Zombie Rock Stars: The Future of Music

A prediction about how A.I. and holographic tech will transform the entertainment industry

All of the recent talk of A.I. music and images led me to a somewhat disturbing realization. They are going to use A.I. to bring dead rock stars back to life.

Think about it. There’s just way too much money to be made.

How much would you pay to see a concert of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin or Jim Morrison revived in fully holographic form. But not just any concert, a virtual reproduction of their most legendary gigs, accurate down to every detail - Hendrix at the Fillmore East, Morrison’s infamous New Haven performance complete with arrest, Janis Joplin at Woodstock.

And what if they actually played newly released material generated by very convincing A.I., not shitty facsimiles, but stuff that actually sounded like something those artists might have written and recorded.

I genuinely believe this is where we are headed with these new technologies. We have had ‘faux’ holographic tech for years - Tupac, Michael Jackson, Frank Zappa and others have made 2D holographic appearances projected onto a translucent screen. This tech is not truly holographic, they look fake and they’re limited in what they can do. But the tech will inevitably get better, more realistic, difficult to distinguish from reality and eventually a truly interactive 3D hologram will be possible.

If they can do it, they will, and I’m pretty sure we are much closer to such things than people would guess.

A.I. is already producing new music in the style of different artists, it’s not perfect, but we’ve only begun to scratch the surface and it gets exponentially better by the day. Now imagine if 3D holographically projected zombie rock stars could also be programmed by A.I. to interact with the live crowd in real time. . . 

Imagine future collaborations between dead legends, full live and interactive shows, manufactured by a skilled team of ‘zombie artists’ who have turned reanimating dead celebrities into a craft and turned it into a trillion dollar industry. The entire rock and roll hall of fame on tour together. Everyone makes a buck, new generations get to experience the icons of the past, no one gets hurt. Right?

Right???

I mean, how can you hurt the dead? They lived their lives, they left their legacy. Who’s to say that they would find their A.I. created zombie doppelgängers deplorable? Maybe they would be thrilled. Or maybe not. Maybe they’d be rolling over in their graves at the thought of a completely soulless, A.I. generated version of themselves being whored out to the masses for a tidy profit by greedy entertainment conglomerates who never even knew them.

This is just a thought experiment of course. So far, we do not have anything like this happening, at least not on that level. But as I said, if they can figure out a way to do it and make money, I absolutely guarantee that they will. So perhaps we should begin an open discussion about the morality and ethics of such a business venture. The entertainment industry is not exactly known for its high moral standards, they are notorious soul stealers and they will turn anything into their whore if they can find a way.

Of course, it will not just be dead rock stars getting the zombie treatment. 

Literally any famous person from the past could be revived for performances, speaking engagements, movie roles, commercials. . .Actors, writers, painters. . .

Truman Capote will sell you the latest writing app; Humphrey Bogart will star opposite Margot Robbie in a néo-noir reboot of High Sierra; Pablo Picasso will have a Masterclass in Cubist painting; Anthony Bourdain will take you on a tour of 1930’s French cuisine as he shares a meal and a drink with Henry Miller.

You get the drift. An endless barrage of Zombified celebrities selling you the latest iPhone and flooding your news feed with their recent controversies; “Did you hear that holographic James Dean is a right wing MAGA nut?! Oh God No!”. . .Yes, it’s true, they will develop entirely new personalities and lifestyles for the recently reanimated zombie stars and the people who own their likeness will inject their political ideologies into their newly manufactured personas.

If you happen to be one of the elites who can afford it, you could even have your own personal Marylin Monroe or Marlon Brando that lives in your home and is custom programmed to behave in accordance with your every whim.

Once A.I. generated holographic cloning becomes advanced and commonplace enough, these types of abominations will be too tempting for the entertainment industry pimps to resist.

So as you stand in the third row of the 2029 Doors revival concert and Jim yells into the mic “You’re all a bunch of fucking slaves!” you can take solace in the fact that the dead celebrities are also a bunch of slaves, chained and shackled to a digital server behind the curtain. 

No one here gets out alive. . .or dead for that matter.