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VOCALOID Vocaloid horror / "creepy song" culture

zeldawave

they/them
Jun 10, 2020
9
zeldawave.carrd.co
Hey guys! I'm new here (I joined just to get help with this project, actually) so forgive me if this is silly or weird or w/e. I'm trying to document stuff about that culture from like 2008 to 2015ish(??) of horror / "creepy" songs in the Vocaloid fandom -- stuff like Rotten Girl Grotesque Romance, Dark Woods Circus, Evil Food Eater Conchita, Scissorloid, etc. Because it seems hard to find super concrete, clear lists and accounts of what that little culture was like, and my own knowledge can only get me so far, especially after so many years and when I was only really around its fringes, I was wondering if you guys had any info you could share, whether it's songs/series for the list, rumors/theories you remember, honestly whatever you feel is relevant about it! (I will make sure to thank and credit you on my list for any contributions, of course, if you feel comfortable!)
 

frankensalad

Passionate Fan
Feb 27, 2019
103
There's one thing I remember from those days, and it involved the song Alice Human Sacrifice. It used to be HARDER to find the original Vocaloid version of the song on youtube than the utaite group cover because at the time, most people didn't really know what Vocaloid was. They just knew that there was this song that popped up on Nico Douga and it was creepy and they liked it for that reason, so they mirrored the cover version not realizing it wasn't the original.

Edit: Just checked youtube and most of the old uploads are still there erroneously crediting the cover singers as "Vocaloid" as if they were a band or something.
 

Blue Of Mind

The world that I do not know...
Apr 8, 2018
699
I wasn't that deep into the creepy side of Vocaloid, but I did notice that the songs had this habit of trying to top whatever was considered "shocking" for the time. (Compare Alice Human Sacrifice to I'm Sorry, I'm Sorry to the entire Onibi series). I dunno if people getting fed up of the increasingly extreme content was one reason why the creepy side slowly petered out. (I know creepy songs are still posted regularly, I'm talking more about the creepy song side of the fandom).

I think the other reason why the creepy songs winded down eventually was because some big horror producers like Machigerita either left the Vocaloid scene or stopped posting as regularly as they used to.
 
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nalondollie

the-ghost-of-a-cyber-princess
One of the first Vocaloid songs I ever listened to was Dream Meltic Halloween by Machigerita which, of course, led me to find other such songs of which are already mentioned (although this song is softcore compared to the others haha). If there is one thing I can remember from that period of time though, given the overall mystery of Vocaloid and what it was (even today, there are people that are unaware of what Vocaloid is although, If I recall correctly, it was worse back then), it's creepy factor with anime aesthetics really allowed it to spread into the Creepypasta/internet horror community quite easily. There was a point in time at which the two were really entwined in my opinion. If you were a fan of one, you were at least familiar with the works of the other.

It might have been due to the "shocking" and "new" aspect of the horror content in these songs that appealed to the horror community I feel. Given the endless desire for a good thrill in a new way, this genre of Vocaloid music would probably have been quite helpful given its strangeness and (usually) bright and colorful packaging. The storylines were easy to follow but satisfactorily creepy and the stimulating visuals found in these songs made them very interesting to members of the Creepypasta community. I can remember seeing so many MMD videos with Creepypasta characters as well as Vocaloid horror stories born out of these songs.

I'm sorry if this didn't make much sense but I hoped it helped a little bit!
 

Katastrophe

Not An Actual Phoenix
Apr 8, 2018
78
Idk if you still need help with this list but...

Kira's and Dobuno Awa's latest songs have reminded me recently that, back in the early days, there used to be a subsubgenre of Vocaloid "meta" horror songs. Prime examples are these:


Niconico Link


(The original Nico upload no longer exists for this one unfortunately :c )

There could be more, but these are the two examples I remember the most. It was notable to me at the time because this was a vastly different interpretation of Kaito (a Kaito who loves his Master so much he'd kill for them) compared to the more prevalent "idiot pervert" one that was going around in the English-speaking fandom. But yeah, this was basically where the two Vocaloid subgenres of "Songs about being the Software" and "Songs played for Horror" intersected.

This page might also help you. There are plenty of links there, most of which are within the time period you're interested in.
 

zeldawave

they/them
Jun 10, 2020
9
zeldawave.carrd.co
Idk if you still need help with this list but...

Kira's and Dobuno Awa's latest songs have reminded me recently that, back in the early days, there used to be a subsubgenre of Vocaloid "meta" horror songs. Prime examples are these:


Niconico Link


(The original Nico upload no longer exists for this one unfortunately :c )

There could be more, but these are the two examples I remember the most. It was notable to me at the time because this was a vastly different interpretation of Kaito (a Kaito who loves his Master so much he'd kill for them) compared to the more prevalent "idiot pervert" one that was going around in the English-speaking fandom. But yeah, this was basically where the two Vocaloid subgenres of "Songs about being the Software" and "Songs played for Horror" intersected.

This page might also help you. There are plenty of links there, most of which are within the time period you're interested in.
cant believe i forgot uninstall! i guess i never realized it might be a creepy song -- i just listened to a kinda crappy mp3 rip my friend gave me, haha. (edit: i might be thinking of some other song related to uninstalling actually, theres a bunch) but yeah this is also definitely interesting because its so different from interpretations of kaito at that time. ill have to check out that page! thanks so much!!

The list is looking great! Good job! Also, if you're looking for more song suggestions, after scrolling through and reading some of the songs on the list I remembered the song Fear Garden by Chaa! I think it might be relevant to what you're seeking to document.
thank you so much!!! <33 and im really glad you like it so far hehe
 

frankensalad

Passionate Fan
Feb 27, 2019
103
Fear Garden is especially great if you check out the fan PV that made it popular in the west. it's got major "early Vocaloid fandom" vibes, what with the inclusion of Gakupo, Teto, Neru and Haku and not a Luka to be seen.


I especially love the shot with the two Rins clasping each others hands and taking turns singing the super robotic "aaahhhh" with a discordantly cute anime smile.

EDIT: In regards to Kaito's UNINSTALL, I think it's worth noting that it's not an original song, but a cover of an anime song with altered lyrics that completely change the meaning and tone of the song. That was never a particularly common thing in the fandom but it used to be "slightly" more common back in the early days.
 
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zeldawave

they/them
Jun 10, 2020
9
zeldawave.carrd.co
In regards to Kaito's UNINSTALL, I think it's worth noting that it's not an original song, but a cover of an anime song with altered lyrics that completely change the meaning and tone of the song. That was never a particularly common thing in the fandom but it used to be "slightly" more common back in the early days.
i noticed that when checking the songs vocadb! weird. i wonder how many people that listened to it never knew!
 

Katastrophe

Not An Actual Phoenix
Apr 8, 2018
78
cant believe i forgot uninstall! i guess i never realized it might be a creepy song -- i just listened to a kinda crappy mp3 rip my friend gave me, haha. (edit: i might be thinking of some other song related to uninstalling actually, theres a bunch)
EDIT: In regards to Kaito's UNINSTALL, I think it's worth noting that it's not an original song, but a cover of an anime song with altered lyrics that completely change the meaning and tone of the song. That was never a particularly common thing in the fandom but it used to be "slightly" more common back in the early days.
Seconding frankensalad, it's actually a "parody" of the Bokurano OP. I've seen a lot of plain Vocaloid covers of the OP itself, but KAITO Ga Uninstall is unique due to it being a "parody" with altered lyrics and its own PV, haha.

Everything I'm about to talk about next is in the TV Tropes page but I couldn't go without infodumping about these because they're just so cool.

ChikuwaP's PVs

So there's this Vocaloid horror producer called ChikuwaP who has a really INTERESTING habit with their PVs. Okay, so you know how NicoNico used to be a Flash website, right? This means it could also host Flash (.swf) files. And the interesting about .swfs is that you can insert objects within the file that continue to move (or start moving) when the user pauses the file.

(Side note: This has actually been used in a popular PV, actually! Look up the original PV for Double Lariat on NicoNico and try to use the Flash version of the website if you still can. Then pause at any point.)

But yeah, this means that ChikuwaP could (and did!) insert Easter Eggs into most of their PVs for even more terrifying effect. This is their biggest hit, Itai Atashi Ashita Aitai, (I linked a translation by vgperson) whose entire gimmick seems to be centered around palindromes. Try pausing at 0:23 and 2:52.


(Again, try to watch on the Flash version of the site since it doesn't work on the current HTML5 version. :cry:)

If you can't access the Flash version, here's a recording of the song including all the Easter Eggs on Youtube.


I'm not sure if this song was very popular in the overseas fandom (then again, it was popular enough to get a mention on TvTropes, which was how I found it myself), but goddammit, it deserved to be.

Dark Woods Circus "Series"

I noticed that you didn't go into this in your current list (EDIT: I just realized that you linked the Vocaloid wiki page, but I checked the page and it backs up what I'm gonna say next), but at the time when I was getting into Vocaloid (around 2011-2012), there was a consensus/theory in the English-speaking Youtube fandom that Dark Woods Circus was part of a series. This was the general order of songs I've seen floating around the Youtube comments at the time.

1. Test Tube Princess
2. Wide Knowledge of the Late, Madness
3. Dark Woods Circus
4. Blue Ice Castle
5. Red Swamp Bottom
6. Guard and Scythe

Of course... this probably wasn't accurate. Wide Knowledge wasn't actually connected to DWC and was only a misconception enforced by a reprinted fan PV. I don't think that's even an accurate translation of the title.

(Side note: A LOT of misconceptions about Vocaloid songs were reinforced by reprinted fan PVs. I'm an Evillious Chronicles fan so I know this personally. This is why you always check the primary source, kids.)

I'm not even sure if Test Tube Princess, Blue Ice Castle, and Guard and Scythe were "canonically" connected either, or if it was just us English-speaking fans looking for connections when there were none. In my opinion, only Red Swamp Bottom could be possibly connected, as it's the only one that shares a motif with DWC. You'll hear it when you hear it. I personally love Red Swamp Bottom, its premise alone makes it the most horrifying Vocaloid song to me, even nearly ten years after I've listened to it.

And of course, the novel for DWC came out some time in the mid-2010s. I don't even know what's in the novel, it hasn't been translated anywhere, but our theories are probably all wrong.

But it was fun while it lasted. That's the thing I like the most about early English-speaking Vocaloid fandom, especially with the more story-oriented songs and not just the horror ones: with no awareness of producers and barely any "canonical" information due to sketchy/non-existent translations, we basically all went ham. I was never deeply into the internet horror/creepypasta scene myself, but I think the culture there was similar to (and as someone said, overlapped with) the culture we, the English-speaking Vocaloid fandom, had back in those days. Just kids being edgy and having fun and trying to analyze texts outside of school for the first time, looking for connections and making theories and writing fanfic in Youtube comments for every passerby to read.

I hope that some of that culture still persists, even today. I'm definitely glad that we at least credit producers more now though.
 
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zeldawave

they/them
Jun 10, 2020
9
zeldawave.carrd.co
ChikuwaP's PVs

So there's this Vocaloid horror producer called ChikuwaP who has a really INTERESTING habit with their PVs. Okay, so you know how NicoNico used to be a Flash website, right? This means it could also host Flash (.swf) files. And the interesting about .swfs is that you can insert objects within the file that continue to move (or start moving) when the user pauses the file.

(Side note: This has actually been used in a popular PV, actually! Look up the original PV for Double Lariat on NicoNico and try to use the Flash version of the website if you still can. Then pause at any point.)

But yeah, this means that ChikuwaP could (and did!) insert Easter Eggs into most of their PVs for even more terrifying effect. This is their biggest hit, Itai Atashi Ashita Aitai, (I linked a translation by vgperson) whose entire gimmick seems to be centered around palindromes. Try pausing at 0:23 and 2:52.


(Again, try to watch on the Flash version of the site since it doesn't work on the current HTML5 version. :cry:)

If you can't access the Flash version, here's a recording of the song including all the Easter Eggs on Youtube.


I'm not sure if this song was very popular in the overseas fandom (then again, it was popular enough to get a mention on TvTropes, which was how I found it myself), but goddammit, it deserved to be.

Dark Woods Circus "Series"

I noticed that you didn't go into this in your current list (EDIT: I just realized that you linked the Vocaloid wiki page, but I checked the page and it backs up what I'm gonna say next), but at the time when I was getting into Vocaloid (around 2011-2012), there was a consensus/theory in the English-speaking Youtube fandom that Dark Woods Circus was part of a series. This was the general order of songs I've seen floating around the Youtube comments at the time.

1. Test Tube Princess
2. Wide Knowledge of the Late, Madness
3. Dark Woods Circus
4. Red Swamp Bottom
5. Guard and Scythe

Of course... this probably wasn't accurate. Wide Knowledge wasn't actually connected to DWC and was only a misconception enforced by a reprinted fan PV. I don't think if that's even an accurate translation of the title

(Side note: A LOT of misconceptions about Vocaloid songs were reinforced by reprinted fan PVs. I'm an Evillious Chronicles fan so I know this personally. This is why you always check the primary source, kids.)

I'm not even sure if Test Tube Princess and Guard and Scythe were "canonically" connected either, or if it was just us English-speaking fans looking for connections when there were none. In my opinion, only Red Swamp Bottom could be possibly connected, as it's the only one that shares a motif with DWC. You'll hear it when you hear it. I personally love Red Swamp Bottom, its premise alone makes it the most horrifying Vocaloid song to me, even nearly ten years after I've listened to it.

And of course, the novel for DWC came out some time in the mid-2010s. I don't even know what's in the novel, it hasn't been translated anywhere, but our theories are probably all wrong.

But it was fun while it lasted. That's the thing I like the most about early English-speaking Vocaloid fandom, especially with the more story-oriented songs and not just the horror ones: with no awareness of producers and barely any "canonical" information due to sketchy/non-existent translations, we basically all went ham. I was never deeply into the internet horror/creepypasta scene myself, but I think the culture there was similar to (and as someone said, overlapped with) the culture we, the English-speaking Vocaloid fandom, had back in those days. Just kids being edgy and having fun and trying to analyze texts outside of school for the first time, looking for connections and making theories and writing fanfic in Youtube comments for every passerby to read.

I hope that some of that culture still persists, even today. I'm definitely glad that we at least credit producers more now though.
THIS IS ALL SO COOL AND HELPFUL thank you so so much!! (and god, yeah, at least producers get credit now - for years i had no idea about like.. any of the producers behind the songs i loved. it was such a different time, huh?)
 
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Katastrophe

Not An Actual Phoenix
Apr 8, 2018
78
THIS IS ALL SO COOL AND HELPFUL thank you so so much!! (and god, yeah, at least producers get credit now - for years i had no idea about like.. any of the producers behind the songs i loved. it was such a different time, huh?)
WHOOPS, I JUST REALIZED THAT I FORGOT A SONG IN THE DWC "SERIES". I forgot Blue Ice Castle. I edited my post to include it now, haha.

Yeah, I'm glad that we as a community have become more aware and finally give proper credit to the people actually making the songs, though I miss the rampant creativity that flourished when we didn't know that so-and-so song was made by so-and-so producer. Like c'mon guys, cringe culture is dead! Let me connect Yugami-P's Alice Human Sacrifice to mothy's Evillious Chronicles even if I fully know they're made by two different people! Transformative independent media is the heart and soul of Vocaloid!

But yeah, good luck with your work. 8D
 

zeldawave

they/them
Jun 10, 2020
9
zeldawave.carrd.co
I'm not even sure if Test Tube Princess, Blue Ice Castle, and Guard and Scythe were "canonically" connected either, or if it was just us English-speaking fans looking for connections when there were none. In my opinion, only Red Swamp Bottom could be possibly connected, as it's the only one that shares a motif with DWC. You'll hear it when you hear it. I personally love Red Swamp Bottom, its premise alone makes it the most horrifying Vocaloid song to me, even nearly ten years after I've listened to it.

And of course, the novel for DWC came out some time in the mid-2010s. I don't even know what's in the novel, it hasn't been translated anywhere, but our theories are probably all wrong.
Wide Knowledge wasn't actually connected to DWC and was only a misconception enforced by a reprinted fan PV. I don't think that's even an accurate translation of the title.
i was following up on some of these songs pages and it really is kind of confusing for some of them. test tube princess seems like it was definitely not connected officially, while others were officially connected, but scrapped from canon in the new novel continuity (guard and scythe, blue ice castle) so... semi-canon?

meanwhile wide knowledge (theres like 5 different translations and i dont know which one is most correct/official lol) seems.. extra vague. the vocaloid fandom wiki just says "This was originally related to the Dark Woods Circus Series, but since most of the original story was pressumably proclaimed non-canon with he release of the novel, it's uncertain to say how much of it is still related to it," while the vocaloid lyrics wiki says "The song isn't related to the Dark Woods Circus series, while the PV is." of course, these are wikis, so who knows how much is fan speculation, language barriers, and fan PVs that got confusing. ill have to look into this one a bit more!
 
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zeldawave

they/them
Jun 10, 2020
9
zeldawave.carrd.co
Yeah, I'm glad that we as a community have become more aware and finally give proper credit to the people actually making the songs, though I miss the rampant creativity that flourished when we didn't know that so-and-so song was made by so-and-so producer. Like c'mon guys, cringe culture is dead! Let me connect Yugami-P's Alice Human Sacrifice to mothy's Evillious Chronicles even if I fully know they're made by two different people! Transformative independent media is the heart and soul of Vocaloid!
PLEASE I MISS THAT SO MUCH .. we should have both recognition AND funny transformative media interpretations. i think its fun!! (and tysm again<33)
 
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