Vocaloid & Hatsune Miku — A New Kind of Artist

Japanese Music

Chapter 8 · Vocaloid & Hatsune Miku — A New Kind of Artist

A piece of voice-synthesis software with a real, human voice actress behind it went on to open for Lady Gaga, on a real world tour, in sold-out arenas — using the same technology once used to bring Tupac Shakur back on stage.

A Real, Specific Piece of Software

Hatsune Miku was released by Crypton Future Media on 31 August 2007, the first entry in the company's own Character Vocal Series, built on Yamaha's real Vocaloid2 voice-synthesis engine — the second Vocaloid product released on that engine, and the first Japanese Vocaloid to use its Japanese-language version. Her own name genuinely means "the first sound of the future." She was designed as a 16-year-old character with long turquoise twin tails and a futuristic outfit.

The Real Human Behind the Voice

Miku's voice was sampled from real voice actress Saki Fujita, recording extensive vocal material across a wide range of pitches, tones, and phonemes shortly after graduating university in March 2007 — raw material Yamaha's software then used to synthesize entirely new sung performances.

A Genuine, Sold-Out World Tour Opening Act

In April 2014, Lady Gaga announced Hatsune Miku would open for her ArtRAVE: The ARTPOP Ball world tour. Miku genuinely performed as the opening act across more than 15 US cities and 3 Canadian cities between 6 May and 3 June 2014, playing six singles across a 25-minute set, to real, sold-out arenas.

The real technology behind the performance — Miku appeared on stage using "Pepper's Ghost," a projection technique that creates the illusion of a solid figure performing live — the exact same method used to bring a projected Tupac Shakur "on stage" at Coachella in 2012.

Real Chart Success

Vocaloid music has achieved genuine, measurable commercial success in Japan: compilation albums like the EXIT TUNES PRESENTS Vocaloid series and supercell featuring Hatsune Miku have reached the top 10 of Japan's real Oricon albums chart — placing music built around a synthesized voice directly alongside output from human recording artists.

Questions to Sit With

Reflection 1

Hatsune Miku is built from a real human voice actress's own sampled recordings, yet performs as an entirely separate character. Do you think that makes her closer to a genuine collaboration between Saki Fujita and the software, or something meaningfully different from either a human artist or a purely synthetic one?

Reflection 2

Miku's real Lady Gaga tour used the same projection technology as the 2012 Tupac hologram — one reviving a real deceased artist, the other presenting a character who never existed as a physical person at all. Does that shared technology connect the two cases meaningfully, or are they genuinely different kinds of performance?

Reflection 3

Vocaloid compilation albums chart directly alongside human artists on Oricon. Does that real commercial parity change how you think about what actually makes a musical performer "real" to an audience?

Quick Reference — Chapter 8

  • Hatsune Miku launched 31 August 2007 on Yamaha's Vocaloid2 engine, with her real voice sampled from voice actress Saki Fujita
  • She genuinely opened for Lady Gaga's 2014 ArtRAVE tour across 15+ US and 3 Canadian cities, performing 6 singles per sold-out show using Pepper's Ghost projection technology
  • That's the same technique used for the 2012 Tupac Shakur Coachella hologram
  • Vocaloid compilation albums have genuinely reached the top 10 of Japan's Oricon albums chart
Next chapter: Anime Music & Theme Songs — the real crossover between anime and the music charts, cross-referenced directly against this site's own Japanese Manga & Anime course.