I put the disk in the console and wait for at least 10 minutes for the new universe to take shape. It’s not long before the screen invites me to download a piece of myself into a modifiable individual in 3D. I search for a similar face but can’t remember my own. I could add a bit of chin, make myself taller. Mi hair is brown but I think I can leave a little blonder. I won’t add too much muscles, I’ll keep it modest. Abilities? All. 100%. I need to kill all those monsters that look like they came out of a David Cronenberg movie.
Wouldn’t we all present an improved digital version of ourselves? Robotic engineers share a common goal: to make machines better and more accurate than us. Or our own perception makes us believe that they’re more efficient and genuine? Maybe that’s why there’s an unspoken respect for Gorillaz. Hardly anyone talks ill of the band and, those that do, only point their fingers at the human aspect. But let’s not think Gorillaz is better than any other recent musical act based on their virtual status alone. It’s because they’ve broken barriers that seem unreachable to any other real band.
Gorillaz is not an entirely virtual band, nor is it the first to exist as such. Alvin and the Chipmunks and The Archies were created in the sixties as a business strategy. Making an “imaginary” band meant an incorruptible object that was linked to certain set standards to ensure success.
This concept was then transferred to “real” artists, particularly at the end of the nineties such as Britney Spears, Spice Girls, and Backstreet Boys. They all sold that pre-made image that did not seek to discover anything new, unlike acclaimed bands that desired to transcend by exploring new musical realms. The pop fan base spiraled out of control, creating subcultures completely devoid of any intellectual understanding.
We can picture Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, watching MTV, grossed out at seeing how these people became caricatures of themselves, as static as the animated bands of the sixties were. The two set out to create something so fake that, once it crossed the barriers of reality, would present an idea so genuine and impossible to ignore.
The development of the band’s reality, inserted in our own, has extended over to made-up interviews, videogames, online interactive tours, short films, sketch comedy, and even a book where they describe their entire life in order to explain the band’s origins up to how they came together.
The band uploads its consciousness into our universe, only to returns to theirs, where they have a past, present, and future. It’s almost as if they were mystics that only come to share a taste of their music with us. The ruse is so big that even we forget they were created. But the difference between Gorillaz and pop acts like Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys, which eventually fell apart, is that the band has the freedom to achieve perfection.
After the release of Plastic Beach, Murdoc stated that a certain Damon Albarn would be replacing him along with other musicians during the shows. For a moment, everyone believed that actually happened, much like when they played onstage alongside Madonna on MTV, representing the dichotomy of Pop music.
Gorillaz destroys the patterns, both of musical genres and well as visual. It has the ability to transition through stories as if it were a TV show where the characters can visit or explore different elements each episode. Taking advantage of not being stuck to a particular plane, it used that invisibility to reappear with a new proposal or reinvention.
Albarn and Hewlett’s brainchild does more than simply make a critique on the music industry. It covers topics such as war, loneliness, abandonment, technology, and obsessions created by their own experiences. This proves that, though they might be a fake band, they don’t believe in being a phony proposal and can strive to be even better than a materialized band.
2-D, Murdoc, Noodle, and Russell came to life from the need to show the world that idols need not be incorruptible and that the chimeric natures of the band does not imply an empty mentality. Gorillaz is Albarn and Hewlett’s mask, one that has a life of its own and reaches out to them when it’s time to feed. The characters evolve and interact with our world while staying on their own terms, reminding us that their existence is temporary and they only inhabit our minds thanks to the talent of several people.
Gorillaz invites listeners to appreciate their falsehood, to discover the world born through them, and the process through which we are changed.
It’s a virtual band for a time where people are more inclined to live their lives in their own fantasies. Their perfection is due to the independence inherent to their alternate universe, a freedom that translates into Funk, Hip-hop, Blues, Pop, Rock, and other inventions.
When we think of Gorillaz, Damon Albarn, and Jamie Hewlett are nowhere to be seen. Instead, the four beings that grew up in front of our eyes appear in our minds. Our connection to them is directly linked to our psyche. Perhaps that’s what kept them alive for so long. Despite their imaginary shapes, they demonstrate the strange, wonderful, and absurd fantasies that make us human.
Translated by María Suárez
