Meet Hatsune Miku, World's First Virtual Pop Star
Music is evolving into a new dimension in Japan, where one of Asia's top pop stars is a crowd-sourced virtual singer named Hatsune Miku.
She has over 3,000 songs and hundreds of thousands of YouTube videos, all created by her fans for her fans. Her creators evolve her look and branding according to non-licensed art created by her fan base.
Think she's just for the anime crowd? Guess again: she sells out live concerts packed with thousands of fans. How? Digital projection.
Hatsune Miku in Concert (Japan)
And while we all thought Digital Domain's 'pepper ghost' of Tupac was breaking fresh ground at Coachella last summer, turns out they were taking cues from Miku. Yeah, Miku.
Check out the audience pumping glow sticks at one of her concerts -- complete with flesh-and-blood musicians backing her up before a real human audience -- and don't say we didn't warn you.
As one of her fansites puts it, "She's rather more like a goddess: she has human parts, but she transcends human limitations. She's the great posthuman pop star."