![]() | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Geek Pop was an online music festival established in 2008 that featured artists inspired by science. [1] In the first festival, hosted by the website Null Hypothesis: The Journal of Unlikely Science, attendees could only download a podcast featuring songs about science as a radio-style festival report. [2] After 2009, the festival moved to its website where listeners could listen to music for free and download radio-style report podcasts called the "highlights podcast." The Geek Pop website also produces a monthly podcast, [3] and has hosted live events. As of June 2016, the festival and website are no longer active. [4]
Online festivals first began in 2003 at the Exposure Festival. [5] Online festivals have a set launch time but don't happen in a fixed location, instead, they're available online after their launch date. [6]
Similar to festivals, online festivals had a set time and celebrated a particular aspect of a community, albeit an online community. The emergence of social media has enabled people to communicate with each other during online festivals. [7] At Geek Pop festivals, this communication was primarily achieved through an online "bar," which used Twitter on the website to show tweets about Geek Pop. [8]
There are environmental benefits to having an online festival as opposed to, or in conjunction with, a real festival. [9] Half of the acts that played in 2008 were from overseas, but no carbon was used to "bring" them to a primarily UK audience. There was no litter or waste generated by the festival and the majority of the marketing was done online, reducing the amount of paper used.
Geek Pop '08 was mentioned during podcasts from the Guardian [11] and Nature, [12] receiving positive reviews from both – "There were many highlights, but [our] pick of the bunch [is] Dark Matter by science troubadour Johnny Berliner", said Nature. Laboratory Talk said that, "this virtual festival has much to commend it… My personal highpoint was the aching rendition of Hotel Mauna Kea by the Photomixers, demonstrating simultaneously pathos, humor, and even a little musical talent." [13] Since March 2008 it has also been featured on Australia's Diffusion Science Radio's 2008 Christmas Special [14] as well as the Mr. Science Show. [15]
Geek Pop '09 was launched on March 6, 2009. Alongside the two virtual stages imagined in the podcast from the previous year, the reproductive stage and the Tesla Tent, the festival introduced a new main stage which will be called the Tetrahedron stage (in homage to Glastonbury's Pyramid stage). The major difference between the 2009 festival and the previous year was its relocation to a standalone website and the introduction of an interactive festival map that allowed listeners to choose songs to listen to. [16]
Geek Pop 2010 occurred on 12–21 March 2010 and featured a 5th virtual stage for science comedy, named the Comical Flask. [17] There were also two live performances, one in Bristol at the Cube Microplex, [18] and one in London at The Miller. [19]
Notable acts that contributed to the online festival and live events include Baba Brinkman, Dr Stuart Clark as Dr. Stu and the Neutron Stars, [20] Bert Miller & the Animal Folk, [21] Dr. Martin Austwick from Answer Me This! podcast as The Sound of the Ladies and Jonny Berliner. [22]
Baba Brinkman's "Rationalist Anthem" Off That appeared exclusively as part of Geek Pop 2010, featuring a video animated by Tommy Nagle. [23]
The launch of Geek Pop 2011 coincided again with The British Science Association National Science and Engineering Week. The online festival went live March 11, 2011 and a live launch gig occurred at Wilton's Music Hall in London on March 10, 2011. [24] The festival featured music from Jeffrey Lewis, Amateur Transplants, Dr. Martin Austwick, Helen Arney and Jonny Berliner. The Amateur Transplants, Martin Austwick and Helen Arney all performed live at the Wilton's Music Hall launch gig.
For the first time, some of the music was available for purchase only, on a mini album called Geek Like Me. [25]
There was no Geek Pop festival in 2012 due to other commitments from the organizers, Jim Bell and Hayley Birch. [26]
Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. They comprise Thom Yorke ; brothers Jonny Greenwood and Colin Greenwood (bass); Ed O'Brien ; and Philip Selway. They have worked with the producer Nigel Godrich and the cover artist Stanley Donwood since 1994. Radiohead's experimental approach is credited with advancing the sound of alternative rock.
CBC Radio 3 is a Canadian digital radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which plays a relatively freeform mix of indie rock, indie pop, alternative hip hop, folk, country and electronic music.
CBC Music is a Canadian FM radio network operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It used to concentrate on classical and jazz. In 2007 and 2008, the network transitioned towards a new "adult music" format with a variety of genres, with the classical genre generally restricted to midday hours. In 2009, Radio 2 averaged 2.1 million listeners weekly, and it was the second-largest radio network in Canada.
Kathryn Felicia Day is an American actress, singer, writer, and web series creator. She is the creator and star of the web series The Guild (2007–2013), a show loosely based on her life as a gamer. She also wrote and starred in the Dragon Age web series Dragon Age: Redemption (2011). She is a founder of the online media company Geek & Sundry, best known for hosting the show Critical Role between 2015 and 2019. Day was a member of the board of directors of the International Academy of Web Television from December 2009 until August 2012.
Spineshank was an American nu metal / industrial metal band from Los Angeles. The band released four studio albums: Strictly Diesel (1998), The Height of Callousness (2000), Self-Destructive Pattern (2003), and Anger Denial Acceptance (2012).
Annie Macmanus, known professionally as Annie Mac, is an Irish DJ, broadcaster and writer. She hosted a variety of shows on BBC Radio 1, including BBC Switch and Future Sounds. She also DJed in various locations, including hosting her AMP Lost and Found venues in places like Ibiza.
Drowned in Sound, sometimes abbreviated to DiS, was a UK-based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway. Founded by editor Sean Adams, the site featured reviews, news, interviews, and discussion forums.
Marc Andrew Gunn is an American musician and podcaster.
Josie Isabel Long is an English comedian. She started performing as a stand-up at the age of 14 and won the BBC New Comedy Awards at 17.
Charles Matthew Egerton Hazlewood is a British conductor. After winning the European Broadcasting Union conducting competition in 1995 whilst still in his twenties, Hazlewood has had a career as an international conductor, music director of film and theatre, composer and a curator of music on British radio and television, Motivational Speaker and founder of Paraorchestra – the world's first integrated ensemble of disabled and non-disabled musicians. He was a guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in May 2019 and became Sky Arts' Ambassador for Music in January 2021. In 2023 Hazlewood was recognised for his 'outstanding contribution to the musical life of the UK' when awarded the Sir Charles Groves Prize by music charity Making Music.
Rhett James McLaughlin and Charles Lincoln "Link" Neal III are an American comedy duo. Self-styled as "Internetainers", they are known for creating and hosting the YouTube series Good Mythical Morning. Their other notable projects include comedic songs and sketches, their IFC series Rhett & Link: Commercial Kings, their YouTube Premium series Rhett & Link's Buddy System, their podcast Ear Biscuits and their novel The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek.
Answer Me This! was a comedy podcast by Helen Zaltzman and Olly Mann made between 2007 and 2023, in which they answered questions submitted by the general public. It was one of the first independent British podcasts to gain success, and led to both Zaltzman and Mann establishing careers as professional podcasters. Initially produced weekly, the podcast became fortnightly in January 2014 and then monthly in December 2016. The series originally ended with its 400th episode on 5 August 2021, but returned for one further episode in 2023.
Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People is a Christmas stage show celebrating a view of science. It was first run in 2008 at the Bloomsbury Theatre and re-run as The Return of Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People in 2009, then televised on BBC Four as Nerdstock: 9 Lessons and Carols for Godless People.
iHeartRadio is an American freemium broadcast, podcast and radio streaming platform owned by iHeartMedia. It was founded in August 2008. As of 2019, iHeartRadio was functioning as the national umbrella brand for iHeartMedia's radio network, the largest radio broadcaster in the United States with 128 million registered users as of 2019. Its main competitors are Audacy, TuneIn and Sirius XM.
Dirk Murray Brinkman is a Canadian rapper and playwright best known for recordings and performances that combine hip hop music with literature, theatre, and science.
Helen Zaltzman is an English podcaster, broadcaster and writer. She produces the linguistics podcast The Allusionist, the entertainment podcast Answer Me This!, and the Veronica Mars recap podcast Veronica Mars Investigations.
Brady John Haran is an Australian-British independent filmmaker and video journalist who produces educational videos and documentary films for his YouTube channels, the most notable being Computerphile and Numberphile. Haran is also the co-host of the Hello Internet podcast along with fellow educational YouTuber CGP Grey. On 22 August 2017, Haran launched his second podcast, called The Unmade Podcast, and on 11 November 2018, he launched his third podcast, The Numberphile Podcast, based on his mathematics-centered channel of the same name.
Joseph Scrimshaw is an American comedian and writer for radio, television and theater, whom City Pages, a Twin Cities newspaper, describes as having an "irreverent and insightful wit." He is the author of a book of comic essays called Comedy of Doom and hosts a monthly podcast called Obsessed with Joseph Scrimshaw, where he and his guests discuss their obsessions. He performs across the country in a variety of venues, including comedy festivals like San Francisco's SketchFest and science fiction conventions such as Dragon Con and CONvergence, and his plays have been performed internationally. He has collaborated with performer Bill Corbett on a number of plays and written for RiffTrax, Corbett's joint comedy venture with Kevin Murphy and Michael J. Nelson. Scrimshaw has toured with musicians Molly Lewis and the Doubleclicks, and performed live for musician Jonathan Coulton's JoCo Cruise and the geek vaudeville w00tstock. Scrimshaw has been involved with writing and performing for American Public Media's radio variety show Wits, writing sketches and appearing as the character Theater Ghost. He has also written for the national sketch comedy television show M@dAbout.
Nerdist Industries, LLC is part of the digital division of Legendary Entertainment. Nerdist Industries was founded as a sole podcast created by Chris Hardwick but later spread to include a network of podcasts, a premium content YouTube channel, a news division, and a television version of the original podcast produced by and aired on BBC America.
Helen Arney is a British presenter, stand-up comedian and musician. She has toured with the Uncaged Monkeys alongside comedian Robin Ince and Professor Brian Cox.