[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2x0mw9B8ig”] The popularity of Ashida Mana works like a Chinese Finger Trap – at first, you have no idea how the dang thing works (“what’s the big deal, she’s just an adorable seven-year-old kid given a stupidly catchy albeit annoying song?”) then you realize the solution is way easier than you ever could have imagined…
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…
Oh man, a jumbo-sized Music Station this week. Featuring all the heavy hitters. Buckle in folks. AKB48 “Flying Get” WATCH HERE See the logo at the top of this page? That’s the new design/slogan for the “Cool Japan” campaign, the Japanese government’s attempt to spread soft power via culture. Basically, they want Japanese media, like…
Le sigh…summer is almost over, meaning no more trips to the beach and having to actually work on a regular basis again. Hope you enjoyed it while it lasted. Now, for some J-Pop… AKB48 “スペシャルメドレー” A medley, screw that, let’s talk about… AKB48 “Flying Get” Watch here Where to start…besides signalling a continued disregard for…
Remember this feature? Music Station went on summer holiday for the last couple of weeks, but it’s back just in time for the middle of July. Arashi “まだ見ぬ世界へ” [youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tufJ2sExlgA”] Lady Gaga visited eternal-boyband SMAP’s show SMAP X SMAP recently, and Ms. Gaga thought it would be a cool idea to upload the footage of said…