3 Reasons you should be listening to Vocaloid


So I was meeting my friend the other day, and I had Meltdown (Kagamine Rin) blaring out of my headphones. He asked me what was the "high-pitched screaming" he heard, and I proceed to tell him about Vocaloid, its music, and what it has spawned. My friend quickly dismissed it as a fleeting trend, I was a little upset, but I wasn't surprised.

Vocaloid music certainly isn't a short-lived thing for me, since my Vocaloid playlist has about tripled since I last posted it. Besides letting him know that Vocaloid music has been doing better than ever just after Miku's 5th birthday, I told him that -

1. Vocaloid music presents a whole new range of vocals

You know how Adele's powerful voice, Adam Levine's pitch, and Eminem's rap speed managed to win over millions? Miku is able to do all that at the same time, and more. Being a program allows her exceed the limits of a human, and a whole new range of pitch and speed allows a whole new range of possibilities, that would be unique to Vocaloids.

Pitch and speed:


2. Vocaloids are able to utilize talent from thousands of people, all over the globe

Strictly speaking, we haven't reach the "all over the globe" part, only because it's made for Japanese audience so far and it haven't been able to really attract talent from outside Japan. But there's definitely a possibility, seeing that an English version of Hatsune Miku is underway. But just within Japan itself, there are literally thousands of people are profiting from the music made and some of the albums are known to out-sell top J-Pop stars. Being a brand known as (insert singer) only allows you to work with so many people. Producers like David Guetta are (probably) able to work with more, but you simply can't beat the fact that you can simply buy Miku off the shelf and create a song for her. The brand known as "Miku" worked with so much talent with so many different genres, and some of them even gain mainstream popularity that way.

Trance and jazz:


3. Familiarity

Here's a point that I felt was little overlooked, and it's also a little hard to explain. If you've been a long time fan of RHCP, won't it be much easier to pick up their new album, even if you have no idea how any of the tracks sounds like? With hundreds of thousands of songs created for Miku in just a couple of years, she easily has hundreds of famous and well-received titles to prove her capability and potential. Being a familiar face and huge fanbase within and outside of Japan not only exponentially increase the rate where people accept Vocaloid music, but also where even more talent pours in, due to the potential to create and potential to sell.

Classics where it all began:


Now shut up and listen to some vocaloid.

P.S. I do listen to other vocaloid other than Miku. It just happens that Miku provided the best examples. Aaaand... it helps to show how the same voice is being used on songs of different genres.

6 comments:

  1. I think the most classic classics would instead of popipo be melt and ievan polkka.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually I think the most classic would be Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru and World is mine, Ievan Polkka is like a "breakout"... but I group them all together anyway. Doesn't matter, they were produced ages ago and tons of new stuff are available now.

      Delete
  2. Others may disagree, but from the stuff I gather at Amazon MP3, it seems quite clear that creators struggle with voices that are not Miku, and the further they break out, the more difficult it is for them. Megupoid was used in 3 to 5 decent tracks, and Luca is in like .. ONE ("Stay by my side") -- among the given sample.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't defend Gumi, but Luka? I'll have to say that you're not very familiar with the Vocaloid scene... "Just Be Friends", "Double Lariat", "Leia", "Corruption Garden", "Palette", "Tower"... are just some of her top hits right off the top of my head.

      But I have to agree that Miku shows the most potential, because she is the first useful Vocaloid, and due to the reason 3 above.

      Delete