Competition is cutthroat among Japan's thousands of idol wannabes, but one approach seems to be working for a group of "chubby" girls deploying their cheeky cuteness to combat prejudice against obesity. Despite one of the lowest rates of obesity in the developed world, Japan has ...
Babymetal — "Metal Resistance" (Toy's Factory) Ever since Western metalheads got word of the existence of metal-idol trio Babymetal, questions regarding the group's authenticity have come up. To anyone familiar with Japanese pop music, this isn't an issue; like all idols, the trio is a ...
Standing out from Japan's many girl groups can be a daunting task, but one act, Kamen Joshi (Masked Girls), has found the answer by hiding behind masks. As many as 15,000 people flocked to a concert by the band late last year, showing how its ...
With a proliferation of idol-pop groups in the music scene these days, getting a start in the industry isn't always easy — even for a band made up of former models. "We started out in 2010 playing in front of five or six people, 10 ...
Idol group AKB48 elicits extreme reactions from people. The unit has nurtured a rabid fanbase who are willing to buy multiple copies of a single CD to show their devotion. On the other hand, critics despise the group's brand of by-the-book pop and the ...
The crowd at the sold-out Liquidroom show furiously pumps glowsticks shaped like green onions in time with the beat coming out of the venue's sound system. They scream when three young women appear, and the energy only grows as the first song of the ...
When looking back on the year in music, the big question music fans should be asking themselves is, "Who was music being made for in 2014?" Looking at the broader picture, we can find the answers writ large across the Japanese music scene. Is music ...
It's a week until Necronomidol's big show and, practicing at a dance studio in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward, the four members make a decision to change one line from "We've come to bring about the Apocalypse" to "We've come to enact Armageddon." Manager Ricky Wilson ...
Two weeks ago a female pop group called The Margarines debuted via a Tokyo news conference. Since Japanese show business has no shortage of young women who want to sing and dance in order to "fulfill their dreams," the new ensemble needed a gimmick. At ...
At a live venue in Fukuoka's Tenjin district, passionate fans are well prepared to record every second of Rev. from DVL's performance — cameras in one hand, notebooks on the knees and penlights in the other hand, all the while with their video cameras ...
The British are mad, aren't they? That Kate Bush with her crazy gyrating around a cello in the video for "Babushka," that daft loon Robbie Williams with his funky skeleton costume, those kerrr-azy Tellytubbies with their wacky dance routines — what is it about ...
It's not surprising that Babymetal has gone viral. The trio, bringing the seemingly disparate worlds of idol pop and heavy metal together, is a visually striking project perfect for the "weird Japan" fans on the Internet. What's surprising, however, is seeing Babymetal's eponymous debut top ...
