Dec 08, 2010 Google It, You Moron
Hatsune Miku you’ve already met and should be hearing from a lot more once her maker, Crypton Future Media, keeps its promise to teach her English now that she’s topped 39,390 Facebook fans, san-kyu very much. If you’re still catching up, Hatsune Miku’s a character from the Vocaloid music software program–a virtual diva who “sings” for you kind of like T-Pain or the Chipmunks, except she’s prettier and 16 and matches the cool blue of the Yamaha synthesizer you might write her some songs with, which it is the world’s responsibility to do.
She and her Vocaloid friends like Megurine Luka and Gackpoid (^who could be serenading you right now^, in which case stop reading this and focus on those subtitles) could also make you famous. Like they did Supercell, the gang of amateur creators (now pros) who met on Nico Nico Douga after the bedroom composer Ryo uploaded a song he wrote for Hatsune Miku with the “borrowed” illustrations of fellow Vocaloid svengali 119 (pronounced “Hikeshi”). Long story short: 119 complained, Ryo apologized, and the two formed a group, Supercell, which last year put out a hit record feat. Hatsune Miku on Sony Music.
Which leads to the real fascinating thing about Hatsune Miku and the other Vocaloids (and they are many): more than the stars of YouTube and MySpace, Miku et al. are truly of the people, by the people. We, the people (not so much of the United States yet, but of about a dozen other countries) write the songs, create the videos, and vote them up in rankings in collaboration with each other–all with the possibility of having them sung back to us in a very big way. (Thinking ahead, Crytpton Future Media has devised a special “Piapro Character License”–modeled after Creative Commons licensing–to make “peer production” a less sticky prospect.) And all of this means, of course, that most of the songs totally suck.
Except.
Vocaloids live on the Internet* so their influence grows exponentially and very quickly weird. And that’s where it gets worth your while. A few clicks removed from the No. 1 hit can really show you things. “Google It, You Moron” is just the tip of the negi (don’t ask me why but Hatsune Miku loves spring onion and is a big proponent of vegetable juice). In the right hands, Vocaloid technology can give you so much. Just so much.
*okay, okay, they also live in video games