clear idea of his type. Daeva introduced me to him a few months back and we loved his work. Offhandedly I assumed he was a head type, perhaps 7. Last night I was caught up on a Bo spree, and suddenly it occurred to me:

    he is a four!

    I don't want to make any case yet, nor to sway anyone. Plus, I could be way off. I'm not going to pretend I'm 100% sure myself, anyway, and I have barely gotten started on the interviews. Keep in mind this all happened in the wee hours of last night.

    But I do have a case.

    First I'd love some other input and impressions though. My case may be convincing in and of itself, but that doesn't mean I'm right.

    My current sense is So/Sx 4w3(3w2) with 9 fix next. As we hone this in , we can fill in the rest. Again, my entire premise may be wrong so please do refute it and say what you see!


    First, the music.










    Last edited by Animal; 12-08-2019, 11:05 AM.

    #2
    Some interviews.







    This one is long. Feel free to skim and skip around just to see him in conversation.

    Comment


      #3
      Robin Jayne Goldsmith I haven't yet watched the videos you posted because I just got up, but I was laying in bed half asleep this morning thinking about Bo and all that I know about him, and I'll start by saying that I'm already convinced you're right about 5w4. Originally when Daeva showed him to me, the FIRST FIRST FIRST thing I said was "five." Then we moved to 7. I have a friend who is much like him which is why he grabbed my interest, and the only types in question for my friend were 9 with 5 or 5 with 9. There was not really anything else he could be, but 5w6 was not feeling right.... at the time, I didn't yet know what 5w4 actually looks like.

      So this was my first impulse which I abandoned later.

      But now having sat with his four as I got to know his work, and also going through the MJ typing, which really clicked - I think you're right.

      Bo doesn't sing confessionally. Even Trent Reznor, a 5w6 with a 4 fix, sings confessionally about his own feelings, suffering and relationships, and exes. Bo sings conceptually. There's a confessional edge to it much like MJ but there is distance from it, like we don't really know if the singer is straight or gay, serious or joking, etc. When Trent Reznor sings about his ex or his rape you know it happened and this is how he feels about it, even as five lead.

      So I would go with 5w4 with 3w2 or 2w3 for Bo, actually. You had picked up three initially, maybe you were right. That's what I think... at the moment anyway.

      And the four we were seeing before, it was 5 in the four space. That's my thought now.

      He often sings about fame and the meaning of fame, and he expresses a lot of shame around it. At first social 4 "critic" seemed really right for this. But when I think about actual fours who sing and write lyrics, none of us write about this, in this way. Lorde has some "I'm the queen" stuff but it's very 4->2. More like singing about her own desire - at least based on what I picked up from the little I know of her. Bo is critiquing it as if from outside while also making himself an emblem of it --- actually more similar to the way Marilyn Manson approaches his critiques on fame, with "Antichrist superstar." It becomes a shameful commentary about the singer (Bo or Manson) embodying some conceptual role in the world and in the eyes of others, rather than focusing specifically on expressing the feelings deep within. Although each has their confessional elements within this, and both have strong four, the central focus does seem to be that of the head center.

      Comment


      • Animal
        Animal commented
        Editing a comment
        That makes sense. "Anointed one."

      • Animal
        Animal commented
        Editing a comment
        Yeah true. There's not enough 'host' - still something separating him from the 'lowly' people below him.. something very snooty there and disconnecting from them while elevating himself. I concur, 3w4 sounds good.

      #4
      This is a personal thing, and it should be taken as a subjective personal reaction, nothing more. But I'll say it anyway. With both my friend and Bo, and other 5s including John Lennon and MJ (before I knew his type), my personal reaction has been that there's some cowardice there - and I'm not talking about 6 or enneagram cowardice but purely in human terms, since this is before I even knew enneagram when having these thoughts, in many cases. It actually plays into my treatment of my antagonist in my novel who has strong 5.

      Anyway.. there's my sense that there's cowardice there, like this person doesn't fully own their own desires, keeps it hidden behind some kind of wall of magic or fantasy which they use to entice people-- but then lies or hides what is behind it - while acting like other people are stupid for not seeing it. I've had a strong personal reaction to this in 5s I've known well, in addition to 5 musicians, which is why it became an antagonist of sorts. I also have a strong reaction about this problem in myself, though it does not come out the same way as it does with the 5 cores ------- and I address it in songs like "Apostasy," talking about how I'm "only real when I sing."

      But to me a small group of 5s have come to represent this 'hiding the wet/hot/difficult feelings behind a mask while acting like what's going on is something other than what really is.' It's as if I see this intense humanity buried under an enticing mask and everyone gets fooled by the mask except me - because to me, their suffering and humanity really speaks. My reaction can be a mix of deep empathy, feeling their suffering as my own; and anger or frustration as I see them destroying all that is sacred. Hence my song name "Apostasy," as I see this as an enemy of love, even in myself. Apostasy means 'departure from faith..' or forsaking your religion, which in my case is the exile from Erosia, and abandoning what it stands for. However the difference is that for me this is one song commenting on it in the middle of a confessional journey of personal redemption and the redemption of love, so to speak - whereas they kind of... live there.

      With Bo I get this too - he has all these critiques about fame and people falling in love with an empty mask, but when does he actually expose HIMSELF, and what's behind it? So really, if people are falling in love with "the shell" that's because he has kept the rest obscure. No one to blame but himself. There's a real ambivalence about whether he wants to be seen or not. He hides everything that's sacred, then portrays a world of fakeness where no one sees behind others' masks, in his songs.

      Comment


      • Animal
        Animal commented
        Editing a comment
        Oh yes of course. It wasn't meant as a hateful comment but just to point out that this seems to be the crux of his fixation - which is always paradoxical.

      • Animal
        Animal commented
        Editing a comment
        "hides his avarice in plain sight." YES!
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