Hatsune Miku Banned From Schools: “It’s Just a Machine”
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Jul 12, 2011 23:16 JST
- Tags: 2ch, Hatsune Miku, Music, Otaku, Schoolboys, Schoolgirls, Teachers, Vocaloid
Reports that some Japanese schools have banned Vocaloid music from their campuses are causing a stir amongst Vocaloid fans.
From a widely circulated Twitter-based exchange on the subject:
“At my little sister’s school, they’ve been forbidden from broadcasting Vocaloid music during recesses. They gave reasons like “because it’s a machine” and “because we don’t know the lyrics.”
I don’t like to see them banned for reasons like that. They may be machines, but they still sing songs capable of moving the human heart. These prejudices are grossly disrespectful to Vocaloid producers and programmers.
I wish they’d stop promulgating such misunderstandings.”
“Vocaloid tunes are banned at my school too!”
“If they banned Vocaloids at my school, there’d be a riot…”
“Banning Vocaloid music broadcasts during lunch break… so they’re trying to stop young people developing a taste for Vocaloid music, are they?”
“Saying they’re no good just because they are machines is like banning Johnny’s groups because they are idols. It’s not a sound reason at all. They should at least understand something about Vocaloids beforehand.”
“Hearing this reminded me of something similar at my little sister’s middle school. They banned them at lunch too. Something to do with the lyrics being no good, apparently.”
2ch’s response:
“Doubtless because they are associated with otaku.”
“Seems some places even broadcast anime songs during lunch.”
“This atmosphere really is unpleasant.”
“Well, that’s what school and society are like. Once the prejudice is ingrained we might be seeing some laws banning us from listening to Vocaloid music everywhere. If you don’t like it, become a politician or something. People who just sit and spout complaints whilst doing nothing have no right to complain in the first place.”
“Imagine having to listen to a bunch of anime music which reeks of otaku all lunch, it’d ruin the atmosphere.”
“Who cares what music they broadcast at schools. It’s just for the self-satisfaction of one lot of them over another.”
“Imagine playing one of those Miku songs with lyrics about meltdowns in one of the contaminated zones, it’s no wonder they are banned!”
“This is pure creepy otaku doing. The ones who want to play that stuff are just creepy otaku who’ve become too big for their boots.”
“I wonder what those old guys would have had to say about the Beatles being banned in their own day?”
“This is because the broadcast clubs naturally end up packed with otaku. I was like that, but I still made sure to play tunes everyone knew.”
“When I was at high school the slightest suggestion of otaku type stuff would see everyone turn on you. It’s amazing to see they’ve seized the initiative like this.”
“The reasons are pretty weird. Does that mean they shouldn’t broadcast any music with no lyrics?”
“Who cares if they air this stuff. When I was airing the music I liked I thought of it as brainwashing them, sort of thing.”
“Miku’s religious following is become ever more devout. As expected of our angel Miku!”
Such schools now join the illustrious company of visual-kei bands in their unfriendly attitude to the music of virtual idols.
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Yeah, be more like China..censor something because someone biased at top doesn't like it.
Just what Miku did to them? I share the sentiment of 2ch's here "because it got something to do with otaku"
It always some old stick in the mud who can't stand anything new.
Vocaloid is probably just the latest in a long list of things that have been banned at the schools.
Chinese official censor things they perceive as threatening to their power. They are too busy being full of themselves to be as petty as the school administrations who ban music based not on it's artistic qualities, but completely irrelevant factors such as production methods.
Your pointless attempt to bash China by an inconsistent analogy has been noted.
Problem? Anonymous?
where does miku's popularity come from?
The heart!
I agree, I've heard the vocaloid music and frankly its crap. Yeah, the "singer" sounds decent, but considering it isn't a real artist singing, whats the point.
Miku didn't write the lyrics, Miku didn't compose the music, and Miku didn't even have to "practice" the song to get "Good" at it.
I fully expect the Miku fad to dissappear in a few years, kinda like ALF.
sure, Miku doesn't have anything to do with the song. . . but what about the composer? The person who wrote the lyrics and such? Don't THEY mean anything?
Exactly. The composer and such. They're humans. And they're only making Miku sing their songs for them since they probably can't sing but want their "voice" to be heard. What's wrong with that?
so she will come back years later in pog form?
Yes Miku didn't do anything beyond providing a face for the song, but someone DID write the lyrics, and the composers made many revisions to the songs. It's the same process, just done digitally...It's not like Vocaloid music runs off of an algorithm designed to generate some coherent lyrics and a rhythm to go with it (even then that'd be pretty impressive).
I remember back in the day people liked songs for the message conveyed, then it became who has the most money and jewelry, now there's a fixation on if the singer is real or not, regardless of the effort put into it? That's messed up beyond my comprehension.
By your logic then, Supercell doesn't deserve to make music because Miku isn't real? Then by extension, the work of anyone that uses a digital medium to make a living or express themselves shouldn't be heard or seen? You sir sadden me greatly, because you live in a world where if people don't agree with your tastes, there's no point to their preferences.
Word, if an artist uses ANY studio effects they've no right to criticize music produced via Vocaloid, at least so long as we're going to keep things consistent.
So like, you're saying Justin Bieber writes lyrics and composes music for his songs? Because I'm not gonna believe that.
A marketing team's wet-dream on how to further pick your pockets with a minimum amount of effort.
OOOOOOOOOOhhhhhhh Miku, Miku..
Our plans are beginning to work..
Soon my pretty... soon... triti
Facepalm desu
Only idiots like this so called music, you're just a fat weeaboo virgin faggot.
Wut? they broadcast music during lunch? god damnit, all we had is a god damn annoying fire alarm-like bell :/
I'm so jealous I wish my school could replace it too
Awwwwww ~ poor Miku Chan is left out in the cold!!
o.0**?
I'd rather have that than be forced to like and listen to the same music as everybody else. I'm glad none of my schools ever played music during lunches.
Back in the day, we had these things called headphones.
Why are they broadcasting music at lunch in the first place?
if you had an alarm-like bell for music, then you weren't going to school. you were going to a juvenile detention hall.
I bet, fire alarm is far better than, say, Lady Gaga tunes everyone knows... though I know none of them.
What a sad picture of Miku. She's not just a machine, okay!
As a vocaloid fan myself, truthfully, I'd say the music can make meals unappetizing, I've worked in a restaurant b4 and ever played vocaloid music, ending up with customers complaining that they cant concentrate on their meals. I know that not everyone is a fan of vocaloid as some might not like high pitch and robotic sounds, so it's up to the school whether they want to play it or not. I think vocaloid music are more suitable for places like clubs and concerts as they liven up the spirits of the patrons due to their catchy pop tunes and electronic sounds.
Playing vocaloid music in a restaurant? Yes, you deserve to be complained against. Clealy, you have no idea what kind of music is appropriate in such a setting and only care about broadcasting your music preference.
there are many songs with vocaloids in them, like the operatic one... a vocaloid specifically designed for opera.
Heretics I say! If they ban Miku might as well ban school!!
THIS IS TOYOTAS FAULT! '-,,,,-'
Dun anyhow push the blame, Toyota got nothing to do with vocaloid music being banned in schools.
Nah, you can start putting blames on them when people in Japan become obese after devouring bacon wrapped hotdogs.
The educational system is a dictatorship. If the faculty doesn't like it, it gets banned. Welcome to school politics.
The reasons they gave are kind of forced, but I would be more than happy if they ban that music during recesses, simply because I can't stand Vocaloid at all, nor their die-hard fans whose heart is crying eveytime they hear a Vocaloid song. Somehow I can't call that high-pithed gibberish "singing", nor would I want to listen to it during lunch.
You just don't understand Japanese that's why you don't like it. Go fuck your self fucking faggot.
Thanks for stating the obvious good sir. It's obvious I can't tolerate it because I'm not Japanese, and not because I have a different taste. Now I know why I haven't liked that Daddy Mulk "remix" for instance.
In my past schools we couldn't listen to any music...
Sorry I was distracted by the post picture.
I don't like Miku as much as most people in here, but to use such reason as 'it's just a machine' makes me laugh. Sounds like something a poser who pretends to know about music would say.
If we are to use the 'machine' analogy, then those fuckers oughtta ban all the poppy shit sung by talentless karaoke singers who do nothing but sing with other people's creations. And yes, those glass-quality 'idols' and pretty boy groups should go too, by that reasoning.
Yet it's AOK for Morning Musume or AKB48 bitches. "They're still human beings" you say? They sing just as badly, and they probably have to be aided with Autotune in their songs. Doesn't sound any less 'machine' to me.
Poor japs... they have serious unresolved issues inside their society
"because it's a machine"?
what kind of argument is that?
by that logic you could ban any kind of musicc that uses instruments
only ominous latin chanting allowed
Let's not forget classical music should be banned. Italian? Latin? Esperanto? Who the hell knows the lyrics at that point?
I know about them because i'm italian O_O
Fair enough. XD Just speaking for the Japanese in this situation.
Soon enough we will have true AI. It will be interesting to see robotic activists protesting discrimination against the Artificial minority.
the machine spirit is not pleased.
The machine spirit is with us!
I can feel the warp overtaking the schools!
That line about "ominous latin chanting" in made of win ;)
ISHItHARA was there! He's behind all of this !
It's part of the plan. I hope a heart attack punch his heart once and for all.
I hope I can punch his heart once and for all.
*Sigh* Old Haters Hating
LOL so technically autotune should be forbidden in schools too.. NOOOOOOO AAUUUTTOOTTUUNNEE
I say they bring in vuvuzelas and start blaring that shit until the teachers commit suicide.
or stuff those vuvuzelas up some teachers' asses, that can work too!
Lets be honest, they are jelous, cause they suck!
Being less than a machine make them proud :))
One must embrace the Leek in the Shell, for she only brings us all eargasms...
First off, our cybernetic songstress is a program and not a machine...
(LEEKNET will exist nearing Judgment Day)
Secondly if they can ban her 'because she's a machine', then I smell full-blown hypocrisy id they won't ban other machines in school...
(If it's made of metal/has metal parts/circuitry running on electricity or battery, it's a f*cking machine, so up your bigot-hypocrite ass PTA!!!)
Otaku hysteria, ignorant loathing, or just downright idiocy, I do not know...
Also, the below statement summarized it for me:
“I wonder what those old guys would have had to say about the Beatles being banned in their own day?”
"because it's a machine"? .. that's an argument of an typical high society western..
This is yet another sign of the aging, and increasingly out of touch people that currently head japan. Their young need to find ways to nip this shit in the bud, and get some politicians in play that have their interests in mind (this goes especially for the school boards).
it's like you wanna punch the moon from earth by saying that. people are docile and are like pack mules these days. japan has the biggest pack mules thus far
A machine...a machine that makes more money than those lousy teachers. They jealous.
Hearing this reminded me of something similar at my little sister’s middle school. They banned them at lunch too. Something to do with the lyrics being no good, apparently.”
I don't see any problem with this if the lyrics were rude or disturbing there. Middle schoolers can get carried away by desirable voice and the lyrics can lead them to anywhere.
Its not similar to this scenario. Vocaloid songs are good. Theres fanmade songs where people can express themselves through Vocaloid and if teachers say its not good and ban it, then they should ban every individuals' creativity skills that are related to composing songs and writing lyrics.
Just realised this comment has nothing to do with the title, but saying "its just a machine" is a drivel to start off with.
people (and I'm talking fans and non fans alike) seem to forget that vocaloid songs are written and produced by real musicians and lyricists.