Tags
Angel Beats, ayumi hamasaki, classics, Girls Dead Monster, Ho-kago Tea Time, Idolm@ster, jpop, K-ON, koda kumi, music, utada hikaru, vocaloids
My History of Japanese Music
Over the years, we had witnessed major singers like Ayumi Hamasaki, Koda Kumi and Utada Hikaru, reigning over the Japanese music industry. Since their debut in the late 90s, their singles had sold over millions and millions of copies. In my opinion, Japanese music had a different atmosphere from others, I especially like their slow tempo songs, since they feel really calm and soothing, like one of Utada Hikaru’s hit song, titled “First Love.” When I was a kid, I loved it and of cause I’m still loving it now.
When I first watch some anime, needless to say, I was exposed to anime music as well. The openings and endings in particular grasp my interests, and then, I went and downloaded my first ever OP I really liked in my anime music collections, the Shaman King OP, “Over soul” by Megumi Hayashibara. Time went on and through anime, I was able to found out about more epic Japanese musicians like Aqua Timez, Uverworld, Yui and so on. More recently, I’m addicted to KOTOKO and Mami Kawada.
Virtual Anime Bands – Seiyuu/Singer
Fast forward to the present, “virtual bands” began appearing in the market, with some examples being K-ON’s Hokago Tea Time, Angel Beats’s Girls Dead Monster and Idolm@ster. The anime industry, at this point, had begun to realize the power of music. As these “virtual singers” are actually performed by seiyuu themselves, depending on who we are talking about, the quality of their vocals would be mostly a hit and miss.
From my perspective, I had mixed feelings regarding this. Seiyuu, in general is inferior at singing, especially if compared to real genuine singers who had trained themselves at a young and tender age. Unless their skills for singing are close to that of Nana Mizuki’s level, they will just be another group of “tone-machine” singers, only singing the right notes mechanically without any emotions or techniques. Not all are bad though, there are still some equally good seiyuu-singers. One of them is in K-ON itself, Yoko Hikasa (Mio) and is the only real good singer from the show in my opinion. Because she was doing a fair share of vocals, I was quite addicted with K-ON’s music at the early stages, but as Aki Toyosaki (Yui) begun singing more later on, the music in K-ON.. well gets just a little teensy weensy bad.
In the end though, unless the singer is very exceptional like Nana Mizuki, most of these music doesn’t sound refreshing at all. Though there’s no denying it’s large fanbase as a music idol themed anime, AKB0048, which looks like it’s going to another Idol@master, was already announced for release this Spring. Besides, what can I say when K-ON had albums debuted at No.1 in the Oricon chart?
The Boom of Vocaloids
After a while, another a virtual singer begun sweeping through the music industry, completely owning all the other real Japanese singers in the chart, even the likes of Shota Shimizu and Kana Nishino couldn’t compete against this virtual enigma, one we call obviously know by the name of “Hatsune Miku,” a vocaloid character.
What are vocaloids though? They are voice synthesizing programs. A basic rundown of how it works is that first, the lyrics and melodies are inputted. Then, the “character” will sing your composition and wa-la. There are currently three generations of vocaloids: Vocaloids 1, Vocaloids 2 and Vocaloids 3, each generations containing their respective characters. The more famous vocaloids include Hatsune Miku, Megurine Luka and Kagamine Rin/Len.
At this point, virtual musicians are all the rage, especially Miku and her vocaloid friends. Their singles topped the charts consecutively and they even had virtual 3D concerts, through the use of 3D projectors to project a virtual character on the stage, creating life for said virtual characters.
Future of Japanese Artists
In my opinion, I think the future of Japanese artists look bleak. They are still barely okay at the moment but perhaps give a few more years, the Japanese music industry will be overrun by virtual singers all around. With K-ON and Vocaloids snatching all the fame, real singers had lesser chance to reach the top as even the more talented ones are overlooked at this point.
While I like K-ON and Vocaloids, I will much prefer to let real singers had some fighting chance as well, though due to the harsh standards of the music industry, I don’t think that’s going to happen would it? Chart performance aside, vocaloids release new singles as fast as a roller-coaster ride, and with any piece of work inside this huge ass list a possible chart-topper, just how can real singers beat that?
My Overall Opinions
Ultimately, I’ll be supporting real singers. They are trained hard at a young age and worked their way to fame. I’m not saying virtual singers like vocaloids are bad, they are fun and cute but if you are strictly talking about the music, then… meh, I will be picking real singers over virtual singers in that case.
What about you? Which side are you on? Virtual or Real singers?
“More recently, I’m addicted to KOTOKO and Mami Kawada.”
I feel ya one that man. Bro fist!
Well, when you think really about it (with the expectation of Vocaloid) the virtual or made groups (akin to Anime) are really just people. Also, most Seiyuu are singers or take up the art at least. I am not sure how well people like Rie Kugiyama or Kana Hanazawa would fit that mold, but they do manage to put character CD’s. If for nothing else it is the marketing aspect, then again, look at Sphere; they were a group of Seiyuu; but also music group. FYI: They also have an Anime coming out this Spring.
As for vocaloid, I do agree with you. A machine is not better than singing than a human, but if you have a talented human that can write algorithms and understands music well – then you can almost get to that point. That said, their will still be no replacing human singers – but with things like vocaloid even though they lack the skills to capture high registrars as people and whatnot – variety is always a good thing. I am not a huge fan of the synthesized music myself, but I do not necessarily hate it either. I support both sides; real singers for the pure talent and work ethic – but virtual for innovation. Probably real singers and artist a bit more…
Nice article btw (had something similar to it, but I will save it for later).
*bro fists* indeed :D
Yes, it’s just seiyuu singing them but usually in my own opinion, it’s the anime characters gaining more recognition then the seiyuu themselves. Hmmm.. I dunno, I find most seiyuu’s singing average at best, like they only got the basic then bam… they release character CD. Yes, that’s the thing, Sphere’s music is again, pretty much average, but their voice acting is good though.
Well, even if it’s a talented human who could produce that, the singing is ultimately done by machine, and we all know who should be the bigger man in that department. Hmm so your point is that, it’s good to have variety and something “new.” Truthfully, vocaloid was at the experiemntal stages but now they sort of becoming even more mainstream D: I don’t hate vocaloids either and I love them as characters, they are fun, cute and sexy but if it’s singing.. then… meh. D:
Theres a rumor going around that Miku will sing in the London Olympics this year.
Rumors…
Real singers, I have less shame that way :D (plus i generally like the songs better*)
Will you be going if there’s going to be one? :D Look like its going to be a fun concert.
Indeed indeed its true, though vocaloid have their own beauty as well.
I like both actually, but there are some things that virtual singers can do that real singers can’t, and some things that real singers can do that virtual singers can’t. Just the other day I was discussing with my friends how awesome it would be if there was a Vocaloid created using Kotoko’s voice, but we decided that that was impossible. Kotoko’s voice is far too expressive for any program to emulate. On the other hand, no one can sing the notes that Miku sings.
Both have it’s ups and downs for sure. Vocaloid created using Kotoko’s voice eh? Nah, it would be possible, just that the voice would lose all emotions when operated in vocaloid’s version, like what you said. And no one can sing so inhumanly and robotically fast as vocaloid can :D
i say heck let them both go at it and i have some songs that are vocoloid songs but the real signers you mention are the ones that used the program so yeah they still find ways of getting around it.