Make Believe Bonus: Ado At Japan National Stadium
Spectacle Vs. Sound
April felt like a pivotal moment for Japanese music on the global stage…or at least my travel itinerary made it feel that way. Smack-dab in the middle of last month, I traveled to the Coachella Valley Music And Arts festival for the purpose of seeing how the Japanese artists taking the stage — originally billed as three, then becoming five thanks to 88Rising’s “Futures” showcase, and hitting 10 (!?) thanks to rapper Awich’s set-within-a-set — would fare at what is the most-discussed music festival in the world. They embraced the moment, and displayed something I haven’t seen from Japanese artists very often when they go abroad — confidence. After more than a decade covering this country’s music scene, seeing these acts grab the moment and enthrall the audience delivered a feeling of “wow, is this happening???” It felt invigorating.
Part of the thrill was watching it play out overseas, amidst the zonked-out Coachella crowd bouncing along to YOASOBI or starting agape at Atarashii Gakko! scheanigans. While the Indio-based festival makes for a great narrative hook, it wasn’t the only live backdrop where this attitude shift played out. Many of the artists present also have had solo shows in recent times — or in the case of White-Hosue-guests YOASOBI, sprinkled throughout their California stay — and plenty more Japanese acts have been heading out into the world recently. That included Ado — the young post-Vocaloid singer-songwriter serving as the ultimate musical representative of Gen Z Japanese in the country right now — who concluded a (full disclosure: I write her English bios AND worked on promo for parts of this) seemingly very successful world tour.
A little over a week I got back to Tokyo, I got to see another side of this current confidence wave in modern J-pop, albeit one playing out on home turf. Universal Music invited me (again, see that full disclosure above) to see the first night of Ado’s “special live” being held at Tokyo’s National Stadium, a homecoming meant to celebrate returning victory and to highlight just how big the artist herself has become.