Music in the age of virtual reality
The music industry has experienced the new digital age as a phase of radical transformation. The partial collapse of consolidated business models has changed the way music is made. If not in an artistic sense, it has undoubtedly produced the need for massive productions that are capable of immersing and engaging their audience differently, using guidelines that were previously almost unheard of. The digital age has transformed the cultural norm for not only how creators produce content, but how audiences consume it. Digital media now encompasses not only websites, social media, and video games, but music.
In the past decade and a half, the cultural norm for music videos has shifted from television broadcast to social media. YouTube, an American online video-sharing platform initiated the change in 2005 by providing the opportunity for consumers to watch music videos free, with access to the internet. Along with the fact that MTV by the mid-2000s generally abandoned playing music videos to show reality tv, YouTube became the home for musicians and filmmakers to explore new ideas and reach a worldwide audience.
Virtual reality has entered center stage in recent years, with roughly 36.7 million Americans using VR apps or devices in 2018. Nielsen research reports that millennials make up almost half of all people who take interest in virtual reality devices. Virtual reality is as relevant as ever, and the music industry has begun to take notice. From virtual live music, festivals, and music videos, the industry is beginning to explore how to incorporate virtual reality to create new experiences. Rapper, singer, comedian, writer, director, and producer Donald Glover (also known as Childish Gambino) is no stranger to experimentation in respect to art. His music video PHAROS VR “Me and Your Mama” uses virtual reality to usher in a new era of music visual art.
Childish Gambino released a video for “Me and Your Mama” (the first song on his album awaken my love) that was designed for an immersive experience through his virtual reality (VR) app, Pharos. The term virtual reality refers to “a modern technology providing an immersive, interactive experience using three-dimensional computer based graphic images”. Fans with a VR headset will feel like they are watching Gambino perform from the front row. Fans watching the video on YouTube without a headset can also interact with the concert in a less immersive, yet still intimate way, by clicking and dragging around the stage.
The “Me and Your Mama” performance was recorded at a concert in Joshua Tree National Park. The concert footage was edited, assembled and VR-ed to create the Pharos experience. Where-as the dome in which the video recorded could only hold 3000 people, the video has roughly 1.4 million views worldwide.
Digital media is known as any form of media that uses electronic devices for distribution. The sudden introduction of virtual reality in the music industry, combines a past form of digital media, the music video, with a newer form, virtual reality. This combination creates a completely new form of media, opening endless possibilities for creative innovation. It teaches us that digital media is ever-changing. The merging of mediums allows for the formation of new ones. It also displays the possibility that integrating two or more forms of digital media could create much more immersive art.
The interactive aspect of the music video is what sets it apart from the rest. By utilizing virtual reality technology, Gambino was able to create a method to immerse itself in the crowd of a live performance. Users who have access to a virtual reality headset are thrown directly into the front row of the crowd, simulating a variety of elements that come with the musical performance, such as artists jumping right next to the camera, lasers, and projected visuals.
A skeptical consumer may wonder if this virtual experience compares to actually seeing the performance live. According to Dylan Southard, the creative director at VR Playhouse, there’s “a powerful sensation to watch something in 360 degrees.” He said that the virtual reality effect was far better than just viewing something on a flat-screen since you feel like you’re there. It makes things more “emotionally intense.” This perspective highlights the greater sensory stimulation, compared to a typical 2-dimensional music video.
“Creating visual narratives that were interactive and could respond to Donald’s performance — as well as audience mood and energy — was an amazing opportunity,” said Keith Miller, visual effects supervisor of the project. Donald Glover and the Microsoft VR production team thought of utilizing virtual reality technology to create several separate narratives that ultimately add to the whole experience. There are multiple narratives going on simultaneously that streamline into one larger narrative. The song itself speaks a narrative, using Glover as a medium. The 360-degree motion graphics and light effects create a visual narrative.
It improves upon the immersive experience of a music video. It has auditory and visual narrative just like a normal music video, but it expands upon the use of your senses. Instead of seeing a one-dimensional image, the audience gets to create their own narrative by exploring the 3-dimensional visual. The 3-dimensional functionality improves the experience of this media, making it much more than a novelty. The use of VR technology in music videos has grown exponentially since 2016.
Childish Gambino’s introduction of animation, music, and virtual reality into his recent projects allows for the creation of a new main-stream platform to enjoy music. VR inclusion in the music industry brings music closer to people, by letting consumers not only listen but even become part of the video itself. It also provides innovative advertising opportunities. Artists could utilize VR in a similar method to Pokémon Go. Perhaps instead of searching for in-game characters, fans could search for exclusive content. Lastly, it creates better listening and viewing experiences for fans. A musician could perform a show in front of millions of fans all over the globe without ever leaving the studio. All of this made possible by combining forms of digital media.
