Is Vocaloid some new style or music genre? [closed]

Question

I know Vocaloid is a signing synthesizer software but while I was trying to find the best songs sung by Vocaloid singers I started to find pieces of music that were suspiciously too good. By too good I mean, I wasn't able to tell for certain whether those were by a real person or rather by the software in question. My guess is that some people are starting to use the word Vocaloid to mean something else when sharing their work that might have nothing to do with the Vocaloid software.

For instance:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-YNNJIe2Vk
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4e5reGtKJA
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkGUevn7SQ0

Update: This post has a similar question "Is There a Vocaloid Anime?", though they are not clarifying if Vocaloids are only voice banks for the singing synthesizer software, or whether real people are starting to call themselves Vocaloids.

Answer 1

Vocaloid is a singing/voice -synthesis- (or emulation) software, which as it implies does not just consist in sound banks but voice synthesis algorithms that can be used with different kinds of voice.

Because in Japan and South Korea the "digital" culture has been around and fully integrated in the popular culture since the 90s, it is not odd that some digital, as in artificial, celebrities such as Hatsune Miku have emerged.

Hatsune Miku is now Vocaloid's most famous icon, and there are radio/internet songs but also concert with holographic-like projection (same method used for Tupac's hologram) of Hatsune, which has garnered a fan following, but also a whole scene of music producer using Vocaloid as their fabric marker.

However this is not considered a genre, as this is merely a software tool used in the production of many other genres ranging from J-Pop, to PC Music or even Pop-Metal. So this is not a style either, but really just an artificial chant synthesis tool used in many different productions, some using it as the brandmark of their productions.

Answer 2

I just came across this but those are covers by humans or utaite.

It's still labeled "Vocaloid" because the original song was made using a Vocaloid. They are not saying they themselves are Vocaloids, just saying that the song is a Vocaloid song.

Answer 3

Okay, so all the songs you listed are not actually the original songs. They are all 3, English covers by humans. However, the tuning on this Vocaloid product can get so good that it sounds like an actual human, such as in "Freely Tomorrow" by MitchieM. The original songs in question that the covers were made of used the Vocaloid software. Rolling Girl, for instance, was a song produced by popular (deceased) creator, Wowaka, who used the Hatsune Miku voicebank.