Asian music "what's on your mind" thread III

[Yoake]

The new pv for Beverly's 3rd album is somewhat disturbing. Seriousness and casualness are both present at the same time. The mind sense a discrepancy while the full imagery is harmonious.

[Corvina]

What, disturbing...?
I love both song and PV.
The guys are a great choice.
And Taiiku Okazaki!

And didn't notice before, but Instagram now decided to show me for some time - Beverly is apparently a Kuu fan, follwing her Instagram account and liking every single post, yay.

[KarenPang]

KAT-TUN's Ueda will be starring in next year's 20th anniversary of Endless SHOCK butai

That's so cool & before that I didn't know Ueda actually did starred in Endless SHOCK years ago ie. way back in 2003 o_O

And of course fitting Ueda , he will play Domoto Koichi's rival xD

If J&A will bring Endless SHOCK to here just like what they did for Takizawa Kabuki , I 150% will go see it

[Corvina]

It's time to take a look at streaming services in Japan again.

Here are the last stats from May 2019:

https://ictr.co.jp/report/20190508.html

The total amount of people using music streaming services in Japan is 19,8 million at the end of 2018.
14.4% (10,1 million) are using a paid service, 12.5% (9,7 million) a free service (73% are not using any at all, either because they find it too expensive or youtube is still enyoiable for free).

The top services are as followed:


01. Prime Music
02. Apple Music
03. LINE Music
04. Spotify

As Prime Music is part of amazon's prime service, the top is actully Apple, LINE and Spotify.
The 3 services with the highest customer satisfaction are KKBox, Apple Music and Uta Pass.
Most people using streaming services are between their teens and their 30's. The older the less people use them.

The physical market lost 9% from the previous year, the streaming market overall rose 13%.

[Yoake]

Originally Posted by Corvina

What, disturbing...?
I love both song and PV.
The guys are a great choice.
And Taiiku Okazaki!

And didn't notice before, but Instagram now decided to show me for some time - Beverly is apparently a Kuu fan, follwing her Instagram account and liking every single post, yay.

I explained it in my previous post. There is a discrepancy because the outcome looks very serious (the choreography +song and Beverly who sings in a serious sensual way) and at the same time there is humoristic and casualness steps (the man who put a plaster on the forehead of his neighbour for instance). The guys are all smiling and happy in a light way while usually the dancers for this kind of dance wear a serious sexy facial expression if I can describe it like this. This unusual combination created this disconcerting feeling. And I like that. It surprised me in a great way. I hope it helped you to understand my previous comment.

[Corvina]

Yoake, I understood what you mean, it's just the use of the word disturbing - it has such a negative connotation, I couldn't believe you meant that.^^

Her new album song Home is used in a CM, sounds relaxing:



Going to be released digitally November 27.

I also love how active Kira is now on youtube.
Seriously hope she and Kuu recorded a collab, when they met with Atsushi (and JAY'ED, too).

[Yoake]

Originally Posted by Corvina

Yoake, I understood what you mean, it's just the use of the word disturbing - it has such a negative connotation, I couldn't believe you meant that.^^

Sorry. As English isn't my native language, I don't always master the nuance of a word. (>.<) Thankfully you know me better than what my mouth lets show.

I'll check Kira's YT. It has been a while I haven't listened to her.

[Kacku]

I got a random urge to listen to some m-flo last night, so I found myself breezing through their whole m-flo loves era and I have to say... That's some peak J-pop! So many great songs (even many I wasn't familiar with beforehand) and a really cool list of collaborators.

I listened to their recently released album KYO today and was happy to find that it also has some really nice songs (special mention to HUMAN LOST! LISA really shines on that track).

[Kacku]

So I listened to iri's cover of Higashi e Nishi e from the just released Yosui Inoue tribute album and fell in love with the song instantly (I highly recommend iri's version!), so naturally I had to go find out more about the song, and I came across this performance from the 1992 Kouhaku Utagassen:



Have I been missing out not watching Kouhaku? How often (probably not very) do they feature something this wild?

[KarenPang]

Exactly a year ago , SPYAIR performed at C3 AFA SINGAPORE 2018

Damn how time flies by so fast . My sister & I waited so long before SPYAIR performed at night but it was so worth the wait

Especially for me cos I've been a fan of SPYAIR since 2011

I remembered IKE felt so apologetic that everyone had to wait so long for them before they came up onstage to perform but nobody complained

I hope SPYAIR can return soon from their hiatus & also wish they can come back here again to perform and this time round , full scale concert please

[KarenPang]

abingdon boys school are reuniting to tour for the 1st time in a decade since they went on hiatus !

Wow amazing . Way before listening to many future JRock groups , abingdon boys school was the very 1st JRock group I listened to

Back then I didn't even know T.M Revolution was part of abingdon boys school either , that was how noob ish I was x)

I still have great respect towards abingdon boys school . Their material that they contributed for animes were and are still some of my favourite songs from them after all these years

[Kacku]

I'm doing my annual ritual of putting together top lists of my favourite (Japanese) songs and albums of the year and... is it just me or was this year a little lacking in good albums? I'm having trouble coming up with even a top 5, which is not a good sign. I wonder if it's just because I'm not trying and discovering new albums like I used to in past years or if my favourite acts have been mostly inactive or disappointing on the album front. In any case, recommendations would be most welcome!

[KarenPang]

Not just you , I find that this year's release of Japanese albums weren't as good as last year's :x

That said for you , you might consider checking out Wakeshima Kanon's 1st mini album odd sting & intrigue

I've been a Kanon fan since pretty much her single debut in 2008 and the material in odd sting & intrigue to me is some of her best since her debut album Shinshoku Dolce

Prior to odd sting & intrigue , I still feel that Kanon's best material was when she released her Shinshoku Dolce more than a decade ago as Malice Mizer's Mana did a great job overseeing Kanon's material

But after that over the years , the material that Kanon personally created herself weren't able to match up to what Mana did for her

Other than Kanon albums wise , I also like Matsushita Yuya's BLACK NEVERLAND & this's Yuya's 1st solo album in 6 years but it's also his most successful album to date

Rock albums wise , I like GRANRODEO's FAB LOVE , SID's Shonin Yokkyu & B'z's NEW LOVE

For FAB LOVE , it was the 1st time GRANRODEO went overseas to record some of the material and that's a big thing cos vocalist KISHOW is known to have a terrible fear of flying

So for KISHOW to fly to US from Japan , that's a HUGE milestone

For B'z , NEW LOVE is 1 of their more harder albums to get into unlike their last few albums which were relatively easy

My favourite track in NEW LOVE is Rain & Dream . It's the longest in the album but Aerosmith's guitarist Joe Perry participated in the recording of the song which's just woah

Doesn't help that no singles precede NEW LOVE just like SID's Shonin Yokkyu but after giving more listens , both albums are quite good except for a few tracks

The other Japanese albums I listened to that were released this year , I wouldn't recommend to you cos they're Johnny groups but 1 of them was just so bad & downright a major bore I wished it wasn't released in the 1st place D:

[Corvina]

Chanmina is going to release two EPs called
note-book -Me.- and note-book -u.- at the same time, 2020.02.19. 4 songs each.
First is her own view of herself, the other from outside.

Teaser is out



So another Japanese artist doing this simultanous concept release after Kuu more or less started it in 2017.

[KarenPang]

SID's Mao will be doing a new solo acoustic tour next July - Aug

I hope this means Mao will release some new solo stuff soon

I'm surprised that even though Mao is the vocalist of SID , his solo stuff is very different from what SID does and that's a good thing

No point to go solo where your solo stuff sounds like something what your band does

And I guess this's the same mentality DAIGO uses for his solo material cos what's the point of him going solo if he's going to do the same things as what he does in BREAKERZ

[Corvina]

The 10 best selling artists of 2019 in Japan:



Made out of all sales by Oricon, physicial, digital and streaming.

[Gustavopc]

^ Who is #7? Know everyone else but this.

And gosh, the soloists in Japan really aren't the trend anymore. I know year after year the scenario has been like this but I think a part of me still hasn't accepted it lol

[KarenPang]

Hoshino Gen is at number 7

YesAsia wrote about it via https://www.yesasia.com/yumcha/en/en...ment-news.html

I had no idea this's the 8th time ARASHI is Japan's top selling artist o_O

Maybe they can shoot for a 9th time next year before their hiatus ? I wouldn't be surprised if that will happen

[Bigtop]

Cross-posting from AAA thread:

Originally Posted by Bigtop

So, yeah.

Hate to say this, but...

Urata Naoya is leaving AAA.

https://avex.jp/en/aaa/news/detail.php?id=1080027

Also, Foorin's "Paprika" won the 61st Japan Record Awards, denying Nogizaka46 a three-peat (this 'rival group' of AKB48 won the past two years, in 2017 and 2018).

[KarenPang]

Last day of 2019 & I'm already looking forward to new music in 2020 , from

- AKIHIDE
- BENI
- BREAKERZ
- FLOWER FLOWER
- flumpool
- Hey! Say! JUMP
- Marie starring MIKA NAKASHIMA
- NEWS
- SID