Japan Tracks 2

Hey all you hip cats and groovy chicks!  It's time for another round of the hot new tunes that are sweeping Japan from coast to coast!  Take a perilous slide down the cutting edge of the Japanese music scene -- or at least check out some tracks that have slowly come to my attention over the past several weeks thanks to the pachinko parlor near the bus stop playing them on a near-constant loop.

And I ain't including that dang Avril Lavigne song.  Even though it's everywhere right now.  I.  Am.  Not.  Including.  It.

Kara - "Jumping"
I briefly mentioned Kara before, in connection with fellow musical act Girl's Generation, as an example of a Korean group that had made it big in the Land of the Rising Sun.  Kara seems a little bit more adult than Girl's Generation.  They also seem to have some obsession with wearing black in their videos and then switching to white at key moments to heighten the dramatic tension.  It doesn't always work, but props to them for sticking with the same iffy gimmick through multiple videos.  You can't say these gals ain't consistent!

You also can't say the hook in this track doesn't sound like a mangled version of the Mortal Kombat theme.






Big Bang - "My Heaven
What's this?  Another Korean group?  Man, Japan sure is loving K-Pop these days. 

I became acquainted with Korean hip-hop act Big Bang sometime during college, and I've regretted it ever since.  They are, first and foremost, relentlessly lame.  Which explains the embarrassingly lame quality of this song.  When I first started hearing it everywhere, I didn't know it was the latest from Big Bang, but I really should have guessed.   

Man, this song is stupid!