Make Believe Mailer Vol. 10: Gesu Is Caught In A Scandal?
Forget about easing into the new year -- it only took six days for the first big Japanese entertainment scandal of the year to break, one that managed to leapfrog ahead of small stakes stuff like North Korea maybe testing a hydrogen bomb on some morning shows. A weekly tabloid acquired photos and a LINE conversation allegedly showing that TV personality/pop artist/talent Becky and Kawatani Enon, lead singer of bands Indigo La End and (bigger still) Gesu No Kiwami Otome, were having an affair...despite Kawatani being married, albeit secretly. Becky held a press conference wherein she said they were just friends, but apologized for any confusion. Kawatani put out a press release. Nobody online believed them and, predictably, savaged them on social media. Arama has a good summary of it.
The kissy Moon sticker is the smoking gun
Ultimately, only a very small circle of people really know what's going on with all of this -- this is a messy, private affair. So let's not dwell on morality or blame. But this is a Japanese entertainment scandal, the rare beast that offers a great look into how different corners of the country's pop culture landscape operate, in all their fucked-up wonder.
The media reaction to this has overwhelmingly focused on Becky, as has a lot of the social media reaction (and subsequent memes). It partially comes down to good ol' fashioned sexism and double standards, but that's just one side of this. Whereas Kawatani only started flirting with mainstream visibility last spring with Gesu, Becky has been a constant on TV for more than a decade...and television is consumed by a much larger amount of the population than music.
This all ties into Becky's status as a "talent," a jack-of-all-trades-ish type of celebrity capable of hosting shows to starring in dramas to uhhh being interviewed while drunk for laughs? Oh, and also have music careers and appear in commercials and model and....well, anything. Kawatani might be in a pretty popular band, but that's it...his visibility only goes so far, and he doesn't find himself solely tied to any advertising campaigns. That's, ultimately, who the goofy "I'm sorry for uhhh something" press conference was for...the advertisers using Becky's face to sell medicine.
So far, it hasn't worked. Above medicine company has already called their ties with Becky off -- despite my subway being plastered in the ads above! -- and others are currently debating what to do. This is the predictable fallout for her, and the worst-case scenario for a "talent," whose whole existence centers on how much exposure they can get. Like the monster ads from The Simpson's, it's all about attention.
So.......Becky seems stuck in a bad situation, but what does this mean for Kawatani and Gesu? The timing* on this comes one week before the band release their new full-length album...and, like, the day they starred in a new Tower Records campaign...so its possible this will be a case of "the public decides." Kawatani certainly isn't coming out of this in a positive light, but he's been way, way less in the spotlight here than Becky. It is far more realistic Gesu come out of this scratched up a bit but still able to hold on to a decent spot (so far, I've only seen more live events announced for Gesu, nothing cancelled), but if their album next week doesn't sell a ton because maybe they were just a 2015 thing, this would also make for a great excuse to brush them away. It will be interesting to see what happens with them.
Good thing Kawatani didn't smoke weed, Shinzo Abe personally would have driven a tank over every single album he's been part of.
Japanese Music Highlights Of The Week
A lot of catching up this week, from the dizzying work of In The Blue Shirt to the nocturnal, sad disco of Paellas to the factory-tight pop of E-girls.
Haven't been too hot on supergroup Metafive up until now, but they released a pretty good song that wisely realizes that, to do the megagroup thing right, you can't sound like it.
Favorite thing I've heard so far in 2016 though is Kyoto artist Toyomu's take on Hoshino Gen's Yellow Dancer album.
News And Views
The other big news from the world of Japanese music? New Year's Eve music program Kohaku logged its lowest ratings ever. Turns out ex-pats watching just to snark out on it aren't a lucrative demographic. Thing is, this isn't that surprising, and has sort of been puffed up into a doom and gloom deal when in reality it is a far less sexy sinking. Ratings have been on the decline for years, that's just the trend (just like the music in general!). It's almost like people have found other things to do on Dec. 31st than watch TV. Which isn't to say Kohaku is anything more than a burning pile of Johnny's garbage, just that this is hardly a new development. Maybe more BB-8 is the key.
Pay me...let's see here...$1000 and I'll write up the really good thinkpiece in my head comparing the episode where Homer Simpson and family went to Japan with Family Guy's Korea-centric episode. Maybe Cool Japan failing wasn't a bad thing!
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu went to Thailand and took a kickboxing lesson.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of Dec. 28 - Jan. 03
Every week until my brain fries out, I'll share the top-charting single from the Oricon Charts, a deeply flawed ranking system that favors groups who get fans to buy multiple copies of the same song, offering a warped view of what anyone actually listens to.
#1 Morning Musume '15 "Tsumetai Kaze To Kataomoi/Endless Sky/One And Only" (143,030 Copies Sold)
Oricon is a deeply, deeply flawed ranking system that most people have come to distrust...but when it comes to measuring idol popularity, it can actually be interesting. One of the weirder sub-stories of 2015 was Morning Musume (uh, '15), a legacy group who you used to be able to bank on scoring the top spot on Oricon's singles chart failing to do that at all over 12 months. They got the silver medal twice (this trio of songs came out in 2015...but technically gets gold in 2016. Narrative safe!), a weird development for a group so established.
But they are back with this triple set, full of interesting sonic ideas that don't really bloom into any single memorable song. "One And Only" stands out as it is sung entirely in English, a weird choice since...are they going to try to make inroads in the West now? Anyway, the first song, "Tsumetai Kaze" is the best, if only because it borrows ideas from their last truly great song.
J-pop Conspiracy Corner!
*Plenty online have pointed out how the title of Gesu's anticipated new album...out next week...is perfect given the current Becky/Kawatani broo-ha-ha. It's called Ryoseibai, which roughly translates to "both sides are at fault." What a coincidence...or is it??? Probably just a coincidence, but hey if you were going to juice up some last second drama for an album with that title, this is about as good as they could get it.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Make Believe Melodies / Twitter / Facebook
Header by Alan Castree (AC Galaga)