Make Believe Mailer Vol. 51: Hello, Project?
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Hello! Project, one of the most important idol endeavors in the history of J-pop. This collection of girl groups helped usher in a new idol boom in the late 1990s thanks mostly to Morning Musume, an outfit that helped make the whole concept seem viable again after the previous years saw J-pop defined as Eurobeat-adjacent groups and super solo stars such as Namie Amuro. In a history of Japanese pop music, their peak helped further re-define what an idol group could be, and helped pave the way for the AKB48-topia of the 2010s.
Well, that's what it would say, except Morning Musume and a bunch of other Hello! Project outfits just keep on chugging away in 2018. The expected celebration of this idol institution has certainly unfolded, and this skip-down-the-sidewalk ballad presented by Hello! Project All Stars has earned a fair amount of attention. But compared to all the other elements of '90s Japanese pop culture currently enjoying a nostalgic second-look, Hello! Project just feels...there. That's probably because they've never actually left. It's tough to reminisce when it's still right there, singing in unison together at you.
Hello! Project deserves their victory lap, but the enterprise sits in a pretty strange spot in 2018. Their acts still deliver solid (Oricon) sales and can pull in respectable YouTube views, but they seem miles away from the Japanese zeitgeist. TV shows and books are dedicated to the singles and performers under this umbrella, but they all feel like past tense remembrances for something that is still technically going. They've been around two decades, but pretty much any coverage of that fact was wiped out by one former Morning Musume member enjoying too many Strong Zeros and plowing through a crosswalk.
So what the heck even is Hello! Project in 2018? Well, it's still a constellation of idol groups doing their own thing, so let's take a look at the most recent single for every active unit in this universe, to get a sense of where they all are as they enter their second decade of existence. (NOTE: We aren't going into solo artists because they don't have quite the sizzle of the groups).
Morning Musume '18 "Because It's A Free Country"
No better place to start than the flagship act, which deserves a lot of credit for sticking to the original idea of Morning Musume pretty devoutly. Which is to say, change is a constant...embrace it. This is Morning Musume '18, after all, a slightly different entity than Morning Musume '17 and almost certainly something unlike Morning Musume '19. What hasn't changed is an interest in elements of electronic dance music, but whereas the group seemed to appear from some alternate Ultra wormhole back in 2014, they sound a few years late now.
Another constant — as the Hello! Project outfit that might still have some name value with a random person in a grocery store, Morning Musume remain as a nice blank canvas for pop projection. "Because It's A Free Country" offers the slightest tease of...gasp...politics (because it isn't!) via its title, and you could read something in those lines about individualism. But then again, this is an outfit that keeps everything nice and vague for listeners to build their own interpretations, and not have to think about all those icky parts of the idol life. So...pretty much the same old same old, but with some voice manipulation.
ANGERME "4.6 Billion Years Of Love"
As a write this, ANGERME's "4.6 Billion Years Of Love" currently sits at number 12 on YouTube Japan's trending ranking. Hello! Project songs do this all the time...but usually via Morning Musume, and even their latest releases haven't had quite the same spark. Maybe that's partially because this song and video exudes a genuine weirdness that a lot of the better Hello! Project offerings manage. A lot of that comes from the mish-mash of clumsy romantic lyrics with a loose-limbed dance-pop backdrop capped off by a video with what appears to be a budget similar to something Dance For Philosophy would come up. But this is closer to the spirit of Hello! Project's peak.
And that's actually even clearer on the other side of the single, "Every Man To His Taste (Like It!)." If "4.6 Billion" is peak discombobulation, than "Every Man" goes the extra step with lyrics that make you think they are deeper than they actually are...unless they are that deep?....or is idol pop rotting my mind? This song features the heater "the people at the top of popularity ranking / we have no obligations to like them" which is part swipe, part nod to the fact, uh, ANGERME aren't that. Coupled with its playful approach to genders, this one feels subversive...but might just be vague enough to let me think it is subversive. Now THIS is Hello! Project at their best, messing with your mind.
Juice = Juice "Vivid Midnight"
Like the song above and a few other memorable Hello! Project tunes, "Vivid Midnight" flips a popular cliche over and goes existential. Unlike them, it also features three of the most grating sounds I've heard in music this year. Juice = Juice was Hello! Project debuting an idol group in the middle of the AKB-generated idol boom of the early 2010s, and they feel today pretty much the same as they did back then...visible and clearly doing alright, but totally nondescript outside of their doofy name. Anyway, this sounds like if you told Dan Deacon to make a K-pop song, but could only explain to him what that was abstractly.
Country Girls "'I Love You' That I Write And Erase Over Again"
This came out last year, and it's just generic "I'm young and in love....eeek!" fluff. This doesn't deserve a screencap.
Magnolia Factory "Let It Be A Fine Day Tomorrow"
And so, we now arrive at the for-fans-only period of Hello! Project, which is a damn shame because the song and video for "Let It Be A Fine Day Tomorrow" is a gem when it comes to loopy idol videos. The setting is a fake late-night talk show modeled after David Letterman's old stomping grounds...complete with opening sequence possibly generated by the team behind the Singaporean Mac Tonight ads...and oh my god, please introduce me to the actor playing the host, I have lots of questions. Just like ANGERME, it all feels somewhere between clever reference and sad reminder that Hello! Project failed to go where Babymetal or Hatsune Miku landed. It also updates the "Koisuru Fortune Cookie" formula of reminding of just how shitty the world is in 2018 to make the pep ahead hit harder. I love it, even the bordering-on-deranged English spoken-word interlude.
Camellia Factory "Only For Tonight, I Wanted To Be Playful"
So what's in store for Hello! Project's future exactly? A lot of it is...what everyone is used to. Morning Musume will keep on trucking on, the other groups will keep pushing until they get decommissioned and you'll have new groups like Camellia Factory try to re-create the magic of yesterday. Their first major label album comes out next month, and this summer-themed number offers a preview of what to expect. A lot happens at once, and unliked the Juice = Juice song above the stranger details actually add to the charm here. But trying to figure out some big "what's next" point from it seems impossible. Which feels right...Hello! Project just is.
News And Views
Nemu Yumemi of Dempagumi.inc announced attentions to leave the group in the near future.
Wrestler and idol and all-around performer Ladybeard got a nice feature this week, and it's definitely the best piece about them I've read to date. It features a real humdinger of a passage...albeit a passage that is sadly not new to J-pop...wherein Ladybeard details threats and abuse he received from fans.
Following up on news from earlier this year, the family of an idol who committed suicide earlier this year is suing the company in charge of the group.
Always take trends with some skepticism...but Japanese music is gaining ground in the Philippines according to a recent article thanks to groups like...Pictured Resort???? Actually, the trend should be expanded a bit, because lots of Japanese bands in this level of upper-tier indie and lower-tier major have also played Taiwan and Hong Kong in recent years too. I've written about this in previous newsletters, but this is the area of music where Japan can actually gain, as they aren't chained to one specific group or buzz term.
Guys, don't bring illegal drugs to Japan, you'll end up like David Morales!
Look, this doesn't fit anywhere, but I just want to put it into the universe...Saturday Night Live is definitely going to do a skit riffing on Terrace House starring Post Malone or something, right?
Every week I try to listen to a new Japanese rapper featured on iTunes named WILYWNKA or something and it's just a disaster. Why waste time with any of these bums when Lyrical School is over here teaming up with my favorite rapper who devotes 90 percent of his tracks to going to the gym?
Oricon Trail For The Week Of October 1, 2018 To October 7, 2018
Single side is boring, a Kis-My-Ft2 song. But the album side...is also predictable, with the latest from rock band Mr. Children easily taking the top spot and bound to be one of the year's biggest sellers. And important detail...the album isn't on streaming, another knock against huge acts embracing digital.
Perfume 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. The fine folks at JQ Magazine have a nice review of the book up this week!
Look At Me!
Talked to Haru Nemuri for The Japan Times. Going off something above, she's another great example of a lane Japanese artists can actually take to get attention outside of Japan. She also made a video showing off the paper itself, which should warm the hearts of anyone still writing for physical media in 2018 (me!!!!).
Over in the realm of virtual YouTubers, there was a massive flare up on Japanese social media related to Kizuna AI and an appearance on an NHK show about the Nobel prizes. Wrote about it for Pulse.
Blog Highlights: Photon Poetry, a department store comp, Soutaiseiriron
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
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