Multimedia Concerts: New Art Philosophy of Essence Over Pop Culture Reality

It used to be that listening or watching an iconic album or movie in ways we always remember them was enough of a joyful experience without needed enhancements. Of course, a lot of them were enhanced in the last two decades with the advent of the CD and DVD--yet we still accepted the album and movie for what it was, no matter how many times they may have been over-marketed or overplayed in our CD or DVD players. Then somewhere along the line, something happened that made parts of the populace arguably get burned out on seeing the same classic movies and albums over and over again in repackaged forms.

Now, if you talk enthusiastically to someone about seeing "Star Wars", listening to a classic Beatles album or viewing "The Wizard of Oz" for the umpteenth time, the response will be similar to the kind you'd get if you announced you just went to the bathroom, drank a glass of water or took a breath of air.

Despite all the money those above and other pop culture classics continue to make, there's only so much that could or can be done in marketing them to seem fresh again to a public who thrive off new artistic stimuli. Even the Blu-Ray era can only elevate excitement levels moderately when most people can still recite every scene or line from the earlier-mentioned examples. It seems The Beatles themselves were on to that a while ago and realized that a 13-album arc of their career just isn't enough to keep the appreciation of their music fresh in the minds of both aging and young generations.

According to reports, it was the seemingly more astute Beatle, George Harrison, who initially went to Cirque du Soleil's Guy Laliberté to brainstorm on a unique project celebrating The Beatles' music and video catalog. Back then, the closest thing seen to a multimedia event putting a pop culture icon in a new light was a limited-run show of Elvis where original members of his band performed live while big-screen images of the Vegas-era Elvis were projected to thousands of fans. Through that method, fans of the King of Rock n'Roll reported that it felt as if Elvis was actually there and gave off more of a majestic essence to the man and performer.

Yes, you can say that this multimedia experience more or less gave a big shot in the arm to a myth.

And it's those bigger than life myths that keep some of the most iconic artists and movies thriving, with the Beatles right in tow. While I wasn't alive and kicking yet when The Beatles broke up, my generation and every subsequent generation looked at them through that quasi 60's fantasy, hence placing them on some other plane of existence. For those around when The Beatles were still together, it seems that myths eventually permeated their own minds, perhaps as a way to deal with the reality that they couldn't recall the 60's well as the stale saying goes.

Once Cirque Du Soleil debuted their multimedia phantasmagoria "Love" in 2006, The Beatles were digested in a new way that upheld the myths: Bigger than life, a cacophony of their songs stuck in everybody's subconscious and the band's entire career arc tied up in the usual Cirque Du Soleil ambiance of high art.

It shouldn't be any surprise then why all other classic pop culture was taken through the multimedia experience in touring shows to help elevate them to a place that assuages the minds of the masses.
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Through the 2000's, progressed technology allowed more shows in this vein such as a multimedia tribute show to Frank Sinatra in the early 2000's (using a life-sized and rotoscoped 50's Sinatra on an on-stage screen to mimic him being there live) that some people thought rivaled the majesty of a real Sinatra concert in life. As of this writing, the promotions are on for another pop culture enhancement tour starting this fall of "Star Wars: In Concert", this time with a live orchestra playing segments of John Williams' score while multimedia images from all six movies flash on hi-def screens. An unsurprising trade show goes with it in the lobby.

You can also call out the recent limited tours of "The Wizard of Oz" utilizing a live orchestra playing the score with a screening of the movie. Don't be surprised if you see an eventual multimedia show put together celebrating the essence of "Oz" once watching the movie on TV or DVD becomes as taken for granted as getting a cup of coffee. That's probably already happened as a multimedia show goes into development.

Within the psychology of American culture, it's indicating we have a predilection to build up celebrated pop culture to their core essence rather than taking them at literal value. It makes pop culture more exciting and borders on a new art movement that could only be labeled as....well, cerebral impressionism. Once too much literal and critical analysis is applied to an ungarnished piece of media, the flaws start showing too much, which only puts a damper on our childhood remembrances of some of them. Childhood memories of certain movies and music are sometimes impressionistic anyway, ultimately making this direction for us an evolutionary art movement rather than forced by other trends.

You might say that Blu-Ray is already an in-progress extension of it when features in said format provide new ways to view the film--e.g. superimposed video commentaries while you watch the film as just starters. But we seem to be on a horizon where few will want to watch our classic pop culture media in the original way and want to spend more time seeing them instead through a kaleidoscopic multimedia filter. That might mean bad news for traditional formats, yet it's a given more touring shows using this format for everything classic will keep being produced in the coming decade.

Then we'll have an art crisis on our hands when detractors of this format accuse the adherents of clouding reality with impressionism. After that, we'll have to deal with studies into whether those who escaped into the blurred essence of past pop culture are essentially happier and more of an artistically refined segment of the American population.

References:

http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/love/default.aspx

http://www.starwarsinconcert.com/#