Animation and music have had a long love affair. The Archies, Jem and the Holograms, Josie and the Pussycats, Jabberjaw and the Neptunes, and The Chipmunks were all virtual bands that appeared in the Saturday morning cartoon block. In addition to a vast catalog of music themed shows, anime has been pushing what the combination of music and animation can do for years by showcasing opening and ending themes that are sometimes more memorable (and better) than the shows they bookend. Animation is the perfect medium for singers and songwriters with amazing talent, but maybe not so great stage presence. Or those artists who want to be a part of a bigger project. Or a thousand other reasons, An intense OST can push any project to the next level, but animation even more so. There are those projects, though, that take these principles, and either push them to their logical extremes or totally turn them on their heads.
1. Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem
Featuring: Daft Punk
The basics: 2003. A full length anime movie created as a visualization of the Daft Punk album Discovery. With no dialog and minimal sound effects, it tells the story of the abduction and rescue of an interstellar rock group.
Though a dialog free movie might not be everyone’s cup of tea, this movie is an absolute must for both anime and Daft Punk fans. And fans of sci-fi movies. And fans of artsy movies. Really, just, if you like music or animation or nifty things, in general, this is one hella rad movie. The plot is odd at points, but overall straightforward, and the whole film is just strikingly cool. And, because it’s Daft Punk, a lot of of the songs are electronic instrumental pieces open to loose, wide interpretations, so the movie gets taken to really cool places. There’s a lot in it for animation aficionados,particularly. The visual supervisor was the legendary Leiji Matsumoto, creator of Captain Harlock and Space Battleship Yamato. The film is done in the style of and touches on a lot of the themes from these and similar late 70’s anime. There’s also a technical beauty to how precisely the animation synchronizes with the music. You almost feel the movie, instead of just listening to or watching it.
2. Metalocalypse
(WARNING:gore)
Featuring: Dethklok (a.k.a. Brendon Small, Gene Hoglan, Bryan Beller, Mike Keneally, and Pete Griffin)
The basics: 2006-present. The exploits of the heavy metal band Dethklok and the eventual reveal of their role in an ongoing, worldwide media and political conspiracy. But, mostly, the lives of a bunch of idiots who somehow formed a metal band.
I distinctly remember when Metalocalypse first started airing on Adult Swim. I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I had ever seen, and I loved it. And it might have all ended there, a Spinal Tap-esque dark comedy about a metal band with the occasional musical number. But then, the Dethalbum came out. Maybe it was planned that way to begin with, maybe they were waiting for the show to take off. In any case, three albums later, we have a fictional band that actually tours as a real band. It’s amazing, this weird…thing…that transcends different forms of media to bring these fictional characters to life. These totally unassuming guys are able to gather up with fans to make this totally ridiculous metal experience. Here’s what the concert on the USS Midway at SDCC 2012 looked like.Actual concert starts at about 5:40.
At about 8:35 they’re providing the voices for their characters on stage live. As an audience member, you get to actually interact with a cartoon character, after a fashion, poking little holes in the wall between fiction and reality.
3. Gorrillaz
a.k.a. Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlit
The basics: 2001-2012ish, Born from the mind of the frontman of Blur and one of the creators/illustrators of Tank Girl, Gorillaz is a virtual, entirely animated band. The characters have their own little world, and the music they create is done in collaboration with other artists for various songs. I mean, it’s the Gorillaz. Everyone knows the song “Clint Eastwood” by now, right?
I remember, distinctly, watching the video for “Feel Good, Inc.” for the first time back in high school. It blew the ever loving snot out of my mind. It was so amazing to me that something this weird and cool could exist. I knew about Jem and Josie and the Pussycats and junk, but this, this was a REAL animated band that existed in the REAL world. Their live performances used projection screens, but with a combination of clever background animation and basic stage trickery, there’s an undeniable lifeness to them. Where Dethklok from above is artists performing as a fictional band and everyone’s kind of in on the joke, the Gorillaz were very, very real.
4. Vocaloid Pop Stars
a.k.a. Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin and Len, Kaito Shion and a handful of others
The basics: Nope. If you don’t know, here, listen to this first.
Okay.
Did you do it?
What did you think? Too much auto tune but not the worst thing to assault your ears, right?
It’s software! Synthetic voices built from real voice samples singing songs in the guise of animated characters. It all started from a project lead by a Japanese dude at a Spanish University and backed by Yamaha around 2000.
The history of vocaloids and their place in the music industry is a decade long and reads like a freeware changelog. Ostensibly, vocaloids are “just software.” Anyone can buy the program, compose a song, then have their own pop star on their desktop. A number of electronica and pop artists have done just that, using the software to replace human voices in the creation of back up vocals and repeating samples. Each software package has been given its own personality, however, and a handful have had a divine breath puffed into them by an enterprising media company. Hatsune Miku is probably the most famous example of this, and her humanoid persona has become a pop star in her own right. She’s been written into her own manga, had a guest spot on a number of anime, starred in a series of rhythm video games, and performed live internationally via projection. This is a glimpse of her performance at Project DIVA Live in Kansai in 2012.
All this energy, and Miku is, essentially, fabricated. Apart from the initial voice samples and her human handlers, Miku is basically lines of code and 3D models. She’s not real…but then she is…treading this fine line between imagination and reality…human and computer. It’s the movie Simone come to fruition in the best way possible.
5. Rock and Rule
Featuring: Cheap Trick, Debbie Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie, Lou Reed, Earth, Wind and Fire, and Iggy Pop
The basics: 1983. In a post nuclear world where everyone is some kind of bipedal rat mutant, Mok, an aging rockstar, is looking for that singular human voice to help him open up a gate to another dimension. From this gate, he will bring forth a demon that will grant him immortality. In a dive bar, he finds Angel, a member of a punk band with her boyfriend, Omar, and two other dudes. When she turns down his offer because she doesn’t want to break up the band, he spirits her away to “Nuke York” (yeah….I know).On a background of casual drug use, healthy sarcasm, confusing breast physics, and just a general heap of trippy shit, Angel, Omar, and Co. get dragged into the middle of a satanic ritual that might wreak havoc on the world unless they can stop it.
I’d like to be clear. This isn’t really a “good” movie. It’s okay. The animation was solid, advanced even, for the year in which production began (1979), but the plot is thin and willowy. What makes this movie totally worth it, though, is the kind of out of body musical experience it gives you. Lou Reed and Iggy Pop both lend their singing voices to the villainous Mok, so accordingly, this scene happens right in the middle of the thing for no particular reason than I can fathom. Debbie Harry (lead singer of Blondie) and Robin Zander (lead singer of Cheap Trick) sing for Angel and Omar.
So you’re just trolling along in this bizarre little flick, and all of a sudden Earth, Wind, and Fire, is playing over a rave scene, and you’re like “what? What is happening to me? I’m totally jamming out to this, but I feel like I shouldn’t be.” It’s just….great.
6. Heavy Metal
Featuring: Sammy Hagar, Riggs, Devo, Blue Oyster Cult, Cheap Trick, Don Felder (lead guitarist for the Eagles), Donald Fagen (lead singer of Steely Dan), Nazareth, Journey, Grand Funk Railroad, Cheap Trick, Black Sabbath, Trust, and Stevie Nicks (of Fleetwood Mac fame)
The basics:1981. Nine-ish vignettes adapted from short stories from the sci-fi magazine Heavy Metal and linked together, loosely, with the occurrence of the Loc-nar, an evil green space orb. With the voices of John Candy, Don Francks, and Eugene Levy (among a slew of other voice actors), the vignettes cover the stories of a jaded cab driver scorned by love, a nerdy teenager living a power fantasy, some crazy shit on a plane, a space station, and a space ship, and the epitome of bad female body armor. South Park parodied it in season 12, and this clip from that episode can give you better notion of what this movie is more than my mere words could. Sorry that it’s Hulu.
It is violent, gross, and uses gratuitous female sexuality to appeal to the most juvenile of viewers. It’s also, unapologetically, one of my favorite movies. The animation is at times bizarre and at times beautiful. The soundtrack alone is so awesome, it’ll make your brain explode from euphoria (if you’re into 70’s-80’s rock and metal, that is). I have the OST on vinyl because that’s the kind of dork I am. When it all mashes together, you’re left with an epic ride through fantastical landscapes on the back of a hard rock ballistic. If you don’t take the movie, or yourself, too seriously, this is a straight up fun as hell movie to watch.
Ashe Etc... 
music and animation! All types of music and animation belong together!