magnet

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About

magnet (No capitalized M)^[1] is a Vocaloid song that was originally sung by the Vocaloids Hatsune Miku and Megurine Luka. The song is often accompanied by a picture of the singers wearing butterfly headphones while nearly kissing or embracing. The song itself is about a couple who feels that their love is a sin and are worried about their future. Since the original pairing, Miku/Luka, is a same-sex pairing, one can interpret the song as being about prejudices against homosexuality.

Origin

The original video with singers Miku and Luka was uploaded onto Nico Nico Douga (NND) on May 1st, 2009^[2] by user Ryūsei-P (流星P), with an illustration by Yunomi-P (ゆのみP). The video reached great popularity, and was uploaded onto YouTube on the same day. As of this writing the YouTube broadcast has over 2 million views.

In May of 2009, this song was also included in Ryūsei-P's second indie album with the same title released in Doujin market.

Spread

"magnet" became a very popular song very quickly, partially due to its usefulness in shipping, with many pieces of fanart on deviantART^[3] and pixiv^[4] being produced, as well as covers with other Vocaloids and pairings of both human and digital singers in English, Spanish and French as well as medleys of multiple languages being produced. Cosplays of Miku and Luka in the original illustration are popular. Instructions on how to make the iconic butterfly headphones are available online.^[5]

On the other hand, this song beccame to one of the most popular subjects in "I Tried Singing" (Japanese: 歌ってみた, Utattemita) videos on NND. More than 3,500 of 5,000 videos related to this song on NND^[6] are singing covers.^[7]

By the popularity of the song, Ryūsei-P succeeded to release his album from a major label in March 10th, 2010, and it was sold about 18,000 copies in that year. Moreover, the song got the 4th place in the most popular songs of all genres in a Japanese karaoke service JOYSOUND in that year.

Album Cover Art

Plagiarism Scandal

The plagiarism scandal surrounding the "magnet" video on NND resulted in the original video being hidden by Ryūsei-P. Keen-eyed observers noted that Miku and Luka's faces in the original art resembled the faces on a Turn-A Gundam DVD label.

Notable Examples

Accompanying Art

In most "magnet" videos, an accompanying picture is shown, with the singers looking into each other's eyes or embracing in some other way. They are almost always wearing headphones with butterfly wings on them. The color of the wings varies, depending on the singer's "color". (More common with Vocaloids, who have a set color scheme eg. Luka is pink Gakupo is purple Kaito is blue) A singer would wear headphones the color of their partner.

The "uke" or "bottom" in the pairing is often indicated as the one wearing a small top hat, while the "seme" or "top" is hatless. Sometimes, but less commonly, only the seme has headphones with a strap going over their head, while the uke appears to have headphones built into their heads. Rarely the headphones will not have butterfly wings, but will instead have feathered wings or bat wings.

Bases and templates of two people with the headphones singing are very popular on deviantART.^[8]

MMD models and dances

Various "magnet" videos made using the Miku Miku Dance (MMD) software have been created. Vocaloid models wearing headphones and dances intended for the song have been created.

Search Interest

External References

Editor’s Note: Registration is needed to browse the original videos listed in this section.