So far in the UK we’ve mostly made do with Roy Orbison for our holographic musical entertainment, though Whitney Houston will be rematerialising on stage here soon. Meanwhile in Japan, Hatsune Miku has been pioneering this kind of thing. Miku is a cartoon character in the manga style, perpetually 16 years old, with turquoise…
She has supported Lady Gaga on tour, been remixed by Pharrell and featured on over 100,000 songs – not bad for a piece of software. Hatsune Miku, which translates as “First sound of the future”, is the best known example of a Vocaloid, a singing Japanese computer program that has been brought to holographic life…
In the sinister basement laboratory where they concoct new musical genres, they really hit the motherlode this year when they came up with “Cute Metal”. This demonic fusion of devil horns and candy floss is exemplified by Japanese trio Babymetal — three school-age girls in black and red who chirp merrily over grinding, thrashing guitars….