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Sandro Gomarteli
MUNM 3113-005
Dr. Goza
5 December 2014
Vocaloids: Synthetic Fascination
Musical history has been rich with discovery and innovation. Time and
time again, composers and performers amaze audiences with their mastery
of musical talent. Whether in a 17th century Austrian auditorium or a bustling
New York City amphitheater, crowds are drawn to places that exhibit a
certain attraction that captures their attention and continued interest. One of
the most recent musical innovations has been vocaloid music. Created using
Yamahas program, VOCALOID1, vocaloid music is essentially songs without
singers. By utilizing fragments of voices from actual singers in combination
with user provided lyrics, basically anyone can create their own artificial
singer and songs (Yamaha). With VOCALOID, end users have been spawning
new virtual characters with their own music since as early as 2004. Since
then, two new versions of VOCALOID have been released (with another on
the horizon) and dozens of virtual artists have risen to global glory, each
replete with their own surprisingly large fan base (Kenmochi). For over ten
years now, vocaloids (literally vocal androids) have captivated adoring fans.
Such a surprising phenomenon was achievable through Yamahas program,
innovation of musical synthesizers, and a recently spawned supporting
culture.
1 Note that VOCALOID is not the only method of creating vocaloid music. It is,
however, one of the few that is commercially available and by far the most widely
used (Kenmochi, Oshita).
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has certainly become the biggest, most far reaching name in the musical
vocaloid genre. This literally unreal figure sports thigh-high boots, the classic
miniskirt, and now iconic body-length aquamarine pigtails. Within three years
of her release, 50,000 units of her singer library were sold, which is quite the
record in the world of software synthesizers (Kenmochi). Her popularity even
earns spots in top music charts in her native country of Japan. She even
draws crowds to huge amphitheaters for concerts. But hold on, one might
surely venture the question: How does a fictional character hold a concert
and attract such a high number of people? Strangely enough, viewers crowd
around screens or even holograms proudly displaying the icon in classical or
specially designed outfits, singing and dancing. These performances are
replete with the lights and futuristic sounds one might expect from such an
unusual occurrence. It may even seem unbelievable to many present day
people that any group of youths would crowd around a screen and call it a
concert. This truly shows how far VOCALOID has come in its ability to inspire
companies to create such widely popular musical works.
Looking at some of Mikus Youtube or the Japanese equivalent Niko
Niko Douga and seeing that the latter contains hundreds of thousands of
VOCALOID-tagged videos, many with several million hits, one might be able
to appreciate the musical culture and following that has spawned from the
impressive vocal androids (Kenmochi). Even in this digital age, some CDs
featuring idols like Hatsune Miku, such as the 2009 release titled Supercell,
have sold hundreds of thousands of copies (Kenmochi). Miku herself has an
especially impressive array of derivative goods. Her popularity inspired
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Works Cited
Hatsune Miku: Music Artists You'd Like to Perform at the 2012 London Olympics
Opening Ceremonies | TheTopTens.com (Hatsune Miku: Music Artists You'd
Like to Perform at the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremonies |
TheTopTens.com)
Kenmochi, Hideki, and Hayato Oshita. "VOCALOID Commercial Singing Synthesizer
Based on Sample Concatenation." (2007). Mirlab.org. Web. 4 Dec. 2014.
Kenmochi, Hideki. "VOCALOID and Hatsune Miku Phenomenon in Japan." (2010).
Icsa-speech.org. Web. 4 Dec. 2014.
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Kenmochi, Hideki. "SINGING SYNTHESIS AS A NEW MUSICAL
INSTRUMENT." Mirlab.org. Web. n.d. 3 Dec. 2014.
To, Kit. "The Voice of the Future: Seeking Freedom of Expression Through VOCALOID
Fandom." (2014). Pdf Article. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.
VOCALOID (VOCALOID)
http://www.vocaloid.com/en/about/