Last month, Olivia Rodrigo’s SOUR Prom was live-streamed via YouTube to audiences worldwide. Since its release, the 27-minute film has garnered over 13 million views.
The concert film follows the release of Rodrigo’s wildly successful debut album, SOUR. Dubbed ‘album of the year’ by critics, it has broken several Billboard and Spotify records in its relatively young life span, including having the second-largest streaming week of any genre by a female artist and most songs in the Billboard Top 10 at one time by a woman.
SOUR Prom features live performances of some of Rodrigo’s hit songs from the album. The show starts in the back of a limo with a melancholic mashup of “happier” and “déjà vu.” Rodrigo lies down in the back seat and belts out her heartbreak as the windows turn into a kaleidoscopic vision of pink and purple.
On the prom dancefloor, Rodrigo sings live renditions of “brutal,” “traitor,” and “jealousy, jealousy,” as her classmates dance around her, console her during the balladic “traitor,” and obsessively grab and headbang at Rodrigo in her punk-reminiscent performance of “jealousy, jealousy.”
The camera follows as Rodrigo retreats to the school darkroom, where she delivers an equal parts intimate and mesmerizing acoustic performance of “enough 4 u.” She follows up with a cathartic delivery of her first hit single “driver’s license” on the school’s football field. She ends the show with a pep-rally spirited production of “good 4 u,” complete with cheerleaders, screaming fans in the bleachers, and a marching band.
SOUR Prom takes viewers to prom in what feels like an almost-alternate reality. Director Kimberly Stuckwisch described the project as “an anti prom where everyone is included.” Rodrigo herself has never been to prom, much like many other high schoolers who happened to graduate during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the behind-the-scenes video for SOUR Prom, Rodrigo discussed her inspiration for the concert event: “We knew we wanted to film some sort of ‘concerty’ type thing because SOUR obviously came out in the middle of COVID so, I couldn’t tour. One day I was just sitting at home looking at Pinterest, and I saw this beautiful photo of a prom. I was like, I have never been to prom! I was homeschooled. I just graduated high school. What if we do a prom concert film?”
The concerts and events industry has been among the hardest hit by the global pandemic; a report by IBISWorld analyst Kevin Kennedy estimates losses in the United States to be close to $26.2 billion. Virtual concerts have been necessary during the pandemic, with many artists trying to make up for lost touring income. While many prominent artists are doing virtual pay-per-view concerts, many are also doing free live-streamed concert events on YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch as a means of creating new content and connecting further with fans.
Many artists have used the opportunity to make their shows more creative in ways that would not be possible in an in-person show. Last April, Travis Scott held a live Virtual Reality (VR) festival on Fortnite (Astronomical), that amassed 12.3 million participants. The event took place over two days and included five concerts, virtual backstage access, and other VIP events. Billie Eilish recently hosted a live-streamed performance via Meastro Interactive, in which viewers could visit a virtual merchandise shop and interact with one another in a live comment thread.
Even as in-person live music begins to return worldwide, it seems unlikely that live-streamed events will disappear entirely. Virtual concerts earned $610 million in 2020, according to Billboard. Mandolin, a popular live-streaming platform, reported that 91% of people who attended their live stream during the pandemic said they would continue watching live streams when in-person concerts return.
If virtual shows continue post-pandemic, artists may opt for this option to reduce the high costs and environmental footprint attached to in-person touring. In the past year, virtual concerts have become so popular that Sony has reportedly launched a new department called Sony Immersive Music Studios dedicated to producing and ticketing virtual concerts.
Online concerts have a lucrative potential that in-person concerts lack; within a digital, live-streamed format, fans have access to their favourite artists in ways they previously could not. Fans who live too far from major cities on the tour route can now enjoy exclusive live performances without spending the extra time and money. What’s more, the virtual live experience is no longer limited by physical boundaries and makes use of mind-bending visuals, special effects, and even VR interaction.
In addition to their lucrative potential, virtual concerts open new creative doorways. In addition to creating an inclusive prom experience for viewers, the camera shots and special effects in SOUR Prom craft a flawlessly nostalgic, forever-young, teenage dream feel to the event that seems directly downloaded from Rodrigo’s mind. SOUR Prom and other live-streamed concert events are also usually pre-recorded and edited beforehand, so what the viewer eventually gets is a perfectly curated version, a highlighted reel.
Some may argue that live-streamed concert events take away from the magic of live music, specifically, the imperfections that come with it – the broken guitar strings and off-key high notes despite months of hard work and dedication in rehearsals. These mistakes are charming in the moment of intimacy between the fan and the artist; with a recorded event, they are there for everyone online to pick apart with a degree of disconnect.
While virtual concerts may not deliver the same ‘magic’ as in-person concerts, they certainly hold their own enchantment. The normalization of virtual shows during the global pandemic has given artists a new means to express themselves and reinterpret their music to audiences. With the massive success of SOUR Prom, it will be interesting to see how other artists will follow in Rodrigo’s digital footsteps.
All images in this article are courtesy of Olivia Rodrigo.
This article contains an affiliate link(s). Learn more.
