3D hologram sells out concert in Japan

She is popular, talented, a rising star in Japan, and she is a hologram. Hatsune Miku is a hit, and her fans do not seem to mind that their star is nothing more than a virtual avatar.

Now, many of us may find Hatsune's success a little hard to accept. Additionally, we may not appreciate her talent, given the fact that she is not a flesh and blood entertainer. But, then again, The Doctor in Star Trek Voyager dealt with the same barriers when he became a famous hologram singer in the episode "Virtuoso."

So when does music stop being music? It is hard to deny the advent of hologram entertainment when we consider the high-tech digital editing that occurs with "real" entertainers along with the elaborate and expensive stage performances that are associated with today's popular singers. Maybe music stopped being music when singing had more to do with performing than it did with the lyrics and the music. Are hologram concerts just another step in the evolution of our entertainment? We certainly do seem to like today's entertainers to be "perfect" or at least appear perfect on stage. Certainly creating a virtual reality, a virtual entertainer, allows us to play with that ideal of perfection. This was, indeed, the appeal of The Doctor in his performances.

Alternatively, maybe there is still room for both types of entertainment. The glitzy, perfect elaborate stage performances and the earnest, down-to-earth singing poets. It does, however, make one wonder what will become of the one hit wonders who tend to have immediate intense fame that fades quickly. With hologram entertainment, will they stand a chance to even gain that short-lived fame?

Furthermore, what will become of the scandals, cover ups, concert temper tantrums and melt downs? Will Hatsune Miku be photographed on a beach in a skimpy bikini with some notorious companion, or exposed in tabloid newspapers as being a complete diva who fires her crew over the most trivial matters? Maybe this will be the real entertainment that virtual reality programmers will not be able to replicate in their hologram entertainers.