The "What's on your Mind" Thread ~Asian Music Version~ II

[KarenPang]

Wonder why it took B'z almost 30 years to finally perform at FNS Kayousai but it was well worth the wait , they nailed it with their performances last week

Seeing that they're JRock god like status , I guess Fuji TV gave them top billing and allowed them to perform the full versions of their songs cos normally in such TV shows , the artiste(s) don't tend to sing the full song except on rare occasions

Also Fukuyama Masaharu-san never ages it's ridiculous , he looked amazing last night when he performed on FNS Kayousai , damn it . It felt like going to a rock concert of his & not a formal event haha

And LUNA SEA performed their evergreen classic ROSIER , that never goes wrong at all . I jokingly told my friend (who's a die hard long time LUNA SEA fan & a SLAVE fanclub member) that frontman RYUICHI never seemed to age and changed that much and she agree with me on it LOL

[Corvina]

Today is the first day for Oricon counting digital song sales!

Here's the first week:
https://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/dis/w/2017-12-25/

That's the first time we ever get numbers for single songs. Pretty awesome.

Though it proves, that also digital song sales are pretty low overall. Only the first two songs are higher.

[Bigtop]

How does Oricon calculate digital song sales? It's a bit complex considering we have iTunes, Recochoku, etc...

[Corvina]

Originally Posted by Bigtop

How does Oricon calculate digital song sales? It's a bit complex considering we have iTunes, Recochoku, etc...

Pretty easy probably with all the sites like iTunes and recochoku reporting the download numbers to Oricon.

[KarenPang]

V6's Okada will be getting married , congrats to him !

Wonder who will be the next Johnny to get married x)

[Kacku]

2017 isn't over yet, but I already have so many things I'm looking forward to next year! Do As Infinity, iri and MONKEY MAJIK have all announced album releases, JILLE seemed to be hinting at an album coming out next year (if my Japanese reading skills are to be trusted...), and I'm probably forgetting something too. I'm especially looking forward to MONKEY MAJIK's new album, their last one was an unexpected change of direction and I liked it.

I listened to Uru's album today and I have to say... She has a pretty voice and the songs seemed quite good (I really liked the first track) but it was just too many slow serene songs one after another, I was getting bored to tears and wishing for it to be over by the halfway point.

Also, I've been thinking back on the past year and my favourite songs and albums released in 2017 and thought about making a thread for discussing those. I always think about it at this time of the year, but maybe this year I'll actually do it.

[Corvina]

Originally Posted by Kacku

.

Also, I've been thinking back on the past year and my favourite songs and albums released in 2017 and thought about making a thread for discussing those. I always think about it at this time of the year, but maybe this year I'll actually do it.

You can do that in this thread as well, I suppose.
I'd like to read and comment for sure.

With Uru I agree, but I didn't expect anything else.
The album is nice for a calming background music.

[Kacku]

Originally Posted by Corvina

You can do that in this thread as well, I suppose.
I'd like to read and comment for sure.

I'll make a separate thread for it later. I just ended up going full fake-deep-music-blogger on it and now I want to hold off on posting until I've got my comments all down because I have a lot to say. I'd like to see your comments too!

[KarenPang]

^ I would be interested to read what good music you've come across this year as well

I have a music blog that I write regularly so I know what you mean cos at times I can go nerd out too

Music wise this year to me has been quite eventful as I came across albums that turned out to be unexpectedly great (like GRANRODEO's Pierrot Dancin' , BREAKERZ's X , V6's The ONES , Hirai Ken's Utabaka Dake ni. , SPYAIR's KINGDOM & etc) , a few of my favourite artistes & most favourite artiste celebrate their milestone anniversaries and quite a lot of veteran artistes I support such as B'z , Fukuyama Masaharu-san , KinKi Kids & V6 put out pretty good material where all the while they don't tend to be so active unlike this year

Also this rarely happens but I finally come onboard GRANRODEO's music after I went Osaka beginning of 2017 to see them perform alongside with BREAKERZ . I seldom get into an artiste's music prior to watching them perform but after being 3 rows centre away from them onstage , I was a convert of their stuff as both bands were fantastic live

2018 hasn't started but already I have new music to look forward to until mid Feb

Whoever said JPop is dead , I beg to differ , you just have to keep an open mind on it & after listening to JPop/JRock for more than 10 years , I can say I rarely if not never get bored of what I listen on a daily basis and sometimes I also can't keep up with the artistes' releases too cos there're just way too many acts I follow/support , it's a struggle but I can handle it x)

[Kacku]

^ I don't know how you keep writing regularly, it took me forever to get my list written and now I'm exhausted.

And now I'm reminded that I've got GRANRODEO's Pierrot Dancin' downloaded on my computer, still waiting to be listened... Oops.

[Bigtop]

Really? Ayaka's releasing a Blu-ray/DVD of that Budokan concert on the 26th pretty soon? I'd be interested...but that means I'm spoiled with all the upcoming releases!

• Ayaka-Daichi Miura 'Heart Up' collab single (2/14)
• Leo Ieiri 'TIME' album (2/21)
• Ayaka Acoustic 3-STAR RAW (II) Budokan concert Blu-ray/DVD (3/14)

(And don't get me or Karen talking about when the next Hey! Say! JUMP release is coming out just yet...)

[KarenPang]

Originally Posted by Kacku

^ I don't know how you keep writing regularly, it took me forever to get my list written and now I'm exhausted.

And now I'm reminded that I've got GRANRODEO's Pierrot Dancin' downloaded on my computer, still waiting to be listened... Oops.

Haha I've been doing this since 2006 and back then I was still listening to English music before jumping to Japanese music full time

Pierrot Dancin' is good but my sister who's a big GRANRODEO fan says she prefer their last album Karma to Labyrinth a lot more & that album is more dark and it has a great long album opening + closing tracks

I like both Karma to Labyrinth & Pierrot Dancin' . Pierrot Dancin' is more old school & less moody

[Corvina]

I've been totally out of the loop for the Chinese singers Twins, cause they concentrated on acting for quite some time (last release - an album - was in 2012).
So I just learned that they released two EPs back in 2015 they toured with afterwards (and continuing touring with in 2018) and also released another new EP in summer this year. Have to catch up!

[Teppei-chan]

Yesterday I ordered a CD from Japan after a really long time. Not that I didn't wanted to buy some CDs but I had to save the money for more important things. Now I can't wait for the CD to arrive

[Bigtop]

Which artist best represent as 'Japan's music act' (in a similar fashion to how the Dallas Cowboys is 'America's NFL team')? I'm probably saying Arashi.

[KarenPang]

5 different BREAKERZ related news were announced after BREAKERZ LIVE TOUR 2017【X-cross-】final finished today

So spoilt & psyched , can't wait

[Bigtop]

Nogizaka46 wins the Japan Record Awards that was filled with Keyakizaka46, AKB48, Kana Nishino and other random junk (e.g. AAA).

Oh wait - Shukan Bunshun actually 'announced' who the winner is well before the big day came?

Seriously, that's taking away the fun factor from the JRAs! And they did this too last year with Kana Nishino! Can anyone really trust the JRAs these days after the bribing incident with JSB a couple of years back?

[KarenPang]

3 nin KAT-TUN is making a comeback in 2018

[KarenPang]

Hard to believe it has been 20 years since the 1st Johnny's Countdown was started o_O

The very 1st Johnny's Countdown that V6 & KinKi Kids performed in was so simple unlike the currrent ones . Watching old footages of their past countdown was cringy but yet nostalgic haha

Also I don't listen/support Kanjani∞ anymore but there's no doubt that they always steal the countdown's limelight as much as possible

Kanjani∞'s Murakami did a commendable job in handling the rap portion of ARASHI's A・RA・SHI during Johnny's Countdown 2017 - 2018 but he looked so weird while rapping & flat out tired after the rapping was done LOL

And no thanks to them , now everytime I listen to Kisumai's Everybody Go , I will always remember Kanjani∞'s epic failness in trying to sing the song and rollerskate at the same time during Johnny's Countdown 2016-2017 which they failed spectacularly as they kept falling down 1 by 1 while singing

Kisumai make it look so easy to sing & rollerskate co-currently but Kanjani∞ proves otherwise haha

My favourite Kanjani∞ performance during Johnny's Countdown is still 2010-2011 when they dressed up like sushi and poor Yokoyama was dressed up as the soya sauce bottle & he looked so miserable

[Bigtop]

What's going on with the Kouhaku? For me, there's no Ayu, Ayaka, miwa or Leo Ieiri, but this really shocks me:

The 68th Kouhaku from last Sunday night was the third-worst rated Kouhaku, with a Kanto viewership rating of only 39.4% for the 'critical' second half (2004 and 2015 were worse, at 39.3% and 39.2% respectively; 35.8% for the first half). And this is the Kouhaku that featured Namie Amuro's final appearance! :O

This is the lowest-rated Kouhaku that the white team (shirogumi/male) won; the two that were worse than this had the red team (akagumi/female) won in each of them.

I don't understand why, despite Namie's final appearance before retiring, the Kouhaku is struggling to push higher - or even maintain - its viewership ratings since the turn of the century. Maybe partially it has to do with the youth not being on the TV so much these days now we have smartphones to deal with? In fact, can we convince NHK to stream the 'main' Kouhaku (not just the 'Ura Talk' second-screen companion program) to computers and smartphones, not just TVs? And/or is it because the lineup and/or the program overall was stale?

Also, by the way, in that same Kouhaku, three members of Keyakizaka46 - including 'center' Yurina Hirate - suffered hyperventilation after performing "Fukyouwaon" not once - but twice - causing questions whether or not Keyakizaka46 and/or its members were pushing too far, not to mention Techi (Hirate) is only 16 years old, the youngest of the 'Kanji Keyakizaka46' members (that performed in the Kouhaku).