Make Believe Mailer Vol. 66: Virtual Boy
Virtual YouTubers have gone from a charming novelty occasionally popping up in Japanese life -- like Pepper robots or Peach Coca-Cola -- to a surprisingly persistent element of pop culture in 2019 -- like Pokemon Go or UberEats. Hello Kitty operates a YouTube channel, while Kizuna AI gets called up to make small talk with Christoph Waltz for movie promo. This corner of the Japanese internet has even charmed the denizens of Johnny's Island, as the boy band agency announced their own virtual idols last week. A year ago, Johnny's was logging into YouTube for the first time, now they are going full Adam.
That's not the only big intersection of music and virtual idols over the past week, though. There appears to be a new animated series about virtual YouTubers coming together -- some real Cartoon All-Stars To The Rescue stuff -- and they've recruited Yasutaka Nakata to do the theme song, which you can listen to here. It's a weird moment for an electronic artist whose breakthrough came by making humans sound like computers. Now he's...making music for computers that are actually humans that aims to make them sound kinda human, but not?
This isn't Nakata's first encounter with a digi idol. He also worked on the music for a Kizuna AI number, which a large number of electronic artists have also gotten in on (including some non-Japanese ones). I'm sure at some point Kizuna AI will release an album, and part of me thinks she's not the last virtual entertainer to go down this path. That virtual YouTubers feel as relevant as they do now as they did in 2017 hints that their is a real place for them in the Japanese entertainment industry.
Thing is, they aren't a radical idea. Virtual idols in Japan have been a concept since the 1980s at least, with a creation like Kyoko Date being a crude version of what Kizuna AI seems to have perfected in modern times. But her music career, at least, has potential because of her "influencer" background, giving her a built in fanbase. I'm not sure if Perfume or Kyary Pamyu Pamyu fans (or Snail's House fans, who Nakata is biting hard for that anime theme) would check out what a cartoon YouTuber's music career sounds like just because he's attached. But Kizuna AI fans would absolutely check out music produced by Avec Avec or Yunomi, because the personality they like is at the forefront of that. This really is what the Kyoko Date project wanted to achieve, but were missing the critical element of social media to make it work -- turns out she needed to be more like Rich Brian than Namie Amuro.
The big twist to all of this -- and depending on how you view this sort of thing, big disappointment of this -- is that this ultimately feels like a turn back to the old days of Japanese entertainment rather than some bold new future. Kizuna AI is a talent, not all that different than SMAP or Masatoshi Hamada. I think it's neat De De Mouse can get some love from this world, but I also know this only really goes so far. And it's kind of crazy that Nakata...the most famous behind-the-boards producer of J-pop in the 21st century...is now just another gun for hire for an animated YouTuber.
But also...maybe it was the only way to go forward. Because the actual seachange came over a decade ago in a different kind of digital pop star. Hatsune Miku and her Vocaloid pals represented the populist wave of this idea. She was the central name, but she really represented a way for any bedroom producer with some yen to spend (or with the right download channels) to create music and have it become part of a greater tied together by the aqua-haired singer. It's telling that so many hits associated with her are about the creative process -- or even more meta, like Kenshi Yonezu's desert march about the seeming death of Nico Nico Douga. Anyone could tell their world with Miku. Kizuna AI only tells her own, and musicians have to hope they have the connections to be part of it.
News And Views
Feel like this was a pretty slow news week, especially when you remove the above from the round-up. Uhhhh, former AKB48 member Mariko Shinoda got married? Congrats!
Ozzy Osbourne, the main headliner for this year's metal-leaning Download Festival near Tokyo, cancelled that show (along with other stops on this side of the world) due to health issues. This really underlines an issue Japanese music festivals have been inching towards since the start of the decade -- due to the general sales decline of Western music in the country this decade, finding new potential headliners for these biggie-sized celebrations of international music has become much harder. Because at the moment, the only artists getting people out to rock-oriented events are older names with cred spanning decades. The biggest names, Fuji Rock and to a lesser degree Summer Sonic, can cruise for a bit thanks to the appeal of the "experiences" they offer (same goes for EDM fests, still coming and coming). But here's a case where a more niche event takes a huge blow, because there is no doubt a lot of people ponied up to see Osbourne play (though, Slayer's "final world tour" might move some tickets too). This is kind of a first glance at how a lot of festivals play out in the 2020s.
But worse still...Ozzy can't hang out with his friend.
You guys like Buffalo Daughter re-issues? Spring is looking up!
Never too late for 2018 countdown lists, and Goodbye, Subculture comes through with a good one this week! I also totally forgot to link to Ian Martin's top 25 from a couple weeks back...scroll down from here to get another great angle on last year's best Japanese music.
Japanese sub-cultures present one of the most slippery surfaces for non-Japanese journalists to traverse. They often are quite interesting, and worthy of coverage, but can be presented in a clumsy way that makes them feel more omnipresent than they actually are. Basically, "Japan is going wild for bagelheads!" So the New York Times doing a video on "Japan’s Chicano Subculture" is a hell of a gambit, though I think it mostly does OK. But the reason I drop it in here? The line "Mona aka Sad Girl is one of Japan's most popular Chicano-style rappers" which...is probably true! But also underscores how niche this can all get. Still better than video one billion about hikikomori. What's next, herbivore men making a comeback?
Speaking of...K-pop is getting into a city pop kick. At least Yukika shouts it out.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of February 11, 2019 To February 17, 2019
This week's chart featured one of the more interesting showdowns, albeit with less of an interesting finish then you'd hope. New albums from ONE OK ROCK and Aimyon both generated a lot of buzz, and in some alternate world where, uhhh, music narratives made people excited like they used to, this could be seen as a showdown between generations, or a more traditional artist going up against a singer/songwriter who has used streaming more successfully than any other Japanese artist to become a force in the market. Except...yeah, ONE OK ROCK is massive, and while seeing them easily pace ahead of Aimyon on physical album sales isn't a shocker, seeing them also mop up online is slightly more of a surprise. But then again, both are huge in their own right...and easily zoomed ahead of the assorted idols hanging out below them.
Perfume's GAME (33 1/3)
I think we passed the one year anniversary of this one, but still a chance to get a copy at Bloomsbury or Amazon. Thanks so much to everyone who has bought a copy over the last 12 months and offered feedback!
Look At Me!
Wrote about the lovely Kankyo Ongaku compilation out from Light In The Attic this week for The Japan Times, featuring interviews with Spencer Doran of Visible Cloaks and Daisuke Hinata of Interior. This comp inspired a lot of great writing, from the Pitchfork review to The Guardian's piece too, give those a read as well. And yeah...the best thing about this release is how it contextualizes something that often feels simply exoticized.
One of the most buzzed about topics online in Japan recently? Teen hitchhiking. On it for Pulse.
Blog Highlights: Seiho, Spangle Call Lilli Line, Oomori Seiko aka damn what a week in my wheelhouse.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
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