Star Trek: The Next Generation was an ever present fixture in my house growing up. Some of the most memorable scenes and story lines took place in an area of the spaceship known as “the Holodeck”[1], a floor where anything can be lived through the use of holograms. Star Trek created a unique space free of historical positioning and free of any sense of “nowness”, allowing people to fulfil their desires to do anything and be anywhere in history. Much like a lot of Star Trek’s “predictions” this has increasingly become a reality. Our dead no longer stay dead, they live on.
When a hologram of Tupac Shakur appeared at the Coachella music festival history was changed forever. What once was seen as a novelty in certain tech circles was thrust into the mainstream. If we quickly get over the fact it looked like a bad TV signal from the 90s (see the video[2]) and looking past the juxtaposition between aged Snoop Dogg, as the living man, and Tupac as the ghostly looking, even dead, figure in the video, this was a monumental shift in our idea of what can and cannot be real.
Walter Benjamin decreed that the work of art diminished with each reproduction[3], in this statement we can see the interplay between the ‘real’ and the ‘reproduced’. Where does one start and the other begin? Rock music as a live entertainment form has traditionally structured itself in this tension, focusing itself around two key principles: authenticity and ephemerality. Authenticity is the gold standard of live music performance, people want to go and see the original Eagles, not their old guitar tech and someone who once went to a party where an Eagles record was playing. Authenticity is tied into the second concept of ephemerality through the process of being present for the “real” event. As a society we laud those who have the stories about famous gigs of the past, “Oh, she was at Woodstock” etc. The fleeting nature of the cultural form is what gives music a different edge to other art forms, it is only here today, it may not be here tomorrow. However, it has only been through reproduction that an art form which relies on being “of the moment” can relive its cultural importance throughout the decades.
Since the production of the phonograph, music has struggled with the paradox of being a recorded yet transient art form. This has been continually reinstated in our culture. The reproduction has now become the original text, seen particularly in the way mass produced vinyl records are now collected. Over the past couple of decades, we have seen the natural progression of this train of thought into the realm of live performance itself. Authenticity in music has relied on the act of being present in the now, focusing on seeing a musician face to face, breathing the same air as the original musician themselves. The hologram of Tupac set a new precedent in the acceptability of what can, and maybe should, be used in a live performance. The value of the art form transferred from seeing the physical artist to seeing a full reproduction, complete with faked crowd interaction, and interplay between the dead and alive artists onstage. To quote the wonderful Jeff Goldblum’s Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.”[4]
This technology has now become a mainstream commodity. Even 1970s superstars ABBA are embarking on a hologram tour, featuring themselves in their 1970s prime, fully airbrushed, with all their warts removed.[5] The very fact a living band is doing this speaks volumes for its importance in the future of music, where ABBA lead surely others will follow. Hypothetically, music artists can now exist in the Star Trek world of dipping in and out of history at will. You want 1970s Bowie live on stage? No problem, how about Elvis on the toilet? Yeah why not. Just as the reproduction of live music onto record has allowed for the mass production and mass dissemination of recorded music, so too will holograms allow for the mass production of live (dead) artists around the world, lacking historical context. Anyone for a Westworld style 1960s Greenwich Village?
I cannot see this having an effect on the new live acts (in particular Rap and Pop stars) packing out arenas and stadiums. However, as the ultra-popular cultural icons of the past continue to die off there will still be the thirst for not just their music, but their actual presence. Holograms will be used to fulfil this need; our dead musicians may never truly die ever again. How can we then move forward if we only exist in the past?
S.C.
[1] http://www.startrek.com/database_article/holodeck
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGbrFmPBV0Y
[3] https://monoskop.org/images/6/6d/Benjamin_Walter_1936_2008_The_Work_of_Art_in_the_Age_of_Its_Technological_Reproducibility_Second_Version.pdf
[4] http://fandom.wikia.com/articles/jeff-goldblums-greatest-jurassic-park-quotes
[5] https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/04/abba-reunite-for-new-music-hologram-tour/