Source: thatvideogameblog
Virtual singers. Ever heard of them? Well to be honest they aren’t your usual breed of pop stars and musicians. Yes, their music is made by real people, but these special singers dominate the stage – the internet. Over the past recent years virtual singers have begun taking the world by storm with their music, style, and ability to emote some things most real life musicians and artists are unable to. These are singers strategically created for a specific crowd of people – those who enjoy music made from the j-pop genre, vocaloid, and anime as well. Virtual singers are commonly recognized as the modules created by crypton associated with vocaloid as well as anime idols, but today’s main focus will be vocaloid virtual singers.
▍The Origins of Virtual Singers
Source: Belmea
Believe it or not, virtual singers have been around for quite a few years, so they aren’t really a new topic. However over the past recent years, they have gained a lot of popularity over the internet. A popular name you may have heard of, or that at least stands out the most is most likely Hatsune Miku. Originally conceived as the avatar for a singing-synthesizer software called Vocaloid, Miku has become a phenomenon all her own, attracting both “wacky Japan” reactions and more serious praise.
Source: Hatune Miku VR
Over time she has grown and achieved many things, but success doesn’t come instantly. It all has to start somewhere, and all roads to success have their bumps and turns. She wasn’t the first attempt in creating a virtual idol, a non-human performer independent from existing franchises or artists. Music labels and 3D designers spent decades trying to create a computer generated idol, capable of everything that a living star is, but only free of human limitations such as: fatigue, injuries, and falling into questionable scandals. Miku was the idol created who finally achieved this dream, but only after many failures along her path that led her to her modern day success.
The effort to create a virtual idol in Japan actually began in the 1990’s. The quality of 3D modeling software began to improve and characters like Shiori Fujisaki, from the 1994 dating simulator Tokimeki Memorial, experienced a sudden upstart in massive popularity and attraction toward fans. But this origin doesn’t come from Shiori but in fact a computer generated idol called Kyoko created by a talent agency known as Horipro. Horipro invested millions of dollars to support the creation of this new type of talent to cater to the digital age of music and entertainment.
Kyoko
▍What Makes Them Different
Source: Rin_[Tenshi/Kanade]
In the early stages of the existence of virtual idols, they actually didn’t differ too much from real life celebrities. They looked realistic, had realistic voices, enjoyed hobbies, and in a way had their own lives as their character make up was chalk full of things such as their favorite food, their favorite movie. But that sadly is what led the first generations downfall. If virtual idols were so similar to real ones, why even bother with them?
That exact question is what forced new creators to innovate and change their image and make up of the ideal virtual idol. Their styles have changed to look more futuristic but still resemble something of a fantasy. Most of their information is left as a mystery, allowing fans imagination to run wild to what best correlates with their interest. This allows virtual singers to have free range expression within their music since they are not exactly bound by a specific personality assigned to them. One virtual singer is able to cater to several music styles at once, while a normal real life singer usually only caters to a specific crowd that fall into their genre of music.
Source: LightninGamer
Vocaloid virtual singers are renowned for this. Hatsune Miku can deliver a cheerful upbeat tune, all while still having songs that are polar opposites such as sad ballads with themes full of depth and hidden meanings. Another example of their limitless capabilities would be the virtual singer Len Kagamine. He can take on many personas, and is able to express it through his music. He can go from cute innocent fun in the song Remote Control, to scandalous and mature in his song Seisou Bakuretsu Boy.
▍Entering The Real World
AKB0048
Virtual singers have dominated their stage that is the internet, with that being said it didn’t take long for them to crossover to real life stages. With technology advancing and limitless imaginations, creators have worked together to enable virtual singers to sing live as a full body entity. With this enginuity virtual singers are able to hold live concerts like any other real life artists. Fans can go experience a real life show of their beloved singers instead of having to settle for just videos on the internet.
A perfect example of this would be Miku Expo. A tour in which Hatsune Miku and other crypton vocaloid favorites travel internationally to perform live concerts. Miku Expo is an unforgettable experience because it’s where fantasy and reality come together in the middle seamlessly. Everyone dreams of their favorite cartoon characters or heroes to come to life. With the creation of Miku Expo that is exactly what happens. Thus helping to expand the appreciation of virtual singers.
Source: anyeliv
Virtual singers will continue to be ever evolving. Continuing to change, almost at the same pace as technology does. Setting a new standard for music and performing, and changing the standards overall for what a singer can be. Virtual singers demonstrate with the right mindset and tools there is no real boundary to music. And whatever limits do exist, virtual singers push past them, allowing fans to enter a new world of entertainment and music.
READ MORE:
• The World of Virtual YouTubers
• Welcome To Vocaloid