Editor’s note: This is part of a series of articles from the show Vibe Check about microgenres.
From a young age I have always been obsessed with animated bands. There is something that is so liberating about combining animation and music together. From that union you are able to free music from its confines of the sheet and give it a form in which the laws of physics don’t apply. In animation, you are able to exaggerate the stylization of music and go all-in on some of the most outlandish concepts.
Although I primarily cover microgenres on my radio show Vibe Check, I am also incredibly drawn to the virtual artist phenomenon and how animated performers came to be, so if you wouldn’t mind humoring for a bit, let’s take a journey down music and animation history and look into the history of the virtual artist.
The Archies
For readers who are into vintage music or my Gen Xers, you probably are already familiar with the fictional band The Archies. Before Riverdale, there was the original Archie comics and the Hanna-Barbera TV show. The Archie TV show had an original run from 1968 to 1970 and within the show was the fictional band The Archies, featuring Veronica, Reggie, Jughead, Betty and of course Archie himself. In 1969 The Archies transcended the silver screen with their song; “Sugar, Sugar” which remained at No. 1 on UK singles chart for eight consecutive weeks. It was quite the achievement for a cartoon band and legitimized the concept of what soon became recognized as the virtual band/artist.
Josie and the Pussycats
With the success of The Archies, production company Hannah-Barbera was quick to create a new TV show from the Archie book series, Josie and the Pussycats which followed a group of teenage girls who dressed in leopard leotards with ears and tails but also solved mysteries for some reason. Josie and the Pussycats was cancelled after one season and then a spin-off show featuring the girls in outer space (yes outer space). The show’s influence in animation and music is still strong as Josie and the Pussycats was named the 100th best animated series on IGN. Josie took the music elements of The Archie TV Show with the mystery-of-the-week formula from Scooby Doo, catching the imagination and ears of many kids eating cereal on Saturday mornings.
Jem and the Holograms
In the mid to late 80s, there was this huge movement by toy companies to essentially create cartoon shows around a toy brand, this included He-Man, G-I Joe, Thundercats, She-ra and of course Jem and the Holograms. Interesting factoid, the animation was primarily done by Japanese studio Toei Animation which you might know as the studio behind Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, One Piece and Digimon. Jem originally aired between 1987 and 1988 with three seasons and a full album of tracks from the TV shows.
The Gorillaz
Arguably the most influential and well-known virtual artist is the band The Gorillaz. The band was created in 1998 and features animated bandmates Murdoc, 2-D, Russel and my favorite Noodles. The Gorillaz has made classic alternative hits such as “On Melancholy Hill,” “Feel Good Inc.,” “DARE” and “Clint Eastwood”. The Gorillaz often collaborated with many different artists on their various tracks, and even had their own MTV crib episode. Although The Archies put the concept of a viable fictional band on the field, The Gorillaz took that concept and ran with it, showing the industry that fictional artists weren’t restricted to only selling Hasbro toy lines.
Vocaloid: Hatsune Miku
Although not particularly a singular virtual artist, the vocaloid program is an important chapter of this storyline. Vocaloid is a singing vocal synthesizer that was developed by the Yamaha corporation in 2004. The software provides vocals from a singer library, so that musicians and amateurs alike can create music without requiring a singer. Yamaha marketed the different vocal libraries as characters in order to humanize the software. It wasn’t until the release of Vocaloid 2 that the software truly took off, which was in part thanks to the voice bank, Hatsune Miku. Depicted as a 16 year-old girl with teal twin-pigtails, Miku quickly rose to stardom, spawning hundreds of thousands of songs that were getting millions of hits which led to her holding “concerts” in which thousands would attend just to see a hologram sing their favorite songs. Hatsune Miku was even slated to perform at Coachella in 2020 before the event was unfortunately cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to Hatsune Miku, there are a plethora of other vocaloids including fan-creations such as Teto and Kake.
Studio Killers
The Studio Killers are an indie band that pretty much kickstarted their way into existence. I remember when they first came out and being obsessed with the makeup lead singer Cherry who had this rainbow tear look that I couldn’t help but repost on Tumblr. The Studio Killers have an interesting sound which I would describe as poppy sassy electronica. One of my favorite songs by them is “All Men Are Pigs” which cites Simone De Beauvoir by name multiple times in the lyrics.
Pentakill
Riot Games — developer of League of Legends — has had its hand in the virtual band for six-ish years now. With entries such as Pentakill, True Damage and of course K/DA, League has actually put their virtual bands on the billboard charts which is quite the impressive feat considering not only are these virtual bands, but they are bands from a video game. This has led to many people sharing the sentiment that Riot Games is a music company that just so happens to make video games on the side. The first virtual band that Riot ever created was Pentakill in 2014 which was a heavy metal band that featured the champions, Yorick, Olaf, Karthus, Sona, Mordekaiser and Kayle. Pentakill released two full albums and has amassed a loyal fanbase amongst summoners who are constantly demanding on every single thing Riot releases for a Pentakill comeback.
K/DA
Premiering at the League of Legends 2018 Worlds Championship, K/DA is a virtual K-pop group that features the champions, Kai-sa, Ahri, Evelynn and Akali and featured G-Idle members Soyeon and Miyeon and American artists Madison Beer and Jaira Burns. The reception of K/DA was insane. The original youtube video for the group’s debut single, Pop/stars reached 100 million hits in less than one month and cosplays, fan-art and a whole new wave of fans quickly followed. In 2020, K/DA made a comeback and released a full album this time around which gave each original member their own song. The group was interviewed by Genius, Elle, had content releases across not just League but Legends of Runeterra and Team Fight Tactics and had their own secret lab chair created. Also, they had their new song “Drum goes Dum” released for 2020’s Just Dance video game and had their own music pack on Beat Saber.
True Damage
After K/DA Riot realized, they had lightning in a bottle and so began the trend of releasing a music group with each world’s ceremony. Since Riot had done K-pop, they decided to pivot their next group to being a hip-hop group. True Damage features champions Akali, Ekko, Qiyana, Senna and Yasuo. Like in-game, Yasuo literally does nothing except t-pose. True Damage also features musicians like Becky G, Keke Palmer, Soyeon, Duckwrth and Thutmose. True Damage wasn’t as successful as K/DA but spawned their own collaboration with Louis Vuitton for some reason, which I mean for the average gamer like myself was like okay… I can’t afford it but I guess that is cool.
The virtual artist is a trend that I am hoping will only grow in popularity as the years go on. There is something so imaginative about combining animation with music and I truly can’t wait to see what new virtual bands and artists are going to pop up in the next couple years.