3 ms·

Japan did. http://youtu.be/YSyWtESoeOc http://youtu.be/YSyWtESoeOc

wpietri 11y ago
Neat. More for the curious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatsune_Miku https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatsune_Miku It mentions she has over 100,000 released songs, which I presume are mostly fan created. I guess I was thinking more like a virtual pop star in the sense of the pop stars mentioned in the article: meticulously controlled, always-on-brand industrial product. Sort of like the way a virtual Tupac appeared at Coachella, but made from scratch so that the money all flows to the puppeteers.
- objclxt 11y ago
  > more like a virtual pop star in the sense of the pop stars mentioned in the article: meticulously controlled, always-on-brand industrial product Well, that's kind of what a group like Gorrilaz is, I think, although maybe not quite as industrial/mass-produced a product as you're suggesting.
  - chromaton 11y ago
    I think this trend started with The Archies or perhaps Alvin and the Chipmunks.
- imauld 11y ago
  > This article is about the Vocaloid character. For the video game series which features her, see Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA. In this Japanese name, the family name is Hatsune. Amazing. Japan, what will they think of next?
  - TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
    What's amazing? That Japanese family names come first (not unique to Japan: China, Korea and other places also do this) or that Miku has her own rhythm video games (not unique to Japan: Guitar Hero, anyone?)?
fenomas 11y ago
For those not familiar, Hatsune Miku is a promotional character for voice/song creation software. In short, Yamaha sells a music synthesizer IDE called Vocaloid, and one of its features is that you can add lyrics via voice synthesizer packages, and then control the tune, vibrato and whatnot. Several 3rd parties sell voice packages for Vocaloid, and usually they were just given names to distinguish them, but a company called Crypton made a voice package called Hatsune Miku, and marketed it along with visual assets and a minimal backstory. Importantly, they released the character (not the software) under remix-friendly licenses that encourage (noncommercial) reuse, so fans sort of took Miku and made her their own in a very Gibsonesque "Idoru" sort of way. As such, the difference between Miku and bands like Gorillaz or similar is that here there's no particular artist behind the scenes. The company who owns Miku's copyright just makes software; the music comes from fans.
- cdr 11y ago
  If you count professional music artists, producers, and songwriters among fans, sure. It's certainly true that anyone can create a vocaloid track and have it gain popularity, but a number of the biggest hits have unsurprisingly been produced by people already professionally involved in music.
  - fenomas 11y ago
    > If you count professional music artists, producers, and songwriters among fans If they're making something outside of work and sharing the result on niconico for free, I don't know why I wouldn't.
  - rquantz 11y ago
    It's even been used at least once by a classical composer: Matt Marks' Kamikaze Karaoke, a setting of texts written by kamikaze pilots before their missions, for flute, violin, cello, percussion (the incomparable Cadillac Moon Ensemble), and Hatsune Miku. Here's the fourth movement, my favorite: http://youtu.be/j8h6PKkAvdo http://youtu.be/j8h6PKkAvdo
  - kalleboo 11y ago

Neat. More for the curious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatsune_Miku https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatsune_Miku It mentions she has over 100,000 released songs, which I presume are mostly fan created. I guess I was thinking more like a virtual pop star in the sense of the pop stars mentioned in the article: meticulously controlled, always-on-brand industrial product. Sort of like the way a virtual Tupac appeared at Coachella, but made from scratch so that the money all flows to the puppeteers.

objclxt 11y ago
> more like a virtual pop star in the sense of the pop stars mentioned in the article: meticulously controlled, always-on-brand industrial product Well, that's kind of what a group like Gorrilaz is, I think, although maybe not quite as industrial/mass-produced a product as you're suggesting.
- chromaton 11y ago
  I think this trend started with The Archies or perhaps Alvin and the Chipmunks.
imauld 11y ago
> This article is about the Vocaloid character. For the video game series which features her, see Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA. In this Japanese name, the family name is Hatsune. Amazing. Japan, what will they think of next?
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
  What's amazing? That Japanese family names come first (not unique to Japan: China, Korea and other places also do this) or that Miku has her own rhythm video games (not unique to Japan: Guitar Hero, anyone?)?

fenomas 11y ago

For those not familiar, Hatsune Miku is a promotional character for voice/song creation software. In short, Yamaha sells a music synthesizer IDE called Vocaloid, and one of its features is that you can add lyrics via voice synthesizer packages, and then control the tune, vibrato and whatnot. Several 3rd parties sell voice packages for Vocaloid, and usually they were just given names to distinguish them, but a company called Crypton made a voice package called Hatsune Miku, and marketed it along with visual assets and a minimal backstory. Importantly, they released the character (not the software) under remix-friendly licenses that encourage (noncommercial) reuse, so fans sort of took Miku and made her their own in a very Gibsonesque "Idoru" sort of way. As such, the difference between Miku and bands like Gorillaz or similar is that here there's no particular artist behind the scenes. The company who owns Miku's copyright just makes software; the music comes from fans.

cdr 11y ago
If you count professional music artists, producers, and songwriters among fans, sure. It's certainly true that anyone can create a vocaloid track and have it gain popularity, but a number of the biggest hits have unsurprisingly been produced by people already professionally involved in music.
- fenomas 11y ago
  > If you count professional music artists, producers, and songwriters among fans If they're making something outside of work and sharing the result on niconico for free, I don't know why I wouldn't.
- rquantz 11y ago
  It's even been used at least once by a classical composer: Matt Marks' Kamikaze Karaoke, a setting of texts written by kamikaze pilots before their missions, for flute, violin, cello, percussion (the incomparable Cadillac Moon Ensemble), and Hatsune Miku. Here's the fourth movement, my favorite: http://youtu.be/j8h6PKkAvdo http://youtu.be/j8h6PKkAvdo
- kalleboo 11y ago