Press release by Tokyo 2020:
Tokyo 2020 Launches “Make the Beat!” Project Inviting Fans Worldwide to Energise Venues and Encourage Athletes
Tokyo, 6 September 2019 – The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020) today launched “Make the Beat!”, a new project fusing sound, technology and social media to allow fans from all over the world – no matter where they are– to take part in energising venues and encouraging their favourite teams and athletes. “Make the Beat!” will introduce fans to the official Tokyo 2020 beat, a melodic rhythm that spectators can dance or clap along to, and encourage fans to create their own #2020beat content to be displayed in venues and at Live Sites.
The official Tokyo 2020 beat was created from a range of 1,000 different sound samples reflecting the themes of “sports”, “Japanese culture”, “daily lives” and “nature”; five different rhythms were compiled from these using Olympic World-Wide Partner Intel Corporation’s AI technology. Tokyo 2020 Olympic mascot Miraitowa and Paralympic mascot Someity oversaw the sampling and creation of the shortlist. Tsukuba University researchers then contributed to the final selection of the Tokyo 2020 official beat.
At today’s event, the historic Meiji University cheering squad joined model Honoka Tsuchiya, violinist Mayu Kishima, and social media influencers XTRAP to launch the project with a cheer routine set to the beat. Starting September 6, a series of videos featuring athletes and artists from all different fields demonstrating the beat will be uploaded to the dedicated Tokyo 2020 beat website (see URL below).
In the runup to the Tokyo 2020 Games, fans are invited to film themselves as individuals or in groups performing to the rhythm and to post their content on social media using the special hashtag #2020beat. During the Tokyo 2020 Games, a selection of the submitted material will be displayed inside venues and at Live Sites as a compilation generated using Alibaba Cloud technology. In this way, fans who will not be able to attend events at the venues can still participate in the Tokyo 2020 Games and cheer on the athletes to the sound of the beat.
Schedule:
– 6 September 2019 “Make the Beat!” project launch
– Fall 2019 Tokyo 2020 Olympic mascot and Paralympic mascot international tour details to be announced
– March 2020 Compilation of user-submitted content to start
– 23 July 2020 Compilation of user-submitted content to end
– 24 July – 6 September 2020 Compilation videos to be broadcast at Tokyo 2020 venues`
Further details will be updated on the dedicated website: https://tokyo2020.org/en/special/makethebeat/