Soon After Movies, Now Music Takes On 3D

Justin Bieber during a concert that would've probably been much better if viewed in 3D

As soon as 3D technology was perfected, 3D movies started playing in cinemas. James Cameron’s Avatar was among the first movies to offer an outstanding and completely different experience from anything you’d ever seen before. Because it proved successful in movies, 3D was adapted to TV as well. Manufacturers like LG, Sony or Samsung soon picked up the pace and started releasing a large number of 3D TVs. Gaming soon followed and soon enough we’ll get to see a huge number of titles on the market, all boasting 3D technology. The next in line to adopt 3D is the music industry.

The nice thing about 3D is that it offers an “as if you were here” type of experience which proves invaluable when it comes to concerts or pretty much any other live event. That’s probably why Justin Bieber as well as the Black Eyed Peas are planning to release 3D movie concerts, the Associated Press reports. The music video for Shakira’s World Cup anthem, “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” also had a version in 3D. And if you were thinking the two artists mentioned before were just an exception, it turns out that even not so well-known artists such as Sia or the Broken Bells are planning to release 3D video clips.

“It’s not the ’80s 3-D, like, the way people think of 3-D. It changes the art form of storytelling. It’s pretty amazing. It’s a whole new freaking jump-off,” said the Black Eyed Peas’ leader Will.i.am. James Cameron, whose movie Avatar was a massive success, believes that 3D’s introduction to the music industry will most likely be received with open arms. “Music videos in 3-D, it’s natural, that’s great,” he said.

Needless to say, concerts would have a completely different appeal if seen in 3D

Yes, we’re slowly heading back to the basics, except, ironically, offering technology that was closer to the way we actually live our lives proved too hard to do until now. Nowadays it’s all about touch screens and three dimensional viewing. While this technology seems extraordinary, judging things a bit more objectively, we’ve been living in a world where we use our fingers and hands to control stuff or where we’ve been seeing things in more than two dimensions since the moment we were born.

Black Eyed Peas’ upcoming project will be produced by Cameron’s production company. According to Will.i.am, 3D music content will completely change the way we watch music videos and concerts. I’ll just go ahead and add that most people don’t have access to 3D friendly technology so far, even though the content is being offered to them, so we’ll have to see how that turns out. Record labels are also aware of what benefits 3D can bring. The senior director at Sony Music International, JeanBaptise Duprieu mentioned that the company will most likely produce a lot of 3D content this year. He added that when he presented Shakira’s “Waka Waka” video to sony employees, they all felt a sense of closeness to the Latin sensation. Their reaction was along the lines of “Wow, we feel so much closer to the artist … and really immersed (in) what’s going on” which is not surprising at all considering the fact that 3D content is so realistic sometimes that you feel like you can actually grab a hold of the people on the screen if you reach out. Obviously, adding 3D to music would result in a more impressive, immersive experience.

But there are plenty of challenges that creators of 3D music videos have to pass, if they want to come up with high quality content. According to James Cameron, 3D music content will be more successful if the clips don’t have too much action gpoing on. “It’s not that 3-D works against you when you cut fast, it’s just that you don’t have time for your eye to lock in 3-D so you’re not getting the value out of it,” he explained “But some music videos are long, sustained takes – so that’s the kind that will work the best.” Duprieu shares this opinion and claims that Sony plans to film 3D content with its classical musicians, including a recent recital with pianist Lang Lang. Because of the depth of 3D, classical music won’t appear static anymore and the 3D technology is capable of significantly enhancing the listener’s experience and connection to the music. It’s quite clear that our future is 3D and we’re bound to see the technology implemented in virtually every field of entertainment. Until every video clip and movie is shot in 3D, let’s just hope that those 3D Tvs manufacturers are currently releasing have a more affordable price tag, so that we can all enjoy the new content.11