By Mitch Rice
Theatricality has always played a huge role in music, with the likes of Kiss, David Bowie, and Slipknot all using it in different ways. Now, in the modern entertainment market, there’s the potential to expand on what’s come before and for bands to create their own immersive experience for listeners.
By crossing over with other forms of entertainment and leveraging different forms of tech, theatricality can be a powerful tool for bands to bring fans into a new world.
Modern Acts Have the Opportunity for Entertainment Crossovers
Music may exist as a completely separate medium from films and games, but that doesn’t stop listeners from wanting a story that they can get into. Ever since the emergence of music videos in the 1980s, musicians have been connecting their songs with a narrative.
Now, there’s even more potential for entertainment crossovers beyond the classic music video. Online casino games show how this can be done, with the Huff N Even More Puff Grand slot acting as an interesting example. The game takes an iconic fairytale and modernises it with new ideas, then combines that with the fast-paced gameplay of online slots. In the past, slot machines didn’t have a narrative, but games like this show it’s possible to take players into the world of stories.
The same thing can be done with music now. Today’s bands have the chance to create immersive digital worlds that fans can get lost in. There’s the potential for entertainment crossovers with gaming, where musicians can appear as avatars.
Some bands have shown how they can develop complex lore now, with Ghost famous for having an entire mythology based around their frontman personas. Bring Me the Horizon has also used a lot of visual storytelling and multimedia elements to turn their content into a multi-layered experience, putting this all together into a concert film.
Potential to Create Immersive Worlds for Listeners
Virtual reality is another tool that could soon transform the way people experience music, and bands that have already embraced multimedia and theatricality may be preparing for this. Sleep Token already has a complex mythology that they’ve been developing for years, with each release adding another layer to the story. Indeed, each piece of music they release acts as an offering to an ancient deity called Sleep.
Once VR becomes more commonplace and adopted by musicians, bands like Sleep Token can use it to expand on what they’ve already created. Listeners could be transported into the world of the songs, where they get to take part in giving the offerings to Sleep themselves. Other bands that rely on theatricality could leverage VR as well, offering it as a means of discovery, with fans diving in and potentially looking around for new content.
Aside from being able to blend with other forms of entertainment with crossovers, the rise of theatricality in recent years could be due to mystery. To stand out in a saturated market, some musicians are turning to anonymity and creative costume designs to spark interest and get people talking.
Data and information are provided for informational purposes only, and are not intended for investment or other purposes.
