Make Believe Mailer Vol. 47: Namie Amuro Potpourri Edition
Namie Amuro holds her final concert before she retires from the entertainment industry tomorrow in Okinawa, her home prefecture. It's the biggest entertainment story of the week — heck, the year, if we go back to when she made her plans to step away public 12 months ago — and people are responding appropriately, with Amuro fans making the pilgrimage out to the islands to see her live one last time. If you really want to get a sense of scope, watch a live stream of people just milling around a whole day before anything happens.
I wrote about her legacy for The Japan Times this week, both in regards to her impact on J-pop and the '90s in general. Read that one for an overview of her career and the nostalgia implications, I'm happy with how it came out. Yet in the process of researching for that article, I came across all sorts of interesting side paths and assorted trivia that just couldn't get into the main piece...at least not without derailing it entirely. So, to add just a little more color to one of the most important careers in J-pop history, here are a few assorted thoughts related to Amuro in the '90s.
One of the recurring details you notice pop up in any English-language writing about Amuro from the 1990s is a tendency to refer to her as an "idol," even if she's being positioned as "not just another idol." And I don't think anyone in 2018 would ever look back at any point in her career and say "yep, that's an idol." I definitely wouldn't. But then I saw a clip of a young Amuro dressed as a bee that made me question my convictions.
Before becoming Namie Amuro, Namie Amuro was an aspiring pop star building a potential back-up career as a fixture on children's TV. For about two years, she appeared frequently on Ponki Kids, a crazy-popular show that I've had multiple musicians around my age say was vital in exposing them to music. Amuro went to schools and stared at pigs, pretended to be a train and pioneered dancing on public transportation much to everyone's horror. Besides this, she also popped up sometimes in movies and dramas.
Which...is all very idol-ish, and that's before considering how her first group Super Monkeys basically were idols. Despite being plucked out of that project and positioned as a solo force, fame wasn't guaranteed for her, so it was probably smart to hedge her bets by interviewing eight year olds about goats. And in another time, she absolutely would have been pegged as an idol for all this media play (she might even have embraced the term -- an important part of idol-dom). But idols were out in the early '90s, so Amuro couldn't fall into that pit...which allowed her to become something new, a J-pop solo superstar. Unsurprisingly, she never dressed up as a bee again.By the time Namie Amuro became the biggest female artist in Japan, the Bubble years were well over. You might not have known, though, if you looked at the country's music industry, which was enjoying massive sales...and indulging a lot. The best snapshot I came across in writing was this documentary, a 1996 creation showing Amuro leading up to a sold-out performance at Chiba Marine Stadium. It reminds you that, as part of that show and the recording of her debut album, they flew out Sheila E. The Prince-associated, prolific Sheila E.
"I can't see why she wouldn't be able to cross over into the, umm, American market," she says, maybe being a little too loyal to the people who hired her. Still, it's a good reminder of how ambitious J-pop was in the '90s. You get plenty of non-Japanese involvement in J-pop today, but it tends to be Swedish producers assembling Arashi songs or more specialized locals (all power to Marty Friedman). This was high-profile investment in pop -- note how K-pop has followed something similar in its spread -- and Amuro captured this rush.There's an elite class of musician who gets their own video game, and Amuro can count herself in it with her late-90s Sega Saturn entry.
If Amuro's career showed the arc of J-pop, her commercial endorsements showed...the arc of many things. Sit back and enjoy this compilation of commercials, and take note of how Amuro's longevity has allowed her to pitch for almost every corner of the digital age, going from chucking floppy disks into the void to showing off flip phones to dancing around with smartphones.
I did mention this in the story, but I became pretty fascinated with the TK Pan-Pacific Tour '97 In Taipei show. Musical interplay between Japan and the rest of Asia -- heck, Korea and the rest of Asia, China and the rest of Asia -- had certainly been going on well before this two-day blowout of all things Tetsuya Komuro, but watching clips from it, this did seem like an early experiment in bringing a country's pop industry to the continent, one that other J-pop acts mirrored but which K-pop figured out perfectly. And right at the center is Namie Amuro, pointing towards the future.
News And Views
Johnny's duo Tackey & Tsubasa announced their disbandment. This wasn't a huge surprise -- they've been on hiatus since last year, and they've faced health issues in recent times too -- but still yet another reminder for '90s kids that, yep, Heisei is about to end and all your favorites are saying goodbye.
Speaking of the '90s -- they aren't going away anytime soon!
I can't state how much joy this next story brings me, hitting on my love of pop geopolitics, the ever combustible relationship between J-pop and K-pop, and the sheer delight of watching smarm smash into creep. Akimoto Yasushi wrote lyrics for an upcoming BTS song coming out in Japan, after being approached by that group's CEO, and people sure aren't happy! Christmas comes early. The main gripes from BTS fans relate to his sexist lyrics (which, no argument, though having to endure conversations about a C-side that sparked the same controversy here two years ago is goofy...wait until ARMYs discover Onyanko Club) and his nationalism which...might very well exist (AKS did team up with Shinzo Abe's government to make a commercial for the Self-Defense Forces) but BTS fans seem to just be focusing on lyrics to some songs which...are pretty clearly cliche "war is bad" numbers? This performance is probably better evidence, but it also looks like an elementary school play and boy it gets all the weirder if we wade into "soft power" and...it's all a mess, it's a complex issue stretching way beyond music and way beyond fandom (but don't expect pop "stans" to let that stop them...or netizens), and it turns out I live for this mess. More details to come!
Say this about AKB48 though -- if they had a dating scandal, they would deal with it swiftly and professionally, unlike Cube. Two lessons to learn from this -- first, K-pop snatched J-pop's reputation as "the non-Western music industry where you can't date" in the minds of mainstream media, and two....never support a company or talent agency. Go crazy for artists and individuals (though prepare to let them disappoint you too) but please don't root for a logo.
For getting through those bullet points, let me now share my favorite YouTube channel of late, devoted to a dog named Momo and a cat named Ten who just exist and hang out with one another. Think of it like Terrace House, but with fuzzy animals.
Speaking of pop stars in video games, former SMAP boy Kimutaku will play the main character in an upcoming video game where he pulls off moves closer to Rey Mysterio Jr. than a pop idol.
DA PUMP serenaded eternal basketball geek Stephen Curry on the latter's recent visit to Tokyo.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of September 3, 2018 To September 9, 2018
Kanjani 8 in the top single spot and, as expected, BTS occupying the number-one slot for albums (despite not debuting in the top spot...AAA beat them last week, remember, but that wasn't counting the complete window of sales). Get that Akimoto single out, and BTS can top the single side, too!
Perfume's GAME (33 1/3)
My entry in the 33 1/3 Japan series is out now! Get a copy at Bloomsbury or Amazon. Or at Kinokuniya bookstores in the US.
Look At Me!
One more for the Amuro piece, which also came with a quick guide to some of her best and most interesting albums.
Meanwhile, over at Metropolis, I wrote about ways to experience K-pop in Tokyo, including two of my favorite parties going in the city. As much fun as a meltdown like the BTS / Akimoto can be, I generally find myself hating the way K-pop discourse unfolds on social media (I mean...all discourse actually), to the point where I've just avoided the whole industry for long stretches of time. But going out to either of those events and seeing all the things I actually love about K-pop playing out in person has made me less cynical, so bless them for that and reminding me to just get the fuck off Twitter sometimes.
Oh right, I also write a lot about the internet which requires using Twitter all the time. Whoops! Anyway, following two massive natural disasters, people online got angry at Japan's mass media for bothering people on Twitter. On the relationship between netizens and old-school media for Japan Times.
Blog highlights: Afrirampo (!!!), AOTQ, Koutei Camera Girl Drei
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
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