Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-112.207.82.60-20140309021854/@comment-53539-20160302151926

Well the original boxart for the Leon/Lola pair features also two soul singers, who are dark skinned. Therefore even in the very beginning, Zero-G's aim was to portray two black singers. This boxart existed before the fandom did.

In addition, when I first entered the fandom, no one really was paying attention to the "soul singer" label. I can remember Crossfrowne didn't notice it. So people were using the pair without acknowledging it at the time, until someone pointed out they were.

I think unless you note the accent, of which only Lola's s noticeable due to it being Caribbean originated, you would notice. While those of African descent tend to have either lower tone or rougher timbre then those of say, European descent, there is no black and white "this is a white singer, this is a black". So unless you know what their aiming for, you cannot compare nor are you looking for it. If someone heard Fukase without know his provider was Japanese, or Yohioloid's Swedish, things would not be so easy to pick out their races. Likewise, until it was pointed out, people didn't realize Big Al had an American accent.

Ignorance is quite strong when it comes to Vocaloid as a general rule. :-/