While waiting for Philosophy class to start today, a few of my classmates were huddled around a laptop, amazed at the concept of Vocaloids. You basically make your own lyrics and melody, and by using the Vocaloid synthesizing software, you can create your own fictional character to sing along to it.
Yamaha’s Vocaloid software became immensely successful after Crypton Future Media used this engine to develop Hatsune Miku, the singing Japanese pop sensation. The biggest catch is, she isn’t a real person! The blue haired, school uniform dressed girl made her debut on August 31st 2007, after Crypton Future Media used Vocaloid 2 software to take voice samples from a voice actress named Saki Fujita at a controlled pitch and tone.
And here you have it! Hastune Miku, the pop-singing sensation!
This futuristic diva recently had her own sold out concert! (Click here for article) She had a live band, millions of fans with glowing sticks, and stood on stage singing some of her greatest hits. Of course, the person onstage doing all of the dance moves and singing was a “3-D hologram.”
Crypton plans to hold many more concerts in the future with Miku and her friends (oh yes, they didn’t just stop at one sensation, though she is the top hologram here) in other places besides Japan. Even here in New York, there are many fans of this anime-esque icon.
Would you see this as a stroke of genius or just plain frightening? The article provided above states that it’s a good way for people to make their own content and share it with people. Think ugly basement nerd with no singing talent who can write lyrics and create some beautiful music. I myself have heard from cousins and friends that it’s not Miku or her artificial voice that makes them go crazy, but the lyrics themselves. Japan always seems to be one step ahead of the rest when it comes to technology, and it would not be surprising if Vocaloids did start making more of an impact on the music industry.
That’s not necessarily a good thing. I myself, prefer a real person with a naturally good voice to use their music to connect with fans. Ignoring Vocaloids for a second, a good number of “singers” on the charts have their voices “mixed and fixed” until it doesn’t even sound like what they originally sung. So all in all, while I am old fashioned and would prefer someone talented and real to take us by storm, Hastune Miku and her other hologram friends wouldn’t be the worse addition to modern culture.
Here is a video of one of her hologram performances from her last concert!
Actually, looking at it a couple more times, I think it’s a little creepy..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTXO7KGHtjI&feature=player_embedded
I remember these back in high school, and I think they’re really creepy! It’s probably the fact that they aren’t real, but it’s also because their voices are really strange too. In a way it is like bringing a manga character to real life…or “realer life”. Some vocaloids even have their own background story!
The holograph performance is quite impressive, technically. It also solves the problem that live performers are too short to really make an impact in an arena setting. Nothing like a 7-foot singer to get 20,000 people going. Seriously, this is a technical solution in search of a problem. I have to agree that it is pretty creepy. Also, the highly processed vocal sound is another example of what one gets with auto-tune techniques, common in lots of American pop (though my favorite manifestation is in Auto Tune the News: