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HATSUNE_MIKU

                                                December 25, 2013
                                                March    17, 2014
                                                March    22, 2014

It seemed strange to see detailed
write-up of Hatsune Miku suddenly      http://crookedtimber.org/2013/12/15/idoru/
turn-up on the usually rather high
brow Crooked Timber site.

To briefly describe the              One thing that was peculiar about it
phenomena myself:                    is that the subject itself was
                                     actually nearly ten years old at that
Start with a new technology--        point...  Hatusune Miku was a big
synthesized human voice, not a       deal in the mid-naughts I would say,
mere deployment of samples,          why suddenly focus on it in 2013?
but generated syllables shaped
into different styles or                 But then, this still leaves them
themes, which one might think            far ahead of the increasingly
of as "character".                       musty and fusty "New York Review
                                         of Books", which had run yet
                                         another article on Philip Roth
   This technology was not               around the time Belle Warring
   invented by the Japanese              thought to talk about Hatsune Miku.
   but it was seized on by
   them, and marketed by
   them...

   I suspect they looked at
   this as a way of realizing      And one must also
   "Sharon Apple", from the        reference Gibson's
   "Macross Plus" anime.           "Idoru"...

   They did several things with this
   software that's interesting
   and perhaps unique:

   They invented a Virtual Character
   to go along with one of these             Her default look presses
   vocal themes: Hatsune Miku.               the buttons of my black-and-
                                             green obsession, making me
   They sold costumes to allow kids          wonder if I'm quite so unusal
   to dress up like this character--         in this respect.
   and I presume they did this cheaply,
   for the cash-strapped teen interested
   in cosplay--

          Waist length blue-green
          Hatsune wigs became
          ubiquitous.

   Rather than just use this software
   to create novelty recordings, they
   sold the software to allow other people
   to do this-- many an internet video
   features Hatsune Miku singing fan
   written songs and melodies...

   They used holographic projection
   technology and computerized animation
   (perhaps based on rotoscoping?)
   to do "live" performances by Hatsune
   Miku, larger than life, jumping around
   on stage accompanied by live muscians,
   cheered on by hordes of adoring fans:

   A live performance of "World is mine":
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSyWtESoeOc

   Live holographic performance,                     I have a certain fondness
   synthesized vocals, human                         for the Hatsune Miku
   musicians, and a crowd armed with                 recording of "Cherry
   light sticks goes wild...                         Bon-Bon"-- I still don't
                                                     know if Kyary Pamyu Pamyu
                                                     did that song first or
                                                     not--

                                                          KYARY

                                                          There have been
                                                          cases of human beings
                                                          doing recordings
                                                          of vocaloid numbers.

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