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Locating liveness in holographic performances: technological anxiety and participatory fandom at Vocaloid concerts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2022

Alyssa Michaud Open the ORCID record for Alyssa Michaud [Opens in a new window]
Alyssa Michaud*
Affiliation:
Ambrose University, Department of Music, 150 Ambrose Circle SW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T3H 0L5 E-mail: amichaud@ambrose.edu
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Abstract

This article addresses the growing global phenomenon of automated holographic concerts given by virtual pop stars called ‘Vocaloids’. Alternately acclaimed by music journalists as ‘the future of music’ and derided as ‘a robo-show, a concert simulacrum’, Vocaloid concerts across the past 10 years have sparked feelings of anxiety and prompted debate about the loss of human interaction at pre-programmed concerts. In this article, I extend Vocaloid research from recent work that addresses Vocaloid's creative online community into the middle of arenas of screaming fans, drawing on participant observation, reception history and live performance analysis in order to demonstrate the importance of participatory fandom in Vocaloid culture and its implications for 21st-century concepts of liveness. I argue that the creation of cultural meaning and the most significant interactions occur within the audience itself, when online amateur music-making communities intersect with participatory fandom at live concert events.

Type
Article
Information
Popular Music , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , February 2022 , pp. 1 - 19
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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