There is a long list of pop stars who were dreamed up by creatives and PR teams; it’s easy to forget, when speaking about culture, that the original sense of the word ‘pop’ is ‘prefab.’ The Monkees, the Archies, and today, Damon Alburn’s Gorillas, all come to mind.
Hatsune Miku is, however, something new: a wholly virtual musical star, a pop diva with no flesh and blood component. Hatsune Miku is a holographic computer program, an anime figure now performing to sold-out crowds in Japan.
Vocaloid software plus a hologram makes a Japanese pop star
Translated from Japanese, Hatsune Miku means ‘first sound future’. She is in essence an idea given human form via digital effects. Anyone can purchase Hatsune Miku, courtesy of Sapporo’s Crypton Future Media. The avatar is an extension of the Vocaloid speech synthesis software developed by Yamaha.
Compose a song using Crypton’s sound generator software, and Hatsune Miku will perform it for you on your computer. 3D technology brings the avatar to life as a stage performer. When paired with a real life band the ‘first sound of the future’, and of pop culture itself, is born.
Hatsune Miku: A Crypton Future Media and Yamaha Corp. production
Writing in the Huffington Post, media forecaster Jack Myers suggests Hatsune Miku “is likely to have more long-term relevance and value to music, entertainment and advertising businesses than Madonna, Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber combined.” His line of thinking: virtual stars have the potential to generate huge profits with comparatively low overhead costs. It’s a cure for an ailing music business.
Hollywood’s current preference for digital animation and B-grade stars provides an already working example of this trend. However, beyond her novelty value a truly viable pop career for Hatsune Miku remains uncertain.
Vocaloid is Autotune taken to the next level
As a pop cultural phenomenon, Hatsune Miku was bound to happen. In the 21st century, people live computer lives. They have avatars and chat online with friends and strangers alike. Social networks require users to construct complex online personalities. When not on Facebook, watching music clips on YouTube, or meeting people on Second Life, today’s virtual generation plays video games.
Every computer interface elicits a different persona, and users slip from one to the next without a second thought. In the entertainment world, the computerized vocal effects of Autotune are ubiquitous. Hatsune Miku represents the next step in this process, which media theorist Thomas De Zengotita describes as: “the unprecedented fusion of the real and the represented.”
Further Reading
- Jack Myers, “Miku Hatsune and Black Rock Shooter: Global Music Video "Vocaloid" Phenomenon That Defines the Future” (October 19, 2010)
- DVICE, “The next Lady Gaga could be a Japanese holographic singing idol”
- Crypton Future Media, “What is the HATSUNE MIKU movement?”
- Thomas De Zengotita, Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World and the Way You Live in It (New York: Bloomsbury, 2005)
Rosemary Heather - Rosemary Heather has 12 years experience working as an editor and freelance writer. For the past five years she was the editor of C ...
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