If technology has finally come as far as to raise people from the dead, then Coachella masterfully choose the right soul to bring back. Legendary rapper Tupac Shakur, who died in 1996, made an appearance alongside Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre in the closing act of the first weekend of Coachella 2012. Aside from the fact that the event was awe-inspiring and Tupac is still looking damn good, the performance raises a number of questions.

One question brought up concerns the advent of holographic touring, which MTV.com tackled earlier today. Could the music industry successfully create a tour based on dead musicians backed by a live band? Would music fans actually dig it? See what professionals thought here.

Another question, and more pertinent question in my opinion, is how the hell is Coachella going to top that during its succeeding weekend? Now that the secret is out, there’s no way the fest can re-resurrect Tupac — that would just be lame and second weekend attendees would feel gypped of the surprise.

So we come to a crossroads, where Coachella could take the obvious route and enlist, perhaps, Notorious B.I.G. (1972-1997) or Nate Dogg (1969-2011) to spruce up the same rap act. Or the festival could run the other direction and resurrect a hologram to perform alongside some artist outside of the hip-hop genre. Would you really be that surprised if Whitney Houston showed up to introduce David Guetta? Too soon?

In retrospect, whatever the hologram surprise happens to be this upcoming weekend, it certainly presents a new money-making opportunity on the industry side. If the hierarchical “they” can just take famous, dead people and make them even more famous — either by “going on tour,” or having them pop up wherever and wherever they please — a new sort of nostalgia will be tapped into that will drive the masses crazy. I mean, why go see an Elvis impersonator when you could go see [almost] the real thing? Plus industry execs won’t have to pay the musicians.

Using this technology homogeneously as opposed to exclusively would be over the top (and slightly retarded), but I expect it will take over like the 3D craze and end up in the realm of strictly holographic performances, most of which take place on the Grammys. And I know there’s at least one person who is pissed about those flirting with limbo … poor Slash, they’ve gone and told his secret.

Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg (Live at Coachella, 2012)… by coachellasets

Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg (Live at Coachella, 2012)… by coachellasets