Part 3: Impact of VOCALOID and Hatsune Miku
The impact that Miku and the other Cryptonloids have had on society, music production, and everything in general can be seen from many different angles. So, let's dive into some of those angles:
Impact 1 - VocalSynths (UTAU, Synthesizer V, etc.):
After the major success that was the release of Hatsune Miku, other VocalSynth (or Vocal Synthesis) applications started to appear, such as UTAU (which people in the VOCALOID community consider part of VOCALOID due to their similarities) and Synthesizer V. UTAU is basically VOCALOID, but its' free and not developed by Crypton or Yamaha. It is entirely crowdsourced and many different voice packs came out of it, such as MOMO, who voice Nyan Cat in a re-tuned version of Miku's version. Synthesizer V is also like VOCALOID.
UTAU Logo
UTAU Interface
MOMO in Nyan Cat (original music video)
Impact 2: Virtual Synthesizer Characters (usually in the Anime relm):
The success of Hatsune Miku's voice pack AND CHARACER spawner similar characters and voice packs like her, such as the previously mentioned Kagamine twins and Luka from Crypton, or fan-made characters like MOMO for UTAU. But, other companies have also thrown their hat into the VOCALOID/Voice Synthesizer ring, such as VoxWave with ALYS (a French speaking synthesizer) and AVANNA by Zero-G (the original distributer of the VOCALOID V1).
ALYS French Voice Pack (VoxWave)
AVANNA English Voice Pack (Zero-G)
But, as we venture into the new world of AI and the Metaverse, we are starting to see copycats of the VOCALOIDs and Miku start to appear. For example, the people over at 5-Minute-Crafts decided that it would be a good idea to introduce a Miku lookalike called Polar. She did get some traction, but she was panned by a lot of people in the VTuber, Anime, and VOCALOID communities, since they could see that she was a ripoff of Miku. She even admitied it in a TikTok post, by dancing to Ievan Polka and dressing as Miku. Why they decided to do this? I have no clue, but they did. Anyway, I'm done ranting. Let's move on to the next impact...
Impact 3: The Music Industry (Electronic Music)
Yes, she has had an impact on the music industry as a whole. I will be talking about Electronic music for this, since this is where she and other VOCALOIDS appear the most. So, the first artist I will mention is Porter Robinson. He is one of my favorite artists to listen to, and he has made hits like Shelter, Goodbye to a World, Sad Machine, and SO MANY MORE!! I love his music, and when I discovered he used VOCALOID in some of his songs, I couldn't believe it. So, here are some of the songs he used VOCALOID in:
- Goodbye to a World - Worlds (2014)
- Sad Machine - Worlds (2014)
- Fresh Static Snow - Worlds (2014)
Ok, so all of these are from his album "Worlds" from 2014, and they also all use AVANNA as their voice bank. Whatever, that doesn't matter because he created his own VOCALOID. That's right, he did and it's called Po-uta and it's official from Yamaha (his pack has no connection to Crypton Future Media).
PO-UTA VOCALOID6 Character Art
Impact 4: Advertising
In the early 2010's, Miku started to appear in many different ad campaigns, from FamilyMart (a Japanese combini/convince store), to Pocky, to DOMINO's ("HAVE SOME FUN WITH MIKU!" - Scott, President of Domino's Pizza), and much, much more! But, in my opinion, the one with the biggest impact had to be the Toyota Corolla crossover she did back in 2011. Yep... she did a crossover with the Toyota Corolla.
Video by: Yami Sweet on YouTube and Ads from Toyota
To coinside with this, Toyota actually sponsored that first US Miku concert at Anime Expo 2011. So, for about a year, you could see Miku and the Toyota Corolla together. Weird... anyway, she also appeared in a Domino's commercial for their Japan division:
Video by: PC Reloaded on YouTube and Ad by Domino's Pizza Japan
Yes, this is the commercial with "Scott from Domino's Pizza" and the one with the app that Nick Robinson is SOOO obsesed with. So, please "HAVE SOME FUN WITH MIKU?!"