Hatsune Miku is a voice synthesizing program developed by Crypton Future Media. Her name comes from the Japanese words ‘hatsu’ meaning first, ‘ne’ meaning sound and ‘miku’ meaning future (literal meaning: sound of the future). She is part of Yamaha’s VOCALOID2 (vocal + android) synthesizing program. But to some, she’s more than a voice program that can create songs electronically. In some countries she is considered a diva, where she is idolized by millions of fans. She even has concerts not just in her home country of Japan but even as far as Los Angeles, USA. You may be asking, how can something created digitally achieve the same popularity as that of famous singers like Rihanna, Taylor Swift and other real life singers? How can one explain this phenomena? The answer is in her fan community (or ‘fandom’ for short). Let me emphasize that she has MILLIONS of fans worldwide. These fans show their devotion to her through covers of her songs, fan-arts, CG, cosplaying in anime events, using her voice program to make even more songs of her and watching her live concerts just to name a few. Of course, some would argue that she’s not a ‘real‘ singer because her voice comes from a program and her concerts are just a hologram of her performing with a live band so therefore she could not be deemed as a ‘real‘ singer. Her fans, however, would of course defend against this accusation fiercely.
Based on Google Chrome Japan’s advertisement featuring Hatsune Miku and her song Tell Your World, we get glimpses on how the program is used to make songs, from synthesizing Hatsune Miku’s voice, making the instrumentals, and artists illustrating the cover art. Once the song is finished and uploaded into the internet, fans would start to interpret the song in their own way. Some do instrumental and vocal covers of the song, others would cosplay Miku and dance along to it. When VOCALOID songs are made, one person does not do everything for the song is a collaboration of everyone. Think of the concept of a band. We have the band members playing different instruments, but these people don’t have to be of the same nationality. We could have an American singer, an Asian drummer and a European vocalist. When making a VOCALOID song, many of the international community are involved. For example, a song could have a composer from Japan make the lyrics, a Filipino musician arrange the instrumentals and an American programmer who can integrate dance models into the song and bloggers who can help promote the song through the internet. A VOCALOID song is an international collaboration and is thus a product of others worldwide.
Basically, the advertisement features a song by the VOCALOID community for the community. The song was composed to showcase that there are numerous stories to tell within the VOCALOID community/fandom. As the last line of the advertisement flashed; that everyone is their own creator. The song and the advertisement tells us that no matter who you are, VOCALOID music will help connect us all and thus empower and strengthen the community and everyone worldwide through music.
Google Chrome commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGt25mv4-2Q
Original Tell Your World video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqJNc9KVIZE
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