Tag - pop

 
 

POP

Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Apr 19, 2015
Historically, Japan is no stranger to blacks, nor to blackface
I am a black Japanese half. I was bullied because of my skin color in elementary school, so I have a strong complex about my skin color. If Japanese truly adored blacks, it wouldn't bother me. But do Momokuro really adore blacks? I think if you asked them if they wished they had been born black, they...
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Apr 18, 2015
At last, Japan gets it
The Japanese entertainment industry is finally growing up, says Shin Unozawa, and he should know. Unozawa joined Bandai Entertainment back in 1981, and serves as chair of the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA), co-hosts of the Tokyo Game Show.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 9, 2015
Charli XCX hits her J-pop groove
"I've tried to immerse myself in Japanese culture," says Charli XCX, international hit maker and Britain's next big pop-star-in-waiting. Of course, that's the sort of comment you might expect the 22-year-old to make on the eve of her first headline shows in the country this week, bringing her breakthrough...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / ON: TECH
Mar 20, 2015
Portable and wearable gadgets, plus apps for anime and J-pop lovers
An appetizing battery charger
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Mar 18, 2015
From a minstrel no-show to a black beauty queen, in a week
From preventing a blackface TV broadcast to the nation embracing a black face as the embodiment of Japanese beauty, it's been quite a week.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 18, 2015
Psycho-drama mystery tests Tani's 'pop' principles
"Probably nobody ever got involved with theater the way I did," Kenichi Tani said with a laugh, explaining that because his teachers at school were "really boring" he set his sights on becoming an interesting teacher in the future.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 17, 2015
LLLL stays 'Faithful' to honest approach
Despite his elusive online persona, Kazuto Okawa, aka LLLL (pronounced "four-el"), is strikingly open and honest about his views in person. Speaking in a small Koenji cafe, he discusses his sophomore album, "Faithful," released this week via Tokyo label Progressive Form, with a critical approach that...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Feb 18, 2015
Time to shut down this modern-day minstrel show
If Fuji TV airs the modern-day minstrel show it has planned for next month, it will shine a national spotlight on Japan's extreme ignorance about issues of race and discrimination.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 17, 2015
AKB48 "Koko ga Rhodes da, Koko de Tobe!"
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 sideshow shenanigans the members engage in (or are...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 3, 2015
Negicco's new album turns the onion idols into Shibuya-kei's new hope
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 night gets rolling. It gets especially loud when they...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 2, 2015
South Korean children navigate rocky road to K-pop stardom
Nine-year-old Kim Si-yoon has no time to throw tantrums.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 27, 2015
Sugar's Campaign come up with some sweet city pop for debut album 'Friends'
Seiho Hayakawa and Takuma Hosokawa think modern pop music is "grotesque," but that's exactly how they wanted the debut album by their band Sugar's Campaign to sound.
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Jan 26, 2015
I wanna rock 'n' roll all night, and be kawaii, ev-er-y day
The Momoiro Clover Z + Kiss collaboration transcends generations, styles and sense.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 6, 2015
Britain's alt-j finds inspiration in Miley Cyrus and Nara
An un-Googleable delta symbol name (∆), genre-hopping, challenging sounds and esoteric lyrics inspired by Japanese deer are not the usual recipe for surefire pop success. Yet when alt-j arrives in Japan for its debut headline show — catapulted by 1 million album sales, a Mercury prize and a nomination...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Dec 23, 2014
Who was music being made for in 2014?
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.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Nov 25, 2014
Pop artifice was never better with Aya Matsuura
When a pop singer who has long faded from the limelight suddenly starts appearing in your Twitter timeline in the form of glowing, nostalgic re-evaluations, they're either gearing up for a comeback . . . or dead.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 28, 2014
Idol-pop act Necronomidol is taken to the dark side
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 agrees; another problem solved.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 14, 2014
Takeuchi sticks to what she knows on 'Trad'
Mariya Takeuchi "Trad" (Warner Music Japan)
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 11, 2014
In-debt idols send wrong message to girls
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.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 4, 2014
Manga, the Rising Sun and Abe's history problem
During his recent visit to the United Nations, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reasserted his eagerness to improve relations with Japan's East Asian neighbors, but the reaction from Beijing and Seoul was tepid.

Longform

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