There are many music genres that exist today. There’s hip hop, classical, and many others. There are also genres from around the world like cumbia and Celtic folk. But there is a music genre that has started to become famous worldwide, and that’s Vocaloid.
What is a Vocaloid?
Vocaloid was created by Crypton Future Media, a Japanese company, on March 3, 2004. A Vocaloid is a recording of someone’s voice, mostly a voice actor/actress, that is turned into a voicebank and assigned to a specific character. From there, you can use those voicebanks by adding them to your songs. However, you would need to pay for the voicebanks and the program to use them. The first characters that were made were Leon and Lola on January 15, 2004. From there, they made many other characters using different people’s voices who were turned into voicebanks. But the most popular Vocaloid, who still is today, is Hatsune Miku.
Who is Hatsune Miku?
Hatsune Miku was made on August 31, 2007, her voice provided by Saki Fujita. Her first popular song was “World is Mine” by supercell, a popular Vocaloid producer. Since then, many other producers and artists have used Hatsune Miku’s voice to make other popular songs. For example, “Romeo and Cinderella” by doriko and “Rolling Girl” by Wowaka. But she’s not the only popular Vocaloid. There’s Kagamine Rin, Kagamine Len, Megurine Luka, MEIKO, and KAITO. They all have different songs of their own, sometimes they sing together in a group or have a duet. Because of Miku’s popularity, she has collaborated with many different companies like Pokémon, Toyota, and even Domino’s Pizza.
How did I find Vocaloid/Hatsune Miku?
I started listening to Vocaloid in 6th grade when I stumbled across this song called “Love me, Love me, Love me” by Kikuo. I understood none of the lyrics, but I really enjoyed the vocals and wondered, “Is there more music like this?” And indeed there was since I found much more different artists like cosMo@Bousou-p and DECO*27 who have very unique songs with powerful lyrics. My favorite Vocaloid is V-flower, created on May 9, 2014. I love the sound of her voice and the songs with her in it are just amazing. But my favorite song of all time is Champion by Kanaria. It came out on July 19, 2024 as a collaboration with Pokémon called “Project Voltage” where different Vocaloid producers created a song with Miku and Pokémon.
Why should you listen to them?
I think you should listen to Vocaloid because there are even more Vocaloids that exist who have amazing vocals and are very unique characters. Even if you’re not a fan of Japanese songs, you can find many songs in English as well. Listening to Vocaloid can also expand your music taste if you’re ever looking for something new to listen to.
