1Academic 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 Japan: 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.

2IndexPost 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

3Post-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 Jean-Franois Lyotard, Frederic Jameson or Andy Warhol in the artistic field.

However, we should focus on the work developed by Jean 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 Japan

4but 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 the implications for

Contemporary Popular Culture.

Who is Hatsune Miku?

Teen Japanese-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.

5Fig. 1 The Anime 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, June 2012, paragraph 5].

EvolutionHatsune Miku started performing in 2009. Since then she has been not only in

Japan, 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 Japan, 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.

6This 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

towards foment of a creative and participative mass of followers.

Hatsune Miku has also appeared in several commercials (Toyotta Corolla, in

Asia, and Google Chrome, in Japan) 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 John 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?

7Miku 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 distinguish her:

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

Japanese 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 Japanese (and non-Japanese) 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 creation of 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 Japan then in other

countries. It is more intrinsic to Japanese companies and popular culture to promote

feedback from fans and interaction with characters, as a strategy to obtain, in final

8instance 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 Japanese 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 Japan, 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 Japan 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 valued by 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.

9The 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 Jun, 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 societyIn 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.

10

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

11

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

by means 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 behind the creation of Hatsune Miku is that her power of

changing patterns of union and relationship among fans and between them and the idol

12

is explored foreseeing profit in a complete new context of interaction of various digital

tools. Since websites such as 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 NotesIt 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].

13

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Articles:

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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-

15

1329040/Japanese-3D-singing-hologram-Hatsune-Miku-nations-biggest-pop-

star.html

- Hsu, Tiffany, Japanese pop star Hatsune Miku takes the stage -- as a 3-D

hologram, 10th November 2010, in LATimes, online version, retrieved 17th March

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 16th March 2012 from: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-

205_162-57547707/hatsune-miku-the-worlds-fakest-pop-star/

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Times online version, Retrieved 16th March 2012 from:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2012/12/21/music/hatsune-miku-goes-

highbrow-2/#.UVzLKKKmj4u

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hologram-pop-idol.html

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2012, in Wired, online version, retrieved 16th March 2013 from:

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miku/?pid=8261

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version. Retrieved 20th March, 2012 from:

http://www.latimesmagazine.com/2012/06/i-sing-the-body-electric.html

Blogs:

- Remediation of a Spectacle: Hatsune Miku, December 2012, Retrieved 17th March

from: http://2307a.tumblr.com/post/40333135798/remediation-of-a-spectacle-

hatsune-miku#_=_

16

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=MJBCE8VbOPk

The United States of America: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkI9LnooSMo