Wide World of Vocaloid: Cowboy(girl?) on the Run
Hello and welcome to the first post of a newly planned feature of mine: Wide World of Vocaloid. These posts will bring you a wide range of songs that highlight the amazing potential of Vocaloid software. These works will range from the very popular to the obscure. I hope they will be a way for fans to discover something different and marvel at the creativity of various composers.
Today’s highlight definitely falls into the obscure category but the inspiration for it most certainly does not. I am sure that many readers here are familiar with Taiwanese pop-star Jay Chou. The four time World Music Award winner branched out a few years ago and produced a rather popular hit song by the name of 牛仔很忙 (tl:”Cowboy on the Run”). The music video, written and directed by Chou himself, can be seen below:
Apologies on not being able to embed the one with English lyrics, but you can follow this link to watch a video that includes them.
Well that is something rather different the usual C-Pop faire. While this blogger is admittedly not an avid follower of Chou’s, his ability to go off genre and create something different. Already unique in featuring Asian, mandarin-speaking musicians performing what amounts to a complimentary parody of Western-style music its adds several more layers of peculiarity when it is covered by a Japanese Vocaloid program (Miku Hatsune) singing outside of her native language in the hands of a producer who is likely bilingual as well. That’s a mouthful, but it exactly the notion that drew me to this song in the first place.
The Miku cover of “Cowboy on the Run” is part of the 2009 album 初音ミクの約束 (tl: The Promise of Hatsune Miku) which is composed by producer 失明少女 (tl: Blind Girl). Unable to find a NicoNicoDouga or Youtube link I have included an upload of my own with appropriate credit given to the producer and vocaloid:
It isn’t often that Miku Hatsune is seen singing country-style to a background of fiddle playing and “yee-haws!”. It provides another example of the highly varied styles found in Vocaloid productions. It can be argued that the vocals leave something to be desired in clarity and tone, Miku seems to perform more understandably in Mandarin than she does in English. To compare you can watch the almost unintelligible “Lemoned I Scream” cover from Miku’s 1st Song Album and judge for yourself (English “subs” provided):
Lets finish up with a little more information on the album itself. 初音ミクの約束 is not available for purchase at any online site that this blogger is aware of. It has also been rather difficult for to find links to any of BlindGirlP’s works on Youtube or NND. To amend this situation I have created a playlist for the album on YouTube, use it to discover and appreciate this excellent composer. If anyone finds a means of obtaining the album please let me know.
The Promise of Hatsune Miku (初音ミクの約束) by Blindgirl (失明少女):
1. Aim! To the Budokan! (目指せ！武道館へ) ft. Miku Hatsune (all fictitious musicians seem to aspire to this)
2. Fragment (欠片) ft. Gakupo (correction!!! this was not Kaito lol!)
3. With You (貴女と) ft. Miku Hatsune & Luka Megurine
4. Cowboy on the Run (牛仔很忙) ft. Miku Hatsune
5. MIZU☆MIKU ft. Miku Hatsune
6. Song of the Blind Girl (失明少女之歌) ft. Miku Hatsune
7. CAKE~CANDY~HONEY ft. Miku Hatsune
8. Pegasus Fantasy (ペガサス幻想) ft. Miku Hatsune
Thanks for reading!
"初音ミクの約束" is a Chinese doujin music work released at the end of 2008 so it's no surprise that you can't find it anywhere to buy (at least, for the original CD).
Yeah I essentially felt that was the case, I was just surprised I could only find one of the works actually hosted on NND or YT given that the quality is as good or better than many other obscure vocaloid albums.
Haha Lemoned I Scream, I love engrish (or was it a desperate pun ?). Anyway with Miku's voice any kind of engrish is still kawai.
Back on topic, great idea descent87 and nice post.
I agree. This is a great idea, considering we're not supposed to focus on the Japanese songs only.
@aces Thanks aces, glad you liked it, I'll continue to work hard on this.
@Samuel: Yes Miku is always over 9000-cute, that song is actually one of my favorites but I tried to be a little unbiased in the article. Thanks for the compliment I will try to be creative each week and continue finding different things to check out (Languages, genres, styles, ect)
I'm not sure about obtaining the physical album but the digital version is practically everywhere in the net. Thanks for the recommendations, I shall try it out.
Indeed, that is how I found it myself :), but given the context of this blog and the fact that in good faith we should make an attempt to support some artists I focused on the purchasing side. But this album is indeed easily obtainable from Japanese or English hosting sites if you search around a bit.
Good article, but it has the 'school essay' kind of feel to it… (To me, anyways)
Might be the way you provide analysis do the Vocaloids or something…
For example, "It provides another example of" sounds really textbook…
(Sorry for the pointless feedback D: I'm irked by the weirdest of things)
Haha thanks Echo, I'll still trying to find my balance here. In my own personal blogging and on the message boards I'm used to being wildly biased towards things I love and being very colloquial. I know I need to up the professionalism a little more but not overdo it and still keep things fun. Please keep reading and commenting, I'll do my best.
A new poster here, I just figured I'd note that there's a few songs floating around Youtube at least, featuring Haku (!) singing in Tagalog that are pretty impressive.
Haha thanks a cool one, I'll try to hunt it down in order to feature it, especially since I heard a story recently about Luka being played on the radio a little bit in the phillipines.
I also have seen Miku singing in Hebrew somewhere.
And while I am learning Japanese and some composing to one day play around with Vocaloid another goal of mine is to get Miku to sing in Farsi sometime, a language I am fluent in.
But yeah that is part of what I hope to bring to this site. Please keep coming back Kalio, glad to meet you!
loved that Chinese version, suits perfectly for vocaloid performance
and that English track was hilarious XD
keep on the good work! 😉
Thanks for reading baka!