Pesky details

I’ve long been fascinated by our digital divide. Older folks for whom the internet remains a relatively new game changer don’t view virtual activity over a network with the same emotional resonance as our younger, digital natives do. 

Younger folks who have never known a world without a virtual component ascribe the same emotional attachment to a virtual connection as older folks tend apply to their genuine, face-to-face friendships. The distinction blurs more every year. Evidence suggests that soon there will be no distinction. 

One place where this is already true is in live musical performance in Japan, the Hatsune Miku phenomenon.

Hatsu (初, first)

Ne (音, sound)

Miku (未来, future)

The first sound from the future.

From Crypton Future Media’s homepage:
"HATSUNE MIKU" is a computer music software that enables users to create synthesized singing of unprecedented quality and remarkable realism by just typing in lyrics and melody. Powered by YAMAHA's VOCALOID (Vocal + Android) technology, HATSUNE MIKU was developed by Crypton Future Media, Inc. based in Sapporo, Japan.”

Make a virtual voice, add a cute hologram and before you know it you have a new singing sensation. And it is proving amazingly popular.

An avatar named after the software is playing massive stadium concerts to sellout crowds and becoming a true, Japanese pop diva.

The band, the venue, the crowd and the experience are all real but the headliner is a 3D hologram, she never actually existed. She has a recording contract, a manager, a musical arranger and a publicist, and her tour coincides with the release of the Hatsune Miku Project Diva video game from Sega.

Except she isn’t, y’know, real. Pesky details.

Watch the crowds reaction. It’s intense and VERY real even though the performer is virtual like that FaceBook “friend” you’ve just never actually met.

Before long Elvis will be doing live concerts again.