OK, so some of the lyrics and costumes are a little risqué when you consider how young some of the band members are, but there’s nothing outright shocking here. Akimoto hoped that this very mundanity would be the key to the band’s success, and by gum was he on the money. “Because of the worldwide homogenization process, labels can collect income directly from streaming services,” Thompson says. The Japan Times LTD. All rights reserved. Visit our main site to read more about this topic or contact one of our specialists. Minegishi’s case drew world headlines because of what she did next – shaving her head (a traditional Japanese gesture of contrition) and releasing a tearful four-minute video in which she makes a grovelling apology for her actions. If you’d like to get a piece of the AKB action on your visit to Japan, you’ll need to enter a ticket raffle by email from one month in advance. Sumii is especially doubtful. Sorry, but your browser needs Javascript to use this site. The difference is that all four artists were designated as “priority” artists by their respective major labels, and while local marketing and A&R (artists and repertoire) staff handled the promotion here, the strategy was overseen by the global head office. The band has courted controversy in the past with some of their lyrics and videos. In contrast, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Bruno Mars and Carly Rae Jepsen are all very popular in Japan because they have made an effort. Since their, ahem, “creation”, Man With A Mission have delivered four albums packed with their own blend of J-Rock, punk, pop and dance, and gained recognition across the globe for their far-out, high-intensity live shows. Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Such has been their success that they now have no fewer than 11 sister acts based in other Japanese cities and even in other Asian countries, including SKE48 (based in Nagoya’s Sakae district), NMB48 (of Osaka’s Namba district) and JKT48 (of Jakarta, Indonesia). However, this situation is changing due to the globalization of the music business. Nay-sayers cry exploitation and moneygrubbing. To mark the band making their way back to London, and to celebrate their place in raising J-Rock’s global profile, we caught up with vocalist and guitarist Jean-Ken Johnny to get his top 10 bands from Japan. I am a big fan of System Of A Down, and to me they are the only band in Japan I can imagine performing [with SOAD], because they’re such a perfect match.”, “Japanese alternative rock band. In 1977, Cheap Trick opened for Queen on some dates of the British group’s American tour, which was covered by Japanese music journalists. The mixture of electronic music, heavy metal and hardcore music is so dramatic and aggressive, it could make you mosh, dance, and blow your mind at the same time. Again, unlike mainstream bands, the list of members of AKB48 is constantly rolling. There is also a rolling ranking system within the group, and fans are encouraged to choose a favourite member to support in the televised elections that are held to determine the rankings within the group each year. I don’t know about you, but I’d have thought that telling your fans that one of their idols isn’t actually a person at all would be more crushing than anything poor old Minegishi ever did. Indies such as Magniph, 7 e.p. “We would scan an artist’s catalogue and say, ‘This could be a hit in the Japanese market.’ Diana King sold a million copies of her debut album in Japan.”. Masaya Inokuchi, managing director of Universal International, says he still relies on print media and radio to promote overseas acts, but it’s not as easy as it used to be. (Notice how I didn’t mention talent). | BLOOMBERG NEWS. You can easily find many Japanese people singing their song in Karaoke, even nowadays.”, “The pioneers and legends of the so-called V-Rock genre, nowadays well-known as a J-Rock genre. “What worries me is when people stop caring about the music,” says Keitaro Sumii, head of the international division at Warner Music Japan. These days, there’s little local promotion of international artists who aren’t prioritized by their record company’s headquarters. The AKB management team were obviously left to run amok on the CGI tools in 2011, because in the same year the band released a promotional internet service called “AKB Official Net”, with a feature that allows fans to combine their own face with that of their favourite AKB48 member to create a hypothetical lovechild. And none of those boxes stipulates that she has to be real. Louder is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Of course, nobody has the stamina to actually fulfil such a punishing schedule, so the band itself is split up into teams of around 18 members who split the duties amongst themselves. It’s not the same for international artists.”, In order for artists from abroad to be successful, Thompson says that they “have to show up whenever they release an album and tour and do things like TV, which is still important in Japan.”, Thompson says many artists only want to interact through their music, and, while the music itself is the eventual draw, “artists have to play by the local rules, and many don’t want to.”. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON TRAVEL, TRIPS & OFFERS TO JAPAN: Travel with us to Tokyo in the Summer of 2021. The odd love scandal is not unusual for AKB48 members, a few of whom have had to “graduate” or transfer to less popular sister groups in the past as a result of similar scandals, but it didn’t stop there. Beggars’ releases in Japan will now be handled by a company that only distributes music. The music is hardcore, but pop in a way, so it immediately hits your mind. “Whereas FM radio almost exclusively played foreign music.”. They also, in most cases, control the worldwide rights to the music they sell, which means they also control how that music is managed and promoted. “They’ll take any promotion opportunity they’re offered. Consequently, Lazonby thinks the artists themselves will suffer. Whichever format prevails, Meguro, who has also worked in the music business overseas, believes that international artists will still have to cater to Japanese tastes if they want to have a presence here. TeamRock Radio is back. “In 2016, I only released six albums. Saito was once a music journalist and became friends with U.S. indie artists such as Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse and Phil Elverum of the Microphones. It sounds like a poor concept for a band, but Akimoto is no fool. Some overseas acts can still gain footholds in Japan by making deals with Japanese indie labels, but there are not as many labels as there used to be. “Love for international artists and their music in this market is by far the best in the world, but it has become more difficult to reach those fans.”, How homegrown disinformation could disrupt this U.S. election, Senate confirms Amy Coney Barrett, delivering for Trump and reshaping the U.S. top court, Friendly or too familiar? Many musicians make most of their money now by touring rather than records, and with Japan’s notoriously expensive hotels and transportation, exacerbated by fluctuating exchange rates, ticket prices for international groups have skyrocketed in the past decade. When their icy coffins thawed in 2010, after years of listening to rock music from around the world, they embarked on tearing their way through the Japanese music scene, much like a rock’n’roll Godzilla. Kasuga now licenses and distributes the solo albums by Strokes members on Magniph, as well as the new EP by the band itself. Spotify, the world’s biggest music streaming service, took forever to launch in Japan owing mainly to negotiations with Japanese record labels over domestic content. “They sold well,” he says. “In the ’90s, when I worked for Sony, we had huge hits in Japan with (reggae singer) Diana King’s ‘Shy Guy’ and (Latin dance artist) Lisette Melendez’s ‘Goody Goody’,” says Archie Meguro, who now works for another international entertainment company. Proponents argue that AKB48 offers fans the chance to feel closer to their idols, providing good role models for their young followers and giving the girls themselves fifteen minutes in the spotlight that they can use as a platform to launch their future success. The tricky parameters of using 'chan', Japan ink: Growing tribe proudly defies tattoo taboo — and hopes for Olympic boost, New ozeki Shodai among headliners for intriguing November Basho, Episode 69: Why we should be celebrating Japan's tattoo culture, Directory of who’s who in the world of business in Japan. “I don’t have any staff. “Experimental, aggressive, dramatic and so beautiful. Consequently, major labels have even less incentive to promote artists on a regional basis. Visit our sister brand Inside Asia Tours site and blog. “It’s a win-win situation,” Saito says. When Sony started downsizing its release schedule for international artists, he went out on his own as a freelance A&R agent. These three companies control as much as 80 percent of the music that is commercially available in the world — and not just in terms of sales. Even when “new music” — West Coast-influenced folk rock — became popular in the mid-’70s through singer-songwriters such as Yumi Arai, it was immediately absorbed into mainstream kayōkyoku (popular music). It is here that AKB48, a band that started life with 48 members but whose ranks have since swelled to a staggering 140, maintain their own theatre and perform to their fans every single night. ‘Demon Slayer’ destroyed box-office records despite the pandemic, but why? Logistically, how on earth does that even work? “The numbers (so far) are limited,” Sumii says. The video was posted on the group’s official website but has since been removed amid unconfirmed accusations that Minegishi had been forced into the act of repentance by her management. In mid-November, Japan-based Hostess Entertainment, which handles, among other things, foreign independent record labels and artists in Japan and other Asian countries, announced that after Jan. 1 it was not renewing its agreement with U.K.-based Beggars Group, which represents the labels XL, Young Turks, 4AD, Rough Trade and Matador. “We get good revenues from streaming for people like Justin Bieber, but it isn’t reflected on the charts,” says Universal’s Inokuchi. Moreover, the rise of the internet has made niche print media obsolete. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal in 2011, the pop group’s creator, Yasushi Akimoto, explained that “AKB48 girls are ‘unfinished.’ In other words, they’re still not very good at singing or dancing.”. They were one of the biggest influences, not only in the punk rock scene, but even in the entire music charts of Japan. Hayato Kasuga once took care of international artists for BMG Japan, which was absorbed by Sony in 2008. Koji Saito did something similar with his label 7 e.p., of which he is also the sole employee. The writers, however, were more intrigued by the opening act, which delivered poppy metal songs and a strange visual dynamic. This was not revealed to her fans until after she had already made her debut and appeared in a Glico advert on television. But this isn’t just that I prefer Metallica to Morning Musume (though obviously I do). | MATT SAYLES/INVISION/AP. I heard that the number one best-selling DVD in England is The Beatles, but but number two is X-Japan.
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