What do you do when your favorite band is no longer around? Nothing beats seeing the original performers on stage, but when that is simply not possible do you watch a show at home? YouTube is the holy grail of old shows and hard-to-find live performances. You can find just about anything on there, including rare video footage of performances that are decades old and personally recorded. If you cannot find it on YouTube, Amazon and eBay have concert DVDs that you cannot find anywhere else. But what if you want to experience it in person? Do you seek out a cover band to get your fix? Or dare I say-- attend a holographic concert event?
Unfortunately, over time, we will lose more artists. The art that they created will remain, but it's our duty to keep the spirit of a band or artist's music alive. I'm all for cover bands. They do their job of recreating the sound of a band and making it their own. Then they deliver that sound to people who are wanting to hear it. If you're playing in a cover band, great! You're already doing your job, and thank you for doing it. If you aren't in a cover band, please pass the music on down to your children. Take them as well as yourself to the shows. Expose your friends to the music you know about but that they have "never heard before." They need to hear it. The radio is simply not enough, nor has it ever been, IMO. The radio may play all the old hits, but how often do people listen to the radio? And for how long? And if it's a severely underrated band or artist (I know thousands of them), they may get little to no airplay.
Cover bands make it possible for us to hear those old tunes that would otherwise remain unheard. I think it's important for cover bands to exist, so future generations can experience "that old sound" of a band or artist that so many others did before them. Not just future generations, but our current generation wishes they could have seen live acts dating back to the '50s. Many of us missed out on Woodstock, Elvis Presley, and the Beatlemania craze. We certainly learned about it though through told stories and by reading about it. There is also, of course, video footage, which I'm grateful for. We do have Elvis impersonators. But how about seeing the real Elvis but in another form?
So far there have been hologram tours of Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Tupac, Buddy Holly, and Roy Orbison. I have mixed feelings about these hologram tours. On one hand, it is terrific that these artists are celebrated and enjoyed by those who love them and want the live experience. It also keeps the music alive. However, I watched the Billboard Music Awards hologram performance of Michael Jackson and found it a little unnerving. His facial expressions looked unnatural. I felt like I was staring at a human-robot the entire time. Now, I realize it is not easy to perfectly digitalize someone's face. From what I understand, his body was taken from old video footage and used for this performance. It was just the facial expressions that were altered. Everything else looked fine. Below is the video.
Here's a clip from a Roy Orbison hologram tour:
The Roy Orbison performance looked better to me because the singer's face was more natural. Someone on YouTube said you could see through him, which you very well can, but it is a projection. I thought the projection came through well enough to capture Roy Orbison in full form. Somebody else on YouTube said the show was much better in person in terms of sound and atmosphere. You're basically watching the live film footage of a singer that you would find on a DVD or YouTube. The difference is that it's in a live setting. It may feel more like a concert for some if they experience it in person. Hologram concerts are not for everyone. This whole thing might be too unsettling for some, while it might be a worthwhile experience for others.
For the most part, these hologram tours are well constructed. I felt sad at times watching them on YouTube because I knew the singers were not there. It also felt kinda eerie at times watching them, and I imagine even more so being there... Perhaps you get used to that though during the show. The music being loud and the venue full of good energy may take some of that eerieness away. Some people on YouTube thought it was disrespectful to the artists and that their legacy should be left alone. I get that but at the same time, it is giving people the chance to "see" these performers live if they never got to. These hologram tours are a way for our current and future generations to get more of a live concert experience rather than just watching these artists at home. Personally, I'd rather pop in a DVD or watch an old gig on YouTube. But I would be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to attend at least one of these events.
I'm sure there will be new bands and artists for future generations to enjoy as well as cover bands. But I think with the advances in technology that there is much more to come from these "live" holographic events. These three-dimensional light projections have opened new frontiers for live music and aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
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