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Academic year of 2012-2013, Semester 2, Term 3

Department of European Studies and Communication Management
Study Unit: Cultural Theory and Popular Culture
Module Manager: B.C. van der Sluijs
Even Better Than The Real Thing*
Hatsune Miku, the digital generated pop-idol.
*(reference to the 1991 U2s song)
Maria Alice Ferramacho Martins
Exchange Student
Student number: 12066486
Abstract: Current Wester societies are market by escalating change, speed and abundance of information
and pluralism of communication tools. But it is also a society of feedback and interactivity. It becomes
difficult to categorize and distinguish the providers, carriers and receivers of information. The reality
blends myths. The purpose of this essay is to briefly analyze the creation, role and impact of a recent
development in J apan: the Vocaloids, particularly Hatsune Miku, product of these versatile aspects of
society. The theory developed in the context of Post-modernism is used in order to provide a reliable
background to support an academic view of the phenomenon.
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Index
Post modernism..3
Who is Hatsune Miku? ........................................................................4
- Evolution ...5
What is new about Hatsune Miku? .......................................................7
Hatsune Miku and the Post-modernist society9
Final Notes..12
Bibliography ...13
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Post-modernism
1950s and 1960s were the decades of consolidation of what is Post-modernism
in the United States and United Kingdom. The underlined idea is one of revolt against
the canonization of modernisms avant-garde revolution and attack towards
modernisms official status, its canonization in the museum and the academy, as the
high culture of the modern capitalist world. [Storey, 2009, pp.196] It is the awareness
against what is perceived as cultural elitism derived from Modernism.
Post-modernism spread to most areas of popular culture, here understood in the context
of Western countries, its theorizations is the main object of the work of individuals such
as J ean-Franois Lyotard, Frederic J ameson or Andy Warhol in the artistic field.
However, we should focus on the work developed by J ean Baudrillard and specifically
on the concept of Hyper-reality.
Baudrillard argues that society has reached a stage in social and economic
development in which it is no longer possible to separate the economic or productive
realm from the realms of ideology or culture, since cultural artifacts, images,
representations, even feelings and psychic structures have become part of the world of
the economic. This, the author explains happens due to the shift from production of
objects towards production of information. However, this mechanical type of
production contributed to the destruction of the distinction between copy and original,
thus introducing the concept of culture of Simulacrum an identical copy without an
original. [Storey, 2009, pp.197].
Thus, Baudrillard develops the idea of Hyperrealism, the generation by models
of a real without origins or reality, as the main characteristic of Post-modernity. The
result is not only the dissolution of the difference between the reality and simulation
experienced, but often the higher level of reality experienced through a simulacrum.
There are various phenomena that can be pointed out to illustrate the theories of
Baudrillard: the penetration of TV in everyday life or the experienced provided by Parks
such as Disneyland are examples of identities who create and mediate their own
realities. However, the object of analyzes of this essay is a relatively new phenomena:
Vocaloids, a recent technological creation that is changing the Music industry in J apan
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but in Western societies in general as well. Therefore, the purpose of this essay is to
gather the basic aspects related with the phenomena, specifically Hatsune Miku, and
make a brief analysis of its relation with Baudrillards theory and theimplications for
Contemporary Popular Culture.
Who is Hatsune Miku?
Teen J apanese-pop sensation Hatsune Miku proves corporeal reality isnt necessarily a
prerequisite for fame.
Margaret Wappler, LATimes, June 2012
Hatsune Miku has no story. She is described by her creators focusing on her
appearance: she is a teenager, 158cm tall, weighs 42kg, has blue hair (arranged in two
long pigtails) and wears a very short skirt and long necktie.
According to the article by Margaret Wappler, in 2007, Hiroyuki Itoh, CEO of Sapporo-
based Crypton Future Media (a company from the music technology industry), asked
for the collaboration of an graphic artist in order to create an anime-inspired digital
avatar to represent boh Crypton and its virtual voice-program for Yamahas Vocaloid
software.
Vocaloid is a singing-voice synthesizer, which enables its users to create songs
by typing in lyrics and melody. The creation of a visible singer was the answer to some
lacking aspects of the software, that seemed to fail in appealing to users.
Hatsune Miku was the performer image of choice, a mega-mascot for consumer-
generated media (CGM) [Wappler, 2012, paragraph 4] and her persona has since then
been created trough crowdsourcing. This implies that her music is the result of on-line
collective collaboration. The songs are uploaded to sharing websites ( such as
nicovideo.jp) and then the most popular ones are used by companies such as Sega, but
the main aspect is that all Hatsune Mikus music performed live is produced by her
fans.
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Fig. 1 TheAnime version of Hatsune Miku
Hatsune Miku is not the only avatar of this new concept of digital music, but she
has the advantage of being the first one.
Other Vocaloid (avatars) are popular, just not as popular as Miku, (She) was the
first to cross the threshold of quality voicing, the first to be presented as a character with
a look. Like all popular culture, things are popular because they are popular, so Miku
had a first-mover advantage.[Condry, on Wapplers article, J une 2012, paragraph 5].
Evolution
Hatsune Miku started performing in 2009. Since then she has been not only in
J apan, but in Singapure and the United States (Los Angeles) as well.
Her appearance is normally accompanied by music played by a live orchestra, while her
holographic picture is projected on a screen. Her performance (singing and
choreography) is prepared in advance and since she first started in 2009, the shows have
been adapted in order to increased fidelity. The technology used has been upgraded,
aiming to improve the quality of the projection and assure realism in Mikus
performances. Innovation also covers her animation: her costumes, striking moves and
the incorporation of emotion gestures, such as wiping a tear from her face. Finally, her
performances also include guests, other famous musicians who with Miku shares the
stage (the voice actress Aizawa Mai, for example).
The fidelity of her fans has grown exponentially: her concerts are sold out
months in advance (not only in J apan, but in other countries as well), counting
thousands of spectators at the venue and even ore worldwide, in cinemas where her
concerts are screened or though streaming video.
Several videos are available on Youtube, for example, showing the amazing final
product of the technology behind the Vocaloids and the devotion of her fans in concert.
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This brings us to another particular aspect consequence of the creation of the Vocaloids
the nature of the fan community.
Because of the concept of crowd sourcing, since the moment of her creation in
2007, Hatsune Miku promoted the formation of a large interactive community of fans,
directly and deeply connected with the product that they helped create through their
musical compositions. Aside with the use of social media tools such as Youtube or
iTunes, amateurs have used Miku in thousands of songs, but other artistic productions
as well (illustrations, videos, games, animations and cosplay, role play costume). This
involves a shift from the typical passive worship attitude of fans towards their idols
towardsfoment of a creative and participative mass of followers.
Hatsune Miku has also appeared in several commercials (Toyotta Corolla, in
Asia, and Google Chrome, in J apan) that, along with her musical performances, have
millions of views on Youtube, contribute to increase her revenues and show the
capacity of penetration of the product in other markets besides music.
An example of her impact in recent events was related with the Olimpics:
A recent poll on the website Top Tens asked who should sing at the
London Olympics Opening Ceremony. Miku was topping the list, and then she
was mysteriously removed from the running. Some acolytes speculated shed
been sabotaged by competitive Korean-pop fans or those darn Bieberites. But it
turned out to be simpler than that: The Top Tens administrators, based in the
U.S., didnt fully understand that the pixilated princess was a legitimate
performer. After receiving angry missives from Miku fans, including Palm
Desert resident J ohn Harbort, the main blogger at mikufan.com, Top Tens
reinstated Miku, and she won the vote. [Wappler, 2012, paragraph 10].
Miku was also part of a pioneer project: the first Vocaloid opera, created by
musician and artist Keiichiro Shibuya and novelist/play writer Toshiki Okada. Titled
The End, the composition premiered at the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media,
featuring no human performers.
What is new about Hatsune Miku?
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Miku is more about the fundamentally virtual nature of all celebrity, the way in which
celebrity has always existed apart from the individual possessing it. Ones celebrity
actually lives in others. Its a profoundly mysterious thing.
William Gibson, on Wapplers article, 2012
The concepts of avatars or holograms are not new to popular culture:
representations of famous pop stars such as Madonna, the band Gorillaz or Alvin and
the Chipmunks are examples there make the public familiar with the diffusion on
musical content through media generated entities. However, Hatsune Miku, as a
Vocaloid, represents the creation of original material made from scratch, by a
collectivity of individuals, and possesses various features that distinguishher:
First, as stated before, Vocaloids changed the organization model of fan
communities. Hatsune Miku congregates a group of fans who can participate openly
with the character without commercial concerns. She is not just one more product of
J apanese popular culture, otaku lifestyle or technological worship. Miku is a variation
of contemporary interfaces that make it possible for users to engage and involve
themselves in the act of production. Media is changing through social networks,
promoting an increasing interaction between producers, distributors and receivers of
information.
To me, it seems hard to frame (Miku) as simply a user-generated-
content platform. Miku has a name and a gender, much closer to an anime
character, something artificial but personified enough to become an object of
emotional investment. What is interesting is that Mikus appeal goes well
beyond the relatively niche audience of J apanese (and non-J apanese) otaku.
[Rebecca Suter, on Kelts article, 2012, paragraph 21].
The company Crypton, has made an effort in order to encourage this share of
artistic material, trough the creationof an official community (Piapro) for Miku lovers
to upload their creations. Users must agree with the companys licensing system, which
stipulates that all works are for unofficial, noncommercial use only. This is an
innovative take on authorship, more friendly and common in J apan then in other
countries. It is more intrinsic to J apanese companies and popular culture to promote
feedback from fans and interaction with characters, as a strategy to obtain, in final
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instance higher profits. However, some of the best material has lead to the signature of
contracts with composers that start careers writing for the Vocaloid industry.
Miku can sing about anything and adopt any musical style. She combines the
latest technology with her hardly paralleled pluralism.
Many fans Ive talked to believe Miku doesnt have one fixed, single
selfshes not just one pop icon like Lady Gagabut that she can take on the
characteristics of the person making her at that moment. Somehow, she is
everyone, and thus becomes an icon of the self-expressive qualities of her fans. I
think it is her very ephemerality, her lack of a physical existence that allows for
a different relationship between audience and performer, between user and
creator. [Knight, on Wapplers article, 2012, paragraph 28].
Thus, Vocaloids symbolize the next step of the change due to their
anthropomorphous specificities and bounding potential.
This brings us to the second aspect: Hatsune Miku has no story. Her tabula-
rasa blankness has a dual impact. In one hand she can be molded by the eyes of every
fan. There are no cultural barriers; Miku is transversal and reliable to every fan,
appealing to every kind of audience for the most different reasons.
For a J apanese customer, Miku can be read within familiar frameworks
of idol culture and the attraction to manga and anime characters, which she
resembles; for a foreign customer, she has the exotic charm of Cool J apan, and
can be the object of techno-orientalist fascination. [Kelts, 2012, paragraph 23].
On the other hand, Hatsune Miku cannot betray her fans. Though she follows the
natural development of pop-idol culture in J apan since the 1970s (she a young,
attractive female singer), Miku is baggage free. Certainly the risk of being hacked
exists, but this is took in account by her creators. Being a Vocaloid creates the
impossibility of misbehave. Miku will never ruin her career due to bad conducts, such
as drug abuse, and the lack of a tumultuous personal life is an aspect valuedby her fans.
In addition, her creators are aware of the power of simple gestures, such has the
incorporation of situations of typically human emotion display (while performing in
Tokyo, there was a moment when Miku turned away from the audience and needed a
few minutes to compose herself). The reaction of the audience was astonishing.
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The esthetical/artistic perfection perceived by her fans is shared the her
companion musicians on stage, who underline the level of professionalism of Hatsune
Miku: As you keep playing for Miku, you start to think you are a band member for a
human artistthe feeling is very unique. [Abe J un, in Wapplers article, 2012,
paragraph 21].
When compared to other recent pop-culture figures holograms, like the one of
Tupac Shakur, the creator and fans underline that, though the possibility of bringing
back to life an artist is possible trough similar methods to the ones used the Mikus
concerts, the Vocaloid is appealing because she is unreal, thus creating the hyperreality.
The pure fantasy appears to be liberating for fans.
I saw (the Tupacs hologram) on television, he says. But he was a real person
with a real voice. Mikus voice is completely processed. Its only the people
who make her music that exist. Their songs are like a shout or yell from their
souls. Theyre not in the music business; theyre not in it for business at all.
They just want to make Hatsune Miku sing. [Itho, on Kelts article, 2012,
paragraph 29].
It is true that Hatsune Miku perpetuates the legacy of the empty female image in
pop music. Has stated by Nicholas Graham, Miku represents a terrible omen not only
for musicians but the continued existence of the world as we know it[Wapplers article,
2012, paragraph 30] But independently from a positive o negative perspective, the
phenomena of Hatusne Miku is growing, reaching more English speaking countries and
transforming the audience of her shows.
Hatsune Miku and the Post-modernist society
In the context of Post modernism, it is interesting to analyze the existence of
Vocaloids through different perspectives. The main question revolves around Hatsune
Mikus reality and fidelity. Even though it is unquestionable that Miku is a virtual
creation, and consequently fake, in the light of contemporary media and cultural
context it is important trying to understand the implications that her existence
represents.
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The blog article Remediation of a spectacle: Hatsune Miku, proposes an
interesting point on view on the subject:
Considering Marc Augs argumentation about us living in a world of images,
where the boundaries between fiction and reality are blurred, Miku can be seen has just
another image, invented but existing and being extremely appealing to her fans due to
her perfection and impossibility of betray. Where the real world changes into simple
images, the simple images become real beings, and the efficient motivations of an
hypnotic behavior. [Debord, 1967, in Remediation of a spectacle: Hatsune Miku
article, 2013]
As a holographic avatar, Hatsune Miku is seen as something that stands for
something else, in this case, she replaces real superstars. However, apart from fulfilling
their capacity in some respect, Miku is freed from spatio-temporal constrains.
Performing two concerts in a row in two different parts of the world is an example of
this aspect.
Considering the contemporary world is made of endless network representations,
and these are the base that constructs reality, then the idea of virtual idols as part of this
same reality is not so absurd. When Hatsune Miku starts performing, her story is so well
told that audiences believe her. She has live musicians accompanying her, the content of
her songs and choreographs is original. Mikus message is so well blended with her
carriers, the media instruments that it becomes very hard to distinguish them.
The sense of presence created by Hatusne Miku indeed provides the illusion of
reality for the audience, who follows her and obeys her, and foments the sense of a
collective experience. Influence by other spectators, by the closeness that Mikus
creators seek when preparing her shows (popular culture references, outfits, gestures)
the overall effect is an extremely emotional experience for the fans.
Regarding Baudrillards concept of simulacrum, if we consider contemporary
Superstars, such as Lady Gaga, or the Korean Pop singers, these idols have in fact
suffered a process similar to the one of Hatsune Miku. They have become more real
than the real, in other words, the artificial creations behind their shows, the makeovers
or plastics surgery, make it difficult to distinguished between the real singer and the
idol. Thus, they became idols simulacrum. Hatsune Miku is the step further in this
Baudrillards concept.
Hatsune Mikue stands a copy of something (the concept of idol) without an
original (al the artistic content associated with her is made from scratch, there are no
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credits on the end of her show, or neither can we separate the music from her has media
instrument).
Hatsune Miku is, along the current media revolution, changing the way these
instrument influence relashionships.
Baudrillard describes a crucial confusion that may be result of the articulation
of signs as consisting of signified and signifier. In a self-directed picture (or in this case
in spectacle) just as in a message directed towards its code, the signifier becomes its
signified, thus the signified disappears and a tautology of the signifier occurs. This is
the core of what defines consummation of certain texts instead of entering the world
bymeans of pictures or shows, they refer to themselves, bypassing the world. Instead of
a message concentrated on a signified, it is concentrated on itself as a signifier.
Consummation of a picture or event is depleted in the duration of its absorption and
does not refer to anything outside of it.
Hatsune Miku is the substitution of a reality produced through combined
elements of a code, but like in the creation of a myth, she is what she is. From a neutral
point of view, Miku and all the artistic content associated with her have no previous real
referents.
Following the arguments of Post-modernism theorists, nowadays society is
market by the production of goods through media that seek to fulfill masses
superfluous needs. This underlines a more Marxist view of popular culture, as driven by
capitalist forces and were different subcultures are constantly created.
Thus, the Vocaloids can be seen as part of the recent developments regarding the
creation of interactive digital communities where artistic contents are constantly
created, shared and used in alliance with the latest technological developments.
Miku as a spectacle enforces identification (of goods) with commodities. In
slightly adjusted Marxist terminology she mobilizes all practice and seizes the
monopoly over satisfaction, and ends up directing practice. By concentrating in herself
the image of a possible role, the role of the idol, the spectacular representation of a
living human, Miku thus concentrates this as a banality. And Miku is commodity at its
best. Not only does the software for her creation have to be bought, but afterwards
access to her songs via iTunes and similar repositories is also a matter of purchase.
[Remediation of a Spectacle: Hatsune Miku, 2013].
The main implication behindthe creation of Hatsune Miku is that her power of
changing patterns of union and relationship among fans and between them and the idol
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is explored foreseeing profit in a complete new context of interaction of various digital
tools. Since websites suchas Youtube provide free access to her music, the potential of
the merchandising and live performances has been explored to the maximum by
Crypton Future Media, but guaranteeing the special personal connection with fans.
Miku merchandise covers widest variety of products. Among them is
everything from food, clothing and technological gadgets, to furniture and video games.
And sales are reaching levels that even human superstars cannot dream of.
[Remediation of a Spectacle: Hatsune Miku, 2013].
Final Notes
It certainly is not easy to analyze the impact of Vocaloids on society, especially
due to the vast range of audiences that it affects. However, in the context of a deeply
connected and pluralistic popular culture as the one of the present, the issue of reality
gains a new approach: Hatsune Miku exists as the first non-human idol, but her reality
is less important than the impact, practices and developments that her existence
promotes. This issue goes beyond the mere debate about virtual worlds. What we are
witnessing is a unprecedented technological development and rapid transformation of
media tools and models of interaction trough the influence of digital generated superstar
idols, with effective and relatively unpredictable consequences to the our social and
economic environments in the medium term.
Miku lives primarily through her fans, the more of them there are, the brighter her projection
shines. [Wappler, 2012, paragraph 31].
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nations strangest pop star, November 2010, in DailyMail online version
Retrieved 28th March 2012 from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-
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1329040/J apanese-3D-singing-hologram-Hatsune-Miku-nations-biggest-pop-
star.html
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hologram, 10
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2012, from: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/11/japanese-pop-
star-takes-the-stage-as-a-3-d-hologram.html
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November 2012, Retrieved 16
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205_162-57547707/hatsune-miku-the-worlds-fakest-pop-star/
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Daily Beast, online version, Retrieved 17
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version. Retrieved 20th March, 2012 from:
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Blogs:
- Remediation of a Spectacle: Hatsune Miku, December 2012, Retrieved 17
th
March
from: http://2307a.tumblr.com/post/40333135798/remediation-of-a-spectacle-
hatsune-miku#_=_
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Videos:
- Hatsune Mikus compilation of TV spot commercials:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaA2liN9LKM
- Hatsune Mikus liver performances
Tokyo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ BCE8VbOPk
The United States of America: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkI9LnooSMo