By ELIZABETH ZANGHI
PHOTO EDITOR
For the first 10 years of my life, the radio was my only means of listening to music, but when I got my first Walkman in fourth grade and started buying CDs, something incredible happened. I was able to see the people who were singing and playing the music because of their album covers. Suddenly, my listening experience became much more personal, because I could picture the people who were singing to me. When I heard, “You drive me crazy, but it feels alright!” I knew that the voice was coming from a tan, blonde girl in a jean skirt, for instance.
When I got a little older, I was allowed to watch MTV. I could see the bands moving! They turned into real-life people, to me, and I believe that was the first time I fell in love (with Adam Levine, of course).
Over 10 years later, the personal connection with musicians continues to grow. As technology becomes more and more advanced, performers are faced with the challenge of making their music more than just songs. There are many recent examples of this growth in the music industry, but I am only going to talk about two: Pomplamoose and Beck.
Pomplamoose is a band that got its start on YouTube when it created a new genre of music called VideoSongs. Throughout their videos, viewers can see everything that they hear. If there is clapping, they see clapping, if there is a bass drum kick, they see a bass drum kick, and if there is harmony, they see four little Natalies formalize on the screen.
With this new genre, listeners are more engaged in the songs they hear. Instead of simply being able to see the musicians, listeners can now see them as they are creating the song. Through watching these videos, I feel more connected with the songs themselves, because I know how they were put together.
And similarly to how I felt when I saw Adam Levine in the “This Love” music video, I felt a personal connection to the musicians, often thinking to myself, “Wow, they are so cool, I want to be like them.”
Less than a month ago, Beck Hansen, known simply as Beck, released a video that felt very much like a Pomplamoose video at first. It is called his “Hello Again” performance by Lincoln Motor Company, his sponsor throughout the project, and it features David Bowie’s song “Sound and Vision.” The major difference is that through this video is that viewers are more than engaged in the music; they get to participate in it.
In the video, Beck stands at a platform in the center of the music hall surrounded by the other performers who stand or sit along the periphery of the hall, separated from Beck by the audience members. There are over 100 musicians within the orchestration of the song, including multiple choirs, a string section and, my favorite, a theramin.
Beck and Chris Milk used 360 degree technology to film the experience so that viewers can actually feel part of the performance. Instead of shots put together by the director’s discretion, the viewer decides where to look by turning his head to the part of the concert hall that he wants to see. The viewer can literally see any part of the hall at any time that he wants to. Additionally, the sound changes based on where in the room the viewer positions himself, just as it would if he were actually in the audience.
Before I experienced this video I had never felt so close to someone on a computer screen. For most of the video, I watched from the stage, right next to him. I could even hear his foot tapping. I am still thunderstruck from the performance, and I cannot stop watching the video.
New technology has changed the way musicians confront their music. There is now a whole new element when figuring out how to engage listeners. I believe that experiences like Pomplamoose’s videos and Beck’s 360 degree performance are just the beginning of a musical revolution that allows listeners to be part of the music, and I am very excited.