False Image Worship

Now I know Eric has talked about how Braveheart created a false image of Scottish history but there's a more prominent false image in our present day. In Japan there's a type of music called idol. Where young girls usually teenagers sing and dress up cute to attract a large male audience. But, in this time of technology there's a virtual or false image of this genre called Vocaloid. One vocaloid idol for instance, the very first, Hatsune Miku, has become a phenomenon in Japan and the anime community.

Here's a little information on Hatsune Miku from the vocaloid website: "'HATSUNE MIKU' is 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. in Sapporo, Japan, and released on August 31st, 2007. Since then, there have been more than 100,000 songs and movies about HATSUNE MIKU posted on popular video sharing websites such as YouTube and Nico-Nico-Douga(Japan)" (http://www.crypton.co.jp/mp/pages/prod/vocaloid/cv01_us.jsp).

Now worshiping a program by buying her music is all nice and dandy but Japan has gone a step further than that. Recently they've created a hologram of Hatsune Miku and she's been touring around Japan and even out of the country with a live band as backup. I find it odd that a program created out of real people's vocals has become such a popular thing in Japan. But, she does everything a real singer does and it's not like we're not used to lipsyncing anyways. I just think it shows how we can all conform to a certain image and forget what the person behind that image really is.

It just goes to show you that we see famous people or people in the entertainment world as public figures and not private people because I doubt people see an actor/actress as a person. They mainly associate the actor/actress with his/her roles not his/her behavior. Like in Mao II we blend people into a mass and can lose our individuality in the process. Below is the first song Hatsune Miku performed at her concert.

-Josh K.