What are they doing in the world of Hatsune Miku? Creative audiences, transmedia participation and redistribution of the user-generated contents

Research output: Contribution to conferenceAbstractpeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

The Japanese music sphere has been experiencing an epoch-making paradigm shift since Hatsune Miku (a singing voice synthesizer application, aka V2 Vocaloid) emerged in 2007 by ‘crossing over the limits of science’. Miku’s proliferation spread through Japanese social media at an explosive pace, through a chain of collaborations among amateur creators of music (both cover and original works), illustrations, remixes and 3D animation music PVs. In other words, the world’s only virtual pop star Hatsune Miku was born as a result of a “Collective intelligence” that can be seen as “an alternative source of media power” (Jenkins 2006). She effortlessly transcended cultural/geographical borders with her phenomenal ‘live’ performance at the 2011 Anime Expo in Los Angeles, and now, this amateur cultural production visibly dominates the real global commercial market, for example, being featured in advertisements and profit-making music games, as well selling a feature song on iTunes Stores in 217 countries.

This paper aims to examine the characteristics of Hatsune Miku fandom as Japan’s most innovative convergent cultural practice among Japanese youth. We will look at what creative audiences do when they share and collaborate using a popular video sharing platform Nico Nico Douga (lit. Smile Videos). We will then consider how their convergence culture is embodied in the work of Hatsune Miku as an example of Japanese User-Generated Content (UGC).
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 5 Sept 2012
EventContemporary Japanese Media Cultures: Industry, Society and Audiences: Manga to Movies Project - University of East Anglia
Duration: 5 Sept 2012 → …
http://www.mangamoviesproject.com/symposium.html

Conference

ConferenceContemporary Japanese Media Cultures: Industry, Society and Audiences
Period5/09/12 → …
Internet address

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • fandom study
  • Vocaloid
  • Japanese popular culture

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