Make Believe Mailer Vol. 21: Thinking Gives You Wrinkles!
AKB48 sister-group HKT48 topped the Oricon Charts with their seventh single "74 Okubon No 1 No Kimi E." Nothing about it seemed particularly newsworthy -- despite a slowly unfolding decline in sales for all 48-world singles, this still easily took the top spot thanks. We are in year seven of the Oricon Charts being the xxx48 franchise's throne. Nothing newsworthy here, right?
Welp, not so fast. Attention online has zeroed in on a song found on the "type C" edition of the single, titled "Einstein Yori Dianna Agron." It's a duet between two members of the group, and in the accompanying video the title gets translated as "Dianna Agron > Einstein." The lyrics -- translated into English by one upset fan -- basically play out like that episode of The Simpson's where Malibu Stacy says "Don't ask me, I'm just a girl!" and makes Lisa depressed. Naturally, the lyrics were written by everyone's favorite 57 year old man, Yasushi Akimoto.
Though, look...this also isn't surprising either. AKB48 and their various spin-offs have never been anyone's representative of feminism. People have been criticizing the fact a dude pushing 60 handles the duties of writing songs from the perspective of teenage girls* for years now. Idol culture comes with plenty of well-established sandtraps that have been looked over constantly during the last idol boom -- remember the head shaving? I initially wondered why this gained as much traction online as it did...this is nothing new, right?
But that's not the real development here. The key word here is "online" -- anger about the song came from Twitter, and was then picked up primarily by digital publications. It has inspired conversations on Girls Channel, compiled on Naver and inspired articles on online-centric outlets such as RocketNews24 and Japan's Huffington Post (the latter approaching something like...a thinkpiece...about what it means having Akimoto associated with Cool Japan). I admit I don't know how...or if...traditional publications are covering it, but seeing so many places zero in on the issue of "female discrimination" feels...really different.
Not to say outrage at media in Japan is a new development. Television programs in the country toned down material in the late '90s because of complaints -- the Western idea of the "wacky Japanese game show" being a prominent victim -- while Philip Brasor's Media Mix column in the Japan Times this week focuses on recent issues of people complaining about stuff on TV (see also: Becky losing all her ad deals). Yet the anger directed at this HKT48 song feels very digital age. The lyrics are eye-rolling, certainly, but I feel similar charges could be leveled at plenty of other songs ("Torisetsu," for example), yet an AKB-48-related outfit seems more click worthy. This also all seems a bit more socially consciousness than I'm used to from Japanese media criticism, which is a nice development.
"Social Justice anime" is a good Google search, gang
I'm also intrigued by what a shift towards U.S.-style thinkpiecin' could mean legally. I've seen a few people on Twitter say the lyrics to this HKT48 song read as sarcastic, while others point to it as intentional provocation. Which would be reasonable arguments, if AKB48 management didn't spend the weekend threatening to sue publications criticizing the song for libel and slander if they didn't remove the offending articles. Nothing says "I'm not mad, I'm actually laughing about it" like legal action. A fun wrinkle of Japanese law is -- even if you have your facts totally straight -- that if an offended company can prove you cost them money with what you published, you will lose in court (I have personal experience with this, I hated my life!). The rise of articles taking social stances -- "this is sexist" -- present a new challenge. Imagine if Iggy Azalea could sue every publication calling her a walking minstrel show. Interesting times ahead.
*I can't tell whether Akimoto is a genius or an idiot for centering this song around an actor from Glee, while also namedropping said show in the lyrics. On the one hand, I do remember all my teenage students loving Glee when I worked in junior high schools. On the other, that was three years ago. He clearly did his research though.
Japanese Music Highlights From The Past Week
So much good electronic music! And that's before you factor in new Cool Japan and Picnic Women!
Really caught off guard by "En" by Utena Kobayashi, and similarly found her forthcoming album really enveloping.
Had lots of conflicted thoughts about the new Kyary Pamyu Pamyu single, though they basically boil down to "can she work with someone who isn't Nakata?" Had far less worries about the new Shiggy Jr. song, which is some summer-ready pop begging for radio play. Also enjoy the video actually acknowledging Japanese city pop.
The week's most non-loathed viral video belongs to Okazaki Taiiku, whose "Music Video" might not be viewable outside Japan but is worth the VPN log-in. It's a straight-forward lampoon of every cliche found in Japanese music videos, and it's legitimately funny! Big fan of the "only things women can do in music videos" section.
Seiho honored one of his artistic inspirations, Prince, with his take on "Adore."
News And Views
Prince's death towers over all, so revisit the time he greeted the media in Osaka and the time he...well, a lot of clips of him at Tokyo Dome have appeared online, here is just one.
The great Tokyo venue crunch continues, as Yoyogi National Gymnasium will close for two years.
You can now learn about subjects through Vocaloid via a new set of textbooks in Japan.
Babymetal, fresh off monopolizing American digital space, performed on Music Station last week. They sat next to one of the guys from Spitz, who appeared to not want to make contact with them. I'd be afraid of those germs that make your music not sound shitty, too!
This photo
Oricon Trail is off for the week, as I've already written too much about HKT48. Instead, please enjoy this Toshiki Kadomatsu master jam that I thought was removed from YouTube but is back.
Look At Me!
YouTube is the future of media maybe, let's make a channel. Also, I talked to talent agencies and creators specializing in it for The Japan Times.
I'll have something on The Daily Dot next week about Lyrical School's clever "Run And Run" video, keep an eye out for that (or tune in next week).
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
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Header by Alan Castree (AC Galaga)