Readers Poll: Ten Artists Who Should Return as Holograms
The big news from Coachella 2012 was the virtual resurrection of Tupac Shakur as a "hologram" during Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg's headlining performances. The image of Shakur that "performed" with Snoop wasn't a true hologram – it was basically an elaborate 2D projection – but the Internet nevertheless ran with the term and we're probably stuck with it. There has been some suggestion that Dr. Dre will eventually take the virtual Shakur on the road, perhaps emboldened by the success of an ongoing concert tour featuring a hologram version of Elvis Presley. It seems like we're bound to see more and more dead stars return to stages as holograms down the line, so we asked you who you'd like to see come back to the stage in this form. Click through to see your picks.
-
10. The Notorious B.I.G.
If Tupac can return as a hologram, why not his rival, the Notorious B.I.G.? It would be shocking if Sean Combs hasn't at least made a few phone calls looking into the logistics of making this happen.
-
9. Bob Marley
Reggae legend Bob Marley has become one of the most iconic figures in all of popular music, so it makes some sense to extend that image to the realm of holography.
-
8. Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson's siblings have made a bit of noise in the wake of the Tupac hologram by suggesting that they would be open to doing a show with a hologram version of their late brother. It's not hard to imagine an arena of people flipping out over watching even a virtual version of Jackson doing his signature moves.
-
7. Janis Joplin
If someone were to make a Janis Joplin hologram, they would have to work damn hard at getting it right, since so much of Joplin's appeal came down to an unpredictable humanity that might not translate well to the world of ones and zeros.
-
6. Jerry Garcia
The Grateful Dead may have ended with Jerry Garcia's death in 1995, but the band has stuck around in the form of splinter bands and, more recently, concert films broadcast in movie theaters. It wouldn't be too surprising if a virtual Jerry popped up one of these days, though the rigid and predictable programming of an effect would go against the loose and groovy ethos of the Dead.
-
5. Jim Morrison
If Jim Morrison should return as a hologram, it might be cool to make the virtual Doors frontman appear as a sort of spectral vision. That just seems much more in line with the style of the band than some bland 3D recreation of the late singer.
-
4. Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury was a larger-than-life figure, so if Queen decides to bring him back as a hologram, they ought to get very literal about that. As in, the faux Freddie should appear to viewers as huge as his astounding voice.
-
3. John Lennon
John Lennon is another star who would be ill-suited to straight 3D representation – he's too wild, too human. That said, it would be amazing if he could be represented as a shared psychedelic vision that blinked in and out of reality as a live band performed along with the projections.
-
2. Kurt Cobain
Part of Kurt Cobain's legacy is the thing in which his fans will scoff, "Ugh, Kurt would've hated that!" at virtually any cheesy thing that's come out since his suicide in 1994. They're probably right almost all of the time – the Nirvana frontman hated a LOT of things. It seems pretty safe to say that Kurt Cobain would've really, really hated a hologram version of himself "performing" years after his death. Nevertheless, enough of you would like to see it that he ended up at Number Two on this list.
-
1. Jimi Hendrix
Guitar god Jimi Hendrix won this poll by a significant margin. It might work really well as a visual, but that hologram would have to be pretty amazing to come close to capturing the effortless soul of the guitarist at his peak.