Documentary: Before the Music Dies

Before the Music Dies (2006)
Director: Andrew Shapter
Writers: Andrew Shapter, Joel Rasmussen

Although this documentary is not directly related to my thesis, it's a great glimpse of how major music industry has changed.

Focused on the mainstream music industry, the industry has dramatically changed. It is from analog to digital, from radio to MTV, and to Internet, and from global record companies to independent companies.

Music is the emotional identity for human beings. In the old days, when radio is the main platform to distribute music, musicians moved us with their throats, their voice, and instruments. It is their experience that we have connection with that moves us. 



In the 1980s, we reach the age of videos when MTV appears. Visuals dominate music. The music industry began to look for young, good looking faces rather than real music talents. As we reached the 1990s, new technology and Internet creates a whole new platform for musicians. Everyone can produce music at home. It’s easier than the old days that new musicians can promote themselves online and gain exposure. They can do everything on their own. But it is also harder to find the target audience, and vise versa because there are so many musicians out there.

From the current situation we have, I came to conclude three problems we have right now:

• Audience lost their imagination in music due to the appearance of MTV and music videos. 
• The connection and interaction between audience and musicians has been changed as new technology approaches. 
• It’s harder but also easier for a new musician to build his musical identity in the age of Internet.    

Interface and The Role of A Graphic Designer

Another article I read about is "The Rise of the Creative Thing."
http://brandsplusmusic.blogspot.com/2010/05/rise-of-creative-thing.html
http://brandsplusmusic.blogspot.com/2010/06/collaborating-on-creative-things.html

Internet has enormously changed the way music is distributed. In the old days, there was a record holding the music. But the rise of the Internet makes music being copied easily, and costs nothing, or nearly nothing. The old value of producing and composing music has disappeared. Music has to be assigned for a new value. "The product is no longer the music in and off itself. The product is the musician’s story and the experience of being part of it,” said Scooter Braun, who is Justin Bieber’s manager.

In the article, the author suggested that musicians should have at least one of these three approaches:

Personally be able to create more than just music.

Hire people or work with a team who can supplement what they don't/can't do.

Collaborate with artists in other media so that together they create multi-dimensional packages/experiences.

The package of music should be considered as an identity of the music and musician. The package not only refers to the physical one but also the use of multimedia platforms such as music videos, website, or even games.  Neither musicians should do it all to promote themselves or collaborate with developers, or designers to make it happen.

There is Will.I.AM talking about the death of music.

Audience Participation: Super Bowl Halftime Show

Music innovator John Cage once said that music could no longer be seen as something separate and detached from its listeners and from its context. Rather, creating music was a process that initiated by the composer or performer, but completed by the audience.

As technology advanced, performances with spectacular lighting, stereo, and visual effects are common nowadays. But the more I experience it, the more I feel like we are only receivers to these technological platforms. For example, in 2012 Super bowl halftime performance, the special effects of projecting and lights, and performers are spectacular. But there is a one-way direction to the audience. Another Super Bowl halftime performance in 1993 shows different interaction between audience and performer Michael Jackson. In “Heal The World,” audience in the stadium is part of the show. They are given certain color papers so they can lift them up to become the portraits of children. This corresponded to what John Cage’s idea of the performance should be completed by the audience.

Example of Audience Participation

Recently I am researching on the interaction between audience and performers, and I found this wonderful piece. This is so simple, and no matter what kind of music you love, you still can get the idea.

I began to wonder if the visual can do the same thing to trigger audience to be part of the performance. It would be not only audience react to the music and performers, but also create their visual reaction to the whole performance.

Interactive Visual Music Examples

Labuat: Painting A Song    

In2009, Herraiz Soto & Co., an independent creative agency based in Barcelona, created an interactive website “Labuat: painting a song" allowing viewers to draw their own version of the song. 

Ellie Goulding: Lights

It is designed by HelloEnjoy, an interactive studio in Brighton, UK.  At HelloEnjoy, designers believe in creating interactive 3D experiences that are both intuitive and visually engaging.Their goal is to demand very little from the user to reach broader audiences, and at the same time reward them with high-end graphics and aesthetics.

In Lights, the viewer can control the light spot flying faster or changing directions by clicking the mouse. The creative approach was based around the concept of flying over an infinite landscape which reacts to the sound and evolves along with the music. This allows user interaction but also delivers a great experience if the user chooses not to interact.

Placebo: The Never-Ending Why

The Johnny Cash Project


The Johnny Cash Project is a collaborative online project, which allow fans to draw and complete the video. According to the statistics, over 250,000 people from over 170 countries contributed to the project. Although it is a crowdsourcing project, the video is still filled with the same quality. Frames go by very quickly and the color tone maintains black, gray, and white throughout the whole video.

3D Mapping

Disney's Fantasia (1940)

Fantasia is a good example of combining abstract and concrete forms to music. There are eight segments that took from various masterpieces of classical music. The mysterious and playful characters interpret classical music with vivid imagination and movement. It is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions.

• The Nutcracker Suite
• The Rise of Spring
• The Toccata and Fugue