Thursday, December 4, 2008

Boy bands, they're everywhere...

When I first came to Japan, my knowledge of Japanese music consisted of anime theme songs, game soundtracks, and Gackt (even if you think you know nothing about Japanese music, you probably know Gackt). Now I am literally surrounded by musicians and pop stars as they appear not just in music, but on television dramas, commercials, movies, and advertisements.

Boy bands kind of fell out of style in the US, but here in Japan they remain some of the most popular and most famous people in the entertainment world. SMAP, for instance, is probably the most famous group in Japan. They're on television almost every week either doing their own show or guest starring on one of the many variety shows. Kimura Takuya starred in one of Japan's most famous dramas of all time, A Beautiful Life.

This is a short clip from A Beautiful Life courtesy of www.veoh.com


Watch beautiful life 04 vostfr in Entertainment Videos and Webisodes  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com


When I was in Tokyo I visited Tower Records and some of the band names that I found there were absolutely crazy. Of course they had all the big names like SMAP, Kat-tun, and Mr. Children, but they also had groups like Bump of Chicken and the Hangovers. I'm not knocking the quality of the music--everyone has their own tastes--but I found the names to be quite amusing.





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1 comment:

visual gonthros said...

Your post seems to be about J-pop more than boy bands (or you seemed to have lost your focus). J-pop is a wonderful thing to explore for a post on Japanese art and entertainment. As is it very diverse in terms of talent, names, genres, etc., there is much to discover. A former student did this post last semester:

http://cyberbirdblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/entertainment-of-jpop.html

For boy bands, a look into Johnny's Jimusho would be essential.

December 9, 2008 at 3:03 AM

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