An Article That Illustrates Another Reason I've Been Drawn to Vocaloid

[Nokone Miku]

The writer covers types of song lyrics that will never get recorded or published in the music industry.

Excerpts from americansongwriter.com (emphasis added): Between the Rhymes: Writing Lyrics An Artist Would Sing Many times when I’m mentoring SongTown songwriters, I come across a truly great song that no one is ever likely to record. For a multitude of reasons, it’s possible to write something awesome that artists just aren’t willing to sing. I’m going to explain some of the top “cut killers” in this article to help you learn to avoid those mistakes and start writing lyrics an artist would sing. The most common issue I come across is a lyric that makes the singer look bad. Most artists aren’t going to sing a song about cheating on their spouses. If they sing a song like that, every girl in the audience who has been cheated on instantly hates them because they remind her of her scumbag ex. Artists are hyper-conscious of the way a song will make them look to their audience. Ninety-nine point nine percent of the time, an artist is going to stay “on brand.” They are going to sing songs that reflect an accurate picture of who their fans think they are. Artists also don’t want their audience thinking they are cheating scumbags. A related issue—less common but likely even more deadly—is a lyric that makes an artist’s family member look bad. Early in my career, I wrote a great song called “The Shadow of a Man.” It was a story about the singer as a teenager seeing his father sneaking into the house across the street. He sees the shadows of his father embracing the woman who lives there through the curtains. The son loses all respect for his father and the dad becomes a “shadow of a man” to him. When I turned it in, my publisher said, “This is the best song I’ve heard that will never get cut.” I was so disappointed and asked him why. He explained to me that if Luke Bryan cut that song, lots of people would think it was true. They would believe that his dad actually cheated on Luke’s mom. Everywhere they went in their little hometown, people would be thinking or asking, “Did you really cheat on her?” or “I can’t believe you stayed with him after he cheated!” Luke isn’t going to do that to his parents. It’s just not going to happen. An artist is never going to record a song that hurts their spouse or any other family member. Many artists let their spouses help them pick the songs they record, so you’re going to get a sure veto if the song puts down or hurts anyone in the family. Additionally, most spouses of artists don’t want their significant other singing about being a cheater because that opens the door for eager groupies or fans to try to get that to happen. If you’re trying to write commercially, you have to be super aware of the implications your lyric could have on the family members of the artist. The third big reason songs are often “written for no one to sing” is that they don’t have a big enough idea. I heard a great song one time about barbecue. It was really well written, but it was such a niche topic that it’s unlikely to get recorded. It went into all of the different kinds of rubs and super detailed information that you’d likely only know if you were on the competitive barbecue circuit. Artists are usually looking for songs with really wide appeal. They don’t want to sing a song that only 10 people in their audience care about. They want to find bigger, broader ideas that EVERYONE in the crowd can relate to. That’s why so many songs are about life, love, and loss. We have all experienced those things so we can relate. We haven’t all competed in the barbecue world. When you are trying to write lyrics an artist would sing, you want to be sure that the idea appeals to everyone, or almost everyone, in the audience that the artist sings to. Finally, another “cut killer” is asking too much of the audience. If I’m writing a song for Bruno Mars and my song talks about the singer working on an assembly line, I’m asking the audience to forget who Bruno Mars really is and pretend along with him that he’s working in a factory. Most audiences aren’t going to be willing to go along with that. They would likely be saying to their friends, “Does he really think we’re going to believe this?” Fans know who the artist is. They likely paid big bucks to come to the show and this person is a superstar to them. We have to keep that in mind if we want an artist to sing our songs. Don’t ask the audience to suspend reality too often or in a big way. Like we talked about earlier, you have to stay “on brand” for your artist and that includes writing lyrics that sound genuine and honest coming out of the artist’s mouth. The highest compliment you can be paid as a commercial songwriter is to have an artist’s fans think that the artist wrote the song. When that happens, you know you’ve done your job well. Pay attention to those “cut killers” and you can improve your chances of writing a song an artist would sing.

This article perfectly illustrates several important reasons I'm drawn to the whole Vocaloid/vocal synth concept. And it shows why it was such a good idea not to give Hatsune Miku a canon personality or backstory.

• Lyrics that make the singer or someone associated with the singer look bad

When the singer isn't a person this becomes a non-issue. Miku can sing about being a yandere, or sing about being unrepentant of ill deeds, or sing about horrible things she wants to do, without any kind of backlash from the audience. In fact, there is a whole sub-audience of Vocaloid who are into dark songs that otherwise wouldn't be. We humans tend to suspect a person singing or talking in first-person about these topics as possibly having some skeletons in the closet. But when these things are presented by a fictional character we see these as simply being stories. I personally know someone who likes all the dark Vocaloid material, but when presented with the same sort of thing sung by a human vocalist gets squicked out by it.​

• Lyrics that don't have broad enough appeal

One of the miracles of the modern digital age is the ability for people to share their niche interests with others across the globe. It's been said that a joke is funnier inversely proportional to the number of people who will understand the joke. A joke that absolutely anyone would get is kinda funny. But a joke that only a few hundred people in the world would get is really funny to those people. And a joke that only two or three people share and understand can be wet-your-pants funny!​

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I feel the same can be true for music. When just about anyone can relate to a song it makes for an okay song. When a song is only going to capture the interest of a subsection of people, it is going to be more meaningful to those people. But when a song is only going hit-home for a small group of people it is going to hit hard! It would be tragic for these songs to never be made because of commercial reasons. That's why this age of being able to self-publish online and reach an audience is such a blessing.​

• Lyrics that don't fit the image of the singer

Miku allows a lot of people to produce songs that don't fit the creator's personal image. An example that springs to mind is lamaze-p or even Mitchie-M. I absolutely love their songs, but they wouldn't be the same being sung by a guy! It's great that we have access to a large number of different vocal synths. We can use the ones that fit our vision for the songs we produce and aren't limited to songs that fit our own personal image (there are gaps in the variety available but that's a whole different topic).​

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The collage in this post perfectly illustrates the huge dynamic variety of ways people can adapt a common character to portray the image, idea, and emotion needed for their song, art, or story. The base visual template serves to unify the audience but still allows for unlimited personal expression.​

• Lyrics need to stay on-brand for the artist

I think it would have killed this thing before it even started if CFM or NND or some other entity had dictated what kind of content was and wasn't allowed when it came to Miku. Even with her overall positive, upbeat image the Project DIVA/Project Sekai games and the concerts encompass a broad range of content. From Decorator to Unhappy Refrain to Cendrillon to Senbonzakura to Spinal Fluid Explosion Girl. If she were limited to typical Jpop fare she would not have over one hundred thousand songs!​

I know that a lot of people reading this (English) post won't necessarily care that much about the (typically Japanese) lyrics of Vocaloid songs. That's fine, and often I prefer listening to music where I don't understand the words being spoken. But most of the time I enjoy knowing the lyrical content of the Vocaloid songs I listen to, and I really love the variety they encompass. Over the years I've come to really resent the bland, broad-appeal content of mainstream music. It's like eating a bread sandwich (bread between two slices of bread). I really thrive on the spice and variety that Vocaloid producers offer!