Hatsune Miku, Japan's virtual idol
Originally a simple illustration for Yamaha's Vocaloid programme, Hatsune Miku has become a veritable pop culture idol in Japan. She is a virtual singer, based on a high-performance vocal synthesiser that can be used by anyone, but also produces official songs. Is the turquoise-haired girl heralding the future of pop music around the world?
What is Vocaloid?
Vocaloid is the name given by Yamaha to its vocal and musical synthesiser project. The project was launched in 2003 with the first generation of Vocaloid. The name is a contraction of "vocal" and "android", suggesting a robot capable of singing.
After a few years of full-scale testing, Yamaha released Vocaloid 2 in 2007, marketed by Crypton Future Media.
Vocaloids work by recording the voices of actors or singers, and the programme's ability to synthesise any song from these basic recordings. An ordinary user simply needs to write the lyrics to their song, and the Vocaloid will take care of the rest. Users can also use a keyboard to synthesise a melody to accompany their song.
Hatsune Miku's sales debut
When Crypton Future Media released Vocaloid 2 in 2007, the company decided to humanise its programme by adding the image of a young girl with turquoise hair, named Hatsune Miku. In Japanese, this name can be translated as "First Sound of the Future".
But while she was supposed to be a simple illustration, Hatsune Miku practically came to life. Associated with the voice synthesiser, she no longer became the illustration but the main character. Thousands of users began making her sing songs...
And back in 2008, a programmer by the name of Yu Higuchi created a programme for animating dance characters, including Hatsune Miku. His programme is called Miku Miku Dance (although 'Miku' means 'Future'), although it's also called VPVP, for 'Vocaloid Promotion Video Project'... let's face it, the first name is a lot more fun, and inevitably associated with Hatsune Miku.
The star of the internet and video games
In reality, Hatsune Miku is an empty shell. Her characterisation can be summed up in just a few bullet points:
For a pop idol, this may not seem like much compared to the tumultuous life of a star like Britney Spears. But that's precisely where the basis of her enormous success lies: anyone can make the character their own, animate her as they please and make her sing whatever they want, regardless of her basic personality - since she doesn't have one.
In 2009, she was the subject of a PSP video game entitled "Hatsune Miku: Project Diva". Other games soon followed, including arcade games and video games for Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation 3.
At the same time, Hatsune Miku also appeared on stage, as a holographic projection on a transparent screen (not yet a real hologram, but an illusion). A rock opera-style show of this kind is even being presented in France, with Hatsune Miku dressed (virtually) by American fashion designer Marc Jacobs.
Hastune Mikumania
The Hatsune Miku phenomenon was quickly snapped up by major brands and popular artists. She began to help advertise brands like Domino's Pizza and Toyota. She also took part in Lady Gaga's "ArtRave: The Artpop Ball" tour, and worked with pop groups such as Bump of Chicken and Namie Amuro.
Her popularity continued to grow, and she ended up having her own tours, including a European tour in 2018. In Japan, she is the subject of unofficial manga, and appears briefly in episodes of anime series. She even sired an evil twin called Zatsune Miku, where "zatsune" means "noisy sound". Similarly, a brother has been invented for her, Hatsune Mikuo, using the same colour code.
Mikumania continues in our geek shop, where we invite you to discover our goodies, including a whole series of figurines featuring Hatsune Miku. But we strongly advise you to pre-order them as soon as possible, as stocks are running out fast due to her extreme popularity!