The Vocaloid Community

I was knocking my head for some ideas of any cultural encounters that I have had somewhere to suddenly come to mind – since I couldn’t recall doing anything this past week that would count as one. Then this epiphany came while I was taking a shower with random Japanese songs playing in my head: I could write about Vocaloids and the culture that it has created – even for those who are spectators.

For those who are unfamiliar with the term Vocaloids, it is a computer program created in 2004 by a group of online friends (later grew to a company, Yamaha Corporation) that can synthesize voice and music. The purpose was to create a community of composers who are relatively unknown but wanted to express their music. In addition to singing, lyrics, and music composition, soon models were created so that other people could join in to make a fun to watch dance for the song. Vocaloid’s popularity significantly increased in 2007 when the first official Vocaloid, Hatsune Miku, was released (1^st Generation of Vocaloids). Because of its popularity and widespread of dance videos with her as model, MikuMikuDance (MMD) became the name reference for every dance cover that other Vocaloids did (some of the more popular models are Megurine Luka, Kagimine Rin & Kagamine Ren (twins), and GUMI).

That was a long introduction… In any case, I just want to share a small bit of how I, and probably many other fans, came to love this community. The first piece of this phenomenon that I will try to illustrate is, of course, the creation of the song; in particular, I will be talking about the song “Luka Luka Night Fever” (ルカルカ★ナイトフィーバー) with Megurine Luka as the Vocaloid model – music and lyrics by samfree, and illustration by Haru Aki.* The song was first uploaded on February 12, 2009 on nicovideo.jp, so it was one of Luka’s first songs. As you might have already noticed, the song and the illustration (art for the song – for newer ones, a PV is usually accompanied by the song) are created by different people. That’s exactly the point! People in the Vocaloid community contribute and share their work, and together they create something that everyone, both in and out of the community, can enjoy. I too have listened to this song when it first came out but was not amazed by it, though it was catchy.

The more interesting thing, in my opinion, that comes after the Vocaloid song is perhaps a dance cover by a fan. Now if you have already clicked the link or followed the asterisk to the video link below, you would have noticed that the original song/video doesn’t have any dance to it – it’s not easy creating a dance using the Vocaloid program after all; dances usually come later. But about five months after “Luka Luka Night Fever” came out, in July 2, 2009, Aikawa Kozue uploaded a dance video of the song in which she choreograph and perform the dance… in her home.** It was amazing. In fact, Kozue’s video has more views than the original song. And by the time I saw this video, it was probably in 2010, fans have already made many different MMD with Luka, Miku and other Vocaloids dancing the dance that Kozue has created! This invites numerous people to join the community and share their unheard voices. Here’s two of the more popular covers, one by Valshe and the other by Nana.*** The more I explore, the more I discover. The community and its contents extend endlessly; it just keeps expanding, creating and sharing.

With the inundation of the song’s popularity and MMD videos, even Sega, a game company who partnered with Yamaha Corporation, couldn’t resist creating a Vocaloid PSP game with the compilation of the many popular songs and MMD. Because of the Vocaloid program, the composer (samfree), artist (Haru Aki) song coverers (Valshe and Nana) and dancer (Kozue), this was made possible.**** Now even gamers can enjoy being a part of the Vocaloid community.

Because of the many song covers and MMD videos created, fans eventually begin to learn the MMD dances themselves as part of a fun activity! Dance groups are then created and even perform in the streets and parks for people to watch and enjoy. Can you believe that this all started from one song? The power and extent that one song can carry is stunning. A group called DANCEROID (formed in 2009 and known for performing Vocaloid dances, and others) went ahead and performed “Luka Luka Night Fever” in the streets of Taipei as part of the DANCEROID festival (~X`mas Special Live Party!!~) in Taipei – the video was uploaded by the group on December 22, 2011.***** Just watch the video and you’ll see how bold and crazy that was. :)

All in all, here is a piece of my encounter with the Japanese culture formed because of the computer program, Vocaloid, and persevered because of the community that loves it. I hope you all enjoyed it as much I do!

Luka Luka Night Fever – cover art by Haru Aki

*              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uUE1wY-_hc

**            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpoR_xlslLI

***

Valshe:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFgeq2Us3sc

Nana:     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlzU_5wxATw

****        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbDo8lczgEY

*****      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgJPQPqslp0&feature=fvwrel