[Qoo Otaku] Music and Musicians of Virtual Singers

Source: HelloSubcription

Every wonder whose to credit with your favorite catchy vocaloid tunes? Ever think about who are the people that sit down in front of their computers and dedicate hours and hours to create amazing music? If you haven’t, you are about to learn a bit about the amazing hidden talents behind vocaloid. Sure vocaloid is a software that the music comes from, but it take a creative mind full of heart and soul to create some of the best vocaloid songs out there.

These are the people who do all the hard work to give you something pleasant to listen to. With the help of vocaloid they have been given exposure. If a song is popular enough, an artist/group can be googled over a hundred times within the first few hours right after release. How does it occur? It first starts with the simple act of naming who created the song. If you like a style, you’re going to eventually enjoy more of it, evidently leading you to find out the source of this style of music you seem to enjoy – in this case the source is the artists behind vocaloid songs.

▍Is Vocaloid Really The One To Thank?

Source: Nikooru-NekoGirl

Well…yes and no.

Yes, because vocaloid provide these artists with a somewhat mainstream outlet that help bring their work to the public. Using a mainstream outlet to release musical work could be crucial since it can reach so many people in such little time, allowing an artist and his work to receive an outrageous amount of exposure, and also helping him grow and expand in the world of music.

However, an artist’s own ability to create the music and talent alone comes into play as a much bigger factor. Sure, artists who use mainstream outlets may be getting the same amount of exposure, but what good will that be to them if their works have little to no quality? Very few people will go out of their way to search up an artist whose work doesn’t appeal to them. That alone says a lot, considering the fact that we now live in a day and age in which all information is available to us within seconds.

An artist’s ability to create quality songs is extremely vital in order to be worth someone’s extra few seconds to get looked up. For many successful artists that vocaloid has brought into the light, they became worth those few seconds.

And those few seconds could forever change the artist’s life.

▍These Names Sound Familiar?

■ Kenshi Yonezu

Source: hirohisanakano

Commonly known as the singer of Uchiage Hanabi and Peace Sign, but he actually started his journey long before he sang for popular anime series.

A singer, songwriter, and musician from Japan, he began releasing vocaloid music in 2009 under his stage name Hachi and has been active with vocaloid since then. His first interaction with vocaloid started in December of 2009 with a song he released called “Clock Lock Works”. This was his first song to ever be featured within an album – EXIT TUNES PRESENTS Vocalolegend feat. Hatsune Miku. His songs were featured on the games Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Extend, Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F , and on Hachi’s Nico Nico account. Seven of his songs have been viewed more than 1,000,000 times, including the song “Matryoshka,” which had reached 5,000,000 views by 2012.

■ DECO*27

Source: Weekly Ascii

Deco*27 is a song producer, and his began his career in october of 2008. Back when he was starting out, his first works got over 100,000 views very suddenly. Being a vocaloid song producer with a bright and unique style helps bump up his popularity and relevance in music, considering today he is still quite well known. Due to his growth and boosts from vocaloid, opportunities opened up for him as he was soon able to stretch his limits beyond vocaloid later in his future. He was given opportunities to compose several pieces of music for various games and anime series.

■ Neru

Source: Snow Miku

Neru is a well known producer who is mainly known for his musical works that generally in the style of rock or EDM. Just like Kenshi Yonezu, he began to work with vocaloid in December 2009. He was most popular for using the virtual singers Len and Rin Kagamine as his outlet for his vocaloid music. Within his music and lyrics they often speak to people and allow them to see another unique view of the world that perhaps they may not have thought of before. In many cases, the lyrics to his songs are somewhat dark. One of his most notable songs was “Tokyo Teddy Bear”, which reached 1,000,000 views in a remarkable amount of time. That success soon pushed him to release other popular song titles like “Lost One’s Weeping”.

▍It Doesn’t Stop at Vocaloid

Source: Utsui

Just because an artist who became popular and well known through vocaloid doesn’t mean they are destined to just center on their music and work around it. Vocaloid serves as a gateway to many opportunities to these artists, allowing their talents and abilities to flourish and grow. Vocaloid is the beginning to what most may think is the unimaginable. With that being said, artists who began with vocaloid still tend to continue to work with the software and music companies associated with it. But can you blame them? Vocaloid continues to always change and upgrade to better suit the musicians of today and tomorrow.

Yes, we all enjoy and are mesmerized by the vocaloid world that involves virtual singers and their aesthetic appeals, but there is a whole other world where amazing musicians are being created with the help of vocaloid, which is so much more than just virtual singers. It’s an actual opportunity for those who dream to put their music out and have hundreds of thousands of people see their world. For a certain special few they come to make a name for themselves – a name beyond vocaloid and virtual singers.