Some interactive music CD-ROMs

Explora 1: Peter Gabriel’s Secret World—includes 100 minutes of video, more than 100 still images. Click on any line and you move to the video. Or call up interviews with Gabriel or the producers to discuss the interpretation of each tune. Sample tunes from each Gabriel catalogue. Watch a recording session. Check out the instruments of other countries. Hear musical excerpts from 42 albums by artists from around the world. Visit the World Music Festival: a Grammy rehearsal by Gabriel, the drummers of Barundi. And interact with the disc’s interface which lets you set your own visual background to the music: an Egyptian darabuka drum with its clay body, floating above the planet—stars, ocean, sky. And if you’re done with the programme, sit back and browse through a beautiful full-colour booklet that’s included with the CD-ROM. A MacPlay/Interplay CD-ROM.

Jazz: A Multimedia History—spans 1923 to 1991 with facts, figures, images and sounds, from Louis Armstrong to Miles Davis, Duke Ellington to Herbie Hancock. “An excellent interactive tour through America’s greatest native artform.” An Ebook/Compton New-Media CD-ROM.

Heart: 20 years of rock & roll—An interactive musical biography, fronted by sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, Heart is one of rock’s most durable bands, having sold more than 30 million albums. Includes clips from more than 100 songs, 20 minutes of video clips, three hours of interviews, As you play any song from any of Heart’s albums, the screen can display its lyrics and history. “The Player feature will probably be imitated often by music discs in the future.”The New CD Music Show/Compton’s New-Media CD-ROM.

Time Warner’s Audio Notes—such as Johannes Brahms: a German Requiem, with the Atlanta Symphony and Chorus, 50 side journeys into historical, musical and biographical topics, 40 examples of sound and music. Times Warner CD-ROM.

These notes abbreviated from Chris McGowan and Jim McCullaugh’s excellent book, ENTERTAINMENT IN THE CYBER ZONE Exploring the Interactive Universe of Multimedia published by Random House, New York, 1995. See other notes on Page 336.