Finally, AKB48 and I cross paths in a longer piece on The Atlantic. The article serves as both an introduction to the massive group for readers who don’t geek-out over Japanese pop music and to examine AKB’s current push throughout Asia. In a great bit of timing, this story about the Jakarta group appeared in…
Last week I ate lunch with some of the students I teach. We talked about Japanese music and then the topic changed to the kids telling me the American musical groups they knew. The first artist out of there mouths? The Backstreet Boys. They all loved the Backstreet Boys. And High School Musical, but that’s…
For the next few weeks, Station To Station will be happening on Thursday nights for various reasons that will be revealed in due time. Don’t worry – our irrational hate of Sexy Zone won’t be going anywhere. Anne “Ai Wo Anata Ni” WATCH HERE New night, but same old boring material. This might be a…
After a few weeks off, Music Station thankfully returns this Friday to save me from thinking of one more piece of original content every week. Oh the humanity! It has been awhile, but let’s check in on the world of mainstream J-Pop, shall we? Arashi “To Be Free [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chWKkT49So8&hl=en_US&fs=1] Arashi haven’t been on a winning…
No stranger to remixing for J-pop acts, England’s bo en remixed Niigata trio Negicco’s song “Let’s Meet At The Festival.” The original version is a solid bit of pop — better than the leak-backing group’s newest songs, but not touching the material on this year’s Rice & Snow, one of the favorites for 2015’s finest…
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF12h19h5uo”] March 11 is coming up, marking the one-year anniversary of the earthquake/tsunami. I wrote an article for The Atlantic about music after these disasters, and it features all sorts of names you might know – EXILE, Neon Cloud, Goth-Trad, Rankin’ Taxi…list goes on. Read it here, and make sure to watch all the videos…because…
