Marcus Miller ‘17, Entertainment Editor
Have you ever gone onto YouTube and searched for a song you liked or one a friend recommended? If you have, maybe Nightcore popped up in the autofill. Perhaps you were curious about it and decided to watch the video to see what it is. Nightcore is a internet-based genre that speeds up and increases the pitch of the original source material. If you take a song like “Pretty Little Psycho” by Porcelain Black, and watched the Nightcore version, there is a major difference between the original and this version in both the quality and the views.
There are a few types of Nightcore videos you can find on YouTube. The first type of Nightcore is a mashup usually known as switching vocals. This is when two or more songs play either at the same time, at certain points in the video, or both, and seem like two people are singing the song. Another form is Nightstep which is basically a combination of Nightcore and dubstep. Now the complete opposite of Nightcore is known as Anti-Nightcore. Unlike the fast-paced and high-pitched Nightcore, that is more normative of the genre, this one slows down the song and decreases the pitch to the point of having a song sounding creepy and unsettling. It is amazing to see how people on the internet can recreate a song into so many different, unique Nightcore versions.
There are Youtube channels devoted to creating Nightcore videos such as NightcoreReality, Zero Miz-Kun, Zen-Kun, and many more. The usual Nightcore video has a picture of an anime character or in anime artstyle that may or may not have lyrics included. The highest viewed Nightcore video is “Angel with a Shotgun” by The Cab with over 94 million views. This is extremely high as most videos only receive about over a million views depending on which video you watch. It is clear to see that Nightcore is very popular on YouTube, and channels devoted to this genre have a large amount of subscribers.
I personally love Nightcore. One day I found it by complete accident and have been a fan ever since. My favorite Nightcore songs are between “White Rabbit” and “Heathens/Faded”. I love “Heathens/Faded” because of the switching vocals.
Although I love Nightcore, some people are not huge fans. When I asked senior Andrew Bodell about Nightcore he said, “I listened to “All of the Lights” by Kanye West, and I didn’t think it was as good as the original song, but I still liked the upbeat and fast tempo.”
I recommend that you take a few minutes out of your day to listen to Nightcore, especially if the original song was too slow for you. Nightcore is different from most types of music, but it is fun to listen to and offers different types of creativity. I personally love it, and I think you might love it too.
Lyon Life 