Last week, an article in in the London Evening Standard made the rounds in the Japanese music Twitter-world, one titled “Tokyo Is Trending: The Rise Of J-Pop.” The piece details the apparent “trend” of Japanese pop music and fashion gaining traction in London, pulling out the usual array of “Harajukus” and “Lolitas” that litter any…
CNN recently interviewed Yasushi Akimoto, the guy who came up with the AKB48 concept and basically ruined everything. They just put up a transcript of the interview in English, which is worth reading. The biggest reveal of this chat is that Akimoto loves cliche comparisons – AKB48 is like “cheerleading or lacrosse” (huh?) unless it…
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLYVRSIvtpY”] You know how sometimes you go to a party or some other laid-back social gathering and there is some dude/dudette who makes a funny joke or maybe talks in a silly voice for a second and it kills? Like, everyone burst out laughing and loves it. Then said person decides “hey, I like this…
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqtf5TOr3Ac”] So Arashi went on a Fuji TV music show a few days ago and had some technical difficulties. The group’s pre-recorded vocals failed to play, forcing the group to gasp actually sing. This news comes from Japan Post who slapped the headline “Sound Equipment Failure Reveals Japanese Boy Band’s Atrocious Singing” which I don’t…
The Kohaku Uta Gassen is a Japanese New Year’s Eve tradition, where a “red” team of musical artists compete against a “white” team of…uh…other musical artists. It is a relatively big deal, as my teachers and students are already talking about it. I’ve never seen it, as so far I have spent every New Year’s…