Soon, Japanese kids will be learning about virtual idol Hatsune Miku in their school textbooks

Vocaloid pioneer to be featured in high school music text going into use next year.

With virtual idol Hatsune Miku’s technological-sounding songs and futuristic costumes, it’s easy to forget that she’s actually been around since 2007. With that much sustained popularity, she’s had an undeniable influence on modern music in Japan, so much so that some people think it’s important that kids learn about the Vocaloid star in school.

Miku can’t autonomously create her own songs, but a number of her hits are thanks to Vocaloid composer Kikuo, who’s been writing music for the aqua-tressed songstress since 2010. He’s built up quite a following as a result, and recently he tweeted an exciting announcement to his many Twitter followers.

“Next year, Hatsune Miku and I are going to be in a music textbook for first-year high school students.”

Specifically, Miku and Kikuo are going to be mentioned in Koukousei no Ongaku 1 (“Music for High School Students 1”), a textbook from publisher Kyoiku Geijutsusha. The pair appear in a section highlighting artists with a unique sound or vocal quality, for which Miku definitely qualifies.

The accompanying text reads:

“Following the evolution of computer-produced music techniques in the 1990s, in the first decade of the 21st century new voice synthetization techniques were developed. Using these techniques, after sampling a human voice, different voices could be created by using the samples. Not just notes and lyrics could be adjusted, but also inflection, vibrato, and breathing effects could be easily manipulated, and so it became possible to create vocal music using only a computer, with no need to record an actual person’s voce for the new song.”

“Kikuo feat. Hatsune Miku’s “Six Greetings” is a song that makes use of such techniques, with precise vibrato effects. These kinds of songs continue to be very popular today, and an important characteristic is that their creators are not limited to only professional musicians.”

▼ “Six Greetings,” the song referenced in the textbook

While much of the textbook’s layout seems finished, the Japanese school year doesn’t start until April, and so it’s going to be almost a year before educators start delivering this valuable knowledge to their pupils. On the other hand, 2017 will also be Miku’s 10th anniversary, and we can’t think of a better birthday gift for her than this sort of recognition.

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Source: R25 via Otakumu
Images: Twitter/@kikuo_sound (edited by RocketNews24)

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