Silly Japan

But this IS kinda cool

Everyone gets a little obsessed with famous musicians now and then, but things get really weird when the famous musician is actually just a piece of software. Hatsune Miku is a rising star in Japan and abroad, singing catchy J-pop that matches her blue-green hair. She’s also a virtual avatar created by Crypton Media using Yamaha’s Vocaloid voice synthesizer. That hasn’t stopped her from amassing a legion of fans who really love her work. I mean really love it. Check out the crowd frantically waving glow-sticks and singing along with Hatsune Miku as she appears via a ‘3D hologram’ on stage in the videos below.

Music is kinda catchy too!

Certainly with the drama caused by real-life celebrities, CG ones do have a certain amount of appeal. 🙂

Also this is hardly a new idea.

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0 Responses to Silly Japan

  1. bluesun says:

    That is creepy and wrong and I never want to hear about it again. I thought anime fans were scary enough without a “real life” pop symbol to geek out over…

  2. USCitizen says:

    Silly Japan: The World is Mine Rawks!

  3. Old NFO says:

    Not surprising… not in Japan anyway…

  4. Rauðbjorn says:

    Gotta love them Gorillaz. The whole Hatsune Miku – live avatar thing is kinda nifty on an intellectual tech level. But yeah, japan has spawned the weirdest culture ever. You want proof? And this is a show for kids. I don’t ever want to hear someone complain about Loony Tunes again.

  5. ZOMG, my daughter is a HUGE Hatsune Miku fan. And I get to hear ALL about it, constantly…LOL.

  6. 😀 😀 😀

    YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY~ Hatsune Miku! 😀 Though I prefer Silence and Aimaina over World is Mine, myself. 😉

    Of course, you forgot to mention that the fundamental difference between Gorillaz and Hatsune Miku is the fact that she sings entirely by computer. She’s a Vocaloid, and uses the software of the same name by Yamaha – users input words, notes, articulations, etc., and the resulting output is singing, which can be mixed with instruments, etc.. Furthermore, only her appearance (and even then, only hair color is pretty much the only that is absolutely consistent) and voice are concrete; depictions of Hatsune Miku vary between songs and videos made by users of the program.

    Not to mention, she’s not the only one out there. 😉 She’s the most popular of the Vocaloids, but there’s also the Kagamine twins, Megurine Luka, Kamui Gakupo (whose voicebanks were provided by none other than Gackt), Gumi/Megpoid, Kaai Yuki, Meiko, and a whole bunch of other ones, often released by different distributors but using the same tech (for instance, Hatsune Miku, Megurine Luka, and the Kagamine twins were released by Crypton Future, while Gakupo and Gumi were released by another company…even Yamaha has been releasing Vocaloid “characters” of their own).

    I myself love Vocaloid so much because of the vast amount of sounds out there. Since it’s software that’s distributed in retail and such, you have lots of internet users (mainly Japanese) making music with it and posting them as videos on Nico Nico Douga and YouTube (these are called “Promotional Videos”, or PVs). Other users then make remixes, covers, answer songs, or different images or 2D/3D animation and repost the songs. As a result, you can find some really awesome stuff.

    …oh dear, my fangirl is showing. >.>;;

    • Weerd Beard says:

      Wow, great comment, Sliver, thanks for the added info. You’re correct that Hatsune Miku != Gorillaz (and that’s really the whole point why I posted about her, but not of a Brit Has-been re-making his career as an animated ape), I was thinking more of the concept of engineered acts (can we say meta-performers?) Such as say groups like The Monkees which was entirely a fabrication by producers, and it just so happened to use real people pretending to be a rock group.

      Instead she’s a lot closer to the subject of the film Sim0ne, tho that isn’t even exactly true. I rather dig the idea tho of simply allowing people to conceptualize things and allow the computers to bring them to life, much like how electronica produces music that is impossible for people with mechanical instruments to re-create, and can be done by people who may not even have the skills or dexterity to actually PLAY the songs, but because they can imagine it and describe it to the computer it is real.

      I may have another post on this brewing…

  7. Dixie says:

    Computerized singers, robotic bands ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO5k3yGXuc8 ), even robotic companions. Japan seems to be slowly taken over by the machines…

  8. serr8d says:

    Genki Rockets, a completely synthesized, near-perfect human girl-voice, but you can’t tell the difference I’ll warrant.

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