Have you ever gone online and seen some sort of anime girl with big, blue pigtails? Maybe you know her by the name of Hatsune Miku? And have you ever wondered – who is this girl and what is she?
Well to put it bluntly, she is a Vocaloid created in late August of 2007, and is considered by the majority of the Internet the most popular one.
But what is Vocaloid exactly? And should you even give them the time of day?
“It’s basically this program where real people record voice samples, and those voice samples get manipulated into basically a digital of vowels and phonemes that people can tune and make them sound like they’re singing,” Vocaloid enjoyer Kaiya Torres (‘26) explains. “It’s not a genre, but it’s like the Vocaloid voices themselves are used for many different genres.”
Vocaloid has been around for ages. In fact, most of the popular Vocaloids were released before a majority of class 2026 were born. The first Vocaloids, Leon and Lola were released on January 15th, 2004, by British company Zero-G. Shortly after, MEIKO and KAITO, one of the more popular Vocaloids, were made in the late 2004/2005 by Yamaha, a Japanese musical instrument company.
There are many producers and composers all around the world that make music with these vocal instruments, not just for music enjoyers, but for games, shows, and even movies. Even directors commission them for these media. If you’ve seen Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, you’ve heard a Vocaloid song called “Koinu no Carnival” by EHAMIC, which features about 50 vocaloids.
“I think my first exposure was probably younger than I remember,” says Nana-Kwesi Kwakye (‘26), “But I guess my cognizant exposure of it was over the quarantine through Hatsune Miku, or through peers.”
Vocaloids are found on many music platforms, the most popular ones being Spotify, YouTube, and Niconico, a Japanese video-sharing service. Most Vocaloid songs were originally uploaded onto Niconico by vocaloid producers when they were young, then eventually, more of their songs started to be uploaded onto YouTube and Spotify.
“I got into it pretty immediately, I think it’s cool,” says Cameron Allen (‘26). “There’s a lot of different subgenres within the music. Even if it’s all Vocaloid, there’s slower songs and faster songs, etc. The only thing that defines it is the fact that a Vocaloid is used as a singer.”
Hatsune Miku is practically the face of Vocaloid. Something that boosts her popularity are the concerts that she is part of. There are multiple Vocaloid concerts that happen annually around the globe, with over thousands of people buying tickets to see these concerts. These concerts consist of a big screen that Vocaloid characters are projected on to as their vocals play along with a live band.
“A few years ago, I actually got the opportunity to go to a live Vocaloid concert,” says Torres. “They use LEDs and screens and holograms to project [Vocaloid] characters onto stage… I just found it really cool that they were able to kind of bring these characters ‘to life’… And there was a live band too.”
Even after gaining all of this information, the real question stands: Is this really worth looking into?
“I think that it’s really creative, and I like that people take all this time to make music for it,” Torres says. “And it’s real people, so they’re not using an AI voice or anything. A lot of people think Vocaloid is AI, which it’s not. And a lot of the songs… are really, really good, and people don’t listen to it because it’s Vocaloid. But I think that they should, or at least a cover of it if they want to hear an actual human singing.”
Not every composer/producer who uses Vocaloids in their music has the same style. There are multiple different unique Vocaloid composers whose style of tuning, instrumentals, and/or Vocaloid choice attract people to listen to them specifically.
“I like NayutalieN a lot because the way they utilize the Vocaloid they use most often always feels very light and sort of magical,” Allen states. “I really like that feeling that his Vocaloid tuning gives the music, because even among other Vocaloid producers, I haven’t ever really heard someone who does it the same way, and it’s such a specific feeling that it gives me.”
While there are a lot of Vocaloid composers/producers in this community, some people don’t have a specific artist that they listen to.
“I think there’s a few good Vocaloid songs, but not my favorite genre… I guess the human voice is very compelling to me,” says Kwakye. “But there are also Vocaloid tracks that really blend that line and are also just sonically pleasing as well. I think my favorite is Machine Love [written by JamieP].”
If any of these facts caught your attention or interested you in any way, try listening to some songs featuring a Vocaloid: Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Len, Kagamine Rin, and Megpoid Gumi. If you like a certain genre, like metal or even rap, there are most certainly Vocaloid songs that cover that genre. Branch out your music taste and listen to something new.
