The audience and the performer

The performer must do what the audience wants, but she cannot do exactly what the audience wants. She must comfort the audience with the performance they are familiar with and that they have grown to love, and continue to surprise it with new material or new takes on old material. The audience may start to despise anything that remains the same for too long. But, with too sudden a break between the old and the new, it may become confused. Who is this performer? Is it the one that they know? This is why dead artists are safer to love: you already know everything they are going to make. They will never disappoint you.