Remember CCCD? Probably not, unless you collect outdated acronyms. Between 2002 and 2004 many Japanese record companies released copy-controlled compact discs, aka CCCDs. Tracks from such CDs could not be burned onto PCs or copied onto portable devices such as mp3 players. But consumers ...

The music business reinvents itself every 20 years or so — basically every time a new format comes down the pike. But the industry has never faced the kind of fundamental challenge presented by the digital file-sharing revolution. The Internet looks set to destroy ...

Ken Yokoyama is crazy. Crazy like a fox, that is. In the past year or so Yokoyama and his nine-member Crazy Ken Band have become the band to watch on the Japanese music scene, due to their brilliantly original fusion of high-concept parody and ...

I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Space Shower TV, the Japanese homegrown equivalent of MTV. With its unpretentious presenters, high quotient of decidedly unslick, locally made music videos and low-key artist interviews, Space Shower has a strong “street” feel. Despite ...

2002 was not a vintage year, to put it mildly, for the Japanese music industry. Sales of CDs were down for the fourth straight year, and just one single — female vocalist Ayumi Hamasaki’s “H” (Avex) — topped the million-sales mark during the year, ...

2002 was an eventful year, to say the least, for superstar singer/songwriter Utada Hikaru. In March, she signed a international recording deal (as an English-language artist — she remains signed to Toshiba-EMI as a Japanese-language artist) with Island Def Jam. Utada told Billboard magazine ...

What happens to idols after their popularity has waned? Some manage to stay in the game by doing stuff like cheesy Christmas dinner shows (have you booked yours yet?). Some use their erstwhile fame as a springboard into politics. But most just sink into ...