Make Believe Mailer Vol. 68: Too Much News
This week in general was just overloaded with news — like, 90 percent bad news — and even breaking it down to specific sub-sections became a challenge to keep up (see: the entire Seungri situation). Somehow, even J-pop witnessed two of the most significant stories of the year in one week, so much so that one of them has been almost completely overlooked in favor of the other. Maki Goto might be having an affair and that's already ancient.
So this week, let's just dig a little bit more into the two huge stories impacting the Japanese music (and entertainment) industry.
Pierre Taki of Denki Groove arrested for drugs
Late last Tuesday, Tokyo police arrested Pierre Taki of dance-pop group Denki Groove on suspicion of using cocaine, and charge he allegedly confessed to. Reports indicate police had been investigating Taki for a bit now, and searched his house. A urine test administered on the scene revealed traces of cocaine. This quickly became the biggest news story...full stop...in Japan, even getting its own late-night breaking news alert and just dominating coverage since. Morning shows have attempted to explain "acid house" (poorly) and show how to snort white using paper money (pretty well, maybe the authorities should keep tabs on that analyst).
Sorry to anyone who follows this stuff regularly, but drug laws in Japan are hyper strict (as they are in most of Asia). So the response to Taki's transgression has followed a familiar script -- everything that he's been involved with has been pulled, from Denki Groove CDs to festival spots at gatherings scheduled for this summer. He's also a kind of jack-of-all-trades talent, who has appeared in dramas, video games and Frozen. All postponed or altered, as a result. Japan doesn't joke around with this stuff.
If you've followed Japanese entertainment for any stretch of time, none of this is new. Multiple entertainers have seen their careers frozen up because of crime, many due to illicit substance use (though few produce as fucking killer music as Denki Groove, but I digress). Taki's case is just one of the higher profile instances of this, and one that jumps out in the international media because someone's career being derailed to drugs is becoming a rarity outside of the continent.
But what's interesting is this all comes at a time when the question of how to deal with the artistic legacies of allegedly horrid people is coming to a head in the West. Turns out Japan is the original cancel culture -- the nation's entertainment industry actually has a way of nudging out artists who have problematic matters tied to them (some viral tweets have compared Denki Groove's case to some situation where an anime guy turned out to be a pedophile or something, and I feel the implication is that a shared governing body is giving out unequal punishments. But this isn't a government move [I mean, it could be, but not explicitly, I wouldn't put it past them] but rather an industry move so...maybe demand more from your cartoons?). Some of the more astute writers in Japan have tied this to the recent situation with actor Hirofumi Arai, who was arrested on allegations of rape and saw a lot of his projects pulled form shelves as a result. I don't think using drugs comes anywhere close to assault, but in theory, this whole situation is a reminder that Japan's entertainment industry has an approach to erasing -- even just temporarily -- artists who do something that proves to be problematic.
Regardless, free Denki Groove, one of the best ever in Japanese music.
AKB48 cancels this year's general election
The fact this bit of news failed to chart much in Japan this week underlines why it happened -- not long ago, the AKB48 general election / festival of democracy was a legit big deal, the kind of thing people who barely interacted with music let alone idols would wade into. But with each passing year, it loses steam, despite all kinds of drama year in and year out.
The implied message is that parent company AKS wants to mix things up a decade after launching this popularity contest, which is a fair amount of time and seems to be echoes by swaths of online AKB48 fans, who think a move away from an event that just features too many members trying to fight for the spotlight could be a good thing. Of course, the state of AKB48 in 2019 hints at why this is happening too. The parent company is eyeing places beyond the archipelago, while the whole NGT48 situation still looms large over everything. The latter, in particular, seems like a tipping point -- if AKS were on the fence about holding the election this year, the media and online attention stemming from this debacle probably made them feel OK icing it for a year (or more...or forever).
Time will tell if it comes back, but I do think this marks the end of an era. As easy as it would be to mark the most recent epoch of J-pop in a neat decade, I think starting it from the first AKB48 election in 2009 and closing it this year makes sense. Whether you like it or not, AKB48 were the defining act of this ten year stretch of Japanese music, and this marks the moment their relevance in Japan is at a real ebb. That it coincides with a new era is just a nice coincidence.
News And Views
Great week for CHAI! The band landed a Best New Music from Pitchfork, and positive reviews from The Guardian and Stereogum among others. Deserved too...I'm planning on writing a review of this (and another album) next week around these parts, so stay tuned if you like uhhhh lots of perspectives. I will flex a bit and remind that I interviewed them before many others! Also, they met Narduwar, so all is good.
Arama interviewed Haru Nemuri, and got her thoughts on Ye among other things, which makes it a most read as far as I'm concerned.
Japan going after illegal downloads. Meanwhile, you can still buy blank CDs and rent albums from Tsutaya, which...well, I don't see where that could go.
Mariya Takeuchi prepping to release some remastered albums, all of the ones before masterpiece Variety.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of March 4, 2019 To March 10, 2019
My goal recently was to take the Oricon singles more seriously, but naturally when I decide to do that the top number is a Kanjani8 cut that can't be found anywhere online, which kind of defeats the purpose of writing about it. I'll urge you instead to spend more time with the runner up, which remains top-level J-pop's best singe of the year so far.
Perfume's GAME (33 1/3)
My entry in the 33 1/3 series is still out there! Get a copy at Amazon or Bloomsbury today.
Look At Me!
Wrote about the new faces of Japanese pop culture abroad: Marie Kondo and Momo.
Blog highlights: Amunoa, Japanese Summer Orange, Satoko Shibata
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
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