Make Believe Mailer 56: Ko-Hot-Take-U 2022
NHK Offers No Love Or Peace For LDH
Oh let’s do it. Here’s the entire lineup for the 73rd edition of NHK’s Kohaku Uta Gassen, the annual New-Year’s-Eve music bonanza, below. And beneath that…sweet, sweet takes.
First, let’s point out the true star of this announcement…NHK themselves, for realizing the absolute best part of Kohaku is the swirling of rumors beforehand and the day the full roster gets announced. In year’s past, the national broadcaster would simply update their website and social feeds with the lineup, but in 2022 turned it into a brief but exciting livestream available on their official site. While not necessarily being the most thrilling way to unveil the artists performing this year — owing to the channel behind it, it could carry the air of a middle school graduation ceremony — it was still a better way to engage audiences than dumping it all at once on a November Friday. For as much flack as this show gets, and for how inevitable it is you’ll see “Kohaku ratings dip lower” articles early in the new year, people care about the spectacle, and it’s good seeing NHK play that up.
A couple days ago, a naive STAYC fan tweeted “THIS IS JPOP…” alongside a teaser for said K-pop group’s Japan debut. This went as well as you could imagine, sparking a back and forth about what is and isn’t J-pop, is that good, is gatekeeping actually noble, so on and so forth. I don’t care much about this discussion, but seeing the Kohaku lineup did make me ask…what the fuck is J-pop in 2022?
I think it’s accurate to say the folks at NHK both managed to offer a balanced snapshot of the pop music landscape in the country while also completely whiffing on capturing the entirety of it. But that’s kinda impossible now…whereas once Kohaku functioned as a way for the out-of-touch grandparents and busy office workers of yesteryear to get a crash course in what was happening in music during a night off, it’s now just a single angle of a deeply fragmented industry. The folks behind the show have done a good job balancing the major developments in J-pop — idols, rock bands, anime, K-pop, nostalgia — but to turn to Kohaku as the definitive take on 2022 in music would be foolish. Thanks to the rise of the internet, streaming and TikTok, a simple summary over the course of one evening is impossible.Case in point — who should represent male rock at Kohaku 2022? NHK opted for Official HIGE DANdism (safe, timely), Vaundy (“with it,” on trend globally), King Gnu (towering), Yuzu (old) and Saucy Dog (young). That’s a pretty good collection of where that lane is at…but you could (and maybe should) also find space for Mrs. Green Apple, Macaroni Empitsu, Novelbright and Wanima among others. And that’s just on the “uptempo” front — now factor in breakthrough male acts like Yuuri, Tani Yuuki and Natori, who don’t easily fit that template but are a piece of it.
It’s complicated, because J-pop has opened up significantly since 2020. It’s the same thing you see globally — including, great timing, with this year’s Grammy nominees — and it is just impossible for any one group to truly nail it down, for better or for worse.Ronald at Arama! Japan tweeted out a good point reflected by the Kohaku lineup — J-pop girl groups really have lost their grasp in the market. While I’m spiritually obligated to always defend Perfume, he’s dead on. More so than any other corner of the music market, this is where Korean groups have come in and cornered the market. That’s not an all around bad development either — women have stepped up as individual artists and songwriters (reflected here). But units are just not a strong entity anymore domestically, at least when it comes to mainstream happenings like Kohaku.
Though this year’s Kohaku also presents an opportunity that hasn’t been seen in years — broadcast trampoline towards greater attention. K-pop groups IVE and LE SSERAFIM being included in the Kohaku roster this year feels like the obvious hook, but it isn’t quite as simple as “South Korea, doing the pop thing so much better.” Those groups have attention in Japan, but nowhere close to approaching the level of devotion the other K-pop girl groups present on the show have — TWICE and NiziU, the latter having recently wrapped up performances at Tokyo Dome. IVE released a Japanese version of a song, but not much else, while…this is kind of LE SSERAFIM’s first truly wide-reaching performance in the country. They are big with K-pop fans, but for most normies, they’ll be encountering both for the first time on New Year’s Eve.
It reminds me of when Kohaku would have like “Korea corner,” when they’d mostly be introducing notable continental acts to an audience who probably didn’t know who they were. We’ve come back around to Kohaku as promotional tool, allowing fledgling…but promising…K-pop acts to reach a whole new audience behind hype alone.
Are Ryokuoushoku Shakai the new Little Glee Monster, in that I have no idea how they got as big as they have but will probably be dealing with them for the next decade?
The arrival of new-era male pop groups like JO1 and BE:FIRST prompted many — including myself — to wonder if Johnny & Associates grip on J-pop would weaken. So far, the answer has been a resounding “no,” with this year’s Kohaku still seeing six Johnny’s groups getting the nod.
Turns out, though, this new breed of global-minded pop outfit would help bury LDH, at least when it comes to getting space on NHK’s year-end spectacular. To me, no whiff of EXILE or distant family tree entity appearing on Kohaku stands as the biggest snub of the year, but also maybe a deserving one. With actual competition emerging from fresh entities, LDH’s brand of boy band just feels…inessential. Not helping them is a, in my opinion, company-wide confusion about what their groups should be doing. The pandemic wrecked this company, and now that things are more open they seem like they can’t decide if they should be focusing on domestic audiences or trying to push internationally. You can do both…but based on what I’ve seen, this company isn’t equip for that balancing act, at least not yet. And now it’s hurting them on programs like Kohaku.Is this the grimmest Kohaku theme to date? Seriously, check out the official page — “Love & Peace” is a result of the pandemic, Russia invading Ukraine and natural disasters (read: climate change). Even while hoping to bring some smiles via music to the exhausted masses, NHK mentioned “an uncertain future.” Bleak! Speaking of…
Reminder that this is, arguably, the biggest song of 2022 in J-pop, even though it feels completely alien from the second half of the year.
Going back to my main vibe with Kohaku 2022…I can’t tell if NHK totally has their government fingers on the pulse of internet culture, or if everything is internet culture. One of the stories of J-pop this year is the total control TikTok took in dictating hits…including “Habit,” above…and Kohaku does reflect this, but also kinda doesn’t, because everything is an online hit nowadays anyway, save for the enka. I’m holding out hope for a “Stars Of TikTok” medley where Suiyoubi No Campanella and Fruits Zipper can get their due, but odds are a lot of Kohaku praise for being online will be accidental.
Same goes for the other major storyline of the year, anime songs. Plenty of artists who provided themes for animated series appear at this year’s installment — most notably Aimer, debuting thanks to her theme for Demon Slayer — but I’m curious how much that will be played up with someone like, say, Hoshino Gen.
The one exception being Ado, who technically isn’t debuting because she’ll be represented by One Piece character Uta during a special section devoted to the pirate series and the year’s highest-grossing domestic film. Will also almost certainly give us this year’s “avatar pop” moment.
Snubs…maybe??? Besides LDH, the biggest absences this year are the aforementioned Mrs. Green Apple, any -48 group (second year in a row, that era is over at NHK), Fujii Kaze and YOASOBI. There’s always the chance one of them gets added closer to the broadcast…this has become the norm, and I bet you see one of those last two sneak in with a “special segment”…but looking at it from a point of “wow, they got pushed out,” it feels like a reflection of just how crowded the potential Kohaku field has become. If you have Ado, do you need YOASOBI? We can’t really sacrifice an idol group for Kaze, can we?
Odds of a tribute to Shinzo Abe?
Still holding out hope for a “Salute To VTubers” corner, which would instantly make NHK completely with it.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Crazy how much the Japanese music scene has evolved through the pandemic. I mean, tell me that 2019 and 2022 were only three years apart by just showing their music!
About Ryokuoushoku Shakai, they have this massive hit from April 2020 that has catapulted themselves to the mainstream.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRDURmIYBZ4