Applied Research

Applied research, is part of the PDAR module I'm doing on 2nd year CSM at the moment.

The project I'm using (reinventing, updating and reviving) for PDAR will be my old Futurepop project, 'Digital Faith'.
Futurepop is a blend of Synthpop's aesthetics, song structures and arrangemtn; Trance's synth programming and sounds; and Electronic Body Music's (EBM) raw agression, use of sampling, industrial lyrics imagery and themes, and vocal styles. Elements of Goth, Darkwave, Pop and Electronic Dance Music (EDM) also frequently appear in the Futurepop genre. Many bands carrying this 'tag' frequently lean more to some styles than others within those listed and often introduce more styles, but there is a fundamental Futurepop sound that permeates all these artists and unites them.

Futurepop is an incredibly diverse genre and although it is considered alternative and to some extent underground, it still allows itself to become part of a variety of scenes. As it is part of the electronic music culture, it opens itself up easily to DJ and remix culture.
Many artists in this area have been remixed by much more popular artists, and some artists have gone on to remix more popular artists.
Live, most Futurepop artists form a band and would perform as other Sythpop and EBM bands would (e.g. Depeche Mode, Front 242), and don't go down the live DJ route as seen in Trance, Dance etc.
Grandiose, futuristic, tech-influence (sometimes in a retro-futurist sense) visuals are often applied to the live sets to accompany artists in this genre. Not quite utopian like Trance, but not dystopian like Industrial.

The Futurepop market exists primarily in Europe, with the most prominent bands in the genre coming from Germany (NamNamBulu, Frozen Plasma, Neuroticfish, Seabound, Rotersand), Sweden (Covenant, Code 64, Colony 5), Norway (Apoptygma Berzerk, Icon Of Coil), Austria (Mind.In.A.Box), and the UK (VNV Nation). Futurepop has also made an impact in the US with artists like Assemblage 23 gaining popularity within the scene.
Although the vast majority of artsist in Futurepop come from Germany, VNV Nation are considered the first Futurepop band, and it was singer Ronan Harris that coined the term in to order to describe the music of Both VNV Nation and Apoptygma Berzerk.

The biggest festivals that showcase Futurepop music are mostly in Germany with M'era Luna, Amphi and Wave Gotik Treffen. In the UK, there is one prominent festival, Infest, that showcases Futurepop music. There are some smaller festivals beginning to appear, too, for example DV8fest, and there are many prominent UK clubs that feature rooms dedicated to Cybergoth culture, and so play a lot of Futurepop music, for example, Slimelight in Camden, Corporation in Sheffield, Jilly's Rockworld in Manchester, Voodoo Lounge in Stoke-On-Trent, Tech Noir in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, The Wendy House in Leeds, Autonomy in Leicester, Nightmare in Nottingham, Bedlam in Glasgow, Ascension and Cyberia in Edinburgh, Chains on Velvet in Norwich, and Inquisition in Cardiff. Das Bunker in Los Angeles and Nocturne in Toronto are also popular cybergoth clubs. It appears safe to say that Germany and the UK are the best places for Futurepop although the following does extend across the world.
A lot of Futurepop acts also become popular within Trance, Synthpop, Techno, Goth, EBM and Industrial circles, too, so there is reason to believe that Digital Faith can expand fan bases across multiple target audiences.

Digital Faith will fit into this style. Although moving closer to the Synthpop and Trance and away from the EBM, but still utilising aspects of all.
The incredibly adaptive nature of the music will allow me to project this work onto a variety of audiences.
Originally, in terms of conceptual content, the project took a mocking anti-theistic approach, asserting that Digital Faith itself was a religion, where the music is 'God', the performer is the prophet, the DJs are the priests, and the fans are disciples. The message was that rather than worship something you can't prove exists, and something that arguably (in my opinion) causes more hurt than good, people would be better off worshipping something that only makes them feel good, something like music.
That was in 2008, and since then the lyrical content expanded and since came to envelop topics of positive nihilism, self belief, the self as the overman, astronomy, technology, human advancement, and more familiar topics such as romance and life issues.

The project will exist as myself as the sole songwriter, and providing the lead vocals and some keyboards live, alongside 2 other keyboard players to support the music.
The main sources of funding for the project will come from live performances, remixes, and sale of music.
Other artists in this genre and similar related genres have also been known to compose film scores (Ronan Harris for The Gene Generation), have music featured in films (Combichrist and Encephelon in The Gene Generation, Celldweller in various films including Spiderman 2, Constantine and Bad Boys 2) and have songs appear on games (Mind.In.A.Box for Crackdown and PGR 3 & 4), and so this presents another source or revenue.