As many of you know, Tupac’s hologram rocked 2012 Coachella with Dre and Snoop a few weeks ago.
I don’t know exactly where I come down on the fact that he’s a dead artist hologram, but if Snoop or Dre had consulted with me ahead of time, I’d probably have said nahs. It wasn’t particularly entertaining either, musically. Naturally I was intrigued with the technology though, and there was another video describing at least the projection part, if not the reanimating-the-dead part. Honestly I didn’t watch the full thing. Once they showed me the diagram of the projector and then mentioned something about what’s happening in Japan I was done with those two… yupsters? I don’t even know what the fuck you would call those guys.
Yeah, so this technology has already been singing and dancing its way into the hearts and minds of the Japanese via cute anime-style girls (Hatsune Miku & Megurine Luka). The series may not be correct, but there’s a version of this done in the Ghost in the Shell TV series where essentially a computer is the biggest star in Japan. It creates these impressive light and sound shows in real time. Actually, it might be Appleseed. Either way, this is the infant 2012 version of that. I’m not sure I could go to one of these ‘events’, but I do find it entertaining, and the first video below is actually something I would buy an entire album of if it were all that catchy.
UPDATE: Shit just keeps getting nuttier. Originally I thought that while definitely auto-tuned and processed, surely there was a real person singing the songs. Nope. I, for one, welcome our new holographic overlords…
2 responses to “meanwhile in japan…”
movement is a bit strange on tupac, almost like he has had too much caffeine (or speed)
you are right about the music being shit.
i can definitely feel those anime jams though.
it’s a little scary watching thousands of people pump glowsticks in the air to a hologram, and not even a hologram of a dead person but a cartoon….
To be fair, it’s pretty convincing when you consider the fact that he’s dead and it’s a computer generated hologram. The fact that he’s skating around on the stage at times is a bit disconcerting though. My favorite “glitch” is actually at about 2:24 where they threw in the same “yeah” sample twice. Okay, Dead Holographic Tupac… we get it. Calm down.
As scary as it is to watch people pump their hands in the air to a fictional character, it’s less creepy to me than Tupac. I’m more okay with that, than dead Tupac. Also weird is the fact that the Japanese audience appears to be sitting? I’d sit through like, a classical performance, or maybe a slow jam, but not this.