WJorge Rivera Herrans reveals some of the Epic: Musical Last Christmas, he successfully knocked Taylor Swift off the top of the US iTunes album chart. So much is at stake when the final installment of his musical retelling of the Odyssey is released on Christmas Day.
Rivera Herrans' project has already been an extraordinary success, with 1.6 million monthly listeners on Spotify, more than veterans such as Morrissey, Liam Gallagher and the Sex Pistols, and in the last 28 days alone on the platform. 119 million views.
“I wanted sword fights and the sea and gods and monsters and spells and love and lust and revenge,” he said. observer. “I want people to have this feeling of wonder, I want people to feel like they're kids again when they look at it.”
amazing is a musical, but not a theatrical production. At least not yet. It's a 40-song concept album in which Rivera Herrans sings the role of Odysseus during his 10-year voyage back to Ithaca after the siege of Troy, each step of which is shared on TikTok.
amazing It feeds the two obsessions of teenagers who are pioneers of Generation Alpha: Greek mythology and fan engagement.
Rivera-Herrans began writing and recording in her bedroom studio, and later built a soundproof vocal booth with her father. While most artists are determined not to risk ruining their magic by revealing their creative secrets, Rivera-Herrans is the opposite. He shared everything from the song's motifs to his orchestration choices to his audition process.
“It was scary at first,” he said. “The first time I posted a video on TikTok I was so nervous I couldn't sleep that night. But it was one of the best things I've ever done. It's great to share the process online. Because the point is, we're all in this adventure together. We'll be able to see what works and what doesn't in real time.”
The first song was a solo song, but then Rivera Herrans held auditions on TikTok, where candidates posted videos of themselves singing along to his music. “We thought we would probably get 30 auditions, but by the end of the month we had 1,000 video submissions,” he said.
Fans can also create and bring in their own animations. amazing'Songs to Life and Rivera Herrans enjoy their interactions. “If I drop hints that something is going on in the earlier songs, and I create a lot of clues through musical motifs, will people pick up on that? ?When you do that, it's very rewarding.''
Perhaps the most ambiguous leitmotif fans have found is a trumpet melody indicating that Poseidon is responsible for the storm that kept Odysseus and his crew at sea for years, with no god appearing on the scene. It is not until much later that the theme returns, sung by God.
“It’s really amazing that people were able to do this.” [work it out]” Rivera Herrans said. “We're coming up with cool ways of storytelling as we're doing this. It's really exciting.”
Claire Chandler, senior lecturer in musical theater at the University of Lincoln's School of Creative Arts, said fan engagement with musical theater has increased since composers started sharing their work on YouTube around 2015.
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Be More Chill, show It depicts a clumsy high school student trying to be cool. It was originally produced at a theater in New Jersey. The cast album became a minor hit when it was selected by Spotify's algorithm. After gaining traction online, it sold out off-Broadway, with people coming “from all over the world to see it,” and then moved to Broadway, Chandler said. “[It] It goes from being ignored, through this virtual Broadway environment, to being performed on Broadway because of its popularity. ”
The pandemic has facilitated the rise of two other TikTok musicals. came first Remy's Delicious Restaurantemerged from the online meme culture that grew around Pixar movies. Various TikTok users composed the song, and Ratatousical ended up performing on Broadway for a one-off charity show.
Then Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear unofficial bridgerton musical After Barlow posted a video singing part of the poem. They won a Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album, but were sued by Netflix for actually trying to stage the show.
question amazing Fans have been asking if they could see it on stage.
After the last story ends on Christmas Day, they may get their answer when Odysseus finally arrives in Ithaca. Rivera Herrans and his team are in talks with what they call a “very high-level company” to produce an animated film and another company to produce a live-action stage show. Three video games are planned and two are already in development. And the team is conscious that fans want to be a part of the process of bringing these things to life.
“What's the next version?” amazing What did we put out into the world? I'm open to all options because each different version can tell a different side of the story,” Rivera-Herrans said.
