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Abstract
World Collapse is a five-track concept EP and multimedia experience created by Jingyao “Bill” Cheng during his M.A. in Songwriting & Production at Berklee NYC. Sparked by escalating war and natural-disaster headlines, the project fuses cinematic hip-hop, metal, ambient glitch, balladry, and traditional Chinese instruments—including pipa, guzheng, and yangqin—to trace humanity’s search for hope amid devastation. The different stories from songs, Distortion-versus-fragility contrasts, Auto-Tune, and seismic 808 build the tracks into a “film in sound” that aims to dissolve linguistic and cultural boundaries while rebuilding trust through art. Cheng wrote, produced, and mixed all music, directed five lyric videos, painted the cover art, and designed NFC-enabled merch that extends the narrative beyond stereo speakers. A staggered rollout from September 2025 through May 2026 will unveil each single with complementary glitch-art visuals, inviting listeners into an evolving cross-media meditation on collapse and renewal.
Publication Date
7-1-2025
Campus
New York City Campus
Specialization
Songwriting and Production
Keywords
Cross-genre; hip-hop; multimedia; cultural fusion; distortion
Recommended Citation
Cheng, Bill. “World Collapse.” Master's thesis, Berklee College of Music, 2025. https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-cmat/120.