In Japan virtual pop stars are on the increase, in fact many spread worldwide, best of all the creators of the songs and characters can be produced by anyone in their home. A popular news story in theatlantic.com this week covered in detail how this could represent the future of pop.

At the end of August, Hatsune Miku (one of Japans most popular entertainers) celebrated her 5th birthday despite being a virtual avatar character. Fans packed an all night event in Tokyo. It attracted many people who dressed like Miku and DJ fuelled parties went on through the night.

(Picture of Miku)

To many this may seem unusual, as the character is just a cartoon image, however in Japan her importance is great, so much that millions of views, streams and downloads come as a result of avatar-like virtual cartoon music. She is taken very serious too, as much as the likes of Cheryl Cole, Katie Perry etc in the west.

It doesn't end there though, virtual pop stars are being created by a like minded community of growing enthusiasts who produce DIY songs and videos on the basis of existing designs. Japanese computer program 'Vocaloid' has allowed vocals to be added and the existing design on the girl Miku to be modified and tailored to each individual persons needs, pretty much like how a standard online avatar maker works.

There is a little more to it but once the user of this software has created their song, lyrics, video and character look they can then share it on social networks like Youtube, Facebook in the hope of becoming popular. This then could earn the producer of the music video revenue through the likes of Google Ads and others when they put their songs on Youtube.

(The video advert above explains how the phenomenon grows)

Many of peoples songs have gained high chart position and recognition through this means of producing music.

At the minute though, its hard for the western world to get their heads around this sort of music production. In the UK and USA a few virtual singing characters, for example The Gorillaz have broken into the charts though in the past few years, maybe this is the start of something new to come.

No doubt avid music fans would dis this kind of music production, one could imagine it being labelled shallow or untalented by people who compose music with real instruments and write sheet music. Who knows where this could lead in the future though? As technology increases to produce graphics so will he popularity of better quality designs emerge.

http://www.planetcreation.co.uk/createpic/Music-Avatars-in-Japan-Give-Anybody-Chance-to-be-Famous.html

online avatar maker: http://www.planetcreation.co.uk/createpic/