Luo Tianyi, A-Soul, Liu Yexi... At the end of each year and the beginning of the year, various virtual idols will always get a round of opportunities to show the public science because they are frequently selected for the annual list and appear in tv evenings. For the public, the development of virtual idols in recent years has traveled on a very delicate boundary: on the one hand, people can really feel that virtual idols are gradually out of the circle, they are either on various mainstream evenings, or endorse major brands, from niche entertainment to get official recognition and commercial value; on the other hand, people will not feel disturbed or offended by the circle of virtual idols, although they have a large number of real fans, but these fans are not committed to brushing the list with data on various online platforms. Use the news to dominate the screen, use traffic to persuade the public, but based on the positive interaction and gentle expansion of the fun group, only by going deep into it can you feel that "out of the circle" really originates from "real red".
Virtual technology singer Luo Tianyi
This is in stark contrast to the live idol fan base, and it also makes more and more people interested in the fan base behind the virtual idol. How did a niche interest based on a two-dimensional subculture evolve into a fan ecology different from the real rice circle?
Virtual idols are iterating
Although the name can be justified, the "virtual idol" still lacks a clear definition of universal recognition, and can only be identified from a roughly descriptive point of view. This is not because people don't care about "correcting the name", but because this field that accompanies the rapid development of science and technology is constantly giving birth to new functions, scenarios and types. Broadly speaking, virtual idols are made through paintings, animations, CG, etc., so that people can pin their emotions on specific images. In a narrow sense, the above image is required to be further independent from the original closed creative context, form a high degree of interaction with the real world, and take the information and emotions provided by the real world as an organic part of building itself.
Virtual singers and virtual anchors are currently the two major types of virtual idols. The first virtual singer to appear, represented by Hatsune Mirai and Luo Tianyi, is based on speech synthesis technology. Virtual singers have their own image settings and sound source library, fans through its sound source library software, input the lyrics and tones of creation, synthesize songs with vocal effects, and form the effect of letting idols sing for me. Holographic projection technology allows virtual singers to go from online to offline and get closer to fans through concerts. The subsequent virtual anchors, represented by Trip Love and A-Soul, were based on motion capture technology. After the character setting of the virtual anchor is completed, the person in the middle wears the sensor and interprets it in the image of the virtual anchor in the live broadcast, sometimes singing and dancing, sometimes chatting and interacting, and forming a deeper level of companionship and communication with the fans.
In the field of virtual idols, whether it is the debut of new idols within the genre or the iterative battle between genres, the huge impact of technological development can be very clearly felt. In the field of virtual singers, the veteran speech synthesis software VOCALOID has come out to the fifth generation, and the emerging Synthesizer V has gradually become the mainstream of the old one with its powerful performance. At the level of idol image, they are the difference between the electronic sound of virtual singers and the style of full fiction. The important scene of virtual singers communicating with fans - concerts, has not been able to achieve perfect holographic projection, still need to rely on media, light, angle, general performances can only rely on online editing, video post-production and other forms to complete, communication with fans is a problem. Virtual anchors take advantage of the void, using real people plus motion capture to achieve real-time interaction, and rely on the continuous improvement of motion capture technology, so that virtual anchors in facial expressions, dance movements are presented in a natural, smooth realistic effect. It can be said that as far as upstream production is concerned, virtual idols are driving the technological shift of the entertainment industry.
As far as the downstream market is concerned, this is not a simple iterative update like "mobile phones only buy new good". From the virtual singer to the virtual anchor, it is not to overcome the technical difficulties of holographic projection, the intervention of the virtual anchor under the skin of the real person, in fact, the content of "virtual" has decreased. However, the high-density, personalized real-time interaction of virtual anchors still wins a large number of fans, and even shows a trend of snatching virtual singer fans. This shows that virtual idols are heavy on technology but not only technology, and what they ultimately serve is still the emotional needs of human beings. What people crave is not an "infallible dummy", but a "real emotion". In the development of the virtual idol industry, it is particularly concentrated in the integration of science and technology and humanities.
At the same time, another iterative trend worth paying attention to is the change of virtual idols from foreign imports to local originals. Hatsune Mirai from Japan, although it is the "white moonlight" of many domestic audiences, Luo Tianyi, who speaks Chinese and sings Chinese, can allow fans to maximize creative freedom. Although many virtual anchors under The Japanese Hololive took the lead, kiryu Coco and other anchors made a wrong statement on the issue of China's territory, and even the Hololive family had to withdraw in the boycott. After a period of market competition, the nascent virtual idol group A-Soul flipped against the wind and became the head anchor. In the domestic market of virtual idols, although the first movers are often foreign companies with mature experience and advanced technology, special emotional factors and complex cultural contexts have brought natural advantages to the growth of local virtual idols, and the strength of players in this field is changing from berth to domestic. Whether China's vast market and research and development potential can create a virtual idol with both Chinese characteristics and world influence, grasp the universal human emotions, and break geographical restrictions from the inside out, it has also become a prospect worth looking forward to.
New ecology of fan groups
Virtual idols rely on technology, but ultimately serve people. The vast majority of China's virtual idol fan groups belong to the post-00s generation, as the native generation of the Internet, their aesthetic orientation, way of thinking and consumption habits are concentrated in the field of "virtual idols".
Shirley Turkel mentioned in "Group Loneliness" that the new generation that has grown up in electronic civilization no longer has a strong demand for the "authenticity" of the external world. In their eyes, if the reality of reality has no intrinsic value, there is no need to maintain this reality, and if a thing is virtual but the intrinsic value can meet the need, it may not be accepted as reality. The differences between different generations on this meta-issue are presented in the idol industry, which is the source of mutual regard as heresy inside and outside the fan circle. In the eyes of non-fan groups, the truth of the idol is the skin bag of plastic surgery, the fictional persona, the inferior ability, and more importantly, we will almost never have any contact with him, why should we pay love and money for such an illusion? But in the eyes of the fan community, the idol is worthy of love precisely because he conscientiously maintains the falsehood above this cruel truth. With this false gorgeous coat, our imagination of the ideal partner can be attached, and through the secondary processing in the brain to adjust it to the most perfect state, in this relationship I pay a sense of truth, why can't it be "emotional authenticism"?
But the twist of the live idol fan base is that they must use two different sets of discourse systems when "closing the door" and "opening the door". Behind closed doors, fans are well aware of the weaknesses and flaws of idols, whether it is an underground relationship or a bad image, "as long as it is not filmed" and "as long as it is not officially announced", this relationship can continue. But when the door is opened, when fans want to help their idols achieve career development, they need to render them according to secular standards and refer to the illusion as real. Therefore, all kinds of screen brushing and hegemony, control and evaluation washing field, is used to continuously fill the cracks and ravines in this.
The birth of virtual idols presents the attitude of the idol industry to the public in the most honest and radical way. Virtual idols are "pre-publicized falsehoods" and can never reach the other shore, but fans don't care. Therefore, the fan group of virtual idols no longer has so much screwing and anxiety, all their "imagination" has become the "truth" of virtual idols, and their identities have changed from "makeup artists" to "creators", forming a new ecology of fan groups.
Yoo Ye-hee
On public platforms, unlike live idol fans who are active on Weibo and actively promote to the outside world, virtual idol fans are mainly based on B station and supplemented by Tieba to enrich the cultural space of virtual idols themselves by participating in creation. As a short video platform that has emerged in recent years, the core users of Station B are the young generation who love the second dimension, who form their own circle discourse system through the bullet screen, and actively edit the video to output views and create. Take the more mature virtual singer Luo Tianyi as an example, her B station official account has been operating since 2016, and has 2.71 million fans and 69 video works. If you count the high praise comments and bullet screen types of their video works, you will find that these fans do not blindly repeat their love and support, but mainly focus on the quality of the work, in the composition, performance, video editing, animation, 3D modeling and other aspects of the evaluation, the more iron fans, the more can find the details of the adjustment changes, and give pertinent feedback. While commenting on Luo Tianyi, he often thanked the creators behind the scenes. On the Luo Tianyi channel of Station B, the videos created and released by fans are as high as 79,000, and the playback volume of many well-known videos is even an order of magnitude higher than that of official videos. In the two-dimensional base camp of Station B, the "user-contributed content and fan participation in creation" in the field of virtual idols is particularly significant.
Another public platform Baidu Tieba, the way fans express themselves is slightly different from the B station. If Station B is in the officially designated music video category, creating works for Luo Tianyi, then Tieba is from the perspective of fans, depicting the details of life for Luo Tianyi's image and creating an imaginary intimate relationship of "idol and me". Most of the content of the posts is a secondary creation around Luo Tianyi, including fandoms, tonghumanism, etc., as well as real-life clips related to Luo Tianyi, such as peripheral purchases, street encounters, etc. The same is the fan participation in the construction of virtual idols, compared with the "ID photos" of Station B, the atmosphere of Tieba is more similar to depicting a "life photo".
In the internal community, the fan group has always used QQ as the main platform, even the fans of virtual idols are no exception. However, in contrast to the live idol fans who arrange work, assign tasks, carry out hierarchical management and meal circle scheduling, the qq group of virtual idol fans presents a high degree of "de-rice circle". Observing and counting Luo Tianyi's four main fan QQ groups and a total of 7892 fans, it can be found that the fan exchanges within the QQ group show a balanced and diversified overall situation: idol works and fan secondary creations do not occupy a dominant position, and the exchanges between fans in hobbies and daily life are more active. Taking the "V-singer Luo Tianyi" QQ group as an example, anime dramas and learning and life are hot topics, and the discussion of the game "Original God" by fans in the group is significantly higher than that of Luo Tianyi and his works. In the process of small talk, Luo Tianyi's related emojis account for only about 40%, and in the live idol fan group, even if it is a small talk group, this proportion is generally higher than 70%. It is not difficult to see that virtual idol fans have established a highly introverted and closed rice circle organization in the internal community dominated by QQ, but based on virtual idols, gathering like-minded friends of the same age and embracing a colorful and enriching reality.
Where is the fan culture going
In recent years, with the influx of a large amount of capital into the entertainment industry, the fan culture that was originally developing in the process of exploration has been wrapped into a narrow and deformed path, and the original spontaneous love has been continuously incited into fanaticism, evolving into various group blind obedience. After the Qinglang action, the extreme and pathological rice circle ecology has been curbed to a certain extent, but on the other hand, there is no ideal model for where fans gathered by love should go.
However, the fan community of virtual idols has gradually formed a relatively harmonious organic ecology after years of silent development. From the perspective of the genre nature of virtual idols, after the official character setting is provided, the participation of fans in the creation of idols plays a decisive role in the construction of idol images. Many well-known works such as "Dalabang Bar", "Hook Finger Oath", "Ordinary Disco" and so on, all of which are from the fan original, virtual anchor A-Soul combination of Jiaran, have also become famous for the funny nature of the fan essay "I want to be Miss Jiaran's dog". Compared with the infringement risk faced by the fans of live idols, virtual idols encourage secondary creation in a decentralized way of co-creation, and fan groups also compete with each other and improve their skills in this creative boom, and more fans stand out and become new "gods" and "idols". Luo Tianyi's fan Ilem, who thought that Luo Tianyi created high-quality original songs and gradually became known, has 1.52 million fans in Station B and won the 2019 Top 100 UP Masters of Station B. Individual fans are not drowned in the light of idols, losing themselves and losing their direction, but have become better selves, and through diversified output, they can not help but say that it is a trend worthy of affirmation.
A-SOUL's first live broadcast
From the perspective of the overall situation of the fan group, although the virtual idol originates from the two-dimensional subculture, the community structure of "decentralization and de-bureaucratization" has created a healthy and rich community ecology of fun aggregation. Especially in the internal groups of the QQ platform, young fans often spontaneously express their respect for the martyrs and their love for a better life at major festivals, martyrs' memorial days and other moments. However, Luo Tianyi and other virtual idols participate in official activities, create songs celebrating the centenary of the founding of the Party, the 70th anniversary of the National Day, and the Promotion of the Winter Olympics, often have a higher number of plays and bullet screens than ordinary works, showing the strong interest of fans in the "breaking the dimensional wall" cooperation of virtual idols participating in official activities. In the absence of external constraint intervention, the two-way rush between subcultural young people and mainstream discourse has been realized.
The "idol industry" and "fan culture" itself are not original sins, nor do they necessarily point to deformity. Virtual idols and their fans let us see the possibility of mainstream recognition, commercial value, fan love, and passers-by in this nascent cultural ecology, and also let us see the infinite creativity and self-realization of the young generation of Internet natives through virtual idols. This decentralized development model from unity to pluralism, an equal relationship that treats fans as an organic force rather than a digital worker, may be able to provide a new perspective for the future development of the entire idol industry.