Draft Conference Paper - Inter

Crafting Cultural Narratives: Explorations of the Nightwish
Imaginaerum Concept from Script to Play
Toni-Matti Karjalainen
Abstract
The paper takes a brief exploration to the ideological, cultural and commercial
aspects of the Imaginaerum concept of Nightwish, the Finnish symphonic metal
band. The idea and intent of the band, particularly of Tuomas Holopainen, the
mastermind of Nightwish, will be discussed. In addition, some snapshots to the
marketing of the concept in the Facebook and other media will be shown. Finally,
tentative ideas concerning further studies after this draft paper are presented. The
paper makes contribution, in particular, to the “Globalisation of heavy metal”
subtheme of the “Music, Metal, Politics” Conference by illustrating how
Nightwish has managed to craft an unique and universal cultural narrative that
seems to deeply touch fans of different age, gender, and cultural background within
various heavy metal genres and beyond.
Key Words: Cultural narratives, cultural exports, branding, marketing, leadership,
management, concept albums, globalisation of heavy metal
*****
The moment I stop dreaming I will die… and I still have a bunch
of dreams.1
1. Introduction
Nightwish, the biggest export article of Finnish music and a pioneer of
grandiose symphonic metal, has crafted its unique narrative of fantasy charged
escapism with strong intent and devotion. Through the personal vision of the
creative mastermind of the band, Tuomas Holopainen, Nightwish has been creating
its own universe, imagination land, characterized by specific Nightwish
mythology. This mythology, and Holopainen’s personal vision, had become
manifest in the lyrical, musical, and visual landscape of Nightwish albums,
particularly in the million seller “Dark Passion Play” (2007). This album marked
an ample effort characterized by emotion-ladden lyrics and melodies and
progressive dynamism in song structures. The album was followed by the
extensive World Tour, were thought by many to be verging on the border to which
Nightwish could expand its vision.
Crafting Cultural Narratives:
Explorations of the Nightwish Imaginaerum Concept from Script to Play
__________________________________________________________________
But Holopainen and the band had something new coming down the fantasy
pipeline. When talking about the upcoming record in my interview on January 3rd
2011, after 16 months of the closing show of the Dark Passion Play tour and 38
days before releasing the concept for the album, he revealed that the album will
take the Nightwish narrative and visual ideas into new spheres. And indeed, the
veil of secrecy was partly unfolded on February 10th, as a news release was put out:
2
In the midst of recording a new album, Nightwish has been
preparing a movie."Imaginarium" is a music fantasy - film based
on the forthcoming Nightwish album of the same title and its 13
songs. The protagonist of the film is a songwriter with an
otherworldly imagination. He is an old man who still thinks he`s
a young boy. While asleep he travels into his distant past where
his dreams of old come back to him mixed to the young boy`s
world of fantasy and music. In his dreams the old man fights to
find the memories most important to him. This never-donebefore project originates to more than two years in the past when
Tuomas first introduced his ambitious idea of the Imaginarium concept to the fellow band members and to Mr. Stobe Harju, the
director behind "The Islander" - music video. He will be the
director of this full-length feature. The film will be produced by
Solar Films Inc. together with Nightwish.
The Imaginaerum album became another replete record in the Nightwish
discography and was finally released at the end of November 2011). The full
feature motion picture is to be released later in 2012, and novel ideas are brought
forward to add on the visual experience in the forthcoming Imaginaerum World
Tour.
2. Crafting the script (intent)
The initial concept of Imaginaerum was born already in 2007 during the
finalisation the previous “Dark Passion Play” album. Following the Dark Passion
Play World Tour, Nightwish settled itself into a few months break, including a six
week battery-charging vacation in Australia. The name of the following album,
Imaginarium, was sealed there. Holopainen comments on the birth of the concept:
It was in the summer of 2007. Dark Passion Play was just
mastered, and I was listening to it and thinking that this is indeed
quite good… But what the heck are we going to do next, as the
scale is already senselessly big and you just want every record to
challenge the listeners and yourself to do something new? ... We
could take more Irish pipes and whistles. Or should we make a
Toni-Matti Karjalainen
3
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completely acoustic record? … Then it just occurred in mind
that, while movies and film music have since long been a big
inspiration sources for the band, why don’t we then concretize it
and make a movie. And let’s make it in a different way from
Pink Floyd or the Beatles or Lordi.2
The band decided that the tone of the new record will be contrary to Dark
Passion Play that in the Nightwish standards was very dark, heavy and hopeless.
Imaginaerum was set to be an album with light, hope, grin and twinkle in one’s
eye, a celebration of beauty, imagination and power of stories. As summarized by
Holopainen: ‘If Sanitarium is about healing the mind, Imaginaerum is about
refreshing it … incorporating ‘Carpe diem’ spirit and reminding of the finesse of
being alive and the beauty of memories”.3
Holopainen got into the first demoing phase in the first months of 2010, after
which planning for visual contents also started. The demoing phase was then
brought onto a more advanced level during the eight weeks “summer camp” that
the band took in a remote place close to their home town Kitee, in Eastern Finland,
in July-September. In the camp, a signal of green light from the band’s company,
Scene Nation Oy, was also shown for the movie idea.
The autumn of 2010 comprised of more recordings of the band members. Early
in 2011, the orchestra and choir parts of the album, playing again as a significant
role in the soundscape of the album as in the “Dark Passion Play”, were arranged
and recorded with a section of the London Symphony Orchestra. Before these
sessions in Islington, permission to release the movie idea was receive from Solar
Films, and the dazzling news release followed on February 10th. The release
marked a great relief for Holopainen who had been thinking about the idea already
for years, but was not able to reveal the secret for other people than the closest
Nightwish circle. The early year continued with more recording work done in
Finland, and finally, the music for the upcoming album was ready in the Spring of
2011, a year after the first demo. Nightwish re-signed their record contract with
Nuclear Blast in August 2011, which eventually concretized the launch of
Imaginaerum album, to take place on November 30 in Finland.
Along with the music for the album, the Imaginaerum movie was prepared,
filmed, and cut in 2011 and early 2012. The screen writing and application of the
Imaginaerum story to the film sphere was mainly executed by the director Stobe
Harju and writer Mikko Rautlahti. The shootings took place in Finland, United
Kingdom, Germany, and most extensively in a movie studio in Montreal, Canada,
with Canadian crew. Special effects were also done there. Total costs of the movie
climbed up to 2.3 million euros, which was collected from Scene Nation, Solar
Films, and the Finnish Government. Holopainen also invested his personal money
in the venture.
Crafting Cultural Narratives:
Explorations of the Nightwish Imaginaerum Concept from Script to Play
__________________________________________________________________
The original idea was to make twelve short films, one for each song in the
album, and to attach them with the CD as a bonus DVD. The plan, however
changed at the start:
4
I had written stories for them (songs), and done the songs on top
of the stories… Then I said to Stobe Harju that could you direct
twelve short films. He was fascinated by the idea but asked why
wouldn’t we just make one long movie… And then he wrote the
movie around these original ideas… Stobe got the idea of an old
man like this, who lies in his deathbed and goes through the story
of his life. Just before he dies. Through imagination. So,
remotely it reminds of the Big Fish by Tim Burton. But this is
slightly stranger. Some David Lynch added in.4
Somewhat differently from the original idea, the stories of the Imaginaerum
album and the movie did not end up being fully congruent. In the album, the songs
have independent stories but are thematically connected together. In the movie,
music is subject to the dramatic development of the story and not every song is
similarly represent there. As concluded by Holopainen, ‘it was crucial to us that the
movie and the album would work together as different entities. They had to be able
to stand apart and still make sense’.5
3. Creating expectations and marketing the narrative (media)
During the more intensive development of the Imaginaerum album, movie, and
world tour, Nightwish has been overly active particularly in the social media.
Close to the album launch, there have also appeared lots of high-profile articles in
the metal and rock press.
When writing this, Nightwish has some 2.7 million likes and close to 60’000
active discussants in its Facebook site, and all postings gather thousands of likings
and hundreds of comments from the active fans and other visitors. The increase of
visitor numbers has been rather drastic in the last 1.5 years, during which the
album, movie and tour were increasingly marketed through contents of various
kind. In October 2010, before the active phase of communication, there we “only”
1.0 million likes at the site.
After closing the world tour in September 2009, and during most of the 2010,
when the band was officially in hiatus and crafting the script for the album and the
movie, the site remained rather quiet. The first occasional album news started to
stream in 2010 in the form of a studio diary and other updates.
Then, at 4pm Finnish time on February 10th, following the band’s decision to
reveal the name and concept of the album as well as the movie idea, a blast in a
form of a news release was posted on the site and Nightwish.com. In twenty
minutes, the announcement had gathered 1600 likes and 210 comments.
Toni-Matti Karjalainen
5
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In the following months until summer 2011, the Facebook site posted an
increasing number of occasional up-dates on the album and the movie, messages
from the band members, information about the opening show to be held in the
Gibson amphitheater in Los Angeles in January 2012, photos, and new
merchandise.
The first hint of the album songs was given in a peculiar context. The 2011
entrance music of the Kiteen Pallo sports team (Holopainen’s home town local
team playing Finnish baseball in the national league) was announced to be a remix
(by DJ Orkidea) that “is based on main riff and chorus of track 11 on Nightwish's
upcoming album Imaginarium”.
In August, updates about the film shootings and album release further increased
anticipation and started very active half a year at the site. The end of August also
shared surprising news about the album and movie title change: ’In order to avoid
mix-ups with various things named Imaginarium, the title of the upcoming album
and the movie will be changed to Imaginaerum.
The following month revealed the release date of the first single, "Storytime",
followed by information about the album release date, cover art and track list. The
Imaginaerum teaser page was set up for the visitors to see the full track list
including commentary written by Holopainen. A new mobile app, ‘Nightwish:
Mobile Backstage’ was also launched.
In October, communication grew increasingly active as different teasers and
interviews, competitions, merchandise, and other Imaginaerum related contents
were posted. The dates of the album release and first leg of the tour were also
released.
In November 2011, the first new single and music video, "Storytime", was
released. It first came out as a pre-listen version in Finland, but through an
unexpected media. Storytime was aired through the net site of ‘Aku Ankka’, the
Finnish Donald Duck comic magazine. The song was also released in Spotify a
few days before the official launch. Further samples were released through
Soundcloud.com.
And finally, the waiting for the new album was over. Imaginaerum was
available in Finnish stores on November 30th. The department store Anttila in the
centre of Helsinki was selected as the first place to sell it, right after the midnight.
The band was at spot to give autographs and personally handing the first CD to a
happy fan who had won the album through a local contest.
In the early 2012, news kept arriving about the Imaginaerum sales and first
gigs. January 22nd marked the official start of the Imaginaerum tour with some
4000 people present at the Gibson Amphitheatre. Preceding this opening show,
Facebook posted some new about “Rubberband Of Wolves” that stormed the stage
of the Key Club, L.A. This event continued the “tradition” of Nightwish to play a
secret small-scale show with a pseudonym before the official tour start.
Crafting Cultural Narratives:
Explorations of the Nightwish Imaginaerum Concept from Script to Play
__________________________________________________________________
In February and March, more interesting news and marketing ideas followed.
There was a video contest arranged for fans, concerning the new single track “The
Crow, The Dove And The Owl”. A Tour Edition of the Imaginaerum was also
announced, including an orchestral version of the album and an hour and a half
long "Making of Imaginaerum" documentary. And the band released news
concerning an extensive collaboration with the Battery energy drink, manifest in a
launch of a “Battery Limited Edition by Nightwish”, a drink with Nightwish
graphics on the can.
6
4. Transportation, performance, and paradigmatic references
The next step forward from this draft paper consists a more systematic and
deeper analysis of the communication and representations of the intent, the
Imaginaerum narrative, which Holopainen and the band aim to deliver through
various media to the global Nightwish fans. Approach of semiotics and visual
culture studies will be particularly adopted. In the domain of marketing, Nightwish
case illustrates an interesting example of employing “tribal marketing” (Cova &
Cova, 2002).
From the viewpoint of engaging fans in the narrative, two metaphors from the
literature (and film) studies offer an interesting angle to the analysis (Gerrig, 1993).
The listeners, firstly, are “being transported” into the world of the narrative
(“losing myself”, “lost in a book”, or in a song/album/narrative in the music
context). And secondly, they are “performing” the narrative within this world; they
are “called upon to the narrative”, using their own experiences and skills, facts and
emotions, to give substance to characters and stories. Nightwish makes an
interesting case for meaning creation.
The Imaginaerum story is based on the personal visions and ideologies of
Tuomas Holopainen but the narrative and, in particular, its different representations
embody an entanglement of interrelated and universal codes and meanings, which
suggestively has contributed to the good and, as a hypothesis, rather consistent
interpretation and perception across different countries and cultures. The themes
and details of the story, as suggested, are “written” for universal audience who can
identify themselves with it, without having more precise understanding of the
writer’s cultural background. The narrative involves subtle references to the other
escapist worlds created by authors such as J.R. Tolkien and Edgar Allan Poe, both
personal favourites of Holopainen. Walt Disney, Tim Burton, Ennio Morricone,
Neil Gaiman, Salvador Dali, or stories such as Lord of the Rings, Raiders of the
Lost Ark, Twin Peaks, and The Snowman are other reference points mentioned by
Holopainen.
This universal concept is, however, made specific by blending it together with
some details from the Finnish context and Holopainen’s own life. The picture of
his own school building among the photos of the “Dark Passion Play” Or the
voices of relatives and friends at the end of the Imaginaerum’s “Song of Myself”,
Toni-Matti Karjalainen
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among other personalized references, is what makes the stories more unique. And
arguably such personal references are extremely meaningful for the fans of the
band.
I just like to create that kind of Nightwish world in which things
are connected. There is the dead boy and ocean soul that have
existed from one record to another. And small visual gimmicks
on top of that. They create and expand that world.6
Within Imaginaerum and, more widely, the Nightwish narrative, there seems to
appear a richness of “paradigmatic” meanings coded to lyrical, visual and musical
representations and decoded by fans from them. There appear lots of symbolic and
metonymic signs representing Nightwish, as well as narratives and myths
constructed throughout the history of the band and the genre (Saussure 1966,
Peirce 1998, Barthes 1987). Such historical references are the ones that supposedly
make fans more attached to the narrative, while they are able to pick up familiar
components from it.
5. Concluding remarks
When writing this, the details and representations of the Imaginaerum movie
still remain unrevealed. The work might be finished by April and the launch will
follow later in 2012. The movie will open an interesting door for further
exploration into the representations of the Imaginaerum and Nightwish narratives.
And so do the gigs of the started Imaginaerum World Tour.
With regard to perception and interpretation of the narrative, a study of
Nightwish fans is being planned. Recruitment of a number of fans, representing
different countries, is set to commence through the Facebook and web sites of
Tuomas Holopainen as well as selected Facebook events sites of the Imaginaerum
Tour. The respondents will be asked to provide personal narratives and experiences
of the Imaginaerum story, in particular, and Nightwish, in general, in connection to
the album, movie and concerts. Another idea is to perform some interviews and
observations on spot in selected Nightwish concerts. Interesting data is expected, if
regarding the devotion and loyalty Nightwish fans have posed towards the band
and their albums in different arenas.
Our fans are so passionate and under the surface watching people
that they riddle every single millimeter in every single thing that
we do… I remember when we announced in 2004 that our
forthcoming album will be called ‘once’, our discussion forum
had hundreds of pages comments saying how disappointed
people were... We have probably created unintentionally some
Crafting Cultural Narratives:
Explorations of the Nightwish Imaginaerum Concept from Script to Play
__________________________________________________________________
kind of a mystic brand… It probably should have been ‘the
diabolical eve of the nocturnal holocaust’ or something similar.7
8
Notes
1
Interview of Tuomas Holopainen, Prog, Nov 2011, p.50
Interview of Tuomas Holopainen by Laura Laaksonen, January 2012 (translation by the author)
3
Interview of Tuomas Holopainen, Soundi, Oct 2011, p.38 (translation by the author)
4
Interview of Tuomas Holopainen by Laura Laaksonen, January 2012 (translation by the author)
5
Interview of Tuomas Holopainen, Metal Hammer, Dec 2011, p.17)
6
Interview of Tuomas Holopainen by the author, January 2011
7
Interview of Tuomas Holopainen by the author, January 2011
2
Data sources
Interviews:
Interview with Tuomas Holopainen by Toni-Matti Karjalainen, January 2011
Interview with Tuomas Holopainen by Laura Laaksonen (researcher at the Aalto University School of Economics), January
2012
Internet:
www.facebook.com/nightwish
www.nightwish.com
Magazine articles/interviews:
Aamulehti Valo, 41/2011: “Seuratkaa minua” by Mikko Husa, pp.8-12.
Blast!, #96: “Nightwish – Der Flug auf dem Schneemann”, pp.10-11.
Inferno, 10/2011: “Takaisin luontoon” by Lauri Ylitalo, pp.38-46.
Metal Hammer (UK), #225, December 2011: Special supplement “Nightwish, the Making of Imaginaerum”, pp.2-23.
Classic Rock Presents Prog, November 2011: “Phantasmagoria!” by Natasha Scharf, pp.48-50.
Rumba, 15-16/2011: “Päivänsäde ja menninkäinen” by Lasse Auranne, pp.58-61.
Rytmi, 5/2011: “Illuusion ytimessä” by Heta Hyttinen, pp.30-37.
Soundi, 10/2011: “Nightwish – Hollywoodiin vai avaruuteen?” by Timo Isoaho, pp.36-45.
Sue 11/2011: “Kyyti kummitussirkukseen” by Aleksi Ahonen, pp.26-27.
Suosikki, December 2011: “Sydänverta ja shamanismia” by Aino-Kuutamo Uusitorppa, pp.44-47.
Sweden Rock, #87: “Pojken I Bubblan” by Erik Thompson, pp.46-50.
Terrorizer, #217: “Bless the Child” by Tom Dare, pp.26-29.
Bibliography
Barthes, Roland. ‘Image, Music, Text’. Essays selected and translated by Stephen Heath. London: Fontana, 1987.
Cova, Bernard & Cova, Véronique. ‘Tribal Marketing: The Tribalisation of Society and ints Impact on Marketing’.
European Journal of Marketing, 36 (5/6), 595-620.
Gerrig, Richard J. ‘Experiencing Narrative Worlds’. New Haven: Westview Press, 1993.
Peirce, Charles S. ‘The Essential Peirce: Selected Philosophical Writings, Volume 2’. Edited by the Peirce Edition Project.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998.
Saussure, Ferdinand De. ‘Course in General Linguistics.’ Edited by Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1966.
Toni-Matti Karjalainen is Research Director of the International Design Business Management Program at the Aalto
University in Helsinki, Finland. He carries out research activities on the areas of music, design, visual culture, and
management, and is a serious fan of metal music.