Make Believe Mailer Vol. 75: XXXAbetacion
Reason I'll never think of charging for this newsletter...I sometime just take weeks off at the time when work gets too heavy. This was gonna go out last week, but let's just start new here!
Shinzo Abe loves Japan, and he loves eating food in public. The Prime Minister also loves to hang out with the major-label equivalent to a SoundCloud rapper in Japan.
That's YOSHI, a 16-year-old rapper whose debut album SEX IS LIFE dropped recently. Arama has a good round-up on him, but his brush with the Prime Minister came as part of a goofy video Abe made to promote a "new generation" of Japanese people. Watch the whole thing here to see him interact with the country's future, which also includes BMX bicyclists and a kendama player.
It's a bizarre creation that is part of the ruling LDP party's recent shift towards being vaguely "with it" -- see also Taro Kono's pivot towards "weird Twitter" circa 2013, or the viral "beaver knocker" clip. Abe hanging with the closest thing major label J-pop can cook up resembling "SoundCloud rap" is interesting, first because what and because his history of crossing over with music has been far removed from the artists catching the attention of Japan's youth (or at least the major label efforts at replicating a Tohji).
Well before he was trying to get some second-hand drip from some rich family's rapper kid, Abe is a guy who took time to tell the Diet how happy he was SMAP actually wasn't breaking up (before they did), and then sneak in references to their music in his explanation for the new era name. Before that, he hung out with TOKIO (not the first time). He's also been spotted with EXILE, Momoiro Clover Z and various other idols, though these tend to always happen at an annual elite-level sakura party. Also, this.
The most interesting moment of Abe interacting with a musician came two years ago, when he interviewed Morning Musume producer Tsunku. There's a lot of interesting stuff going on in here -- genuinely heartfelt stuff! -- but the funniest moment comes when the Prime Minister attempts to retrofit "Love Machine" into reflective of his party's policies. This gets a nice "is that so" out of Tsunku.
Yet that represents a kind of old-school approach to J-pop crossover that Abe might be moving away from. He's not trying to hitch his wagon to any existing hits when he hangs out with a teenage rapper, but rather trying to place his bets on the artist getting huge and LDP getting love as a result. This is one path towards cool ("cool") Abe could take, though maybe he will switch it up to just drinking bubble tea to win over the youth of Japan.
News And Views
Junnosuke Taguchi wants you to know he's sorry by getting low.
EXILE's Akira married Taiwanese model/actress Lin Chiling, though that was easily overshadowed by the other big entertainment marriage of the week.
Time for the "Talent Power Ranking," baby! TV stars win the day in the overall ranking, with musicians not popping up too much. Worth noting these ranking have always felt a bit...strange to me. They skew old -- see Southern All-Stars in the top ten -- and feature some real oddball inclusions (Shohei Ohtani is, indeed, a talent, but not like this list would imply). So take a little salt with this one, but still plenty of interesting stuff within (Sandwich Man really do run the game).
Here's the best Tetsuya Komuro song of the last five years (note, not made by Tetsuya Komuro, featuring a dancing panda).
Shiggy Jr. calling it a day. A band that peaked pretty early and settled into a familiar groove (one they were very good at, though). The highlights are quite high, and their first single remains ahead of its time in how it predicted the sound of so many rock bands that got huge in the last three years (bonus: a gushing blog post I wrote in 2013 about it!).
I'm watching the Miley Cyrus episode of Black Mirror as I write this -- so, I guess skip this if you dislike spoilers of any type -- and it's genuinely crazy that it takes most of its "scary future" cues from Vocaloid software that has been on the market since like 2000. A handful of reviews have zoomed in on this, which is good since the ones that don't feel really weird to me. The most interesting parts actually come when they riff on holograms of dead artists or virtual YouTubers. ANYWAY, highly recommend the episode because it features a robot failing to open a door, one of my favorite visuals imaginable.
This is a little late, but BNK48 announced their first sister group, which is a huge step forward for the AKB48 family in Asia. I wrote a little analysis on this, and I'm interested in seeing where this goes.
Last, a view from Twitter that is a nice reminder of how the Japanese music industry works in 2019. The gist of this is Billie Eilish stands out because she's young, has her own perspective and has basically stood out by acting like she isn't a typical pop star. How does she get advertised in Tokyo? Those big soundtrucks driving around Shibuya, aka the ultimate sign of old-school industry stuff.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of May 27, 2019 To June 2, 2019
The album side of this week manages to be predictable and bewildering all at once. B'z tops it by selling over 200,000 copies, beating out Sheena Ringo's latest which shifted...a good-for-most artists 57,000-plus copies, but which feels like a letdown for someone with such clout. Go further down and you get Red Velvet, SIRUP and Sting.
The singles side features a million seller via Nogizaka46's "Sing Out!" Pretty meh from a group that has put out some great stuff, but not surprising given this is the rare group capable of bringing in casual listeners and idol hardcores.
Look At Me!
Currently working on a lot of music writing for Japan Times, but I will share something a wrote last week about the legacy of Rino Sashihara, the decade's most important idol.
Blog highlights: Sawa Angstrom, Seiho, House Of Tapes
My entry in the 33 1/3 series is still out there! Get it at Amazon or Bloomsbury.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
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