Have you heard about Hatsune Miku? It’s sound
like a name of Japanese person, isn’t it? Hatsune Miku is exactly a famous
Japanese singer, who has published twelve music CD and held at least eight
concerts since 2007. Thousands of fans are crazy for this singer. Some other
singers also have equal or even more fans and influence than Hatsune Miku;
however, Hatsune Miku has a special feature that different with other singers:
she, well, “it” is not a real human being. Hatsune Miku is a computer software
which can synthesize songs from input source code. This software was combined
with a female cartoon character and became one of the most famous singers in
Japan and worldwide. The character presents in front of people as hologram
projection and sings on stage.
Some people may feel ridicules to be crazy
for a simulative idol, as what I did. However, Hatsune Miku really demonstrates
her influence on internet and other media. Google and Toyota even asked Hatsune
Miku to be involved in their advertisements. On the other hand, many music
composers, especially junior ones, publish their songs with applying this
software to sing, while cooperating with a real human singer is expensive and inconvenient.
“Hatsune Miku is not only just a song
synthesizer software,” one of my friends studying in College-Conservatory of
Music said: “It is changing our thought to music composing.” In the past, some
physiological limitation of human being may make people compose in certain
pattern. For example, either large change in pitch or extremely high speed of
melody is impossible for human to sing. Composers tend to avoid these kinds of melody. However, Hatsune Miku does not have
such limitation (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjuL1ek7-ps&feature=related).
You can simply key in digital source code and the software can sing for you. Composers
now can write songs beyond our imagination. What’s more, those difficult songs
may be singable. When a composer once writes a difficult song, some people will
try to challenge it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7uxQFdkAZQ&feature=related from 1:21-1:37). “Hatsune Miku encourage
composer to write music regardless human limitation. Therefore, we can expect
more variant music than what we thought.”
I feel this idea is also true in science. “Science
walks forward on two feet, namely theory and experiment,” Robert A. Millikan,
Nobel Prize in Physics winner, said. “Sometimes it is one foot that is put
forward first, sometimes the other, but continuous progress is only made by the
use of both.” Hatsune Miku is like a breakthrough in music experiments,
followed by new music composing and developing theories. We may also utilize
our current technique to bring a whole new theory to our research field.
Wow, that last link you included was incredible! I wasn't particularly fond of the music itself, but impressed by her abilities. I appreciate that the music of Hastune Miku challenges music and musicians alike. And I like your relating that to scientific progress.
ReplyDeleteHoly cow! Was this the same technology as the 2Pac hologram at Coachella (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw_Dxng4HYc&feature=related - Clean Version on Jimmy Kimmel). Also Hatsune Miku definitely busted out in the Heel-Toe and then the Dirty Bird (see 1:40ish in the first link provided by Kun-Po).
ReplyDeleteOkay, so this seems similar to the autotune era that emerged in rap music, where sub-par singers and rappers who were trying to sing would use a tool called autotune to make themselves sound better. I believe that if you can sing in real life/live and it sounds good and you want to use autotune for a song or two because it blends well with the synthesizer or some other element, go for it. But do not use it because you cannot really sing. And this brings me to Hatsune Miku. I like concerts and I can see that they have live performances for Hatsune Miku, however she is not real. She did not grow up and she does not feel emotions - all these elements are infused by the songwriters, sound engineers, and computer programmers who make her a reality. Watch the movie S1m0ne from 2002, it may have been the inspiration for Hatsune Miku. Art and music for me is an emotional experience, lyrics and musical scores connect with and unlock emotions and memories.
But I can understand the connection Hatsune Miku establishes with its fans, especially if the lyrics connect and the music is used in popular movies, etc., thus enabling the in silico phenomena to establish an emotional connection with its audience.
I don't think programmed vocals are for me, though admittedly I have never given them a chance. I guess with each generation there is a new musical inspiration.
Wow, very interesting! There was a movie in the 90s called Simone. Has anyone seen it? It was really similar to this if I'm remembering correctly. This guy (Al Pacino) makes up this movie star and she's basically just a hologram (like Tupac) that he controls and she becomes a really big star, but everyone thinks she's real. So it's crazy that this has happened in real life. I wonder if it will become big in the US.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post Kun-Po, definitely some food for thought! There are really a lot of different aspects to a full musical performance--the onstage stuff usually gets the most attention, like the visual presence of the band, the vocals of the lead singer,and the instrument playing. But "behind the scenes" there are sound mixers, stage managers, producers, and often songwriters who are not really remembered as part of the band. All of these efforts used to be carried out by people, but now technology has advanced so that pretty much any aspect of the onstage performance can be replaced by computer tech. (Or at least, heavily modified by computers, such as autotuning.) I definitely appreciate real singing, instrument playing, and dance moves more than computer-generated replacements. However I think it's pretty cool that the tech allows behind-the-scenes mixers and songwriters to get really creative, and their efforts are just as real as any on-stage performer. Overall, I don't think this style of doing music is better or worse than the old style, I like the variety and I hope both styles stick around!
ReplyDeleteAlso--the 3rd video you posted is crazy, someone can really sing that fast??