But, on the upside, we’ll be huge in Japan.
Yes, just to be clear, this is Hatsune Miku, who is actually a software vocal algorithm, not an actual singer, playing live in front of throngs of fans.
Enjoy that stomp box while you can. It may… kill you in your sleep, strangling you with your own guitar cables, and then go on the road with your volcas and electribes in your place. Don’t even think of letting it talk to Siri.
(Seriously, KORG, did you ask Yamaha if they’re including the Three Laws of Robotics on that chipset, or should we be worried?)
And yes, while the rest of the world argues about just what knobs Deadmau5 or Daft Punk may be twiddling onstage, it’s worth noting that Miku has been playing “virtual” concerts like this in front of an adoring public since 2009. As noted in comments, technically there is sampled material sliced to produce her voice, but the combination of machine-controlled lyrics with a projected animated avatar is unmistakably post-human performance – or at least very much augmented human performance. In some sense, of course, this is all of us playing with computers; the Miku concerts simply embrace the phenomenon as natural.
Via a completely insane message thread on GearSlutz. (Who are these people, anyway?)
Update: my sister points out that Japanese fiction was already onto this concept – see Sharon Apple in Macross Plus, circa 1994.