Musicology

This week marked the 13th year (Martens, 2012) of Coachella Music Festival, one that has seen many of the world’s greatest all time musicians and groups give historical performances in the music industry. A perfect platform to display ever evolving technology in music, this year marked an incredible historical event - a resurrection. Tupac Shakur, who has been dead since 1996 (Montgomery, 2012) was immortalised during the performance of Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre using 19th century visual effects (Markham, 2012). The performance has sent twitter and facebook a flutter with fans of rap, fans of technology and fans of the amazing clicking the share button sending it viral (Dawson, 2012). The sheer magnificence of the concept really got me thinking about famous and historical musical performances.

When talking about historical music performances, the Beatles really shine through. In June 1966 the Beatles finally made is to Japan, after being delayed by a hurricane, the group finally made it to their Japanese tour. The tour was noted as one of the 50 key events in the history of world and folk music (Lewis, 2011) and their performances were referred to as the Beatles Hurricane by the Japanese media.

Possibly one of the greatest live musical moment in the history of the Beatles (and even in the history of rock and roll), is the Beatles performance of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" on American variety show "The Ed Sullivan Show" (Rybazsewski, 2009). The 1964 performance was the bands breakthrough into the US, and the start of "Beatlemania" (Stuart, 2000):

While the recording of the performance immortalises the band in their prime, I wonder if Beatles fans would be happy to go to a Paul McCartney gig and have Ringo join him on stage, with holographic representations of John and George? Does the appeal of the technologically enhanced performance only appeal to a certain age and genre? Fourtwozer0 and DDraig seem to think the full Fab Four will be with us in no time:

Fourtwozer0 says:  "THIS IS CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!! how much longer til The Beatles are touring again?" (2012)

DDraig says: "yeah the Tupac one was proper mad, we'll have the Beatles touring again soon!" (2012)

Time will tell if it was a once off extravaganza, or if it will take off and we will soon be able to see our favourite dead musicians. The Fab Four may walk among us again!

References

Dawson, J (2012, April 17) Tupac Shakur Hologram Full Performance: Tupac Goes On Tour (Video). Long Island Press.com. Retrieved from http://www.longislandpress.com/2012/04/17/tupac-shakur-hologram-full-performance-tupac-goes-on-tour-video/

Lewis, J (2011, June 16)The Beatles Tour Japan and inspire group sounds. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jun/16/beatles-tour-japan-inspire-group-sounds
Markham, R (2012, April 18) Tupacs Coachella Hologram: How it Works. MTV News. Retrieved from http://rapfix.mtv.com/2012/04/18/tupac-coachella-hologram-how-it-works/

Martens, T (2012, April 15) Despite Weather, fans get into spirit of Coachella. LA Times. Retireved from http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/15/local/la-me-0415-coachella-news-20120415

Montgomery, J (2012, April 17) Tupac's Coachella Hologram And The Rise of the Not-So Live Revue. MTV News. Retrieved from http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1683238/tupac-coachella-hologram-.jhtml

Montgomery, J (2012, April 17) Tupac's Coachella Hologram And The Rise of the Not-So Live Revue. MTV News. Retrieved from http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1683238/tupac-coachella-hologram-.jhtml