Microphone stands that truly sing

When most people think of the possessions of a rock star, they might think of bowls of separated M&M's, the most lavish tour busses and houses, a see-through bright green Flying V guitar, amps that go up to 11, and gobs of mobs of adoring fans screaming their name and then fainting. No one ever thinks about something as invisible as a microphone stand. The only time a person might imitate the existence of a microphone stand is when they are sweeping or mopping while listening to music.

Microphone stands are one of the many characteristics that set artists apart from other bands and, like custom guitars, they add to stage flare while showing off some of the singer's personality. With its slender physique and only purpose of holding up a microphone, it is something that easily goes unseen by millions of eyes, but musicians like Steven Tyler, Jonathan Davis, Adam Gontier, and Jack White went out of their way to have a dab of microphone stand flare.

The most attention-grabbing and recognizable microphone stand is Steven Tyler's with a wide array of colored scarves for a person with a wide array of colorful vocals. Tyler is best known as the lead singer of the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the harmonica and dances around with his mic stand. When Steven Tyler isn't falling over and busting out his mouth grill or giving his valuable opinion about the emerging talentless on national television, he is singing into a microphone that is held up by a mic stand.

According to Tyler, the creation of his microphone stand came about unintentionally, "Very early on," he told Blender in 2007, "I had a favorite macramé shirt that I wore onstage all the time and an Indian scarf in my hair…The shirt and scarf got worn out and torn off me eventually, but rather than throw them out I hung them on the mic stand for good luck. Must be the gypsy in me."

Tyler hasn't only used his mic stand as something to hold up his microphone, it has also been used as a weapon, accidentally. Tyler hit guitarist Joe Perry with his mic stand right on the head at the end of the performance of "Sweet Emotion" in New York in 2010, giving a mic stand a second purpose besides holding up a microphone.

Microphone stands don't have to be tall, skinny sticks or plain black, they can be works of art made out of aluminum and completely unacceptable for children under 17. The hypersexual Jonathan Davis of the band Korn is known for wearing a kilt on stage while playing the bagpipes, but he also has a microphone stand called "The Bitch," which was created by Swiss artist H.R. Giger—best known for his work as the creator of the alien in the sci-fi flick Alien—and looks like an erotic robot woman with half a face.

Dan Epstein describes Davis' mic stand best in the March/April 2001 issue of Revolver, "She arches her back seductively, tongue flickering from her mouth, but her armor-plated spine and bullet-like nipples present an intimidating contrast to her come-hither stance." Above the tongue sticking out at the crowd, the top half of her head is gone and replaced by a coil that stretches from the bridge of her nose to the back of the microphone. Where there should be arms coming out of her shoulders there are just dimples. Her legs are longer than any other legs on this planet, taking the shape of snakes falling from a tree and twisting downward into a single foot that appears to be the outcome of a failed mad science experiment.

And that's not all folks, in Korn's new music video for "Get Up," Davis' mic stand can be seen strapped down by two bungee cords at the base, one in the front and one in the back, so when Davis lets go of the stand it rocks back and forth like a rocking chair that a grandma would never buy—well, maybe Betty White would.

Adam Gontier of Three Days Grace has a mic stand with a Terminator forearm ripped off at the elbow grasping the microphone, which would make a geek hot and bothered and a robot offended. The bottom half of the mic stand is just a pole, but the forearm and hand is constructed from stainless steel and uses brass for a quick release mechanism around the microphone so the microphone can become portable and to be played with over and over like a little child. The mechanical fingers point in all different directions like Gontier's hair, but unlike his hair, it has a purpose.

The biomechanical arm was created by artist Chris Conte who has arms himself and worked in prosthetics—mechanical limbs—before concentrating full-time on art. Conte told Wired.com that, "The work also expresses my fascination with advanced technology, specifically cybernetic organisms, combined with my admiration of relics from the past. ‘Cybermechanical sculpture' is perhaps one way to describe it."