Hologram Resurrections Won’t Stop with Tupac

Coachella was just the beginning.

The estates of Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Jim Morrison, and Jimi Hendrix are entering an arms race over the possibilities of generating their own holographic concert tours to cash in on the buzz that Tupac’s posthumous revival garnered earlier this summer.

People tend to respond to ghost sightings with psychotic breakdowns, or a neatly plotted series of epiphanies about life and death in the spirit of old Ebenezer Scrooge. But now it seems they are willing to pay cold hard cash to be haunted by the nostalgia of history’s most iconic entertainers.

Tupac wasn’t the first artist to perform from the grave. Who could forget Elvis’ passionate 2007 duet with Celine Dion on American Idol? Of course that was done using a body double and a technique known as “rotoscoping,” not the hologram technology developed by Digital Domain, who will also revive Elvis for his upcoming tours.

Elvis and Celine perform “If I Can Dream.”

There is something unsettling about the lengths people will go to profit from the dead, especially given how “realistic” these holograms are and how they can blur the threshold of reality. Just think of the intuitive way Tupac greeted the crowd: “What the F**** up, Coachella?!” (Coachella wasn’t even around until seven years after his death). Additionally, all of the above mentioned artists have one common denominator: Their deaths captivated the nation with a collective gasp of sorrow and paranoia that still fuels a vortex of conspiracy theories to this day, which likely says something about our obsessions.

Regardless of where you stand on the moral and ethical implications of this technology, there is no doubt that this new meme has the potential to restructure the way the audience consumes entertainment. The verdict is still out on whether this new fad will fizzle like ghost hunting shows, Charlie Sheen, and the Mayan calendar, or if it will create a new ballpark for the artist.

Coachella may have been for thrills, but the hologram technology can very well introduce a whole new generation to the work of deceased artists. But that’s just scratching the surface. Even artists who are still alive can utilize it by producing concerts without leaving their studios. These “micro” concerts can distribute their content at a discounted price for the audience (though it’s probably not financially feasible at this point), and raise the premium on actual live shows.

Eventually, like most technology, it may enter the consumer market and allow individuals to download (at a cost) performances of musicians both dead and living, and host their own concerts from the comfort of home. Think of the traffic your next wine tasting could generate if it’s headlined by the Red Hot Chili Peppers!

Music wouldn’t be the only medium of entertainment to be affected by holograms. Could you imagine Bruce Lee co-starring in the Expendables 3? Or Johnny Depp on the screen with James Dean?

But again, that’s thinking small. Mark Hamill once said that if “there were a way to make movies without actors, George Lucas would do it,” and this technology might eventually revolutionize the acting profession as we know. It’s reminiscent of Al Pacino’s S1mone, where he plays a film producer desperate for a hit who digitally creates an overnight sensation. Think of a customizable, aesthetically appeasing, skillfully flawless, egoless, triple threat star, who can act,sing, dance, perform his/her own stunts and never age. Sounds like a wet dream for George Lucas.

Of course, much of this is pure speculation, and hologram technology is still in its nascent stage of development. It could very well dissipate and be rendered into a cheap gimmick used to lure gamblers to roadside casinos. Only fools rush in according to Elvis, but money is a smoldering temptress.