I've been listening to a lot of vocaloid music lately, as well as songs from the anime Macross Frontier (which is a really unusual mix of popstars and life in the limelight, and giant robots and an intergalactic war). All very futuristic.
Vocaloid is synthetic voice software developed by Yamaha where popstars and voice actors voices are recorded and programmed into a computer, marketed as "a singer in a box". Anyone can buy one of these programs, and type a melody and lyrics into it to create songs using this synthetic voice. Each program is given an anime character and a personality, so in essence you have a virtual popstar. People have even developed animation software so that people can make music videos to go with the songs they make. Some people might find this really fake, but to me, despite the fact it's not a real person singing, they have an authenticity that defies the singers at the top of the charts, because these characters and music have been created by all sorts of ordinary people, with all different themes and styles. They are everyone. The songs are down to earth, quirky and often very eccentric, and relate to the lives most people lead, unlike the very samey lyrics of the chart toppers who can't seem to sing about anything but sex and bad relationships.
I can particularly relate to these two songs, Triple Baka always makes me laugh :)
Out of all the vocaloids, I like Miku, Gumi and Luka best :)
Miku is about 16, turquoise haired, and is the pure, cute and innocent one who has an obsession with leeks (she uses them as batons sometimes).
Gumi has green hair, likes carrots, and is a really sweet, bouncy and positive character.
Luka loves Tuna (and occasionally waves those around too), has long pink hair and is a more serious and mature character. Until you mention tuna...
What with all the food Miku even has a song about vegetable juice.
Here's Miku and Luka performing live at one of their concerts. This is possible through the use of projectors and screens, and essentially creates holograms of the two on stage while a band plays the backing track in the background. The same technique is used when the band Gorillaz plays in concert too.
I've heard a rumour that the vocaloids will be performing at the London Olympics. This would be the first time they've performed live in the UK like this, and for the first time I'm tempted to get tickets to the games :P
Interestingly enough (and somewhat creepily), the software can also be programmed into the latest robots being developed in Japan as well. Truly the beginning of cyber popstars.
Anyway, as I mentioned, each vocaloid gets their voice from a donor human. The vocaloid Megupoid Gumi gets her voice from the voice actor who plays Ranka Lee in Macross Frontier. They even drew the characters to match. Spot the difference!
I love the music from the anime Macross Frontier, so I ended up watching the whole series. It was actually really good, especially considering I don't usually go for the sci-fi genre. Basically what happens is the human race is looking for new planets to settle on in an effort to survive, but are caught in a war with an alien species that are connected and communicate via "fold waves". Two girls living on the human spaceships love to sing and rise to stardom, and as a result it is discovered their singing can sedate the aliens long enough to fight them off, because their singing gives off fold waves.
All in all there's a rather strong cyber influence on modern Japanese music, which reflects the rest of contemporary Japanese culture.
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