What is Black MIDI?

Let's go into the history of the black MIDI.

 

Black MIDI first started on Nico Nico Douga (many would call it a Japanese version of YouTube), when Shirasagi Yukki @ Kuro Yuki Gohan uploaded the first black MIDI, which was a remix of U.N. Owen was Her? (also known as Flandre's Theme) by COOL&CREATE called Last Brutal Sister Flandre S or Final Savage Sister Flandre S (mistakenly known as Death Waltz). Last Brutal Sister Flandre S was one of the first U.N. Owen was Her? remixes ever made. Let's listen to the song itself and then this first black MIDI.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A year later, Shirasagi Yukki @ Kuro Yuki Gohan uploaded a black MIDI of the song Night of Nights, a COOL&CREATE remix of Flowering Night (Sakuya's theme from the 9th Touhou Project game, Phantasmagoria of Flower View). Let's listen to the original song for this one and the black MIDI for this one as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the years, users on Nico Nico Douga were inspired to make their own black MIDIs. One user was Kakakakaito1998 (also known as KKK from his Nico Nico Douga account), who made black MIDIs such as Bad Apple!! feat. nomico and Red Zone. Let's listen to the original song and black MIDI for both of those.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He uploaded them to Nico Nico Douga and YouTube in 2011.

 

Around 2010, a South Korean user on YouTube uploaded a black MIDI of Last Brutal Sister Flandre S under the name of "john stump - death waltz."* That's the confusion there. So many people believe it to be Death Waltz now, I'm quite surprised. Look at the sheet music for example.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's way different from Last Brutal Sister Flandre S.

 

(According to the Impossible Music Wiki, "Consequently, it made Touhou fans and 'otakus' very enraged because of the use of the name." As a Touhou fan I can completely agree with this.)

 

Black MIDIs on YouTube were abandoned until somewhere around 2012. TheTrustedComputer, who is now a famous blacker, uploaded a black MIDI of Last Brutal Sister Flandre S containing 280,122 notes. This MIDI was made by a Japanese blacker. TheTrustedComputer kept uploading black MIDIs and became pretty popular. Soon, TheSuperMarioBros2 found him and they both formed the Black MIDI Team (which is now known as the Black MIDI Crews). One day, TheTrustedComputer made a video called "Synthesia - Night of Nights 1.1 Million" and a year later it became the most viewed black MIDI with over 1 million views since August 2013.

 

Black MIDIs are still made to this day (even I make them now) and the black MIDI team is growing all the time. There is now a Google+ community for black MIDIs for everyone to share their works and help each other out.

 

*American grammar to put period before ending quotation mark (.")