Make Believe Mailer Vol. 65: Talkin' Terrace
NOTE: This newsletter contains mild spoilers for the back half of the latest season of Terrace House, which hasn't aired outside of Japan yet (I think). Scroll down to the next bolded section to avoid.
The latest season of Terrace House came to an end last week in Japan, and what a ride it was. For a little bit in the middle everything started getting a little static, but the final stretch fixed all of that while also flipping English-language takes on the show's general no-drama air on its noggin with disintegrating relationships and fourth-wall-breaking reminders of how Japanese netizens genuinely spend time harassing people they don't like. Probably not great for the folks on the show...but it made for one of the more claustrophobic stretches in the reality show's history.
And the glistening, Instagram-ready cherry dropped on top of all this? Players from the Japanese music industry played a huge role, especially come the late game. This would have been an important artifact of the current musical moment in Japan even if they cut it off after one half -- that one guy trying to tap into the "city pop revival" sums up 60% of where rock in the country went over the last two years. But nope! They went and brought on an actual member of Gesu No Kiwami Otome to Karuizawa to mix in with a handful of models and aspiring skateboarders.
Masao Wada, the band's bassist, entered the friendly(-ish) fray late in the game. Things got off to the perfect start when several other members of the house could only figure out his main gig when they remembered a certain scandal that consumed them a few years back. But from there, Wada's work in Gesu and Dadaray became a common thread. For those hoping to see the curtain pulled back on the Japanese music industry -- ehhh, not so much. You get some post-practice chatting, Wada and his lead singer enjoying yakitori and some lovely shots of WWWX in Shibuya.
But what you do get is a weird snapshot of Japanese music in 2019, and what being in the belly of the machine might be like. I figure that Wada's inclusion is half work -- one misconception of Terrace House is that the people on it aren't trying to use the show as a springboard, but this season highlighted and late on found one announcer straight-up calling someone out over using the program for sponsorship reasons -- and half legit. Regarding the latter...Wada is charming, but following his arc made me think he might really have struggled to find a girlfriend in nearly a decade.
Yet his appearance on a popular Netflix franchise totally helps his band out in the fragmented field of Japanese music. Spin the wheel and pluck a random member from any mid-tier rock group into the charming housing provided by the producers, and odds are their group is enjoying a boost. But Wada presents an interesting case, as his primary outfit crashed and burned in 2016. Like all pop culture from 2015, it feels like Gesu really penning the breakout hit of the year and seeming poised to jump to a higher level happened in an alternate dimension. They were all over TV...for music reasons! And then they weren't, and they nearly folded in on themselves (something touched on briefly on Terrace House).
But Terrace House allows for a chance to change the trajectory. While some moments feature house members not being totally positive where Wada is from (until they remember the scandal), the panelists and producers treat Gesu like A-listers. The climatic moment of the whole show is set around one of their concerts...or so the show tells us, until we see Gesu is just part of some rock festival in Fukuoka. The band -- along with Dadaray, who get a little shine too and are unknown by everyone except Wada in the Terrace House verse -- comes off as pretty normal in practice and after-show footage. And they look cool onstage. Overall, they end up looking pretty good out of this, while also reminding that TV -- or the streaming version of it -- can still be a central power player in the industry.
You know who looks even better from this show?
Going into Wada's time on Terrace House, I was curious to see how much Enon Kawatani would feature in this. I mean...he is the one who caused that whole scandal that sunk the band, and he has spent the last few years being reviled online. Becky hosts another Netflix show, can she veto him from getting any airtime?
But he's all over the show, physically and spiritually! Since Wada's life in the band gets documented just as much as him buying bread from a fancy bakery, Kawatani pops up frequently to drop nuggets like the one in the above pic. He meets up with Wada for dinner, and then later on meets another member of the house for dinner where he plays advocate for the bassist. Even when not on screen, he gets mentions, whether as a vague destroyer of worlds (anytime a house member pokes Wada about the whole Becky thing) or when the panelists dwell on Kawatani's coolness and charming attributes (down to thinking he might steal one member of the house from Wada...no winking, delivered straight!).
It's kind of an image fix for Kawatani -- the scandal comes up, but is treated like particularly choppy waters in Gesu's career (not brought up at all is that other scandal he was in). He and the band are presented in generally positive ways, and his final act is to play cheerleader for Wada which looks pretty admirable in a vacuum. Terrace House is only really wrapping up something that has been in motion for the last year, probably from the point people started getting angry at tabloids again. Gesu's career has stabilized and, while plenty still mock Kawatani online, he's starting to float away from that whole incident. I mean, even Becky has rebounded pretty well and got lots of positive coverage for her marriage this week.
So maybe Terrace House really does have the power to make situations look more normal than they are -- Wada, Kawatani and the viability of the Japanese music industry all come out looking pretty good from this, even if it involves a little padding along the way. Welp, here's hoping they get Kohh on for the next Tokyo season or something to really spice it up.
YOU ARE FREE OF MINOR SPOILERS NOW
News And Views
NUMBER GIRL REUNITING. The group is currently scheduled to play the Rising Sun Rock Festival in Hokkaido this August -- where they have had some really spectacular sets -- though god I hope they work some other dates in there, because I can't justify flying up north this year. I could babble about how important they are, but Pitchfork was nice enough to let me do that a couple years back when their three major-label albums were reissued. (Fun fact: I had School Girl Distortional Addict and Num-Heavymetallic rated higher in my original draft, and on certain days I think the prior might be my favorite Japanese album of the '90s / ever??)
This news about all unauthorized downloads of copyrighted material is, obviously, loaded with implications for music, even if illegal music downloads don't feel quite as prevalent as they used to be.
Avex plans to launch a smartphone payment app this summer. Collect points and use them to watch DA PUMP, live!
Following up on Dinosaur Jr. chart-mania 2019 -- sites such as Gizmodo dug into why an old, album-only cut climbed up the Billboard chart and came to a similar conclusion about Gachinko Fight Club. Which is much better than the cynical read of "duhhhh, ever hear of bot farms devoted to raising the profile of...dusty alternative rock?" The two thoughts that still sorta pick at me about this is 1) how the YouTube algorithm is being slightly pumped up over this, even though YouTube has become a destination for old and contemporary TV uploads alike and 2) what would the Billboard charts look like if Japanese songs used in these kind of uploads were tagged in the same manner as Dinosaur Jr. this time? Would we get the Japanese equivalent of this, "why is Kaela Kimura's 'Butterfly' slaying the charts this week?"
James Hadfield has a nice feature on Fishmans -- a fantastic Japanese group and an outfit that has enjoyed online-driven attention among certain Western circles -- in The Japan Times.
It has been brought to my attention that there are TWO PODCASTS ABOUT MERZBOW. It's true, no bubble for this industry!
Sekai No Owari released a song drawing from acid house and...it's kind of good? And definitely kinda daring for a group that could have coasted on their dream journal for the next ten years?
TBS ran a show about the best music acts of the Heisei era, and named AKB48 number one (because of sales). People were not happy. Thank goodness treating sales and hard data as the final say on music is something that only happens in Japan, am I right!?
Oricon Trail For The Week Of Feb. 4, 2019 To Feb. 10, 2019
The top is pretty boring, with Kis-My-ft2 taking the crown in singles (nudging out IZ*ONE, with a solid second place Japanese debut) and AAA member Nissy going to one on the album side. This week though, we do get a minor look at how Oricon's new "let's actually count the internet" policy offers some slight change. Ariana Grande's thank u, next missed the regular album chart (possibly because there are no physical copies of the album...don't look at me, I haven't left my house much!) but gets in at #10 on the new album chart. Small steps towards figuring it all out.
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 that dog.
Look At Me!
Talked to Lullatone for Bandcamp Daily! For those in deep, that means that Make Believe Melodies talked to the folks behind "Make Believe Melody," our namesake. Lots of great bits from our chat, hoping to share more in a bit!
Part-time terrorism going up! Or maybe we are all the security state now. Read all about it in Pulse this week.
Blog Highlights: Acidclank, Einsteins, Tamana Ramen
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
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