Top 10 Animated Music Groups

It seems like only in Japan would a computer-generated projection of a singing anime character sell out arenas, but that’s exactly what’s happened with this pigtailed 16-year-old. Hatsune Miku is based on a Japanese vocal synthesizer software called a Vocaloid, which samples human voices to sing melodies or words typed in by the user. Over 100,000 songs have been credited to her, and she was also the voice behind the original Nyan Cat song.

The one Claymation band on our list, this group started their life as mascots for the California Raisin Advisory Board. These singin’, dancin’, snappin’ raisins became so popular in that form, their cover version of Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” charted on the Billboard Hot 100. In fact, they became so huge that they ended up as the official spokes-fruits for Raisin Bran cereal, landed their own Saturday morning cartoon and even won an Emmy. Not bad for a bunch of shriveled grapes.

Marketing your album in the form of Japanese anime is definitely a unique way of promoting yourselves if you’re not Japanese. And that’s precisely what Daft Punk did in 2003 with an animated group called The Crescendolls, a fictional blue-skinned outfit that appeared in the movie “Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem”. With no actual dialogue, the adventure film instead uses the French duo’s 2001 album Discovery as its soundtrack, guiding Stella, Octave, Baryl and Arpegius’ musical journey.

Coming to TV screens in the ‘80s thanks to Hasbro, Marvel and Sunbow Productions, this all-female animated group had songs and hair that definitely matched their time period. Not only that, but the show’s popularity during its run from 1985 to 1988 was truly, truly, truly outrageous: it ended up being the number one syndicated cartoon show in November of ’86, and a live-action movie starring Molly Ringwald and Juliette Lewis is reportedly in the works.

From comic books to an animated show and a live-action movie, these three ladies can definitely boast longevity as far as animated music groups are concerned. Josie, Valerie and Melody made for some pretty memorable characters both in the world of Archie Comics and Hanna-Barbera. The cartoon became fairly successful despite its short time on air; however, the product placement-loaded 2001 live-action movie was a box office failure.

Either you find them adorable, or you find them annoying. Whatever your opinion is of these three, you can’t deny that Alvin, Simon and Theodore have been an incredibly popular animated band, making songs that have probably stayed stuck in your head. Ever since you were a kid – especially around Christmas – “The Chipmunk Song” was probably a staple on your holiday playlist, and it even went to number one in the States for four weeks in 1958. It’s hard to forget them – though we would like to forget the more recent CGI-animated movies they were in in the late 2000s.

If you were a kid growing up in Canada in the late ‘90s, you most likely heard this pair’s music at least a handful of times. Chances are you probably even loved it. Simon and Milo were quite a popular animated musical duo in their home country, with their debut album Hot Show spawning two platinum-certified tracks – “Sucks to Be You” and “Strange Disease,” which featured Simon being the musical Ted Mosby of his time singing about looking for love. Their sophomore effort also went platinum in Canada.

One of the bands on this list to take form both as an animated band and as a real one, this melodic death metal group came to us through the Adult Swim show “Metalocalypse.” Fronted by Home Movies creator Brendon Small, not only do they have a successful TV show notorious for its dark humor, but they also actually tour as a real-life band. Over the years, Dethklok has hit the road with heavy bands like Mastodon, High on Fire, and Converge.

Not many animated groups get anywhere close to a number one single in the real world. But with The Archies, that’s exactly what ended up defining their career in 1969, when their single “Sugar, Sugar” reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100. The band, comprising of Archie, Jughead, Reggie, Betty and Veronica, also got a few other top 40 singles in the States during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Not bad at all for a bunch of comic book characters.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:
- Detroit Metal City
- The Beets
- The Hex Girls
- The Junkyard Band
- Shallow Gravy

They’ve sold millions of records worldwide, they’ve gotten critical acclaim time and time again over the course of their careers, and this English-based animated band even managed to gain mainstream success in the States. Not only that, but 2-D, Murdoc, Noodle and Russel have managed to make their animated selves work in a live setting – extremely well. With all that in mind, is there really any question why they’re number one?

Do you agree with our list? Which animated music group do you think is the best of all time? With new top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.