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#441
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edit: I'm listening to AKB48, but at least I know it's all bad. It's a guilty pleasure. But people who say EXILE/AKB songs are good must be tone deaf. EXILE is cirngy as hell most off the time too.
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l ~**My HQ-MV CAP COLLECTION THRAD**~ l ~**My HQ-Audio Live Rip COLLECTION THRAD**~ Last edited by thinkingoutloud89; 28th August 2019 at 12:12 PM. |
#442
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Lol, what?
The bashing of other artists and idols in here is really bad. Nobody of you can possibly know why somebody is popular or why somebody listens to an artist. I don't like idols much, I mostly don't even know their individual names, but they do have some great songs here and there with great production value. You can also say the same vice versa - people just listening to other artists, cause they love the artist, not the music. It is all about taste. The most popular female idol group right now is Nogizaka46 actually, especially popular with the female youth, and they do touch some deeper themes with their lyrics. You can find the results of regular surveys what's popular with the youth on Baidu e.g. I agree with you guys that trends are cyclic and it's going to change again on a broader scale in some time, but just because you don't like what's popular right now doesn't mean it's bad. And Kenshi Yonezu is absolutely huge right now over there, everything he touches turns into gold. ( I do think personally he's boring as well, just like Aimyon, but it's simply not my taste, just like Ed Sheeran and Billie Eilish here in the West - which are imo very similar artists. I'd agree that cultural "regression", for the lack of a better word, is actually visible worldwide, not only in Japan).
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Last edited by Corvina; 28th August 2019 at 12:38 PM. |
#443
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^ It certainly doesn’t mean it’s good either. JPOP is predominately trashy. Most of them are just making very generic pop music. In Japan selling music like crazy doesn’t mean you’ve produced something that’s actually good. Heck you don’t even have to know how to sing properly...
Yeah I was talking from my own perspective. The way the EXILE songs sound is too cringe worthy for me. The way they sing, the awful RnB-ish tunes with notions of folk remind me of Balkan turbo folk which I despise. Last edited by njanjayrp; 28th August 2019 at 05:31 PM. |
#444
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I disagree about the quality of the sound. It's not my taste, but it's average at least. I think all these artists release a very safe sound, that it's competent, but sometimes generic. But it doesn't imply it's badly done, it's just formulaic and made by standards.
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Last edited by summerain; 29th August 2019 at 06:18 PM. |
#445
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^Pretty much this. I prefer my popstars to sound a little less safe.
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#446
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yeah, it's more the formula behind it that makes most songs flat.
All publications about idols talk about poor vocal qualities and a mostly throw-away sounds. It has nothing to do with bashing an artist and I personally don't have to, I just don't listen to it. But it is oblivious to say that the most of what these big idol-acts do is quality music, you just have to be aware of that. Groups like SMAP and AKB48 are even marketed that way. Their rather limited abilities should ease the connection and make them "relatable". It's not about the music, as I said, it's about the humans who perform it and it is all very different from someone who makes and produces his own visions like Ayumi for example, who also is an idol at the end of the day.
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#447
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It's not correct to compare them to AKB48, who has tons of singing girls who can be easily replaced. I do agree that the looks are very important and LDH uses some "idol tricks" to make money - like making the singers star in movies and TV shows. Anyway LDH treats people they audition for new bands very seriously, they train them for a very long time. If you sound live like Ayu, you won't make the cut. Last edited by Chris85; 28th August 2019 at 11:53 PM. |
#448
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^They don't care about exile or akb48, they just hatin' cause they sell more than whatever ayu is doing. (BTW by they I mean people who hate when other artists that do better than ayumi) there are plently of examples outthere of this happening since ayumi's diminish.
At the end of the day ayumi is not doin' anything superior than the other POP ARISTS are doin' specially when it's crystal clear they are puttin' a lot of work on their videos, singles, promotions, concerts etc etc.
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#449
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The idol industry does have other severe problems though. And it's all about relation for pretty much every artist - didn`t Ayu became big because people could relate so much to her as the girl next door and her lyrics? And about the vocals in general - a lot of people in Japan like high-pitched female voices, it is seen as beautiful, young and cute, for women. Which is why even Ayu sang higher in her earlier career than she actually really could, same for a bunch of idols. Heck, there are a lot of women talking higher because of that. The big difference between artists and idols probably is that idols are made by others, following stricter rules of what to put out and how to be, and artists shape themselves. Though the lines can be blurred.
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Last edited by Corvina; 29th August 2019 at 07:25 AM. |
#450
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Through all this discussion not one person brought up Wednesday Campanella’s music and their front singer, and I’m shook.
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#451
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And this doesn't really have much to do with the production values of whatever they are releasing... TBH it's actually more usual for a non-idol to release rought in the edge stuff as a way to convey a certain feeling or effect. It's very unliked for an idol group ou soloist, even those who actually pretty much has enough power to control their own career like Namie, to release a track with an abrupt end, like Hikki's Take 5 or to go political to an extent that may alienate their fanbase like Ayu did sometimes. In the end, it's a lot more about personal preferences than it is about quality. |
#452
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Besides that, other music tends to follow a formulaic approach that’s very similar to each other. Nothing can really be deemed innovative. |
#453
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Just to stay on topic, actually quite intrigued on what the next chapter of the tour has to offer |
#454
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I completely agree. I don't understand how people can stand Nicki Minaj and Cardi B to be honest xD They make my ears bleed.
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#455
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I agree, in general, about most idol groups today though. Bland, generic, no personality or creativity imo. Japan DID have a history though of very nice music from idol groups. That's why today is pretty frustrating. If anyone ever has the opportunity to go back and watch old Music Station Super Lives, I highly recommend it. I've seen a few from the early and mid-90s and the crowds are like night and day compared to today. They felt more "free", if that's the right word. You can literally see the entire crowd head banging (yeah, actually head banging) to groups like Luna Sea and X-Japan, even B'z, and then next have tears in their eyes for a moving ballad by an idol. Compared to watching those shows today, it's like you can literally see Japan regressing back inside itself and shutting off emotionally it feels like. That was also generally my experience living in Japan as well - people in the 40-60 age bracket were actually generally more outgoing, spoke their minds and seemed to have an interest in all things western dating back to the time they were children, compared to most young people these days where it would be like pulling teeth to get them to express their actual thoughts and feelings. That's why I'm not so sure that the "cycle" this time is going to come back around. It's all generalizations, I know, and I can only speak from my own experience. This is why Ayu is one of the few artists that endures for me; she still has that connection to music and live performance that seems to be lacking these days. So gotta disagree here. Ayumi does not fall into the category of idol. She did back before her Avex career though. Ayu was always referred to as an artist, not an idol post-Avex. Writing your own music, lyrics etc. means you are not an idol usually in Japan. By the western definition of idol, yes, she's an idol. Last edited by SunshineSlayer; 29th August 2019 at 11:04 PM. |
#456
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#457
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IMO music these days in general is repetitive, bland and lacking any deeper meaning/emotion.
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#458
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It could also be that we’ve grown old and now everything new sounds shitty and we can’t appreciate it because it was meant for the younger generations to consume xD
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#459
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^ There is always the risk of that, haha. Though I've found new stuff to enjoy from other countries, so I'm not sure how big of a role that is actually playing.
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I wasn't able to find that X-Japan performance on Youtube, so I went ahead and uploaded it myself. Not the best quality, but you get the picture. This is from the 1993 Music Station Super Live. I think the super lives are the best example because the audience is made up of fans of all the performing artists. X did get the biggest response of the night. Two things: You just don't see performances like this anymore imo and you don't see audience reactions like this. Really interesting to watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC29k9QkKhs Last edited by SunshineSlayer; 30th August 2019 at 05:24 PM. |
#460
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Thank you for uploading, it's indeed pretty interesting for Japanese audiences! Though Idk how much that is only because of X Japan's status in Japan.
Though I'd be a bit careful with generalizing like that in general, cause do you listen and attend so many lives from different peformers that you know how the audiences react? In general concerts of artists have more fans and are livelier from my experience. E.g. Kuu and Black Pink concerts in Japans always have pretty wild reactions. Though some are also very dead from what I've seen (like Daoko's tour...) Not to forget the music market is much more segmented now which is also why reaching such a big status and popularity like X Japan is harder nowadays. Music Station and other music shows e.g. have dwindling ratings, Music Station was just pushed back an hour and it is the only prime time music show remaining. And about your experience with regression of people expressing themselves in Japan - hm, I was living in Kansai for about a year in 2017 and my experience is a bit different, but Kansai people are usually a bit different anyway and it might not have been long enough.
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Last edited by Corvina; 30th August 2019 at 08:09 PM. |
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misunderstood, trouble, trouble tour, trouble tour 2019-2020 |
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