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Coming to a venue near you: Performing live, while dead

Tushar Apte

by Tushar Apte

19 Apr 05:50am

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Filed under: Holograms, Music, Rap, Technology, Tupac

38 comments

I loved gangsta rap. Of course I did. I was a middle-class kid in an ethnically diverse public high school in Sydney’s inner west, in the 1990s. That’s many ticks in some record-company’s market research survey.

Warning: explicit language.

The music doesn’t resonate with me the way it once did, but when I hear the blasting horn intro of the Joe-Cocker sampled California Love, the wannabe ‘G’ inside resurfaces and I want to pour one out for my homiez, and wish I could see Tupac or Biggie in concert.

By ‘Pac’s death in ‘96 hip-hop was well into its golden age. It was at a turning point where the genre was going mainstream, but hadn’t yet mutated into mindless pop-rap. It was a time where there was no possible universe where Snoop Dogg would collaborate with Katy Perry. And when that happened, all hip-hop heads ever talked about was how Pac and his deceased contemporary, Notorious B.I.G., would never have teamed up with these ‘sell-outs’. But Tupac’s posthumous performance as a hologram at Coachella showed us this scenario was definitely possible, whether Pac 1.0 (the flesh and blood one) wanted it to be or not.

Tupac’s resurrection at Coachella was a heady combination of technological wizardry & macabre theatre. The hologram was created by James Cameron’s VFX Company Digital Domain, and modeled off technology previously used by The Gorillaz and Madonna but more grandly adopted used by Mariah Carey, who in 2011 simultaneously staged ‘holographic’ Christmas concerts in 5 major cities.

The obvious point here is that Pac’s Coachella performance steps up the spectacle a few levels - because he’s been dead for 16 years. So when he shouted “what the f—k is up Coachellla” you know anyone who’s seen this Dave Chappelle skit had a chuckle, and the rest might have found it a bit creepy.

While largely succeeding as an amazing visual stunt, the ‘performance’ was hardly flawless. The CGI does ‘stutter’ a bit, Pac’s standing figure often ‘sliding’ across the stage - you know Michael Jackson is coming back on tour soon.

Either way it was a true ‘3.0.’ moment, combining social-media era participation (Pac 2.0 even has his own Twitter account @HologramTupac) and rapidly maturing 3-D film technology, with a nod to the 19th century illusion ‘Peppers Ghost’ that creates the effect of viewing a live object. Digital Domain used a lightweight foil that mimics the properties of semi-transparent glass, allowing them to scale the movements easily across the length of the stage.

The thin ‘foil’ is a specially plated metallic film that runs across the stage at 45 degrees towards the audience. A powerful projector placed below the screen then beams up a bright image, and from an audience perspective the images appear to be on stage.

After the Coachella segment, Janelle Monae quoted futurist Raymond Kurtzweil, tweeting that ‘The Singularity is Near’, referring to the blurring of lines between man and machine. How long before technology renders performances so lifelike that they can simply be adapted, vocal cadence and all, for any year and event well after an artist passes?

Issues of consent from the deceased aside, the Tupac segment gives us a glimpse into the possible future of how concerts are delivered. With the music industry struggling with ever diminishing revenue streams (even Kanye West and Jay-Z’s recent groundbreaking US concert tour barely broke even) the first to find a buck in this may be the touring companies.

They could save a pretty penny on roadie expenses and artist expenses if audiences willingly shell their hard-earned to see a ‘holographed’ version of their favourite artists. Of course, everything else that creates atmosphere would stay – the large crowds, the stage pyrotechnics, perhaps the dancers and always the overpriced food & drink.

Live shows with an already large global audience, like the MTV Music Awards, could expand their ticket paying audiences by projecting the event in venues worldwide. In Sydney, we could go to the Superdome to watch the Grammy’s, as would other audiences in Albert Hall and Germany’s Festhalle simultaneously.

Of course there would be tackiness. Maybe Elvis and Michael Jackson together Live in Vegas! Or The Beatles and The Stones (original lineups all) at Madison Square, and other shows no purist could ever forgive.

Although I suspect the truth is probably closer to Coachella 2012, and that the ‘hybrid model’ will still be around for a while with holograph appearances as the ‘gimmick’. That is, until we don’t know who’s real and who isn’t – *cue eerie music*.

Right now you’re probably thinking the same thing I am, that you would never pay to see any music in holograph form, especially by your idols. But if David Guetta can pack a stadium by just fist pumping and pressing a play button, why not pay for a Nirvana show with holographed Kurt Cobain and maybe a few real guests who actually play instruments?

I’m up for starting a company that produces the foil, and sells it to the estates of famous deceased artists – who’s with me?

Most commented

38 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • Tell It Like It Is says:

      07:22am | 19/04/12

      Funny.  I saw the title of this article and immediately thought it was about Gillard and Swan.

      Reply

    • Britta FTW says:

      12:11pm | 19/04/12

      Oh my god, you are the worst!

    • KH says:

      07:23am | 19/04/12

      I wonder if Jeff Buckleys family saw this.  That guy has been busier dead than he was alive…............

      I didn’t like this at all - you have a memory of a person, and for others to control that persons image after their death, and manipulate it to do things they may never have done in life, taints that memory.  Most people would be more than a little uncomfortable if someone else could manipulate them to do things they don’t want to do in life by controlling their body - is it any less uncomfortable knowing it could be done after you are dead?

      Reply

    • S.L says:

      07:54am | 19/04/12

      I believe Jimmy Hendrix only made 3 albums but look at how many have been produced since his death.
      Same for Buddy Holly!

    • Happymonkey says:

      07:50am | 19/04/12

      Tupac was a true artist. Let him rest in peace.

      Reply

    • SimonFromLakemba says:

      09:33am | 19/04/12

      Amen to that. They are talking of making this thing into a tour, that should be interesting.

    • Craig says:

      08:02am | 19/04/12

      Why stop at real dead musicians, we can create our own… Like The Gorillaz but with perfect people and angelic voices.

      And we don’t need to stop at musicians - virtual actors, newsreaders, sports stars and politicians beckon.

      We no longer need humans to take the limelight, we can create our own perfect world…

      Reply

    • Steve says:

      08:21am | 19/04/12

      I loved it.  I was excited seeing it, and I would pay for a ticket if it toured.  It was brilliant.  No one to this day, is as good a rapper as Tupac Shakur.  He would have been huge today with the current generation.

      Reply

    • KH says:

      09:02am | 19/04/12

      If he was still alive, he wouldn’t look like that hologram.  I don’t know how credible ‘gangsta’ rappers are talking about the ghetto and how hard life is when they are 45, living in a mansion, driving their bullet proof hummer and wearing enough gold to require Fort Knox like security in their ‘entourage’, and probably full of drugs…....................

    • Tony of Poorakistan says:

      09:11am | 19/04/12

      rap != music

    • subotic sold his soul says:

      08:28am | 19/04/12

      Hendrix next please.
      And Phil Lynott from Thin Lizzy.

      Oh, and Robert Johnson. Good luck with that one….

      Reply

    • KH says:

      09:07am | 19/04/12

      How about John Lennon?! We could bring back Michael Jackson.  Or Jim Morrison.  Michael Hutchence? Maybe INXS could finally end their search for a lead singer by resurrecting their old one holographically….............bwahahahahahaha

    • Don says:

      08:29am | 19/04/12

      One of the limiting factors in song writing has always been the need to rhyme. English has always struggled a bit with this - especially with a word such as love. As soon as you hear that in a lyric, there is a very high chance that the lines following it will contain above, glove, dove, ____ of - eg free of -  overall quite limited. Certainly wont hear orange or silver a lot that is for sure. This causes troubles in a slow ballad or some other conventional song.

      Rap has proven an innovation by its rapid pace lyric structure (rap maybe short for rapid) enabling a free wheeling ryhme to be made through the song bringing in all kinds of words quickly. I am not a big fan of the style myself but still very interesting to see the principle of rhyme being so important in this music form.

      Reply

    • Rick of the Dustbowl says:

      09:14am | 19/04/12

      Rap = Talk…..simple! What about Milhouse’s dads song “let me feel you with my glove of love” you forgot above. Most of these rap artists use some girly melodies in the middle of their tracks to break up the boredom.

    • Grandmaster subotic and The Furious Five says:

      09:15am | 19/04/12

      Rap is not short for rapid. Srsly….

      Rap derives from an art form known as spoagraphics, developed originally from a collective of artists known as The Last Poets.

      WORD!

    • subotic says:

      10:16am | 19/04/12

      Rap evolved from a musical style termed spoagraphics, originating in the mid-late 1960’s by a collective called The Last Poets.

      Rap is not short for rapid.

    • Ohcomeon says:

      08:35am | 19/04/12

      By the late 90s rap had already become completely commercialised. It was a completely different animal than it was in the late 80s. All of the activist fury of public enemy, the rapper as philosopher and agitator had vanished by the mid 90s. Tupac is as pop and mainstream as it gets. Youre kidding yourself that his stuff is any different than Snoops.  Boring, lazy sampling. Any hip hop track that lifts a full chorus or hook from another record is lame by definition.

      And holograms dont change the fact that live hip hop is the dullest type of live performance on the planet. Seriously, its garbage, and this is coming from a fan. It works well when rappers front a band like the Roots, but apart from that Id much rather listen to the album.

      Reply

    • chillpill says:

      11:20am | 19/04/12

      you sound like a mix between a hipster and an emo… life isnt THAT bad!

    • Ohcomeon says:

      12:28pm | 19/04/12

      Lols, youre allowed to have an opinion. You may even form your own taste through exercising it.

    • SimonFromLakemba says:

      09:32am | 19/04/12

      I posted this on the open thread the other day, such an unreal thing to watch.

      Tupac was one of those artists that didn’t get elevated once he was dead because he was dead (Winehouse etc).

      All Eyez On Me album and R U Still Down had some huge hits on it and his words and his lyrics meant something, one thing severely lacking in today’s rap artists.

      Being a huge rap fan I can safely say there will never be another Tupac, Ice Cube (NWA Days), Snoop Dogg (Death Row days), Bone Thugz (Still going) and Notorious BIG.

      @Ohcomeon

      “And holograms dont change the fact that live hip hop is the dullest type of live performance on the planet. Seriously, its garbage”

      Tupac doing ‘Hit em up’ at house of blues was a huge performance, would of loved to be there.

      Also if you count 50cent as rap I have been to two of his concerts and they were awesome.

      Reply

    • Ohcomeon says:

      10:50am | 19/04/12

      We probably just have different ideas of what a great live performance is. I love hip hop on record, but have been continually underwhelmed by it live. Guys strutting around stage, filling dead air with ‘uh’, and ‘yeah’, to a largely pre recorded backing tape, while the DJ adds the odd scratch. Its one step up from karaoke. On the other hand, a decent rapper fronting a great funk band is an awesome show.

      Heres the Roots, with Icecube doing an NWA cover.

      http://twitvid.com/0QJ9Z

    • Ohcomeon says:

      10:56am | 19/04/12

      And I disagree about Winehouse. For those of us that were fans way before she hit the charts or gossip pages,  the whole episode was a waste of a great talent. Id take her wordplay over Tupacs any day of the week.

    • SimonFromLakemba says:

      11:59am | 19/04/12

      Never got Winehouse, thought her importance to anything was over-exaggerated.

      Too me Tupac spoke of a lot of things what were very relevant at the time for Black Americans.

      Wonder why they call you b*tch was great, Keep your head up, Dear Mamma etc.

      Agree with the whole concert sh*t now thats is the rap industry.

    • Next Movement says:

      12:05pm | 19/04/12

      “All Eyez On Me album and R U Still Down had some huge hits on it and his words and his lyrics meant something, one thing severely lacking in today’s rap artists.”

      And from Ohcomeon’s post before: “By the late 90s rap had already become completely commercialised.”

      If this is your opinion, and you both seem to be fans of hip hop, then you’re listening to the wrong stuff today. Turn off the radio, the real hip hop currently being produced is some of the best ever created by a long shot.

      50 cent isn’t hip hop, and should be grouped with the rest of the lollypop ringtone rap sellouts. The Roots are a hip hop band, and have been so far ahead of the game their entire career it isn’t funny. Arguably one of the best MC’s (Blackthought), percussion (F Knuckles) and guitarists (Cpt Kirk) in modern times. Of course not forgetting, without a doubt, one of the greatest drummers of all time (?uestlove). People shouldn’t miss out on seeing these guys, whether you’re into hip hop or not.

      Hip hop is far from dead, just gotta know where to look. Hint - It’s not on the radio, it certainly isn’t made in Australia, and it isn’t made by any self proclaimed ‘gangsta rappers’ of today. Check out the newly released compilation / mix tape style album produced by Katalyst and one of the dudes from Portishead called ‘Quakers’. Has a whole range of contemporary guest MC’s who make 50 look like the amateur he is.

    • Ohcomeon says:

      12:42pm | 19/04/12

      Nextmovement:

      Im not saying there hasnt been good hip hop since the late 80s. Im just saying the mid - late 80s was the transition point for hip hop from underground to full on pop music. The good stuff went back underground, and is just harder to find.

      Im well aware of how much awesomely good off the radar music there is these days. My head is constantly spinning trying to keep up!

      One of the main reasons I stopped listening to JJJ is all the godawful skip-hop they play now. Get much better music off the blogs anyway.

    • Next Movement says:

      05:40pm | 19/04/12

      I see what you mean and totally agree. Just I hear a lot of ex hip hop fans complaining that no good stuff exists today when it is in fact the opposite. Don’t get me started on skip hop, the word limit isn’t big enough on here to list all that’s wrong with it wink

    • Jay Santos says:

      09:35am | 19/04/12

      Proof positive that death doesn’t lift your talent above zero.

      ‘Hollow’ gram about sums it up nicely.

      Reply

    • Happymonkey says:

      12:17pm | 19/04/12

      Whether you like rap music or not, Tupac was well-and-truly talented.

    • Ohcomeon says:

      12:32pm | 19/04/12

      Love Hip Hop, never thought Tupac was anything above average. Boring gangsta-themed pop. Its about as true to life as glam metal was.

    • dancan says:

      10:10am | 19/04/12

      Love the direction this technology is taking us but I’d never pay to watch a hologram in concert.  But, if I could set up a hologram at home for a party and then download the artists and songs I wanted, that would be awesome.

      Reply

    • SimpleSimon says:

      10:46am | 19/04/12

      I think this was a pretty cool gimmick. Whilst I kind of like the idea of a holographic Kurt Cobain with actual musicians, that’s in a whole other league to the Tupac thing; having a holograph singing to recorded music is very different to correctly timing with a live performance.

      Still, pretty awesome.

      Reply

    • subotic knows you're right says:

      12:21pm | 19/04/12

      I’d like a hologram of Cobain off-ing himself.

      Better to burn out, than it is to rust….

    • Dan says:

      11:08am | 19/04/12

      Can I just send a shout-out to Cashmere Agency, whoever the hell they are, for being pricks in pulling the footage off Youtube.

      It’s a pretty incredible feat, and generated enormous publicity for Coachella and all those involved. Why not use Youtube to push that further?

      Reply

    • Emilia says:

      11:20am | 19/04/12

      It’s a cool gimmick, but I’d prefer to watch a DVD of Tupac performing (a)live in concert.

      This also makes me think about the ethics of somebody’s memory/work, and how it can be manipulated for others profit.

      Primarily, however, I just love that you referenced Dave Chappelle.

      Reply

    • Cynicised says:

      12:36pm | 19/04/12

      The idea of holographic “live” performance appalls me! A live performance is,by definition, the artist in person on stage in your presence, with all the attendant vagaries and variables which the occasion may present. That’s what makes it exciting and like no other musical experience, especially when the arist feeds off the energy of his audience and produces his very best work, riding the wave of approval and participation. It’s magical, and truly collaborative between artist and admirers. This idea is never going to be more than an imitation of that experience. Hollow, pardon the pun, in the true sense of the word, lacking substance and depth.

      Not to mention being rather creepy, when it comes to those deceased. Ewww, no thanks, not for me,  no matter who it is.

      Reply

    • Daniel says:

      06:28pm | 19/04/12

      The next incarnation of the technology is made up characters with made up voices doing concerts. Check out Miku Kitsune:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTXO7KGHtjI

      It’s enough to make you weep for humanity.

      Reply

    • Eleanor says:

      11:42am | 20/04/12

      Can we please please please do Freddie Mercury next?!

      Reply

    • Lars says:

      06:31pm | 20/04/12

      Now that I would see!

 
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