Experiencing British Music

On Wednesday we went to the British Music Experience, a sort of high tech museum housed in the sea urchin of London, the O2.






















Walking around amongst the yellow pillars feels like you're at the circus. The white walls and ceiling are made out of some sort of cloth, which strongly reminded me of a circus tent, and the contents of the tent was quite a bit like going to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. The O2 has a central arena for musical performances which we did not go into, but our bus driver told us that Michael Jackson was going to perform there before his death interfered. Around the central performing space are shops and restaurants (Erika and Katia were excited to find two different Starbucks) and on top of the venue is the British Music Experience.

(photo credits to myself)

Before I started reading Can't Buy Me Love for the Beatles class I didn't realize how much drug use influenced rock music. I remember hearing Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds for the first time, and remarking to my father how wonderfully random it was. He informed me that it wasn't written to be random, it was written about LSD. At the time I assumed that Lucy was an anomaly, not a representation of a major trend in music. I really liked seeing the evolution of album covers through the sixties. In the British Music Experience, at the beginning of the sixties, all of the album covers were pictures of the musicians. Then the Beatles album Revolver, came out. On the cover was a drawing of George, John, Paul and Ringo, by Klaus Voormann. At the end of the sixties none of the album covers were photographs at all, much less photographs of the musicians. There were some beautifully colorful LP sleeves on display, in the style that is called psychedelic. If drugs had not been such a focus of the music, album artwork probably never would have gone in that direction. After the psychedelic album covers, there was a black one with a triangle, and a Rolling Stones LP sleeve that was a picture of pants decorated with a zipper.

After spending the whole British Music Experience watching the musicians much the way a fan would, albeit watching the musicians more closely, I thought the final show posed an excellent question. The room had three huge screens; one on the left, one on the right, and one in front of a central standing area. Prof. Roos described it as being similar to a sound stage. The video was basically a concert montage, piecing together films of what I'm pretty sure was Coldplay, what Dennis told me was the Stones, and several other bands. The volume was concert-loud and then cranked up an extra 7 notches. The final show began with film of the bands playing their music and then transitioned into just the roaring of the crowd, as seen from the stage. Because the roaring was so loud and the crowd so all encompassing, it felt as if we were on stage. There was no subtitles or voice over, and this made the question even stronger. What was it like to be a rock star? What was it like to be the focal point of all that craziness, or crying girls and screaming people? That was probably the closest I'll ever get to being at the front of a mosh pit, so I think this final experience of the British Music Experience was both a question and an effective answer. Being a rock star, being a Beatle, must have been crazy. This music you made, this creation of yours, this thing outside of yourself, is the obsession of so many people. And you are the embodiment of that music for those fans, so their obsession with the music extends to you. It's no wonder the Beatles gave up touring for recording.