Japan Tracks

In preparation for Ryan's eventual post about our concert-going exploits (which he swears he'll post any day now, guys...seriously!), I thought I'd share some of the music that seems to be super-popular in Japan right now.

Girl's Generation - "Gee"
This first song is by a Korean girl group called "Girl's Generation" (or "SNSD" -- apparently an abbreviation for that same name as translated into Korean).  It is entitled "Gee."  Girl's Generation seem to have a real penchant for titling their songs after monosyllabic English interjections, since their other hit song is called "Oh," but that's really neither here nor there.






Korean pop music seems to have taken off in a big way here, which I find interesting given the discrimination Koreans have traditionally faced in Japan (and still face, sometimes).  I see huge advertisements for Girl's Generation -- and fellow Korean girl group, Kara -- everywhere I go.

As for the video itself, you'll probably notice that Girl's Generation do some weird dancing -- much of it centered around wiggling their legs and gesturing wildly with their hands.  Seriously, every close-up shot of one of the girls involves some sort of hand gesture.  Do they even know what they're gesturing about anymore, or is it just a style thing at this point?  And sure, the dances look cool when they all do them together in a group, but try to imagine how incredibly hilarious they would look if it was just one of the girls in isolation.

AKB48 - "Heavy Rotation"
The band AKB48 -- so called because it has, I kid you not, 48 members -- appears to be aimed primarily at video game and anime nerds, though little girls love them too.  Can they really sing?  Who knows!  That  isn't the point.  The point -- at least according to this video -- is underwear, pillow fights, cuteness, the fulfillment of every nerd's semi-pedo fantasy, and more underwear.

This is one pervy video, but not in the way most American videos are pervy.  The creepiness here stems from the childlike faux-innocence of the song's lyrics and the band's members, juxtaposed against teddy-clad romps in a harem somewhere.  Oh, and also, this is the most popular video among Japanese males age 45-54.  So there's that.







And again with the weird dancing!

Utada Hikaru - "Goodbye Happiness"
Utada Hikaru is arguably Japan's most popular female singer of the past ten years.  She sings like an American R&B artist.  Lots of Japanese singers do it these days, and I ain't so keen on the style.  I do think this video is cute and clever, however.  And at least it ain't creeptastic like the AKB48 video up there!





X Japan - "Celebration"
This is an old video for an old song, so strictly speaking it doesn't belong in this post.  However, it is a prime example of Japan's "visual kei" style of music -- a genre that basically combines hard-core rock, cross-dressing, and lots of make-up.  I thought I'd stick it in here because this is the sort of concert Ryan and I went to two weekends ago -- and you'll learn all about it when Ryan *ahem* eventually *ahem* gets around to posting pics.


Anyway, here's "Celebration."  You don't have to sit through the whole thing, but please do treat yourself to the hilarious white people at the beginning.




"I want my freedom!"