What is Storytelling?
Storytelling involves telling a story with the aim of enhancing communication.
In the commercial world, it means crafting a story around a product instead of directly highlighting the product’s features. This strategy captures the consumer’s attention rather than bombarding them with sales pitches. Advertising has overused arguments to sell the “best detergent in the world” so much that consumers no longer pay attention. Hence, storytelling aims to emotionally connect with the target audience.
It’s a widely used marketing technique in sales, but it can be applied to many fields, including music.
What’s the Value of Storytelling in the Music Industry?
Thanks to the rise of the internet, it’s now possible to gain recognition as a musician without relying on radio or television. Platforms like Facebook, YouTube, or SoundCloud allow any musician to showcase their work.
Many artists have been discovered on these platforms and are now embarking on international tours.
Unfortunately, simply uploading videos or tracks to these platforms isn’t enough to get noticed. While it’s possible to be discovered by chance, you need to take proactive steps to make it happen. You must stand out with the resources available to you.
Being an “artist” no longer means just composing and performing on stage. You also need to engage and continuously grow your fanbase to expand your audience. The era when artists could focus solely on composing and performing is long gone. Now, you must compose and perform, but also build a community, create a musical and artistic identity, foster a connection with your fans, be consistently present and available, and more.
This is where storytelling comes into play. You need to use it to define your artistic and musical universe. Many artists employ storytelling, and some do so without even realizing it!
Creating a Universe Around a Band or Artist
In this case, storytelling is used to define the artistic universe of a band or artist.
-M-
Take the example of –M–, a character both real and fictional created by Matthieu Chedid. He composes and sings under the pseudonym –M–, a character he invented from scratch.
–M– has his own musical and identity style. For instance, he sports a hairstyle forming an “M” with a lock of hair plastered in the middle of his forehead and two pointed side locks. The character –M– was born following the album *Le Baptême*, marking the start of his story.
Gorillaz
Gorillaz also created an imaginary band based on a comic book universe. Co-founded by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, Gorillaz highlights four fictional characters who share the spotlight. Other characters later joined the Gorillaz story.
When Gorillaz released their first EP, the founders’ identities were unknown. All communication focused on these four fictional characters, which heightened the curiosity of journalists and fans eager to uncover the true origins of Gorillaz.
The entire Gorillaz universe can be explored through their music videos, website, fictional short films, or mock interviews with the characters.
Creating a Universe Around a Work
Storytelling can also be used to define the artistic universe of an album and/or a tour. Often, the two go hand in hand!
Interstellar 5555 by Daft Punk
The most concrete and perhaps one of the most successful examples is the film *Interstellar 5555* tied to Daft Punk’s album *Discovery*.
Daft Punk already has a unique universe with a “hidden” identity, using costumes and helmets to perfect their image and maintain anonymity.
But for the release of *Discovery* in 2001, they took storytelling further by creating an animated film: *Interstellar 5555*. It’s based on all the tracks from the *Discovery* album, builds a universe inspired by famous Japanese manga, and tells the story of several characters.
*Discovery* came out before the internet boom, when ways to reach a broad audience and capture attention were more limited. *Interstellar 5555* was a true artistic and marketing feat! It garnered massive visibility, propelling Daft Punk into the spotlight! Here’s an excerpt from *Interstellar 5555*, which is actually the music video for *One More Time*.
I’m Happy by Pharrell
Another well-known example is the 24 one-hour music videos that, when combined, create a full day of happiness with Pharrell’s song *I’m Happy*.
In themselves, the 24 one-hour videos aren’t a technical marvel, but the idea is what matters. Creating 24 one-hour videos had never been done before! Plus, each video involves dozens of people, allowing fans to feel closer to their favorite artist! If you look closely, some are talented dancers, while others are less so. 😉
We could mention dozens of other artists, like Michael Jackson, who was a pioneer with his short film serving as the music video for *Thriller*. A commonplace today, but in 1983, it was completely new and unexpected! In fact, this video is still considered one of the best music videos of all time!
Storytelling for Composing
Storytelling can also be used in the musical composition of a song or even an entire album. A work always tells a story, so why not take your writing process further!
The Wall by Pink Floyd
It’s impossible not to mention Pink Floyd’s *The Wall*, one of the first concept albums addressing isolation and its mental consequences on humans. *The Wall* is accompanied by a 1982 cinematic work using the album’s music as its sonic universe.
Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchell
There’s also Anaïs Mitchell’s concept album *Hadestown*, which retells the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in a folk opera.
She drew inspiration from the opera of the same name and adapted it into an album featuring several guest artists. Each plays a character from ancient Greece. You’ll find Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Ani DiFranco, or Greg Brown taking on the roles of Orpheus, Persephone, and Hades.
The Suburbs by Arcade Fire
Arcade Fire’s third album, released in 2010, is structured to tell a story about a suburban rebellion. The tracks evoke daily life in North American residential suburbs and are inspired by the youth of several band members. According to Les Inrocks, the album also stems from an old science-fiction screenplay imagined by Win Butler and a friend, which was never produced.
[…] *The Suburbs*, a title inspired by an unproduced sci-fi film that Win and his childhood friend planned to write about a war between two rival suburbs. […] When Arcade Fire’s frontman watched Chris Marker’s *La Jetée*, the memory of his abandoned screenplay came back to him. […] In short, *The Suburbs* is the soundtrack to a film that will probably never exist.
*The Suburbs* also came with eight different album covers, each featuring a car staged in eight typical North American suburban landscapes.
Breaking New Ground
It also allows artists to gain attention through technical or fictional feats. Media and fans are eager for these kinds of innovative formats and don’t hesitate to share them with their audiences and friends.
Using new technologies can provide visibility if timed well and executed with mastery. It’s not enough to know how to use a technique—you must implement it while maintaining an artistic approach. To break this down, let’s look at two examples involving 360° video.
Beck vs. Björk
There’s Beck and his interactive live performance of his cover of David Bowie’s *Sound and Vision*. The video brings together 160 musicians filmed in 360° around Beck to create a musical and visual experience. This video, directed by Chris Milk in 2013, required significant ingenuity to perfect. Both video and sound were captured in 360°, but they had to get creative since the 360° cameras and microphones we know today didn’t exist back then.
Chris Milk devised a concept to combine multiple cameras to recreate a 360° universe and soundscape. The feat is both technological and artistic. The 360° project is no longer available online, but a “static” video still exists. The 360° video is gone, but the sound remains in 360°, evolving based on the chosen camera angles.
In contrast, Björk, known for her stunning music videos, fell short with her 360° video for *Stonemilker*. Released in 2015, the video doesn’t measure up. It shows one, sometimes multiple, Björks singing directly to the camera. The image quality isn’t great despite 4K resolution, and the sequence stitching is sometimes sloppy. It’s nowhere near the previous feat! Here, they tried to use a technique—360° video—but the project wasn’t developed enough.
This shows that simply using a 360° camera isn’t enough to make a project artistic.
Like A Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan
Nearly 50 years after the release of *Like A Rolling Stone*, a music video was created—not a typical video, but an interactive application where viewers can channel-surf as if watching their own TV. Sixteen channels parody American TV content, with each character lip-syncing the song’s lyrics.
Transmedia Storytelling
Transmedia storytelling is a derivative of storytelling. It involves creating a fictional universe from multiple narrative elements delivered across various platforms. Discovering these different story fragments builds a fictional universe and creates an artistic experience.
It’s been widely used since the internet’s rise to strengthen the bond between artists and their communities. Its potential is limitless, with all ideas and technologies employed to bring it to life. Some projects mentioned earlier could fall under transmedia storytelling.
Artists have realized that their recognition now hinges on their connection with fans. Illegal downloading, much criticized, disrupted revenue streams for record labels and artists, who had to devise new systems. Since radio and TV appearances didn’t stop illegal downloads, they needed new ways to engage fans, encourage concert attendance, and promote sharing.
This is where transmedia storytelling comes in! It has been, and still is, used to develop ambitious music projects.
Going Beyond a Music Project
Björk’s 360° video misstep is real, but she’s a master of successful, in-depth transmedia storytelling.
With her unique universe, she always tries to innovate with new album releases. She succeeded with her 2011 album *Biophilia* by tying it to a multitude of concepts. First, the album is linked to a mobile app where each track has its own universe hidden in a starry galaxy.
It also includes an educational component through artist residencies where children are invited to participate in workshops on music, technology, and science.
Finally, it features evolving concert series that changed over multi-week residencies in different cities. In each new city, the concert was partly reimagined with new instruments.
In fact, *Biophilia* is a true transmedia artistic project. It exists across multiple artistic and technological platforms: an album, a mobile app, an educational initiative, and an evolving concert.
Strengthening the Artist-Fan Relationship
It’s also a way to grow a fanbase. Some artists have created alternate reality games (ARGs). The most successful example with significant media impact is the concept developed by Bing and Jay-Z for the release of his book *Decoded*. Fans had to find 320 pages hidden across various locations in the U.S. Clues were gradually shared by the search engine and the artist—a real-life treasure hunt!
The media fallout was incredible! Over a million new fans on Jay-Z’s Facebook page, his autobiography became a bestseller, and Bing saw an over 11% increase in users.
Using Storytelling on a Budget
The examples above may require significant resources that smaller artists can’t afford. Yet, some aspects are accessible to everyone and shouldn’t be overlooked. Simply creating a universe around your music can set you apart from others! In essence, the –M– character isn’t that complex to conceive!
It’s also not too difficult to find ways to offer exclusive tracks to your fans. Many lesser-known artists hide passwords in physical albums that unlock access to hidden website sections.
Likewise, you can involve fans in creating a music video. Everyone can film with a smartphone, and making a video with those clips is entirely feasible!
And if you’re unsure how to film yourself, you can adopt The Get Out Clause’s strategy.
They chose to perform near surveillance cameras in Manchester. Under privacy laws, anyone can request footage recorded by these cameras. They did just that and edited a music video with the footage!
Simple but unexpected and effective, leading to millions of views and great visibility!
Images and sources: Les Inrocks, Wikipedia, Cb Vinyl Record Art, Wired, and artists’ websites
