ViralWorld

Hatsune Miku

You might remember it as Vocaloid virtual idol

The archive has not found a surviving copy.

2007·Early YouTube·impressive

A singing-voice program sold with a drawing of a girl with long turquoise hair, who became a virtual pop star.

At a glanceThe facts

Remembered as
初音ミク
Spread in
2007
Began as
A commercial release
Where it started
commercial-release
Format
Phenomenon
Era
Early YouTube
Made by
Crypton Future Media; the voice is built from samples of Saki Fujita, and the character was drawn by Kei Garō
Taken from
A voicebank for Yamaha’s Vocaloid 2 engine
Original title
The name combines the words for first, sound and future
Origin
Not an upload originally
Available
Not held by ViralWorld

What this wasThe story

Released in August 2007 by Crypton Future Media, Hatsune Miku is a Vocaloid voicebank — a synthesiser built from samples of the voice actress Saki Fujita — sold with a mascot on the box: a sixteen-year-old girl with turquoise twintails. The name means the first sound of the future. She has no songs of her own. Everything she sings was written by somebody who bought the software.

Miku has opened for Lady Gaga, appeared on American late-night television, and had a Vocaloid ecosystem grow around her that constitutes one of the largest bodies of amateur music ever made. She is the strongest counter-example to the idea that internet culture must be individual and short-lived: a fictional performer, nearly twenty years old, with a professional discography written by strangers.

Why it matteredWhat changed

Anybody who bought the software could write her a song, and a hundred thousand were written in four years. She has given virtual concerts since 2009.

TimelineIn order

  1. Made

    The software is released.1

  2. Mainstream

    She gives her first virtual concert, at Saitama Super Arena.1

  3. Mainstream

    Her first appearance outside Japan, in Singapore.1

  4. Later

    More than 22,000 original songs have been made with her voice. A year later the figure reported is 100,000.1

  5. Mainstream

    She is announced for the Coachella festival, which is then cancelled. She is announced again in January 2024.1

What people misrememberSet straight

Commonly remembered asA character from an anime.

ActuallyShe is software and its mascot. Her appearances in anime are guest roles.1

How it spreadFrom one place to everywhere

What it createdWhat came out of it

RelatedMore like this

Records this one is explicitly related to — a copy, a remake, a parody, the same meme or the same maker.

Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · a moment that changed what the internet did next · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast · still being watched and quoted years later

This was released commercially before the internet carried it. Originally published on commercial-release.

Where it came fromWhat we know

There is no original upload to identify: this did not begin as one. There is no copy of it here either — what it was, when it appeared and what people called it is what this page can tell you.

Nothing here is claimed to be the first publication of this Moment, because the first publication was not an upload. This was released commercially before the internet carried it. Originally published on commercial-release.

Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.

More from 2007You were there

More from early YouTubeMore of the archive

ConnectedFollow it further

SourcesWhat was read

  1. Wikipedia — Hatsune Miku

Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things

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