Remediated Beatlemania

Every time I see the Beatles' Ed Sullivan performance I get goosebumps. I completely empathize with the girls screaming and crying for John, (especially John) Paul, George and Ringo. My love for the Beatles is a good example of Bolter and Grusin's remediation. Remediation is a term that captures the constant “oscillation” between “transparent immediacy” and “hypermediacy”.
In Remediation, Bolter and Grusin claim that this desire for immediacy is the creative impulse that is constantly developing new media forms. Transparent immediacy occurs when the user is completely immersed in the media experience, the media attempts to be invisible. In hypermediacy a person is completely aware of the media, they are actually using the media to generate the experience.
I was born after the Beatles broke up. I had no chance to experience them with any sort of immediacy. My encounters were through technology, radio, and the cassettes I patiently taped during an all day marathon of Beatles A to Z on KZPS. I collected pictures, books and calendars, pretty much anything I could get my hands on. Best Christmas ever-I got the all the Beatles albums on vinyl. (Even in 1986 that was a bit retro as I only had a cassette player and had to get a buddy to record them for me) Just as in the wider culture of media, each thing I bought every film I went to promised to "reform its predecessors by offering a more immediate or authentic experience." Watching "A Hard Days Night" is more immediate than just listening to them on your stereo or looking at pictures. In some ways it was even better than seeing them in concert, no screaming girls, and in the dark theater a person could get to know them in a new, intimate way. When the "Beatles Museum" came to Dallas, it was a hypermediated experience. I could sit in a recreation of The Cavern Club and watch the band's performance on a screen. While I was completely aware that it was not The Cavern, but an installation in the West End, and obviously it was a screen not the band in person, it was still a fun experience. In no way was I unaware of the media being used, but I was enjoying my experience because of the media.

When looking at the history of the Beatles they seem to have a uncanny ability to impact and utilize media to its fullest ability. From their early recordings that capture the live energy of their Hamburg and Cavern gigs, history-making performances on television to innovative films that are still admired for their editing and pace, the Beatles were constantly creating new ways for their fans to connect and experience their work. Even over 30 years after their break up and the death of half their members, the Beatles are still evolving and generating new encounters. On 9.9.9 they released remastered versions of their albums and the long-awaited, much anticipated Beatles Rock Band. Seth Schiesel of the New York Times opines:

"The Beatles: Rock Band is nothing less than a cultural watershed, one that may prove only slightly less influential than the band’s famous appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964. By reinterpreting an essential symbol of one generation in the medium and technology of another, The Beatles: Rock Band provides a transformative entertainment experience."

There has been much discussion in the music and gaming industries about the impact of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Both games create a strangely immersive experience. Its hard to explain why pushing buttons on a little plastic guitar while staring at a television screen can be exhilarating. But it is. Part of it is the concentration required to actually play the game and succeed, the reward for success is not only a good score but the roar of the crowd in the game. The better you play, the louder they scream. For me its zen-like, as allowing your mind to wander will surely cause you to miss a note. Conversely while you are playing, the graphics on the screen simulate your band performing at a rock show. Just as a real rock concert is a hypermediated experience, the game creates another hypermediated performance. Its complete remediation. A constant movement between total absorption and awareness of the circumstances creating the experience. The New York Times says:

"It is an imperfect analogy, but listening to a finished song is perhaps like being served a finished recipe: you know it tastes great even if you have no sense of how it was created. By contrast, playing a music game like Rock Band is a bit closer to following a recipe yourself or watching a cooking show on television. Sure, the result won’t be of professional caliber (after all, you didn’t go to cooking school, the equivalent of music lessons), but you may have a greater appreciation for the genius who created the dish than the restaurantgoer, because you have attempted it yourself. "

Of course, there are people who get angry and say "Stop wasting your time with a silly game and learn to play the guitar for real!" I kind of agree with them, but no matter how much I practice I will NEVER be able to play Stevie Ray Vaugh's Texas Flood. (But I did score 90% correct on Guitar Hero and that WAS awesome.) What they are missing is that playing the game creates a new appreciation of the original media. Just as previous released versions of Rock Band, have given new generations an appreciation of classic rock. Beatles Rock Band will create new generations of remediated Beatlemaniacs. I haven't bought my own personal version of the game, there's that whole "graduate school" and "work" thing getting in the way. But eventually it will have to happen and my heart may actually burst with satisfaction when I play the Abbey Road Suite.