Hatsune Miku: Whose Voice, Whose Body?

Adriana Sabo

doi:10.51191/issn.2637-1898.2019.2.2.65

Hatsune Miku: Whose Voice, Whose Body?

Authors

Adriana Sabo Faculty of Music, University of Arts, Department of Musicology, Belgrade, Serbia Author https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2552-1457

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51191/issn.2637-1898.2019.2.2.65

Keywords:

Vocaloid, moe, gender performativity, Hatsune Miku, voice synthesis, materiality

Abstract

This paper focuses on certain aspects of the Hatsune Miku phenomenon, a highly popular Vocaloid character from Japan. Hatsune Miku began her “life” as a software for vocal synthesis released by Crypton Future Media Inc., and has, since her first “birthday”, become a virtual pop star. Despite being a fictional character, Miku takes on many of the traits a human has. She exists in a realm between human and artificial, mass media and personal space, between real and fantastic. This paper will discuss some basic information about Hatsune Miku and her large fan base, the issues of gender performativity and materiality of the body and voice, as well as the euphoric response of fans known as moe.

Author Biography

Adriana Sabo, Faculty of Music, University of Arts, Department of Musicology, Belgrade, Serbia

Adriana Sabo (1989) is a Junior researcher at the Department of Musicology, Faculty of Music in Belgrade. She is a PhD candidate at the same department, with master degrees in musicology (2012) and gender studies (2015). She is a recipient of the scholarship given by the Ministry of Education, Science and Cultural Development of the Republic of Serbia, member of the Serbian Musicological Society and a contributor for the Center for Popular Music Research (Belgrade). Her research mainly focuses on the issues of gender and music, popular music, otherness and connections between music and politics.

Cover of the INSAM Journal No. 2. Design by Milan Šuput

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Published

15.07.2019

Issue

No. 2 (2019): Artificial Intelligence in Music, Arts and Theory

Section

Articles

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How to Cite

Hatsune Miku: Whose Voice, Whose Body?. (2019). INSAM Journal of Contemporary Music, Art and Technology, 2, 65-80. https://doi.org/10.51191/issn.2637-1898.2019.2.2.65