Back then, I was all "HAH HAH LIKE THAT'D EVER HAPPEN"
Of course, pop stars and bands have been "manufactured" and groomed for the longest time -- even the Beatles were manufactured to a degree. The image of many pop stars is tightly controlled.
Also: Bob Marley's image was the product of marketing. The real Bob Marley, not the guy on stage, not the guy high-as-a-kite on the album covers... wasn't as... Marley-ey as you'd think. Jimmy Hendrix wasn't as wild and cuhrazy as his fans thought.
This is nothing new... but I thought the idea of a completely 100%, made-from-just-pixels actor or musical artist would never happen in my lifetime, or at least not until I'm 255 years old, chilling on Mars in my new 120-foot-tall Super Robot body. After all, people need something real, tangible, even if the act is fake.
...wait, she's obviously not real. And she's in front of a real audience. Her voice is a very sophisticated synth bank.
She's completely synthetic.
I was wrong.
For the uninitiated, Miku Hatsune is basically the 'mascot' for the Vocaloid software, which is basically a synthetic voicebank. And people ate it up - and now she's having freaking concerts in the form of a hologram. With a live band. (although it becomes less impressive once you figure out how they're doing the trick - it's literally smoke and mirrors) Note the hilarious-looking guitarist. And the stripper music/dance at 0:20 to 0:30. I was half-expecting her to start taking off her clothes.
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| You'll drink your veggie juice if you know what's good for you. |
There's other Vocaloids, and even a generic free knockoff called UTAUloid. Occasionally people abuse the software to attempt to get them to sing english songs... with rather mixed results:
You can't read Ruko's Poker Face.
Quite honestly, I don't know how to feel about this - I'm all for putting Hannah Montana and Lady Gaga out of a job... but eventually we're going to end up with SkyNet.
I for one welcome our new Vocaloid overlords.
UPDATE:
TechCat (in the comments) mentioned the Gorillaz, I completely forgot about them... as well as the other 'cartoon bands' (Josie and the Pussycats, etc.) ... which I suppose were the next step towards Miku (after the manufacturing of pop stars like Britney Spears and 'idols' in Japan).
However, they did have real people behind the characters serving as the voice, and other than the Gorillaz, none of them were particularly popular.
Also: GODDAMMIT I'M STARTING TO LIKE MIKU DAMMIT DAMMIT
