The J-Music Lovers' International Assembly

[Ryusenkai]

The full list of artists for Countdown Japan 13/14 is out, and it honestly looks to be a pretty solid four days of music:

 

http://countdownjapan.jp/1314/artist

Edited November 7, 2013 by Ryusenkai

[Ryusenkai]

Idols be invading.

http://majide2ch.blogspot.com/2013/11/why-are-there-so-many-idols-at.html

 

I'll agree that being able to see Bump and Sakanaction in the same day is a great deal.  :3

[Ryusenkai]

I went to dinner tonight and a yuzu semifreddo was on the menu. My friends asked me what yuzu was and I said a Japanese citrus fruit and then I thought of the band.  :lol:

 

 

I saw that. I'm not surprised that she's doing well. She was doing well in the Chaku Uta dailies these past few days for a debut.

 

Fun fact - their name was chosen because one of the members happened to be eating Yuzu ice cream at the time.  :P

 

Oh, and do remember that this is often the weakest day for digital sales - what will really show how kaho is doing is how she maintains tomorrow when most of the new releases flood the chart.

[Ryusenkai]

I just made a thread for Best Artists 2013 that aired today. It was shit to say the least.

 

Looking at the list, it looks like I'd really just cherry-pick the 2-4 performances that I actually might want to see.  Beyond that ... eh.

[Ryusenkai]

OMG JUJU'S GIFT ALBUM.

 

ORCHeSTrA VERSIONS

 

:ahmagah:

 

SLAY

 

I can't wait until I get to listen to that later!

[Ryusenkai]

I never had a conversation with him on here, but his better than thou and consistency of calling people idiots, dumb, and stupid for not agreeing with him or saying he's wrong is very off-putting. I never understood why some people on here go for the personal. It makes no sense. 

 

I used to respond to him, but all the Ad Hominem stuff ... yeah, I've no interest getting involved with that.  Respect in both conversations and debates ... matters to me, and I'm not going to give what I don't get.

Edited December 16, 2013 by Ryusenkai

[Ryusenkai]

Thoroughly enjoyed reading the detailed, passionate, and thoughtful responses from DocumentaLy, Ryusenkai, Hemlock, Pokesexual, Timmeon, and xprixgr in the Japanese Pop (2013): Year In Review thread created by Owatari. It's refreshing and comforting to see such passion and thought being put into discussing the strongest acts and releases to come out of Japan over the past year. Would like to hear responses from Mandilinn, Midna, Amaya, SeeYaWithYou, Tsumiki, and other members of the Japanese side of the forum. It's such a phenomenal thread to read through!

 

Likewise - that's my favorite type of year-end thread, since you get to see so many different opinions from so many different sides of the industry and you might pick up on some releases that you otherwise missed or some acts that had particularly great years.  We might all have different preferences and things that matter to us, but in the end we're all J-music fans, and it shows when you put us all together in a setting like that.

Edited December 17, 2013 by Ryusenkai

[Ryusenkai]

Happy Birthday Midna and Ice!

[Ryusenkai]

Happy New Year!

[Ryusenkai]

So, uhh... what is the proper Romaji of Charisma.com's アイアイシンドローム? JPS has it as Aye-Aye Syndrome, while iTunes Japan has it as I I Syndrome. Then I realized that it could also be Ai Ai Syndrome if I know anything about Japanese, which I don't. :wut:

 

Pedo, pedo!

 

Whaaat. "Samson" is amazing. I'm actually really glad L&P was shelved if the songs were going to be as juvenile as "Children". I did like TLTL, though. She grew so well as a music artist with S&D. :ahmagah:

[hr]

100–26.

 

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeZ2FSEj0Xg[/media]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WaumC4pyqY[/media]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAZHxsSGGSY[/media]

 

Yeah - it's Ai Ai Syndrome (I can read Katakana, so I can tell you with absolute certainty).

[Ryusenkai]

COME ON HEAD BANGIN' ♪

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZOP1kR-76Y[/media]

Takes some getting used to, but I love this. Good for THE SECOND for taking a risk.

___________________


Anyway, I found a site with monthly articles about new releases in J-Pop and why certain ones will be more sucessful than others. The articles are by an Japanese industry analyst and a music producer. They go into every detail: release date choice, tie-ins, the public's taste, other artists in comparison, etc. Do you guys want me to start translating these monthly as a feature? I think it would make for good discussion.

 

I'd be very interested in that actually, since it's a topic that I personally ask a lot of questions about and would like to see a professional opinion on.

[Ryusenkai]

I'll start working on this month's article, then. It'll take me a few days to finish, though (it's about 4 1/2-5 pages long).

 

Thanks, and take your time.  It's just rare that we get to see things from that side of the industry on this topic, so I'd like to see what they have to say.

[Ryusenkai]

New JUJU single 2/19 and new album 3/5.

 

Yet another album to add to my list of things to check out in that period (only 4 new tracks not counting that new single though) - February and March are going to be one busy pair of months.

Edited January 6, 2014 by Ryusenkai

[Ryusenkai]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cR_aqn76rs

 

^ Oddly enough, I actually like this (it's Dohchin from Chemistry - new digital single that just dropped today as the lead-in to his new album dropping on March 5th, "Bronze Caravan").

Edited January 7, 2014 by Ryusenkai

[Ryusenkai]

WTF? I thought I was subscribed to his YouTube page. It's interesting to see how he has gone in a different direction after Chemistry. It's nice.

 

Yeah - he's making his own way, which is good, since it means that this is the music he wants to make.  They also uploaded the MV for the other single going on the album yesterday (half a year late, but better late than never I guess).

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHMn_N7F8QA

[Ryusenkai]

Radio-rip of SEKAI NO OWARI's "Snow Magic Fantasy":

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk8Uccaeuc0

[Ryusenkai]

fuck macs

 

spent a good part of today trying to get a game working on a playstation emulator with no luck. And it keeps saying it's missing a bios file when i see it right there  :twitch:

probably not because it's a mac but i have nothing else to blame...

 

Which emulator?  I've dealt with some of these issues before and sometimes it's something obnoxiously minor that just needs to be done.

[Ryusenkai]

pcsx-r for mac using Maverick. 

 

I guess i should explain exactly. The first problem is the missing bios thing i said above. But the game does boot up. The game is FF7 using a .iso that i ripped straight from a legit disc copy. The problem is after the sony and square logos pop up it's supposed to run the intro fmv with the stars and the train that Cloud is on right but what it does instead is play what i think is the ending credits. 

 

I've had this problem on my psp before but all i had to do is disable my plug-ins that i put on it and it worked. I've messed with the settings a bit from what i've seen people say to try but nothing changes. I'm not sure but at this point i'm thinking if i fix the missing bios problem the other one will go away.

 

edit:

 

i meant it's supposed to bring up the "new game/continue" option but it doesn't. 

 

Hrm - that's not one I've used (I'm used to ePSX) but I'll do a bit of research since it's probably fairly similar.  Might not get back to you until later in the morning once I'm more awake (i.e. after sleeping), but I might be able to find something.

[Ryusenkai]

Miliyah and Sakanaction are going to be on CDTV on Saturday. Early birthday gift...

 

Well, apparently we were both wrong about "Eureka" being the song they'd promote - they're doing "Goodbye" on both CDTV and Music Station.

[Ryusenkai]

Looking at today's Oricon numbers is a sad state of affairs. 900 copies gets you a top 3 single today.

 

This past week is horrible most years - occasionally there's one good release to prop things up, but that didn't happen this year.

Edited January 15, 2014 by Ryusenkai

[Ryusenkai]

Ryu, did you have a chance to look into the emulator problem i was having? 

 

My bro is asking me if i figured it out yet and i have no idea what else i can try.

 

I did some looking around, and most of the "fixes" I've found are dubious at best.  Curious, have you tried uninstalling and re-installing it?  It's not a great suggestion, but a lot of the problems I noticed were caused by install issues.

[Ryusenkai]

I thought she was an SNSD member for a minute. BoA just looks so much more Korean now compared to her Identity era: Anyway, the song is nothing special and neither is the PV.

 

Reminds me - did you ever get a chance to finish translating that article about releases and how they would sell and why that you mentioned (or if not, I was wondering if you could link me to it)?

[Ryusenkai]

Yeah. Been putting the finishing touches on it. I plan to post it tomorrow. It's such a long article, plus there's Music Theory terms I had to find the correct translation for. Sorry for the wait.

I've been wondering where I should post it, though...it's an article, but it's about more than just the sales aspect of releases.

 

Think it would probably make more sense in this sub-forum than the News sub-forum, since it's not really "News" per say.  It's discussion related to Japanese music.

 

And no problem - I expected something like that would be in-depth and was just wondering where you were with it.

[Ryusenkai]

I didn't say the song was bad. :lol: But it's pretty unimpressive compared to her past discography.


Patience. I don't have 24/7 to work on it, you know.

Here's the whole archive of articles if you really can't wait: http://crea.bunshun.jp/category/culture-006


I enjoyed the challenge of working on it. :lol: This will help me brush up on my Japanese skills by doing it monthly. I'm learning new words, too.

 

That's always good.  :P  It's pretty much the same reason I was willing to pick up doing the Translated Chart for the Oricon thread (even though that's much easier than translating articles).  I used to just look up artists and match stuff, but now that I've at least had a year and half of classes, I'm at least at a point where I can do some rudimentary translation and learn some new kanji while I'm at it.  Tis good practice.

[Ryusenkai]

Their top pick:

MISIA - Boku wa Pegasus, Kimi wa Polaris

Runners-Up:

Hey! Say! JUMP - AinoArika
TVXQ - Hide & Seek / Something

Raw article: http://crea.bunshun.jp/articles/-/4581

I'll get on translating the full article right away.

 

Having heard the MISIA song, and given their previous analysis, I think I can start to see why they might've picked that one.  Nonetheless, I'll be interested to see their exact reasoning.