Transmedia Storytelling, Transcending the Music Festival?

 

Musical festivals possess aspects of Transmedia Storytelling that were unheard of 10 years ago when the newest and best piece of technology was the iPod Nano – it fits in the palm of your hand and holds 1,000 songs. UNBELIEVABLE!

Today, attending the beautiful Splendour in the Grass, isn’t just attending a music festival, like we have come to believe. The entire process from the purchasing of tickets to the actual involvement at the event, that we, as consumers, take part in, is a process that builds the transmedia narrative of the music festival as well as each individual artist that may perform during the 3-day event.

The process of advertising the purchasing of tickets begins as posts online about the line-up and event, itself, which quickly turns into the anxious wait at 9:00am sharp, where you must excuse yourself from your tutorial so you can focus solely on getting your details into the website quick enough and trying not to scream when the ‘ticket allocation has been exhausted’. They must be doing something well, if the tickets sell out in just 8 minutes, right? This is because this music festival is more than just a crowd listening to some amazing songs from their favourite artists, it’s about the experience. An experience which has been created and evolved from Transmedia Storytelling.

At Splendour in the Grass I participated in a free yoga class, directed by a young talent, not many had heard of before. What did I do? I uploaded my experience to Snapchat and posted about it online, where this artist gained recognition from a portion of my friends. The artist gained more listeners at his set, and why might this have been? Yoga. This then leads to potentially more followers online for the artist and Splendour in the Grass because who DOESN’T love a bit of yoga in the North Byron Parklands surrounded by good vibes and even better music?

Transmedia Storytelling is building a brand across by systematically dispersing information across multiple different social media platforms and Splendour in the Grass does this by their active involvement on Facebook and Instagram with video and photo updates, through Twitter hashtag #SITG, with the live experience updates through their Snapchat account ‘Snap in the Grass’, and giveaways and, of course, the real-life aspect of attending the event.

From the active involvement in purchasing tickets, to the online encounters , through to the event and post-Splendour feels (depression), the music festival’s transmedia narrative spirals further into success each year. Competitions are held to win tickets, as well as, this year using the technique of fundraising for Cyclone Debbie victims – all in all, what was this for? Followers. Though, what did we see the Splendour in the Grass crew as? Real, caring people who just wanted to help suffering families. And what did they get? More followers and more ticket sales. This builds on Transmedia Storytelling, and ever-so-intelligently provides them with more attempted ticket-purchasers for their event.

Splendour in the Grass provides a successful example of how their transmedia narrative has developed and continues to do so, across different social media channels and, each year, finds more participants who NEED the music festival tickets. What was your nerve-racking experience which lead you to hyperventilate over the purchase process of Splendour tickets, or was that just me?

Music festivals are more about the experience (source: thoughtcatalogue.com)

 

Evolution of the Band as the Brand

Transmedia storytelling in the music industry, where did it come from and who’s doing it best?

The origins of the approach of dispersing different information across varying platforms dates back to the 1960’s, but nothing like what we see in today’s musical industry. In 1968, if you reached into the front sleeve of the Beatles’ White Album, there were four glossy, high-quality prints – portraits of the stars, George Harrison, John Lennon, Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, something fans could cherish for a lifetime. Something so simple, this was quite possibly the opening chapter of the band’s transmedia narrative.

From the simple additions of hardcopy momentums through to the extreme social media interactions, today, it can easily be seen how drastically transmedia storytelling, in the music industry, has evolved.

1986 brought about a significant transmedia narrative from a group of 5 rappers, known as N.W.A, who released their studio album, which lead them to, in 1988, the release of an award-winning film, Straight Outta Compton, named after their album. Through the police brutality and social-pressures that the 5 black teens were facing, their music was recognised as quite political and controversial, though, they became an incredible success. The film was awarded ‘Best Academy Screenplay’ and acknowledged for recognising the political and racist ordeals which were occurring. N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton has also been somewhat related to the hashtag #blacklivesmatter, which came about in 2014, when two dark men when were killed during encounters with police. The revolutionary film brings about questions regarding the responsibilities of the rap artists in bearing witness to problems which affected their communities, much similar to that of the problems related to the #blacklivesmatter hashtag. Straight Outta Compton and N.W.A’s transmedia narrative lives on, to this day.

Musical talents have a way of subtly intriguing their fans by developing these transmedia narratives, so much so that we don’t even know we’re part of it. Dating back to something, I, myself, might be a little more familiar with, is the immersion of the use of transmedia storytelling in 2008. Flaming Lips, an alternative rock band that, seemingly, revolutionarily released a full-length movie titled Christmas on Mars, although the film was a commercial failure, the appreciation and recognition they received from fans, from directing the feature, sent them flying into the annals of transmedia storytelling history.

Jay-Z, a hip-hop megastar furthered the concept of transmedia storytelling within the musical industry where he released an alternative reality game for his autobiography, Decoded. This was an incredible step towards allowing fans to interact with and understand the work and personal life of the celebrity, through transmedia storytelling. This book was an incredible and intricate piece of art where participants literally decoded the lyrics to his songs to unlock details about Jay-Z’s personal life, where each page of the novel was spread across different locations throughout New York and London, something dedicated fans would be fascinated by. The virtual game gave clues and the fans revealed information allowing them to walk through the artists’ life as it happened. Amazing.

The trail of transmedia storytelling and its eventual inclusion of these concepts into different artists’ work is continuously increasing and improving with each new release. The stage has been set and bar raised higher and higher, specifically for reasonably new star, Childish Gambino, an artist who I am almost too familiar with. Childish Gambino is no stranger to the transmedia storytelling concept, though, as through his release of ‘Awaken, My Love!’, the studio album, it is expected to have accompaniment of a virtual reality film expected to be able to be experienced through a virtual reality headset, sooner rather than later.

I find myself constantly asking where it will ever end, though stay tuned and hopefully I’ll be able to answer my own question next time.

 

The Beatles’ White Album inserts. (source: Why It Matters)

Transmedia Storytelling and the Gorillaz – not the type you find in the wild.

I’m sure when we all think about music and the iconic Gorillaz, we’re slightly unsure about whether this posse is a real-life band or not. I recall sitting in my bedroom many years ago, listening to MTV early on a Saturday morning in an attempt to keep up with the latest and greatest music trends because, of course, I wanted to fit in at school on Monday when everyone was talking about the exciting new tunes they’d heard on the weekend. A music video that never failed to leave a lasting impression on me, at the time, was Gorillaz, ‘Feel Good Inc.’

This concept of a virtual band was something very few people would have seen before. I hated it. I hated how you had no idea who you were really listening to. Who was in the band? Are they even real? Now, through my, what I hope is, maturity, I have realised how amazing and unique this band is, and especially was, in the early years of their collaboration.

Through transmedia storytelling, Gorillaz really turned the concept of a traditional band upside down. This technique can be defined as developing a story experience for viewers and participants across multiple media platforms.  The Gorillaz did this phenomenally. From the formation of the fictional band, to developing an alternative reality game, to websites, to documentaries, to (almost) live appearances. Gorillaz promoted their band in a way like no other.

The fictional band began their transmedia story by presenting their first music video clip, introducing the characters of the band and the roles that they played. They then went on to release their first album. Next came a DVD ‘Phase one: celebrity take down’, this DVD contained music, wallpapers, screen savers and most interestingly of all, a virtual game. The game consisted of the player, a policeman, who had the duty of defending ‘Kong Studios’, which, wait for it… was the virtual studio from the band. After the success of the first DVD release the band went on to produce a second, called ‘Phase two: slowboat to hades’, again, the disk included music, video games, but also live appearances, including one on ‘MTV Cribs’. Meanwhile, the band had also performed shows, one including the (almost) live appearance where the band performed from behind a projector, that displayed their fictional characters. A perfect and unique additive to their transmedia narrative.

From this point onwards, The Gorillaz were evidently actively working on ways to add to their transmedia story. A documentary called ‘Bananaz’ was released about the band, more albums were released and more virtual game series announced.  The transmedia development was never-ending. It is evident today through the Gorillaz Facebook, Instagram and Twitter followers, that the band has been successful. The follow counts and fan numbers are incredible, leaving the artists open to larger success in the future, if and when new promotional media platforms are recognised. “Search for a Star” – another incredible way that Gorillaz enticed their fans to become further involved and interact with them online and in real-time. The band hosted their own talent show, thus finding artists, who were voted on by the public, to collaborate with on future planned albums. The audience interaction was incredible, because, if you’re like me and singing isn’t quite your strongest point, voting for your favourite competitor was just as fun.

Through the success of winning 18 awards including those for best special effects and innovation and selling over 23M albums world-wide, it is safe to say The Gorillaz are using transmedia storytelling successfully. The band allows different entry points for different material to be introduced and for the audience to really get to know the Gorillaz. And I know I would love to enter the weird and wonderful Gorillaz’s universe.

Gorillaz’s 2D screen projection at their sold out Madison Square Garden Concert in 2010. (source: according2g.com)