Hatsune Miku to Sing on The Late Show with David Letterman

[Kugyince]

Virtual pop star and Vocaloid Hatsune Miku will be performing live via projection on The Late Show with David Letterman on October 8 at the show's usual time of 11:35 p.m. ET.

Miku will also perform in Los Angeles and New York City in October as part of The Hatsune Miku Expo tour. The Los Angeles expo will be at the Nokia Theatre on October 11 and October 12, and the New York City expo at the Hammerstein Ballroom on October 17 and 18.

Miku last performed as the opening act for Lady Gaga's ArtRave: The Artpop Ball tour, which ran from May 6 to June 3.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-09-18/hatsune-miku-to-sing-on-the-late-show-with-david-letterman/.78895

Hatsune Miku Live Party 2013 in Kansai [720p] - YouTube

[Slime Slayer]

Stop the presses.

[DrunkN]

Stop the presses.

Boo. It's a harmless subject and Tenser had an interest.

I'm curious as to what the reaction among the audience would be.

[Seahawk]

So it'll basically be the most viewed episode in the show's history?

[CrispyChicken]

I'm surprised Letterman is even aware of Hatsune Miku.

[Slime Slayer]

Boo. It's a harmless subject and Tenser had an interest.

I'm curious as to what the reaction among the audience would be.

Stick to supporting your buddy Dudebro, I'm sure Tenbo will be fine on his own.

[RU Joe]

So, a pre - programmed virtual - reality 'girl' is going to perform 'live'.
:\
How many different ways could that be incorrect?

Personally I'm kind of liking the virtual idol thing, because it proves what I've been thinking for years about how the level of technology is now so advanced that we don't really need humans for performances anymore.

The only hitch is that to my knowledge the virtual idols need to be programmed , and so aren't capable of making original music themselves.

[CrispyChicken]

So, a pre - programmed virtual - reality 'girl' is going to perform 'live'.
:\
How many different ways could that be incorrect?

Personally I'm kind of liking the virtual idol thing, because it proves what I've been thinking for years about how the level of technology is now so advanced that we don't really need humans for performances anymore.

The only hitch is that to my knowledge the virtual idols need to be programmed , and so aren't capable of making original music themselves.

Singers/performers have been lip-syncing for years. Really no different there :p

[Dudebro]

Stick to supporting your buddy Dudebro, I'm sure Tenbo will be fine on his own.
Pretty childish and lame bro.



And yeah what JG said.

[Slime Slayer]

Well holy crap, I was just trying to make a light hearted joke.

[CrispyChicken]

Well holy crap, I was just trying to make a light hearted joke.

Probably not the right time for that one.

[Kugyince]

So it'll basically be the most viewed episode in the show's history?

It'll certainly be the first Letterman show I've watched in the last five years.

[Tails]

I'm glad you're hyped for it Tenser.

[Wolf]

not the best song

[DrunkN]

Miku on letterman~ - YouTube

[Slime Slayer]

No surprise Lettermen writes her off as a novelty, but even not being a fan, that was an under representation.

[Dudebro]

Well isn't it a novelty?

I thought the song was terrible and the whole thing seems weird. Maybe they did this to start the transition from Letterman to Colbert? Gotta bridge that age gap somehow. They don't want Colbert to debut to an audience of retirees.

[Kugyince]

Funny thing is, Letterman wishes he was as big as she is.

[Dudebro]

You sure about that? Letterman is a household name in the US despite his show being on the way out. He's considered a legend in late night TV. How much bigger can he get in his career? I don't like his show but you seem to be under selling him quite a bit.

[KATZ]

im pretty sure more people know who hatsune miku is apposed to letterman

[DrunkN]

Letterman is on the down slope but he's still a big thing in the States. Miku is trendy in Japan and is only somewhat gaining traction around here.

Miku's song was pretty bad, and while there are better I agree that Vocaloid is indeed a novelty. TBH I kinda only like Miku for the game series.

If anything, I think it'd just be cool to see one of those 3D laser light holograms.

[Kugyince]

Maybe if you're talking only the US but worldwide Miku has it easily.

[Dudebro]

You think she's a bigger name than Letterman? The guy who's been a fixture of late night TV even longer than Carson? That's millions of viewers every night for 30+ years. On top of that he's won tons of awards and he's appeared in countless other media. I know Miku is popular but to say she's bigger than Letterman is a bit ridiculous. Maybe in twenty years or so.

@Tenser- Nope Letterman is known world wide, sorry. You guys are severely underestimating his fame.

[DrunkN]

Maybe if you're talking only the US but worldwide Miku has it easily.

Agreed.

[Dudebro]

Remember we're not talking about how many people like Letterman, we're talking about how famous he is.

[DrunkN]

Remember we're not talking about how many people like Letterman, we're talking about how famous he is.

Nor was anyone else talking about how many people like Miku, but how the brand(product? It's weird to talk about a digital person) has spread on an international level. (which I'm loathe to believe is much, but obviously she tops Letterman)

[Kugyince]

The only way I know how to gauge worldwide popularity would be Google hits.

David Letterman: 3,760,000
Hatsune Miku: 33,500,000

[Dudebro]

Sure a holographic anime loli is more famous than a TV legend who's been seen by billions of people for longer than some of you have been alive. Completely ridiculous but I'm not gonna bother trying to convince you guys anymore.

[DrunkN]

Well, now that that's over with, what do we do with this thread now?

[samejamesbond]

Well, now that that's over with, what do we do with this thread now?

http://www.retrouprising.com/img/2014_10/4691.jpg

[DrunkN]

http://www.retrouprising.com/img/2014_10/4692.jpg

[Kugyince]

Sure a holographic anime loli is more famous than a TV legend who's been seen by billions of people for longer than some of you have been alive. Completely ridiculous but I'm not gonna bother trying to convince you guys anymore.

I'm willing to be convinced. Give me some figures.

I'll throw some more at you:
Facebook is mostly a North American thing, other services are more popular in Japan. That being said:
Letterman: 688,685 Likes
Miku: 2,538,348
https://www.facebook.com/Letterman
https://www.facebook.com/HatsuneMikuOfficialPage

Also, try not to be butt hurt that your buddy Letterman is less relevant than a drawing. You come off as a ridiculous fanboy using terms like "Legend" and "billions".

[samejamesbond]

I'm willing to be convinced. Give me some figures.

I'll throw some more at you:
Facebook is mostly a North American thing, other services are more popular in Japan. That being said:
Letterman: 688,685 Likes
Miku: 2,538,348
https://www.facebook.com/Letterman
https://www.facebook.com/HatsuneMikuOfficialPage

Also, try not to be butt hurt that your buddy Letterman is less relevant than a drawing. You come off as a ridiculous fanboy using terms like "Legend" and "billions".

One could argue that the older folks that watch he's show aren't into
Facebook like the younger people who like Hatsune.

[Kugyince]

One could argue that anyone too old to use Facebook is probably too old to stay up that late. Lets put aside blanket generalizations.

[Slime Slayer]

Right Lettermens audience don't go around googling and tweeting about Lettermen, Hakunes audience does. I don't know who is more recognized worldwide, but Google hits are far from an accurate representation in this case.

[RU Joe]

David Letterman has been on TV so long that most of the people {still alive} who would recognize him probably are so old they aren't a part of the modern tweeting, googling, facebooking scene.

Despite the fact I'm around that age myself, I am aware of who and what the 'virtual idols' are and understand their popularity with the younger generation.

I also understand how the virtual idols could be more interesting than a 'late night talk show host' to today's internet - based audience : the very concept of his show is outdated and boring by today's standards.
Please don't get me wrong, I think DL comes up with some good jokes once in a while but like all old TV shows his time is done, and it's time to buy the box set DVD collection with the unseen bonus material for nostalgia.

[Kugyince]

I agree 100% that Google hits are a poor measuring stick. I don't know of any other way to compare them.

I actually think the Google hits hurts Miku even more than Letterman.

My reasoning behind this:

1. Letterman creates official content five nights a week. Official Miku content? Maybe twice a year. All of Miku's stuff is fan driven.

2. I only Google'd English sites using the roman alphabet. You can add another 12+ million with just 初音ミク let alone the other spellings of her name.

[CrispyChicken]

Eww Miku in English. Should've just done it in Japanese. Even if you have no idea what the lyrics are, it stills sounds way better.

[DrunkN]

Eww Miku in English. Should've just done it in Japanese. Even if you have no idea what the lyrics are, it stills sounds way better.

I had no idea what the lyrics were supposed to be in English.

[D.B. Cooper]

This is an interesting debate and I don't know the answer. Seems to me it comes down to how popular Letterman is internationally which I have no idea what the answer is. I would say though that the guy has been on TV for 32 years and I don't think it's fanboy talk at all to say he's a legend that's been viewed by billions. The billions part might be an exaggeration but anyone who's been on TV for that long and won as many awards as he has is certainly an American TV legend.

[CrispyChicken]

I had no idea what the lyrics were supposed to be in English.

That's in part of the bad quality of the video.

[Kugyince]

This is an interesting debate and I don't know the answer. Seems to me it comes down to how popular Letterman is internationally which I have no idea what the answer is. I would say though that the guy has been on TV for 32 years and I don't think it's fanboy talk at all to say he's a legend that's been viewed by billions. The billions part might be an exaggeration but anyone who's been on TV for that long and won as many awards as he has is certainly an American TV legend.

I agree he has accomplished quite a lot in his lifetime. I wish to take nothing away fro everything he's done. I just wish to stray away from a term like "legend" because its purely subjective and I'd rather focus on something more substantial.

Billions certainly seems like an exaggeration. That implies one out of every four people on Earth have seen an episode of The Late Show. That's three time more people than the world English-speaking population (~750 million depending on how you define "speaking")!

I think some people seem to be grossly underestimating Hatsune Miku's popularity.

Hatsune Miku: 38,600,000
Adolph Hitler: 32,400,000
Queen Elizabeth II: 16,400,000
Barack Obama: 12,200,000
Mahatma Ghandi: 5,670,000
Mickey Mouse: 4,630,000

http://www.retrouprising.com/img/2014_10/4693.jpg

[Dudebro]

Also, try not to be butt hurt that your buddy Letterman is less relevant than a drawing. You come off as a ridiculous fanboy using terms like "Legend" and "billions".
I've watched a few episodes here and there but I've never actually been a fan, I prefer Conan. Legend is true because he is a TV legend, can you really dispute that? Billions is true because he's been getting like 3-8million viewers every night since the early 80s. On top of that he's been a very visible public figure for decades with other stuff like hosting award shows and appearing in other media, from Mork and Mindy to Beavis and Butthead.

The billions part might be an exaggeration but anyone who's been on TV for that long and won as many awards as he has is certainly an American TV legend.
I think billions is a safe estimation given how long he's been on and how enduring his popularity is. Even after he admitted publicly to being unfaithful to his wife and sleeping with the help he still maintains one of the most iconic shows in TV history. For millions of people he's part of the family.





To be clear I'm not trying to trash talk Hatsune Miku being on the show. I think it's great that this kind of thing can be played to a mainstream audience, that never would've happened twenty years ago. I may think the music sucks and the avatar is cringe worthy but it's still a cool concept.

[CrispyChicken]

I prefer Conan.


http://www.retrouprising.com/img/2014_10/4694.gif

[D.B. Cooper]

[QUOTE=Kugyince;283876]

I think some people seem to be grossly underestimating Hatsune Miku's popularity.
/QUOTE]

I'm probably guilty of this mostly because I've never heard of it before this thread. But I also understand that just because I haven't heard of something, doesn't mean it's not popular, especially when it comes to stuff that's popular in Japan.

I think the billion thing is a bit of confusion. Kugyince and I are referring to unique viewers, not adding up the number of viewers for each episode

[Dudebro]

If there's any confusion it's not my fault I think I was pretty clear
a TV legend who's been seen by billions of people
I wasn't talking about his current popularity or viewership I mean his overall fame.

[D.B. Cooper]

Well then I guess I think you're nuts. You're using plural which means at least 2B. There aren't even that many TV's in the world.
List of countries by number of personal televisions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Dudebro]

It was an off handed comment about how often he's been seen since the early 80s, not including just his TV numbers. Obviously it's not a number that can be verified with any certainty but saying just millions wouldn't be accurate, maybe hundreds of millions would be better?

[ZedIsDead]

Until this thread came around, all I knew about Hatsune Miku was that she was some Japanese Vocaloid thing on the internet. I'd say the average American would have no idea who she is, and would be able to recognize Letterman in a heartbeat. I could see that Letterman probably has very little name value outside North America, so the amount of otaku worldwide might be able to tip the scales in her favor.

Who really cares, anyway?

http://www.retrouprising.com/img/2014_10/4696.png

[Kong]

If you type Miku in google 7 of the first 10 results are for Letterman.

The only way I know how to gauge worldwide popularity would be Google hits.

David Letterman: 3,760,000
Hatsune Miku: 33,500,000

Not sure how you got 3.7M with Letterman. Maybe with quotes.

I got....

Hatsune Miku = 33,500,000
David Letterman = 32,200,000
Jesus = 49,400,000
pac man = 71,500,000


I think with quotes is more accurate.

"Hatsune Miku" = 1,560,000
"David Letterman" = 3,580,000

Google isn't entirely accurate. It is skewed toward USA and English. Letterman has been around longer and all of those old pages will boost his count but it is also skewed toward Miku because she is bigger with young Internet people and Letterman is old tv people.

Miku's target audience is much more likely to click like on a facebook page.


The original comment was "Letterman wishes he was as big as Miku." I bet he does not think she is bigger than him and in America, especially with his target audience, she is not even close.

I can guarantee everyone I know has heard of Letterman. I bet nearly zero of my friends outside of RU have ever heard of Miku.


All age groups in all English speaking countries know of Letterman. Miku might be bigger internationally but Letterman easily wins in USA.


Maybe yearly profit$ would be a better measure of popularity than google.