Vocaloid - The Electronic Stars (Literally!)
So, a few days ago, an article was published on here about K-Pop, and that made me think, What if a did an article on another obscure type of music? So I did. Vocaloid is an application that you can download to make music on, but in a much different way. There are virtual singers called ‘Vocaloids’ that can sing notes that you put in. You can change the pitch, volume, duration, and more.
Eighty-six voicebanks have been released in the current version, and are in a variety of different languages. (English, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese) However, the main demographic is in Japan, where they hold concerts using holograms of the idols. The most popular voicebanks are Miku Hatsune, Kagamine Rin and Len, Luka, Kaito, and Meiko. Miku has the most songs, by far. Unfortunately, Vocaloid’s popularity has declined drastically. Their convention, which used to be extremely popular, has been swept under the rug.
Below, I’m going to include some recommendations for different genres. If you want to find an English cover, just go onto youtube and put, "-Song Name- English Cover" and one should come up.
Daughter of Evil, Servant of Evil, and Regret Message
These songs are part of an even longer series called the Evillous Chronicles, but these are the most famous. These tell the story of an evil queen and her twin brother, who serves her. There’s another song telling their story, but these are the main two. These are sung by Kagamine Rin and Len, respectively.
Senbonzakura
Arguably the most popular Miku song, this song details westernization and Japanese history. The actual instrumental is well done, too, and the idols wear Japanese army general outfits.
MKDR
You know how most songs detail how great love is? Well, this is the opposite. It may seem like they have a positive outlook on love at first, but then it’s revealed that they think love is an illusion and a lie, and describe it as a never-ending cycle of “love” and then regret. This song is sung by Miku.
I hope that you’ll try listening to some of these! They’re not everybody’s thing, but it’s worth a shot!
By Andie