Popular Japanese group Morning Musume, are mixing things up for the first time in their long illustrious history, by adding the first non-Japanese members to their lineup. This comes, after several semi-secret auditions were held throughout China, in which the entire Chinese countryside was scoured, looking for just the right girls that fit the Morning Musume mold. The two lucky girls, 16 year old Qian Lin, and 19 year old Li Chun were handpicked from the most promising of the lot, and both have been sent for intensive training in dance, singing, and the Japanese language. Producers are wanting them primed and ready as quickly as possible, as they’re gearing them up for a national Japanese debut sometime very soon.
Archive for the 'japanese music' Category Page 2 of 5
Korean pop singer BoA’s enormous success in Japan, has made it all but impossible for her to spend time promoting, or performing just about anywhere else. This of course, has caused many grumblings back home, with Korean fans complaining that it’s virtually impossible to see her live without incurring the expensive costs of flying back and forth to Japan. After hearing about these issues for so long, BoA decided to take matters into her own hands, and arranged for a special one night only performance earlier last month. After the audience’s not surprising enthusiasm for the show, there was talk of adding a few more, but with her Japanese popularity being what it is, and the responsibilities that come with that, it may not be realistic to expect something like that to materialize anytime soon.
Producers for one of Japan’s most popular televised specials, “The Red and White Song Contest”, had a lot of explaining to do this month, after more than two hundred of the shows viewers called in to to complain about several nude dancers splashed across their TV sets. The producers, as well as broadcaster NHK, had to apologize profusely for what they termed, “a very serious misunderstanding.” The “misunderstanding” in question, turned out to be nothing more than an optical illusion, as the flesh colored bodysuits worn by the shows dancers, fooled Japanese viewers into thinking they were performing without any clothes on. As the complaints mounted, producers reportedly called emergency meetings in which wardrobe designers, and production staff, had to promise that nothing like this would happen again.
Korean artist Younha, has recently secured an interesting new job for herself, after proving to be quite skilled in conveying Japanese sensibilities to her fellow Koreans. She’s been chosen by Japan’s National Tourist Organization, to promote Japanese tourism throughout her homeland of Korea, and the organization hopes to build more public interest in visiting Japan. The trend lately within Asian tourism, has seen Japanese destinations losing out to more exotic Asian locals, and the JNTO hopes to remind Koreans, and other Asian nationals, just how interesting a trip to Japan can be.
A study published by Japanese music ranking company Oricon, has made a few quite interesting discoveries. Oricon wanted to probe why Korean artists are making such headway against the once dominant Japanese. Some interesting facts came out in the study, the first being, that many feel that Korean stars interact much more often with their fans–refreshing considering the distance that some Japanese stars have been known to keep with theirs. Another interesting discovery, was that fans like to see their favorite Asian pop stars involved in TV and film projects as well–a trait that Korean artists are known for, often diversifying amongst many different artistic projects quite well.
With Asian music’s incessant need for bigger and better artists, scouting for talent in other Asian regions almost becomes a necessity. With that being said, it makes perfect sense that Japanese music industry heavyweight Avex Trax, would make an announcement of their leasing a major new office in vibrant downtown Shanghai– opening it for business almost immediately. Many talent scouts have been reporting back on a huge backlog of undeveloped talent within China, and Avex is looking to begin tapping into that market as quickly as possible. Not much is known yet what they have up their sleeves, but rumor has it that there are several very promising artists already lined up and ready for development.
Billboards of a mysterious girl began popping up all around Tokyo recently, apparently a promotion put out by Asian music label Avex Trax. The billboards, come only with a brief tag line, a picture, and a url directing those interested to a web page online. Not much is known so far about Avex’s motives, but what is known, is that the female depicted in the pictures is a well known South Korean commercial actress, and it looks like Avex Trax may be gearing her up for some sort of Asian music debut sometime in the coming months..
Japanese musician Yoshiki, of X-Japan fame, is rumored to be working on a few songs for an upcoming horror movie entitled “Catacombs”. The movie is set in an underground cemetery, just like the real ones so notorious beneath the Paris city streets. Although, not usually a horror fan himself, Yoshiki agreed to work on the project based on his respect for producer Gregg Hoffman’s previous work and his artistic vision for the film. Yoshiki is said to be working with a vocalist from his long awaited ‘Violet Uk’ album, and here’s to hoping we’ll be seeing more from this most gifted and prolific Asian artist.
Japanese comedian Ochi Yosuke, has to be walking on a cloud this month, after winning the Air Guitar World Championship in Finland recently. Only practicing for a couple of days, he shocked the judges with his powerful, albeit slightly comedic performance of “Are you gonna be my girl?” by the band JET. The Youtube video doesn’t really do the performance justice–he really had the crowd going. He walked away with a specially designed Finnish guitar and amplifier, donated by Brian May of the British rock group Queen. But more importantly, being part of a story that is sure to be circulating Japan for many months into the future..
The last few months have been good for Johnny Jimusho and his large stable of boy band artists. Bands such as Kinki Kids, KAT-TUN and others, have all been dominating the Asian music charts lately. Now the latest of Johnny’s groups to achieve good results is of course the long running Japanese band SMAP. They just debuted #1 on Oricon’s music charts with their new 2 CD set “Pop Up!” Quite an accomplishment, seeing they’ve been out of the public eye for quite some time.
