Incredibly, a single has topped the British hit parade for the grand total of four weeks. Gone are the heady days in which the country’s ears were held hostage by Bryan Adams, or Wet Wet Wet – each for more than three months. Both were movie songs, and gone too, are the days of the all-dominating cinema soundtrack. Mamma Mia, the recent Abba movie musical, will undoubtedly do well – but this is really a West End show, akin to Rocky Horror. The song’s the thing. People sing and dance in the aisles, merrily abandoning the last vestiges of civilisation; they party together like animals, singing their communal song. Such is the herd instinct triggered by the Abba revival, that some plexes have put on sing-a-long versions to ring fence the worst offenders.
Once, names like Stiltskin and Babylon Zoo were launched by the Jewish jeans titan, Levi Strauss – now that avenue has been torn asunder by the mighty information superhighway, home to musical acts both real and imagined. Genre revivals aside, what is the Next Big Thing? Surely, it must be some form of visualisation, magic eye versions of music – the 3-D, Imax revolution wrought across today’s trendy popsters. Virtual concerts, where Bono (shiver) sweats, sings and shades right in your home. As we wear 3-D glasses, perhaps we will don aural adapters, transforming music into an all-consuming experience more akin to the lotus than the note.
On a simpler level, people may create music collaboratively in live environments; club-goers may be equipped with sensors that monitor their movements and translate into a personal soundtrack. Touch a button and network with a fellow mentalist, and upgrade the experience – it will sound terrible, but no-one will mind.
All thoughts welcome.
News hour, with Jerry Caesar 