Everyone’s favourite K-pop girl group have recently launched in Japan to much acclaim and attention. They’re releasing their next single, a Japanese version of Gee, soon! Check out the MV teaser below! I <3 SNSD and hope the Japanese fans will love this song too!
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alan – 風に向かう花 (Kaze ni Mukau Hana ~ Flower in the Wind) PV
21 JunI have a lot of respect for alan. She seems like a really smart, intelligent artist – much moreso than a lot of singers at the moment (Asian or otherwise). I’m always really impressed when a singer is multilingual. In this respect, alan reminds me a lot of Sa Ding Ding (heralded as the Chinese Bjork). She’s Tibetan, but can sing in numerous languages and has a soaring, beautiful voice (her technique reflective of traditional Tibetan singing). It’s inspiring to think of alan and Sa Ding Ding growing up in Tibet, all the culture, tradition and the scenery.
I’m not a die-hard alan fan, I think her songs can be often very dramatic and deep and not necessarily the best thing to listen to on the journey into work. I really liked the songs she did for Red cliff (both the Chinese and Japanese songs) and see this is a bit of return to form for her. Let’s hope she’s successful for this release – it’s also very encouraging to see a Chinese star do well in Japan.
Koda Kumi – Lollipop PV
20 JunKoda Kumi is back with a new song. I’ve never been a huge fan of Koda Kumi (I much prefer her ballads to her dance songs. But she always knows how to perform for the limelight. She’s a great performer but I think some of her style choices might not always agree with an audience. Oh well, you can’t be liked by everyone.
Check out the Lollipop PV here:
4Minute – Muzik Japanese Version Teaser
1 MayWow! I completely missed 4Minute getting signed by Universal Music Japan, but they did and they’re releasing their hit song, Muzik, for the Japanese crowd. They’re not the first Korean artist to release music in Japan (BoA, DBSK anyone?) but it definitely shows that the Korean Wave is not letting up anyway time soon.
Step forward, 4Minute who are releasing a Japanese version of their hit song Muzik. Before becoming obsessed with K-pop I was into J-pop in a big way. I still am, but only really for certain artists. This song should be a big hit in Japan – I always thought it had a big J-pop electro influence anyway. It will be interesting to watch though, Japan doesn’t follow idol groups as fanatically as Korea does, but with BoA’s slow decline in popularity, the space is wide open for a Korean artist to take over the Oricon charts.
Angela Aki (アンジェラ・アキ) – Kagayaku Hito (輝く人) PV
20 AprAngela Aki is back with a new single! Kagayaku Hito sees a big jump for the J-pop star as she ditches her trademark piano for an acoustic guitar! I’m not entirely sure if it works better or worse – it’s just different. It sounds quite summery, peaceful and melodic – a typical Angela Akisan song.
Angela Aki used to be one of my favourite J-pop singers but I don’t listen to J-pop as much but I always have time for my favourites. It’s good to see that she’s still around; she normally goes missing for months on end and then pops back with a single and an album. Hehe, I just realised that Angela Aki is using a guitar and now YUI is using a piano – perhaps they swapped their instruments with each other?
Check out the PV below:
Ayumi Hamasaki – Don’t Look Back PV
15 AprI’m not sure if the daily motion embeds work, but check out Ayumi Hamasaki’s new PV for Don’t Look Back! Ayusan is look really pretty at the moment! The video is also really interesting, like a Hollywood thriller.
YUI – to Mother… Audio
15 AprListen to YUI’s new single below:
I used to love YUI about 4 years ago. I had all her music, but then by her third album I had become obsessed with K-pop. I actually don’t listen to that much J-pop anymore, ain’t it strange how times change? The audio is pretty bad but the song sounds quite nice. It’s got a piano instead of her trademark acoustic guitar – she’s becoming Angela Aki! I quite like it, it’s breezy like a summer son~
Namie Amuro – Love Game / Defend Love Preview
15 DecTo celebrate Namie’s new album release, here’s a couple of videos to get you interested! Avex have released this album weirdly, I guess they see Namie as an album artist now, perhaps more and more artists will go this way and only have promotional videos for album tracks and no actual single releases? Anyways, check out a small preview of Love Game (not a Lady Gaga cover) and the full track of Defend Love; both pretty cool!
Namie Amuro – My Love & Copy That / PAST < FUTURE Album Cover
1 Dec
Namie Amuro is back! Yep, she’s finally back with a full album, entitled PAST < FUTURE. It has Wild/Dr. and new songs My Love & Copy That which are being used as the new Vidal Sasson CMs. The new songs sound pretty cool so far. I like My Love more than Copy That. Sadly, neither of these songs are getting an MV but she is releasing MVs for other songs to be used for promotion of the album which I'm really looking forward to :D I've always liked Namie, she's like a less hardcore Koda Kumi, or a more edgier Ayumi Hamasaki. She's not my favourite, but she makes pretty cool pop songs.
Superfly – Dancing on the Fire PV
25 NovSuperfly are a pretty cool band (or, well, were; it’s just the lead singer now). They make 60s inspired music and have this whole retro style that I think is a bit of fresh air from all the electro-pop and futuristic stylings that are so popular at the moment. Love the vocals of their new song, Dancing on the Fire. It’s not what I ewould have expected from them; it does sound a little electro-poppy… but it’s not too bad! Hah XD Love me some electro-pop-rock really. I can’t resist it. Hehe.
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