Analytical Otaku

How To Get Your Friends Addicted To Anime
Tired of your friends teasing you about your anime-centric obsession? Give the gift of addiction!
Producer Spotlight: Iwashi-P
Time to shine the light on a much-overlooked producer. Get ready to listen to some awesome Vocaloid music you may have missed.
Your Objective Is Anarchy: How Video Games Encourage Rebellion
Video games can teach people how to be free thinkers and fight the man. They do this by letting you pet cows.
5 Ways the Next Season of Korra Could Suck
The Legend of Korra is due for another season. Here are a few things the writers need to avoid doing.
I Demand Stephanie Brown
Five reasons why bringing Stephanie Brown back would make all of DCverse a better place to be.

Showing posts with label PV. Show all posts

Producer Spotlight: Iwashi-P

On Monday, January 28, 2013 1 comments

Welcome to producer spotlight! Here I’m going to highlight talented Vocaloid producers and their works. This week’s producer: Iwashi-P.

Iwashi is a fairly obscure producer, with only a few of his videos getting more than 10,000 hits. That’s a darn shame, because he (or she?) is an absolute god with KAITO. One of the best things about him is that he has a distinct, signature style to his tuning. In his hands, the normally shrill KAITO sounds husky and deep. Probably some mixture of gender factor and low clarity.

Kaito Vocaloid Wallpaper - vocaloids Wallpaper

Don't think KAITO can be hardcore? Just wait.

His songs have a dark, mournful feel. They are very atmospheric, with lots of pulsing rhythms. Not quite techno, not quite rock, but a sort of earthy-pop. KAITO appears to be the only Vocaloid he works with, but don’t let that turn you off if you don’t like the blue boy. Let’s take a closer look at some of his works.

His very first song was called “receive,” released back in 2008. I couldn’t find any uploads of it on Youtube, so if you want to check it out you’ll have to use niconico. Anyways, this is definitely an amateur work, more of a test run than anything. However, you can tell that the composer has talent. It sounds distinct and cohesive, albeit with only traces of the elements that would later define Iwashi. http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm3222294

Iwashi also draws the cover images for his songs.

Things improved immensely with “crow.” Once again, it’s not on Youtube. This song finds a nice balance between sounding like a dirge and a war chant. It’s face-paced without being sugary.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm3381164

“Oni to Musume” (or ogre and the maiden) is probably his most popular work. It’s based on a Japanese folk-tale about a blind girl falling in love with a monster. The sounds fits very well, with a rustic, old-school Japan feel. There are a lot of traditional instruments, and the overall feel is that of a ballad. The mixing isn’t the greatest, but it is a beautiful song. And it comes with a cute PV!

From this point on, his songs are all awesome. My personal favorite is “Scissors.” I only understand a few words, but I would guess it’s some sort of bitter break-up song/ yandere thing. What’s great about it is that it sounds more angry than whiny. It’s filled with longing and resentment. And a pretty sick beat.

His latest song to date is “free word mind game.” It’s much more “pop” than a lot of his works, with a very bouncy, upbeat rhythm. However, the chorus has that cyber-punk element that makes Iwashi unique. Definitely worth a listen.

Iwashi only comes out with a couple songs a year. However, every one of his songs is a treat. He’s talented, and he deserves more views than he gets. So if you like KAITO or electronic music, check out his stuff. You won’t be disappointed.

Do you have a producer you want spotlighted? Feel free to leave me a suggestion in the comments!

In defense of Vocaloids Part 4: User-generated Content

On Thursday, December 8, 2011 2 comments

You guys remember that dandy article I wrote about stupid pop songs? Well, Vocaloid songs aren’t excused from nonsensical lyrics. However, they key difference is that Vocaloid songs are user-generated. That means most of the songs (with the occasional exception of bands like Supercell) are made by one person. Of course some of them are wildly stupid or esoteric. However, it also means that the artist is in charge of their work, and not big record labels.

These are the big name record companies. If you don't get signed with them, you might as well not exist.

Even though some pop stars write their own songs (Lady Gaga, Ke$ha, Taylor Swift, etc.), that doesn’t mean they have total control over their music. They work for record labels, who work for money. No, the record labels don’t dictate what the artist does (this isn’t some crazy conspiracy theory). What they do is good business: they help the artist brand an image they think will sell.

If you don’t have the “sound” the record label wants, then you don’t get sold. In an industry as over-saturated with hopeful musicians as mainstream music, there is no room for what a band wants. It’s what the record label is willing to sign, and if the band and the record label match up, then everything works out. However, the other 99% are left out of the loop. Not necessarily because they’re bad, but just because they aren’t what the industry is looking for.

I’m not trying to demonize record labels (I save my demonizing for publishing houses). It’s not their fault that there are so many more bands than there are slots in the top forty. All they do is make the same decision any rational human being would: pick the bands that are most likely to sell. And not all the artists record labels sign suck. However, neither do all the bands they turn away.

Vocaloid music provides an excellent middle-ground. Yes, if a song makes it big KarenT (the Vocaloid record label) picks it up for distribution. However, that’s not the only way to find artists. Almost all of my favorite Vocaloid songs were found through old-fashioned browsing the internet. I listen to probably a hundred new songs every week, just clicking through related videos on Youtube or posted by some of the people I subscribe to. And I listen to a lot of crap. However, every time I find a song that rocks my socks, I take a little pride in knowing it was my choice to listen to that song, and not the record company’s.

Behold! A very scientific breakdown of the music I listen to. But it's totally worth it.

Vocaloids put the power back into the hands of the people who generate the songs. The whole Vocaloid fandom is one made by fans, for fans. Everything from the PVs to the songs to those silly little fanarts you find on the web. It’s a community that decides for itself what will be popular. That’s a kind of power that’s worth viewing a few crappy videos for.

What do you think? How does user-generated content affect the way media is marketed and made? Is having an interactive community important to enjoying something? Let me know!

In defense of Vocaloids Part 3: Tell me a story

On Monday, December 5, 2011 1 comments

I love stories. At heart, I’m still a little kid wanting my mom to read just one more book before bedtime. If something attempts to make a narrative, no matter how sloppy it is, I’m automatically more inclined to like it. Stories have more meaning. In fact, there is a possibility that stories are stored in a different part of our brain that other, abstract facts. This is because stories are a uniquely human experience. Our minds are designed to frame things in terms of our own experience, which translates into narratives. We can relate and care about fictional characters because we can take their stories and relate them to the narrative of our own life.

The song "Daughter of Evil" had such a strong narrative that it got its own theater production based off of it.

How is this relevant? Well, one of the most beautiful things about the Vocaloid fandom is that many of the songs are narrative. As already stated in my previous post, you don’t need to understand the lyrics to appreciate a song. I would contend that the same is true for stories. When the notes and composition are tight, you can create feeling and conflict without retreating to words. Take opera as an example. Many of the most beautiful memorable operas are in foreign languages, like Wagner’s Ring Cycle or Madama Butterfly.

Even if you don’t speak the language, you can still appreciate the story. Of course, having actors and translated lyrics certainly helps.

Fortunately, thanks to the magic of the internet and bilingual, artistic nerds, many Vocaloid songs have a new-age equivalent. Several songs are subtitled, and they come complete with animated music videos. These are called PVs, and they vary wildly in quality, but they help illustrate the story. Take a gander at one of my all-time favorite songs and see.

With the internet, it really isn’t that hard to find the translated lyrics to a song. And while songs should stand by themselves, it’s amazing the kind of awesome sagas people make with singing software. There is mothy, one of my favorite producers, who weaves some of the most delightful dramas about the damned, or Machigerita’s creepy Dark Woods Circus series, or Kokoro. The list could go on forever.

How many mainstream songs make the effort to tell a cohesive story? Not very many. And with many modern music videos shifting to pointless post-modernism over actual content, PVs are a refreshing break. They aren’t over-glitzed, senseless spectacle (most of them, anyway). Instead, the stories they tell add an extra dimension to the songs.