Destruction Is Captivating
We love them, right? Disaster movies.
We’ve had movies that melted Earth, sent humanity into a dystopian nightmare, earthquakes, mega-storms, twisters, giant waves, you name it.
Hell, we even froze over …
But nothing - I say NOTHING stokes the imagination like a gigantic beast crawling out from the ocean to lay waste to cities. So today, on November 3rd when we celebrate the original 1954 release of Godzilla on Godzilla Day (yes, it’s a thing), let’s dive into a few things about this incredible storytelling.
Storytelling 101 …
We know that this handsome fellow is directly related to fear and wonder over the atomic bomb …
And in that lies the secret to why this monster has captured our imaginations. Relentless destruction that is both terrifying and fascinating - a monster imagined from humanity’s hubris, and one representing inevitable destruction once unleashed.
Lost in the pop-culture badassery of Godzilla is the very human element of relatability. In 1954, wounds over atomic warfare were fresh. The unthinkable gave way to acceptance and fear. Art - as it always does - reflects human emotions. Yes, Godzilla is foreign and strange, but it was so closely tied to something terrifying and tragic that it was impossible to look away.
This isn’t to say that anything you write or create has to have deep and relatable meaning, but there’s something about it that hits at our souls when it does, a secret connection that makes the story resonate in a way that it normally may not. That’s what makes stories stay. You can have great action, you can have a killer protagonist (or giant monster), but are you hitting on basic human emotions? Love, loss, fear, or grief to name a few. Because those are the stories that stretch across genre lines to capture a broad audience.
Fear is a common hardwired human experience. Fight or flight. A suburban Mom driving her 3.5 kids around to soccer practice understands fear. A war veteran who has seen combat understands fear. The type of fear may be different (in this case, obviously), but the neurological process is similar.
Pop Culture Impact
It is a sign of deep love and respect for an original story that gets it parodied, copied, and re-packaged for the better part of 75 years.
My favorite of the bunch is from “One Crazy Summer” where Bobcat Goldthwait’s character finds himself in a movie studio costume trailer, finds a Godzilla costume, gets stuck in it, and ends up razing a model of a new development being proposed on Nantucket.
I saw it in the theater when I was 11 and at that point in my life this was the funniest thing I had ever seen. Hell, it’s still WAY up there.
But we also have anime …
We have repackaging of anime into feature films …
And all of it is so very Kaiju-y because it hits that part of our imaginations where something massive, destructive and terrifying is inevitable in what it can do. It gives us this feeling of being overwhelmed in our odds of survival, which in turns stokes the fire of heroism, of David vs. Goliath in some of the best ways possible.
Or we just get squished.
Kaiju As Metaphor For Artificial Intelligence?
A few days ago in advance of Godzilla Day (and as a fun Halloween project) I released a new song and music video, “BASS BEAST.”
This is my personal love letter to old Japanese cinema, and I created it with the intention of connection between AI, and humanity’s current state. The destructive kaiju making it’s way to the shore and laying waste to the city as humanity suffers.
Am I being pretentious? Probably. But I’m here to teach you right now, and give you some perspective you perhaps hadn’t considered.
And hey, if you just want to think this is fun and that’s it, go for it. I’m a storyteller first and foremost. While I create things that are goofy and fun, I always create with intention, and even SPACE PEW PEW, my most ridiculously awesome space comedy (which you should definitely not miss), is grounded through-and-through with human emotion and relatable characters and relationships. I stuff Uranus jokes and deep emotional connection into the same story. IT’S WHAT I DO, PEOPLE.
I decided on Kaiju Dubstep for this project because dubstep is in and of itself artificial and electronic. Here’s the video, give it a watch and I’ll tell you about the underlying inspiration:
I used AI tools to get the song just right (I wrote the lyrics, re-did the arrangement, and did all of the mastering manually). Then utilized a workflow involving many different tools and techniques to get the video pieced together with a TON of behind-the-scenes editing tricks I’ve picked up in doing YouTube videos for the last 6 years.
AI, to me, feels like the Kaiju right now. Kaiju translates to “strange beast” and what a strange beast this world currently is as AI rapidly expands into literally everything we see and interact with.
We’re not afraid of the atomic bomb in this day and age, we’re afraid of something getting out of control. Be it AGI or be it our simple way of life. And just like Godzilla 70+ years ago, we’re at a point where most everyone has been affected by it, and there’s real fear that this particular beast is out of control and a step or two away from destroying humanity.
“BASS BEAST” is my tribute to the GOAT of kaiju-y goodness, but it’s also my version of this tale. The Bass Beast is metaphorical AI, rising from the depths as a human creation, with an element of technology as the focus of it’s power, as opposed to radioactive breath in the case of Godzilla.
This video is allegory - it’s humanity experiencing ever-encroaching AI as the storm on the horizon. The lyrics hint at this, stylized of course:
Body movin’ max attacks is facts man
Ain’t losin’ with ya bitch-ass smacks ran
Ya ass up and outta say it louder for the fans
In the back fat stacks and contracts man
Crank (crankin) it up now
Bass (bass) gonna thump now
Drownin’ (drown ya) in the sound now
Beat drop the bass beast fully unleashed now
The BASS BEAST is that unseen entity, sleeping beneath the waves of our every day life, and as we obsess over AI in an ever changing human dynamic (body movin’), AI presses forward (Ain’t losin), chasing people away from what they’ve known (ran ya ass up and outta), and people have been blissfully unaware (say it louder for the fans in the back).
Plus, it’s all about money (fat stacks and contracts man).
And it’s all going to hit when we have that epic and metaphorical beat drop - Artificial General Intelligence.
“Beat drop the bass beast fully unleashed now …”
This is what storytelling looks like when it is with intention. It’s also what storytelling looks like when you blend words, visuals, and sound. Sure, I could write “BASS BEAST” as a short story, but as a cinematic song, it tells the story in a way that conceptually hits far different.
In Closing
Celebrate the GOAT of monster cinema today, but also remember where it comes from, how such an incredible creation came as a direct result of very human pain and suffering, and what the story tells us.
And remember - in your own art creations, don’t ever forget the WHY of what you bring into this world from your brain. A lot of times, you don’t even realize how deep and meaningful your creation is and how much it says about you and your views of the world.
Much <3 to you my friends!
-David
Intellectually and morally correct