Unpacking the Phenomenon: How Gorillaz Navigate Convergence in the Music Industry

GORILLAZ | A CASE STUDY IN CONVERGENCE 

ANSHUMAN ARYA 15993 AD1112

SUBMISSION CODE: PR

WORD COUNT: 2100

DATE: 25/01/2013

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Introduction

Technological Convergence in the Creative Media Industry has not just emerged over the last couple of decades, but it is the result of progressive development in each technological sphere of digital media over a longer period of time.

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, the phenomenon involving the

interlocking of computing and technological companies, telecommunications networks, and content providers from the publishing worlds of newspapers, magazines, music, radio, television, films, and entertainment software, is called Media Convergence.

It brings together the “three Cs”—computing, communications, and content-- that form its basis.

It all started taking shape in the 1960s and 1970s, and in 1979, Nicholas

Negroponte of MIT, looking for funding from executives for his research,

predicted that three spheres, namely “Broadcast and Motion Picture Industry,”

“Computer Industry,” and “Print and Publishing Industry” would overlap

completely by the year 2000.

To quote Pool from his groundbreaking book “The Technologies of Freedom”:

"The explanation for the current convergence between historically separated modes of communication lies in the ability of digital electronics. Conversation, theatre, news and text are all increasingly delivered electronically ... electronic technology is bringing all modes of communications into one grand system."

By the year 2000, the terms mentioned above had been chiselled into

"Interactive News," "Virtual Reality," "National Data Highway," "Info on

Demand" and "2-Way TV."

Such terms were coined through a revolution that was spreading fast across technologically competent nations at that time, involving massive technological and communications breakthroughs such as the omnipresent Internet, which has brought about a new, widespread expanse of content creation, consumption and distribution.

There have been quite a few examples in the music industry recently in which artists have used various formats and platforms to spread their message.

Bjork’s Biophillia, for instance, was partly recorded on the iPad and released in a series on Apps on the App Store, as a first ever app album.5 Beck is another example, who released a 20 song sheet music book called Song Reader in December 2012. These 20 songs can be played by piecing together the sheet music and then playing it through their website.

This new level of fan participation, interaction and immersion into an artist’s work, and how technology and digital media makes their work more accessible to the audience, is the focus of this paper, with the virtual band Gorillaz as a case study.

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The Concept

The brainchild of former Blur frontman Damon Albarn, animator Jamie Hewlett and his design company Zombie Flesh Eaters, Gorillaz are the self-proclaimed world’s “first virtual hip-hop group,” comprised of four animated characters that serve as a facade for the bands’ primary musicians as well as an extended network of collaborating musicians, DJs and producers.

Ever since their outset with the release of their eponymous album in early

2001, the creators have put a great emphasis on digital media platforms to

reach out to its fans, and their website and online fan forum became a vital

force in their early success. Through their website, 7 which went live in late

2000, they were able to tell the story of these four virtual band members and

their cartoon world in great detail.

This includes the music, music videos and animatic episodes of the band members, which form the main body of the story, supplemented by games based in the virtual world, interviews with virtual and real band members/collaborators, latest news clips, concert footage, fan remixes of the songs, etc.

Members of the Gorillaz Sub Division fan club could access exclusive material and discounts on the website. The website was designed using Macromedia Flash and Shockwave web design programs to giving it a more graphical interface, such that the user experience felt as though they were inside the fictional Kong Studios, where the band resides, and could visit various parts of the studios and interact with the elements presented therein.

Through the course of their career, they released long-form DVDs, which followed a similar ethos and had collated content from the website such as games, short animated clips called “Gorilla Bites”, music videos and promo videos.

This new media format provided them with an immediate broadcasting board that could facilitate instant communication with the audience, giving the audience an unprecedented ability to react to or shape the content, or even in some cases provide content themselves in the form of fan-fiction, fan-art, or remixes of Gorillaz’s music and videos, which would all be presented on the website.

Most importantly, the interactivity provided by the website allowed the

user to choose their level of immersion, i.e. control over the content.

Interestingly, Albarn and Hewitt did not stop at just creating a virtual band and producing music for it, but they also tried to incorporate the virtual band members into the live shows since the first time they took to the stage.

For their first show in 2001 at the London King’s Cross Scala, Albarn performed with a group of session musicians, some of whom would become permanent fixtures on the line-up, behind a screen that showed animations of the virtual members, occasionally dropping shadows of the live musicians on the screen.

Riding on the success of chart topping tracks “Clint Eastwood” and

“19/2000,” 12 the Gorillaz played various venues across England, Europe, and

North America in a similar style, but what Albarn and Hewitt were looking for was total interaction between the live band and the virtual band on stage.

Alas, technology was not keeping up with their imaginations.

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Cyberperformance

After the release of their second full-length album, Demon Days, in 2005, the

Gorillaz were nominated for various awards, with their new single Feel Good

Inc. winning them Grammy and MTV VMA awards.

A year later, Gorillaz released their autobiographical extravaganza in the form of a 300-plus page book called Rise of the Ogre to prove how serious they were about their virtual band concept, as the book deals with the virtual members in an interview format, aided with a plethora of graphic art to make the story lively and interesting.

On the flipside of things, a documentary called Bananaz was released in 2009, which showcases the lives of the creators through 2000 to 2006 and serves as a behind-the-scenes of the animations, art and music of the Gorillaz.

In late 2005, Gorillaz played live at the Manchester Opera House and released the show as a DVD called Demon Days Live in early 2006. One of the highlights of this show was the on-screen projection of Ibrahim Ferrer, a Cuban singer who had collaborated with Gorillaz on the song Latin Simone and had passed away earlier that year.

The projection was ethereal in a way as the screen showed a recording of him singing the song in the studio for the self-titled album, which was synced with the live performance of the rest of the band.

Earlier that year, at the MTV Europe Awards in Lisbon, they entered into a

new realm of holographic projection and took a step closer to their initial vision for the band. The same was done on a larger scale at the 2006 Grammy Awards, during which the virtual band performed a version of their song “Feel Good Inc.” intertwining with Madonna’s Hung Up.

Both these live events were made possible by the Musion Eyeliner Technology, which is the same that recently resurrected the deceased rapper 2pac on stage as a hologram at Coachella 2012.

According to the Eyeliner 3D website,

“the setup is erected in either a bespoke cabinet or a self contained four legged ground support. Alternatively, the foil can be stretched into a truss framework and flown from its own hanging points. In either configuration, Eyeliner allows for a full working stage or set to be constructed behind the foil. In so doing live actors or performers, as well as virtual images are able to interact with other projected images in such a way that it appears to the watching audience that all of the objects they are seeing are in stage.”

This technology relies on manipulating the perception of the audience (at the venue and at home) into making them believe as if the virtual characters are on stage, and the way this particular Grammy Awards show was orchestrated made it look like the virtual members were in sync with Madonna and the rappers, De La Soul, who charged onto stage in flesh and blood.

The catch here was that all the gestures and animations in this performance by the virtual band were pre-recorded and synced with a virtual Madonna, who was pre-recorded as well, for the part during which she interacted with the band.

The real Madonna, looking exactly like she had in her virtual avatar,

appeared on the second stage as the virtual band continued its theatrics on

the other stage. In an interview, Jamie Hewlett was asked why the 3D Gorillaz tour that was announced on the official website was abandoned.

He responded that it would be a logistical nightmare, considering the technologies available to bring to life such a tour were not in place, and also, even if they were, there were far too many variables involved, such as high running costs and fine technical difficulties, in pulling it off smoothly.21

It was soon after this that the Gorillaz started conceptualizing their third full length album Plastic Beach, and once again they utilized new media practices to take their concept a step further.

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The Apple Age

With their new album released in 2010, Gorillaz went on an all out Escape to

the Plastic Beach World Tour with a strong line-up including former members of The Clash, Mick Jones and Paul Simonon. This live set-up was similar to their earlier live shows with the live band on stage and the virtual band projected as two-dimensional animations on screens.

During the tour, Damon Albarn was introduced to the use of an Apple iPad as a music making tool, mostly utilizing existing apps such as Soundthingie, Moog Filatron, Cleartune and Korg iElectribe to name a few.

While on the American leg of the tour, this led to the production of a brand new album called The Fall, which used the iPad as a central hub and was later released for free at the end of the same year through their website.

It was another addition to their list of many “firsts” as the first iPad album, and this lead to the development of a brand new beat box app in collaboration with Korg and Apple, in the form of the Korg iElectribe Gorillaz app.

This innovation in music production allowed fans and enthusiasts to remix The Fall on the fly and make their own tunes exploiting the sound banks and

grooves from the album, which were all playable through a very

“Gorillazesque” GUI, based on the original Korg iElectribe app.

Across their career, spanning 10 years at this point, Gorillaz had built up an

enviable reputation for digital leadership. In order to promote their new album, EMI/Gorillaz partnered with Matmi New Media Design Ltd., which resulted in the reception of the 2011 Big Chip Award for Best Online Brand Development as well as becoming an Official Honouree at the Webby Awards.

Using Adobe Flash and Unity 3D engines, Matmi and Gorillaz designed an advert-game called “Escape to the Plastic Beach” for the iPad, leading to and promoting the new album.26 This venture sought to enhance their already phenomenal digital presence and to provide fans with a user-oriented, immersive experience into the new world of the Plastic Beach.

The awards were justified by the facts: the game sold thousands of copies and 2.4 million gameplays worldwide in the first 12 months. It was ascertained that this marketing practice lead to an equivalent of 26 years’ worth of online brand exposure in one year.

To top this, Gorillaz developed what is most likely the first iPhone app

conceived for a single concert, for their show on 16th November 2010 at the

London 02 Arena.

The concept was that fans attending the show could point

their iPhones at markers placed across the floor on the venue and have life size holographic images, related to the show and the Gorillaz cartoon world,

conjured on their screen.

This foray into augmented reality is another first that the Gorillaz can add to

their ever-expanding list of accomplishments. In fact, in an interview with Wired Magazine, Damon Albarn admitted that this technology and it’s use is still very new and he would be more than willing to hear out anyone who has a better idea of how to implement this technology into a live concert.

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Conclusion

Despite certain sources stating that the Gorillaz will soon be no more, Damon Albarn confirmed in an interview with Metro in 201230, that they had worked out their differences and the initial idea of sequels to Plastic Beach might still be possible.3

To prove to their fans that they were not done, Gorillaz collaborated

with Outkast and James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem in 2012 on the single

“DoYaThing”, as part of a promotional venture for a range of Converse Chuck Taylor shoes depicting art from the Gorillaz universe.

Gorillaz is an exemplary model of convergence in its true meaning. Considering the collaborative aspects of the music and art alongside the novel use of technology and digital media that have been instantiated throughout this paper, it is clear that Gorillaz have left no stone unturned in employing the convergent nature of new media platforms to reach out to it’s fans, old and new alike.

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