Hatsune Mix: The Ultimate Hatsune Miku Mixtape
A dash of metal, a pinch of rock, a spoonful of pop, a cup of jazz and a hint of samba
Hatsune Miku, the VOCALOID has a huge discography. She has sung over 100,000 songs and counting. The list is exhaustive and even the most diehard of Miku fans would not be able to list out each and every song. Music is also incredibly subjective, so it’s definitely hard to say ‘Yes, this is the best song featuring Hatsune Miku,’ especially with the sheer number of songs she’s got to her name. So here are some of her most iconic songs from all kinds of genres, across rock, pop, jazz or heavy metal.
Classic Miku Songs: Cheesy, bizarre, funny, otherworldly, heartbreaking Miku has done them all. Here are her songs that fall under the category of Simply Miku, in no particular order
Undoubtedly one of the best producers who made Miku mainstream and the pioneer of VOCALOID music is wowaka. Unfortunately, we will no longer get to hear new music from wowaka as he passed away in April 2019, but his music will live on. The phrase ‘Escaping from reality, how nice!’ was a refrain in his video description, earning him his second moniker Genjitsutouhi-P. That phrase sums up most of wowaka’s song themes – ambiguous, dark with a fast beat as though the song is running on adrenaline.
“Rolling Girl”
“World’s End Dancehall”
And we have wowaka’s swan song aptly titled:
“Unknown Mother Goose”
Kenshi Yonezu is better known in the VOCALOID circles as Hachi. Initially, he used to create music with Miku’s vocals exclusively using VOCALOID2. After the release of later VOCALOIDS, he’s also used Gumi and Megurine Luka. His music along with his accompanying illustrations are surreal and abstract. “Dune” is his only song on this list that hasn’t been illustrated by him
HACHI – “DUNE” ft.Miku Hatsune/ハチ – 砂の惑星 feat.初音ミク
HACHI – “MATORYOSHKA”
HACHI – “Hold, Release; Rakshasa and Carcasses”/ハチ MV「結ンデ開イテ羅刹ト骸
“Senbonzakura” (a thousand cherry blossom trees) is a classic VOCALOID song by Kurousa-P. The lyrics talk about the westernization of Japan during the Meiji Restoration, it’s music similarly manages to sound traditional yet upbeat and rock-like.
40meterP whose name was earned due to Miku appearing gigantic in his music videos (as tall as skyscrapers) has the record of the greatest number of songs (76) to enter to Vocaloid Hall of Fame.
“Karakuri Pierrot” /【初音ミク(40㍍)】 からくりピエロ Karakuri Pierrot【オリジナル】
“Love Trial”/【初音ミク】 恋愛裁判 Love Trial 【オリジナル】
VOCAJazz: There have been jazz covers of VOCALOID songs, but there are also standalone VOCALOID Jazz songs.
The VOCAJAZZ volumes 1, 2 and 3 are a good compilation of VOCALOID Jazz. It features a number of VOCALOIDS like Megurine Luka, Kagamine Rin etc. not just Miku. Here’s the entirety of volume 1.
VOCAJAZZ Volume 1
OSTER project has done a lot of VOCALOID songs, primarily featuring Miku. There’s a quite a few that have a jazz or swing feel to it.
“Miracle Paint”
“Gossip”
“One-sided Love Samba”/片想いサンバ (Kataomoi Samba) by Owata-P
“Uninstall” by Imesora-P /初音ミク uninstall【ジャズ/フュージョン】イメソラPさん)
Heavy Metal Miku/ Rock: If Hatsune Miku is the sound of the future, Hagane Miku is the sound of steel.
“Love is War” (Koi wa Sensou) 恋は戦争
“Love is War” technically needs to be in the list of iconic Miku songs, however it is also one of the earliest iterations of VOCALOID rock back in 2008. Produced by ryo, one of the first highly successful VOCALOID producers, “Love is War” is one of Miku’s major hits that have been covered by a number of other VOCALOIDs. Despite the fact that her tuning here isn’t as clean as her newer, more technologically advanced songs, there’s something about “Love is War” that takes you to a very 2000s rock scene.
Utsu-P is one of the most well-known VOCALOID producers that came to metal. Here’s two of his Hagane Miku songs.
Utsu-P – 天使だと思っていたのに / “I thought I was an angel” feat. 初音ミク
Utsu-P – “OGRE” feat. 初音ミク
MARETU is synonymous with rock in the VOCALOID scene. Known for the simplistic black and white illustrations with English and kanji, there’s something about Miku’s tuning in his songs that is so human. Fair warning: while most of his songs feature vague lyrics, there are slightly triggering of disturbing themes, so exercise discretion if that might bother you.
