Make Believe Mailer 29: English Version
YOASOBI Go International...What's The Play Here?
Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, duo YOASOBI have become among the biggest acts in J-pop. Their downer debut single “Yoru Ni Kakeru” (“Racing Into The Night”) took off on streaming around the same time the government instituted the first State Of Emergency, which encouraged businesses to shut their doors and regular folks to stay home. Now, online entertainment entered the limelight in a country long seen as analog-first, and why not gravitate towards a song about throwing yourself off a building given the circumstances?
This wasn’t a one-off pandemic outlier or a "Uchide Odorou”1 type mood booster. YOASOBI — consisting of Vocaloid creator / producer Ayase and lead vocalist Rira Ikuta (better known as Ikura) — have scored further success, and in the span of just under two years have emerged as the voice of a new generation in Japan. They’ve managed similarly monster hits serving as theme songs to popular anime series, and will host their first show with in-person fans at the Nippon Budokan next month. At home, their huge.
YOASOBI also appear to have one eye looking outward. This week, they released E-SIDE, an album that finds them offering up their biggest hits…in English. Listen below.
The group isn’t off in testing foreign waters. “Yoru Ni Kakeru” has enjoyed some niche international attention, on TikTok and elsewhere, partially due to the juxtapositon between the racing meloy and hyper-gloomy lyrics, which is the bedstone of some meme-ry.2 Their “Kaibutsu” served as a theme for the anime BEASTARS, which is a hit series globally on Netflix. The pair’s apperances on The First Take have been seen by viewers around the world, and the sort of content creators who exist to react to things. Like a lot of Japanese pop culture creations, YOASOBI isn’t a huge deal, dominating mainstream discourse or appearing on any charts. Like a lot of Japanese pop culture creations, YOASOBI is a strong niche offering that extends further than you might expect.
But…an English-language album? The history of this sort of endeavor isn’t particularly reassuring.
Seiko Matsuda And Donnie Wahlberg — “The Right Combination” (1990) (Wherein Donnie Wahlberg looks like Eraserhead)
Japanese music sung in Japanese actually achieved historic success abroad in the 1960s…Kyu Sakamoto’s melancholy reflection on the country’s youth failure to stop U.S.-supporting defense inititiavies became the first Japanese song to top the Billboard charts, albeit as something sold as exotica under the name “Sukiyaki.” In the decades since, Yellow Magic Orchestra made a stir and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu went viral and BABYMETAL packed festivals while also crashing the Billboard Album Chart.
Yet English-language crossovers…not so hot. Pink Lady tried to capitalize on unexpected U.S. disco attention in the late ‘70s with fizzled-out English versions and a TV show so bad it killed the variety genre in America. The “Eternal Idol” Seiko Matsuda tried to break internationally by teaming with [shivering] Donnie Wahlberg on the loathsome ballad “The Right Combination” (above). Namie Amuro, B’z, Arashi, Sekai No Owari3…many have tired, but all have failed. The most successful example of a Japanese artist turnign to English is…Pikotaro.
So…why would YOASOBI engage in this? What is to gain from singing in a language you don’t…really know?
Credit YOASOBI (and Sony Music Japan) for doing a tip-top job on these English versions. “The fact that every single lyrics in this english version sounds exactly the same as the original version is mind breaking,” goes the top comment on the “Racing Into The Night” video. That could be applied to every song on E-SIDE. The English translation of the YOASOBI originals place an emphasis on maintaining rhyme while not straying too far from the meaning, according to an interview The Japan Times reporter Tomohiro Osaki did with translator Konnie Aoki earlier this year. They walk a tightrope, but maintain the same sound without dipping into the linguistic uncanny valley. That speaks a lot to YOASOBI’s biggest strength — the words blend into the uptempo music, drawing attention to the sound before meaning. So when you do focus on what’s being sung, the emotional jab connects hard.
Yet that distracts from the bigger question — why is YOASOBI singing in English at all? Aren’t we past that, in the “global pop” landscape of 2021? Can this really benefit any non-English artist?
The answer…it depends.
Chairlift — “I Belong In Your Arms” (Japanese Version) (2012) (This Has Nothing To Do With YOASOBI Or Pop Music In 2021, But Here’s A Rare Reverse Language Exchange To Savor)
Think of the English language as a gentle push (not off a building), or as the equivalent of a really sought after “featuring” spot for listeners in predominantely English-speaking countries. It’s completely possible to find an audience without it, and in rare cases can produce a chart-topping superhit like “Gangnam Style” or “Despacito4.” Heck, it’s easier than ever before to find space. But going up that next level…still hard if lots of non-fans don’t understand you.
YOASOBI have a niche following and some slight viral residue. I think they’re in a better position than almost any other Japanese band with international dreams going right now to try something— peak power at home, small but not dismissable presence with overseas fans, generally well-recieved as musicians. But “Yoru Ni Kakeru” isn’t going to suddenly storm up the Billboard charts, and I doubt “Taisho Romance” will blindside the West. Well-done English versions of their hits though…well, that could expand the audience, and that’s something to build on.
Just look at K-pop’s strategy in the last couple of years5. BTS were already the most successful Asian pop group of all time by summer 2020, but they didn’t get to the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 until they released an all-English single. BLACKPINK’s highest charting song is “Ice Cream,” while TWICE arrived in the outer reaches with all-English-tune“The Feels” which got them to #83 (almost at Pikotaro’s peak, don’t give up!). Heck, even that doesn’t always work…SuperM redefined what’s possible with the English language and couldn’t break through singles wise. Most times, though, it’s a smart way of moving up.6
That’s what YOASOBI is doing with E-SIDE, albeit their starting point is “get people to learn who we are” rather than “top the Billboard Hot 100.” It’s gotten them some US-based press, and offers the opportunity to reach new ears (something the Japanese music industry used to be very bad at). It’s a low stakes shot at guaging the situation as they prepare for a big 2022, where they’ll most likely be able to tour and start building upwards. The West is still a far way off…but they’ve at least offered themselves a start with this English album, by being aware of just what a lot of listeners need to take a chance on something new to them.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
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oh my god, remember this??? I haven’t thought about this song once in 2021….
Probably warrants a whole other essay but…YOASOBI have also become the flagship act representing the shifting view of what J-pop is in the 2020s. We aren’t that far removed from J-pop being seen as a wacky, colorful collage of bright images. But now, many online associate it with…more downer lyrics backed by chipper melodies. They weren’t the first to offer a shift towards the sullen, but YOASOBI truly cemented this.
A reminder though…Sekai No Owari’s English-language album as End Of The World from last year is easily their strongest work as a band, and probably could have been a hit in like 2015. Too bad it came out in 2020!
Though a Justin Bieber feature in 2017 might be the best possible thing you could have.
Errrrr, over a decade ago.
Now, whether that’s an artistically worthwhile move or what it means that so many artists around the globe still view success as “made it in America” — that’s a different set of issues to unravel some other time. This is business talk, baby!