The Rock Band Who Never Met

We've had rock bands that are cartoons (see The Archies, The Gorillaz) and duets with dead people (Natalie and Nat King Cole, for starters). Sometime in the next decade or so, we'll see a new twist: an important rock band whose members have never met in person. They will likely all live in different parts of the world, and will find each other, write music, rehearse and record together over the Internet. The technology will mean they can do all that and never have to be in the same room.

That idea has been around for a while. Last night, at Intel's keynote at CES, I got a first glimpse of how it can become a reality. To pull it off, Intel's engineers knitted together a handful of early-stage technologies, including eJamming, Big Stage, Virtual Heroes and Organic Motion. CEO Paul Otellini and the band Smash Mouth did the demo, with lead singer Steve Harwell on stage at CES and his band members somewhere else. It all ended with a Second Life-like live avatar version of "All Star."

Photograph by David Paul Morris/Getty Images

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