How Gorillaz could dominate a post-Covid world(reframing.substack.com)
reframing.substack.com
How Gorillaz could dominate a post-Covid world
https://reframing.substack.com/p/how-gorillaz-could-thrive-in-a-post
33 comments
I think there is a bigger subset for "virtual idols" in Japan that have already existed. They have also automated the singing part (see the Vocaloid Hatsune Miku). And they already have had concerts where people attend. Also they have started making "virtual YouTuber" (Kizuna_AI). This would all go to the point of just starting to make an AR/VR type of experience rather quickly.
Yeah, Kizuna AI-like Vtubers are flourishing in Japan and several other countries now. I'm only familiar with Hololive, but their streams reach 100k live viewers periodically with all the world's languages presented in their chats. There are also international chapters in China and Indonesia, and also a worldwide English audition just finished up recently. 'Independent' vtubers and 'Networked' (Hololive, Nijisanji) are also performing ads in radios and promoting themselves in Akihabara. It's dizzling.
Yep watching a Hatsune Miku live concert was a bit unreal.
Great comment, just wanted to point out that musicians also get (tiny) royalty from their music on YouTube (when it’s uploaded officially or marked with the algorithm).
Yeah, tiny is the key word. Really, really tiny. Very small on Spotify as well.
It's just so different from when I was young, and people would call into a radio station, getting busy signals over and over, just on the chance they'd pick up and the further chance they'd actually play the song you requested. You had a real incentive to buy the record.
It's just so different from when I was young, and people would call into a radio station, getting busy signals over and over, just on the chance they'd pick up and the further chance they'd actually play the song you requested. You had a real incentive to buy the record.
Gorrilaz has one of those rabid fanbases that tends to see everything musical through the lens of the band in question.
As a musician who came up with the touring model, I've been struggling with not being able to gig and connect with people. There's a real visceral phenomenon that happens when you play live. I think it's fair to say those days were waning even before COVID.
I found the sentiment of this article comforting. It points to a way forward to make music and get some of that connection back. I don't know that there's any substitute for the real deal but that's probably because I'm old. ;)
I found the sentiment of this article comforting. It points to a way forward to make music and get some of that connection back. I don't know that there's any substitute for the real deal but that's probably because I'm old. ;)
I don't think replacing direct connection / presence with remote viewing / tele-presence is "progress".
Those two are different things. We could say that one is not better than the other, it depends on the use case.
But one can also say that we're wired evolutionary for the direct presence, and the other case is a 10-30 years affair that we're rushing into often when it's not really needed (like now with COVID) but just because it's new (or because other things, like ticket prices or free time, are fucked up).
Those two are different things. We could say that one is not better than the other, it depends on the use case.
But one can also say that we're wired evolutionary for the direct presence, and the other case is a 10-30 years affair that we're rushing into often when it's not really needed (like now with COVID) but just because it's new (or because other things, like ticket prices or free time, are fucked up).
If you want to see living proof that live connection with an audience is alive and well in youth culture as it's ever been, check out any King Princess live performance video. There are plenty on Youtube. It's still out there. I'm hopeful we'll eventually we'll have a vaccine or effective preventive therapy for thins thing.
What about doing something like David Gilmour's concert at Pompeii?
Smaller audience for social-distancing, absolutely spectacular location, and make money selling Blu-Ray discs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiXNIjGX1hY
Smaller audience for social-distancing, absolutely spectacular location, and make money selling Blu-Ray discs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiXNIjGX1hY
Nothing can replace the sound, sweat, booze and energy of live rock shows. I miss em dearly!
I would be sad if Gorillaz never performed live again. I’ve seen their live shows and they were truly epic in size. They had 50+ people on stage, and an awesome video mix.
Gorillaz's recent success this year with their Song Machine project has, I think, largely been because their recent songs have been some of the best material they've ever produced. Personal opinions vary, of course, but their four main releases this year have all been excellent and are probably among my favourite tracks of theirs.
My band has been doing a completely virtual tour on twitch for the past two weeks. It seems like this platform was seemingly made for bands. The fact that we could generate a modest revenue stream for performing could potentially replace the money we would make from touring in the physical world. Very excited about the future potential of live, virtual platforms for music! We will continue streaming on a weekly basis after our "virtual tour" is complete, but we're stoked with the results we've had so far!
Virtual concerts are becoming all the rage in MMORPGs, and other digital venues... https://kotaku.com/watch-hatsune-miku-perform-live-in-phanta...
I'm more impressed that somehow Hatsune Miku was doing live concerts? Unfortunately it doesn't look like she play Wales; they'd love her there.
Severe Tire Damage was the first band to perform live in the Internet, on June 24, 1993. They played a gig at Xerox PARC, and broadcast the performance live over MBone, the experimental IP multicasting backbone and virtual network.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severe_Tire_Damage_(band)
>On Friday, November 18, 1994, the Rolling Stones decided to broadcast one of their concert tours on the Internet. Before their broadcast, Severe Tire Damage returned to the Internet, this time becoming the "opening act" for the Stones. Instead of an obscure Australian researcher, the entire world press was watching this time, and Severe Tire Damage was elevated from obscurity to Warholian fame.
>Newsweek magazine described Severe Tire Damage as being "a lesser known rock band." The Rolling Stones told The New York Times: "the surprise opening act by Severe Tire Damage was a good reminder of the democratic nature of the Internet."
>Band members: The core band consisted of these people:
>Russ Haines: guitar and vocals. Haines worked at DEC Systems Research Center.
>Mark Manasse: bass and vocals. Manasse worked at DEC Systems Research Center.
>Steven Rubin: vocals. Rubin worked at Apple Computer.
>Mark Weiser: drums. Weiser was Chief Technologist at Xerox PARC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbone
https://vimeo.com/56349011
>History of the Internet - Severe Tire Damage, The Internet’s First Live Band
>Severe Tire Damage was the first live band on the internet.
>In 1993 they began multicasting onto the internet's IP multicast backbone, the MBONE.
>In 1994 they opened for the Rolling Stones on the Stone's first internet show.
>The band often played in the parking garage at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in Palo Alto.
>Severe Tire Damage was the first band to perform live over the internet.
>Like many bands, they performed at garages and at parties.
>However these garages were the parking lots of companes creating a new world of personal computers and open networking: DEC, Apple, Sun, Xerox PARC.
>And at these parties were prople who were inventing the technology of this new world.
>In 1993 Severe Tire Damage began to broadcast video & audio performances over the internet's new IP MulticastBackbone - thge MBONE.
>In 1994 Severe Tire Damage opened the Rolling Stones first online internet show.
>"We were using about half the available bandwidth. Half the available total bandwidth of the internet was just us, doing really really bad songs. That's because the internet had not been pumped up to do anything with audio or video at the time. The internet was for email, was for text." [...] "You gotta remember too, that this was 152x76 pixels or something, incredibly small screen, updated maybe 8-12 times a second. The audio at best a bad telephone connection."-Russ Haines, Digital Equipment Corporation
>"I think what we did was a kind of piracy, like in the early days of people buying airplanes, where you'll land in some farmer's field, because you had no place else to go, and it was ok because there weren't very many airplanes around. There aren't very many people now who can use the internet in this way, and so anything goes for new, because we're still explorers exploring brand new space and there's very very few of us." -Mark Weiser (1995), Chief Scientest, Xerox PARC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severe_Tire_Damage_(band)
>On Friday, November 18, 1994, the Rolling Stones decided to broadcast one of their concert tours on the Internet. Before their broadcast, Severe Tire Damage returned to the Internet, this time becoming the "opening act" for the Stones. Instead of an obscure Australian researcher, the entire world press was watching this time, and Severe Tire Damage was elevated from obscurity to Warholian fame.
>Newsweek magazine described Severe Tire Damage as being "a lesser known rock band." The Rolling Stones told The New York Times: "the surprise opening act by Severe Tire Damage was a good reminder of the democratic nature of the Internet."
>Band members: The core band consisted of these people:
>Russ Haines: guitar and vocals. Haines worked at DEC Systems Research Center.
>Mark Manasse: bass and vocals. Manasse worked at DEC Systems Research Center.
>Steven Rubin: vocals. Rubin worked at Apple Computer.
>Mark Weiser: drums. Weiser was Chief Technologist at Xerox PARC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbone
https://vimeo.com/56349011
>History of the Internet - Severe Tire Damage, The Internet’s First Live Band
>Severe Tire Damage was the first live band on the internet.
>In 1993 they began multicasting onto the internet's IP multicast backbone, the MBONE.
>In 1994 they opened for the Rolling Stones on the Stone's first internet show.
>The band often played in the parking garage at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in Palo Alto.
>Severe Tire Damage was the first band to perform live over the internet.
>Like many bands, they performed at garages and at parties.
>However these garages were the parking lots of companes creating a new world of personal computers and open networking: DEC, Apple, Sun, Xerox PARC.
>And at these parties were prople who were inventing the technology of this new world.
>In 1993 Severe Tire Damage began to broadcast video & audio performances over the internet's new IP MulticastBackbone - thge MBONE.
>In 1994 Severe Tire Damage opened the Rolling Stones first online internet show.
>"We were using about half the available bandwidth. Half the available total bandwidth of the internet was just us, doing really really bad songs. That's because the internet had not been pumped up to do anything with audio or video at the time. The internet was for email, was for text." [...] "You gotta remember too, that this was 152x76 pixels or something, incredibly small screen, updated maybe 8-12 times a second. The audio at best a bad telephone connection."-Russ Haines, Digital Equipment Corporation
>"I think what we did was a kind of piracy, like in the early days of people buying airplanes, where you'll land in some farmer's field, because you had no place else to go, and it was ok because there weren't very many airplanes around. There aren't very many people now who can use the internet in this way, and so anything goes for new, because we're still explorers exploring brand new space and there's very very few of us." -Mark Weiser (1995), Chief Scientest, Xerox PARC
I "attended" the Fortnite Travis Scott event; I was actually quite impressed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYeFAlVC8qU (undersells it because it's a cinematic view not how you actually see it in game)
It reminded me of demoscene programs in a way although not as intellectually stimulating. It's early days for the medium but as VR gets cheaper I can't see why it won't become a normal thing in the west to have virtual gigs (I think people around me wouldn't be surprised if they saw something like it in Asia already)
It reminded me of demoscene programs in a way although not as intellectually stimulating. It's early days for the medium but as VR gets cheaper I can't see why it won't become a normal thing in the west to have virtual gigs (I think people around me wouldn't be surprised if they saw something like it in Asia already)
Can you describe what this experience is like for the attendees? Are all of the attendees transported into all of these environments with full control of their character given constraints like being underwater, flying through the air, etc? I've played video games my entire life, but not Fortnite, so I find this absolutely fascinating as a future medium.
You wait in a loaded area and then the game locks you into an area of the map then the enormous Travis Scott figure appears and dances about.
You can still move around in the game but the game applies external forces to you to throw you around and put you in the different environments etc.
You can still move around in the game but the game applies external forces to you to throw you around and put you in the different environments etc.
Related tangent: what's the state-of-the-art for reasonably low-latency / time-synced, networked multi-user audio? eg for multiplayer music "games"?
Maybe Dethklok will come back again too.
I think companies such as MelodyVR are going to be pretty big because of the effects of COVID-19.
It’s an interesting problem-space and it’ll take a while for people to acclimatise to the changes, but I think we’ll start to see a lot of this.
It’s an interesting problem-space and it’ll take a while for people to acclimatise to the changes, but I think we’ll start to see a lot of this.
I used to love these guys, however, recently they seem to be headed farther and farther away from both the sound of and the innovation present in their first two records.
I miss the trip hop, I miss the ‘edge’. It’s basically Damon Albarn’s synth pop at the moment. I feel like he should be releasing records such as ‘The Now Now’ under his own name. I’d still listen and I’d probably appreciate it more.
I miss the trip hop, I miss the ‘edge’. It’s basically Damon Albarn’s synth pop at the moment. I feel like he should be releasing records such as ‘The Now Now’ under his own name. I’d still listen and I’d probably appreciate it more.
I would suggest titling this article 'Planet of the Gorillaz'.
Is this real and not sarcasm?
I don't think this claim will stand once the covid vaccines land in our pharmacies. The world will be back to normal though work environment might be changed for a lot of jobs
Took me longer than anticipated to figure out whether the article was about the animal Gorilla or some techn platform called with the same name.
The 'z' is important.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorillaz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorillaz
I am honestly surprised you haven’t heard of them. IMHO they are widely considered to be one of the best pop bands of all time.
They were on the cover of the iPod box, as well as the matching ‘dancing iPod’ ad.
While I’m not the biggest fan of most of their recent albums, the first two are certainly worth a listen. :)
They were on the cover of the iPod box, as well as the matching ‘dancing iPod’ ad.
While I’m not the biggest fan of most of their recent albums, the first two are certainly worth a listen. :)
Live shows will certainly be impacted, but to think that you need bands to become virtual characters is kind of extreme. The Beatles were purely a studio band for much of the time they dominated. That's nothing new.
Multitrack recording has been around forever, so recording your part at home isn't that big a deal, especially now that home equipment has gotten so affordable. (note that the winner of the grammy for best engineer last year, Finneas, did it on a few thousand dollars worth of equipment in his bedroom). So much music now is created on a computer more than on an instrument, so that's becoming a big factor. Even if you play it onto an electronic piano, you can tweak to your heart's content after the fact. (and you can play at slow speed, you can play right and left hand parts separately, you can loop, you can play in a different key and transpose, etc).
You sure don't have to go full Gorillaz to do any of this. They are an interesting extreme, but beyond that....
One of the big problems, though, is that many musicians have a lot of trouble making money off their recordings, especially with so many people just listening on YouTube etc. There isn't the incentive to buy a record as there was a few decades ago.