Virtual reality (VR) is everywhere. From escape rooms to surgical training, its applications are broad, creative and surprising.

The narrative is that VR's progress has been smooth sailing from the start. And here at Expand Reality, we believe that it's an invaluable tool in industrial settings that's only going to grow in power and utility.

But it's important to remember that the road has been bumpy at times. One example of this is the weird and wonderful world of virtual concerts.

Virtual concerts have been around since the 2010s. They saw a big spike during the pandemic years for obvious reasons – but since then, have they, well, fizzled out? Or are they a new way of consuming music that will become more popular as time goes on?

Before we take a look at some high-profile and not-so-high-profile virtual concerts – or "V-concerts" as they're sometimes known – let's get our definitions in order. What do we mean by virtual concerts?

What is a virtual concert?

Virtual concerts can be a number of things. But what they all have in common is the experience of watching a virtual avatar of performers – not the performers themselves. It's not the same as a live stream or a music video which you watch at home.

Within this broad category, there are different kinds of virtual concerts.

They can be in physical venues – as with ABBA's Voyage tour, where their eerily youthful-looking "Abbatars" perform for you onstage.

Or they can exist only within a virtual world, whether a VR platform or a game universe.

The performer can be an avatar of a real person, as with Megan Thee Stallion's VR "Hottieverse" tour, or a figment – a fictional character like Japan's Hatsune Miku.

When did they start?

V-concerts have been around for a couple of decades. They originated in South Korea, where K-Pop – one of the biggest music markets in the world – still reigns supreme.

The first V-concert was put on by record label SM Entertainment in 2013. It featured South Korean girl group Girls' Generation projected onto the stage.

But these virtual experiences really got going during the pandemic lockdowns. They were a short-term fix for the collapse of the live music industry.

With the return of live music, V-concerts have taken a backseat – but as VR tech continues to develop, it may well be that they'll return in a big way.

Music and gaming

Since the mid-2000s, virtual concerts have been held in virtual worlds – not just physical locations like those early K-pop bonanzas.

And it's not just young bands that are getting in on the action. Classic acts like Duran Duran and Phil Collins have done in-game performances.

Duran Duran even has its own "Universe" within the online multiplayer virtual world Second Life, featuring a "lipstick tower" and an "underwater UFO club".

If you've spent more than two minutes with a child lately, you've probably heard of Fortnite – a game set in an assortment of virtual worlds where you can battle online.

Fortnite is big business – so it's no surprise that pop stars are getting involved.

In 2020, rapper and producer Travis Scott held a concert inside Fortnite that was watched by more than 12 million people.

Scott is known as a show-stopper. When he opened for Kendrick Lamar in 2019, he performed astride a mechanical eagle like Jupiter in Shakespeare's Cymbeline.

His 10-minute Fortnite concert was on a similar scale and featured everything but the kitchen sink. Asteroid crash? Check. Underwater scenes? Check? Outer space adventures? Of course!

Other developments

Scott's Fortnite concert differs from those K-Pop performances in that it created a unique virtual world – it didn't attempt to replicate the live experience.

British electropop singer Imogen Heap partnered with dedicated VR concert platform TheWave (now defunct) to try something similar.

Viewers donned a VR headset and were transported to a virtual model of her childhood home. By all accounts, the experience was immersive and hallucinatory, with one writer reporting:

"While she’s singing, she might break into a million grains of glowing dust or dissolve into orbs of light. The home around her transforms, too: the walls crackle upward and the floor warmly glows like pools of lava."

ABBA Voyage

ABBA played its last concert in the 1980s – but returned in 2022 for a seven-month stint with a difference.

Performing at a purpose-built "Abba Arena" in London, the band appeared as "Abbatars". These were digital avatars of the four-piece created with bleeding-edge motion capture tech.

These Abbatars weren't technically holograms, as you might have heard. But they were convincing enough that a journalist for The Guardian reported that "the effect is genuinely jaw-dropping. Watching the four figures on the stage, it's almost impossible to tell you're not watching human beings."

While ageing acts like Bob Dylan continue to tour in all their grizzled glory, the Abbatars were digitally "de-aged" to look as though they were in their 70s prime.

Holograms

The Abbatars, as the nickname suggests, are digital avatars, not holograms. But holograms have performed for audiences, too.

Tupac appeared at Coachella 16 years after his death. Celine Dion duetted with Elvis Presley on American Idol. More recently, British comedian Peter Serafinowicz has deep-faked as Elvis live onstage, getting the King to cover songs like Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life".

In Japan, Crypton Future Media developed a hologram singer called Hatsune Miku – a 16-year-old girl with bright turquoise pigtails. And she's doing well, with over 1,000,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.

What's next?

The XR industry is going from strength to strength, so while virtual concerts might seem to be taking a back seat, we wouldn't be surprised if a renaissance is due.

It's never been easier to create and explore virtual worlds – so why would the world of music not get involved, big time? Whatever happens, we'll make sure you're the first to know.

Are you interested in deploying smart glasses or AR headsets in your business? Take a look at the cutting-edge devices in our online shop.