Japanese Girl and Boy bands, and what's the deal there?

So, you know today's pop music, perhaps more than ever before (let's be honest this is always an ongoing criticism) has become homogenised and samey? Well, here in Japan they have seriously taken that to another level, and quite frankly, it's a worry.

Yep. AKB48.

Sure, I've talked about AKB48 before, and for those outside Japan that may be the one primary example they know of. AKB48 is a group that supposedly originated in Akihabara in Tokyo. Every year there's a TV show and some members depart and others are brought in in basically the typical 'reality' TV style voting show over many weeks with performances and the like.
The group is divided into different teams who work together to produce songs and often one singer is chosen to be featured as the main singer for a song, and they keep churning out hits. Then there are concerts which presumably feature all the teams and girls and they all have to look extremely cute and sing a bunch of songs that, in all fairness, sound like they were written to underscore a commercial.
Sigh.

Cardboard cutout at Tower Records.

Kawaii! Supergirls!

It's a serious industry here, and my last visit to Tokyo I as usual visited Tower Records in Shibuya where I started to realise that there weren't three or four girl groups dressed like teenagers being cute and singing lollypop music, there were DOZENS. I saw CDs of groups such as Supergirls, that's 10 girls selected by mass audition again to sing commercial music, wear bright colours and look cute in a slightly sexualised way. Other groups that are popular are 'Perfume', and 'E-girls', which my students sometimes mention in class. E-girls seems to be made of 20-30 girls, split into three sub-groups called 'Flower' (I think I saw a CD for 'Flower') 'Happiness' and 'Dream'. And this is the way apparently girls want to be seen in Japan. As young and cute. Do you ever see a female singer, in a group or solo, actually be marketed as a 'woman'? No.
And so draw what conclusions you may from that. All-in-all Wiki lists 134 girl groups in Japan. There must be more.

The boys of exile.

And then there are boybands. Arashi, SMAP, Exile, Hey Say JUMP! and Sexy Zone to name a few. Ok, not so many - wiki lists a mere 34. But they are even more popular and they are a true carbon copy of the boy bands the west knows, reaching back to the 80s with New Kids on the Block. They wished everyone a Merry Christmas bizarrely with a host of Christmas albums available from Tower Records to 7Eleven! They dress up all Christmassy (in a country that believes Christmas Cake is sponge cake with cream and calls Santa Claus Santa-san) looking straight and serious at the camera.

Arashi in the Christmas spirit! 

It's seriously, overwhelming sickening. Look at this people in America, UK, Australia, heck all of Europe. This is the future of music. Everything is manufactured and nothing appears to come from the artists. No, you can't call the girls of AKB48 artists, they are the 'talent'. The managers here clearly see a used-by date for the girls especially, and that's early 20s. Not to mention that they are expected to be model citizens and if they are caught making some sort of discretion in public, like maybe having a drink too many, they will be forced to apologise to the entire nation and could be kicked out of the group. Boys and again, especially the girls. In fact, the girls from AKB48 are not allowed to date!
One girl - Minegishi Minami, was caught going into a boys apart. So distraught at being caught she shaved her head in penance! No, I don't think it's very healthy either! 

Think of their lives AFTER the fame is done with. What are they going to do? I don't know how many members they have had in total in AKB48, but maybe 100, maybe more. What's the future there? A 40-year old Maede Astuko? What will she be doing? Who will remember her? Maybe there's a spot on the end Japanese discussion panel shows they have for one or two, but those shows are 80% men, and 5-10% transvestite and usually the females members are young cute things.

Of the hundreds if not more girls in Japanese girl-bands today, how many of them could still be in the industry in 10 years? I'd say 5% if they are lucky. Many people think J-pop is strange and interesting, it's kinda fun like Eurovision. But when you stop and think about the reality of the industry here, you can't help but think of the people exploited as talent are in for a tough life once their 15 minutes has gone.







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Top Ten Countries Number Six - Japan [PART TWO]

Japan is not a huge country, but it is a pretty big island. And there is so much to see and do. After enjoying the sights of Kansai, I headed to Tokyo. Tokyo in many ways is the ultimate in cities. It’s huge, with a highly efficient metro system to rival that of Moscow or St Petersburg, with more sky-scrapers than you can poke a stick at. Never the less, you can still find some amazing parks and temples there too to keep you occupied. Not satisfied? Well, fear ye not, there are museums a-plenty as well. Still not satisfied? Well, head up a tower to see the city from above. Tokyo tower is great, but there’s also the skytree as well.

If you still aren’t impressed, not so far away in Chiba is Tokyo Disneyland. I visited in August 2012, which wasn’t the best time to visit. It’s was absolutely packed in there, everyone was going. Well what could I do, my holidays are when the school is on holiday, which is basically every school in the country is on holiday. I spent much of the day waiting in queues sadly, however, it still was a lot of fun! The rides are enjoyable, you get a parade in the evening, and for those who felt it still wasn’t quite like theme parks elsewhere, the food they sell is fried, unhealthy and very expensive! It’s hard to go past Splash Mountain as the best ride, but there are of course many rides. I didn’t have time to go on Space Mountain…

Tokyo’s museums are very good. Head to Ueno, also home to the zoo, and you’ll find the National Museum, and the fun Science Museum, both worthwhile, but you may find the Shitimachi Museum more interesting. It is in an old house that has survived wars and quakes, and recreates Japanese life from around 100 years ago inside.

Temples? Well Senso-ji(Asakusa) and Meiji-jingu are perhaps the best two shrines to visit, the latter in the middle of a huge park near Shinjuku. Get off at the Harajuku station, the area there is also a popular spot

Postered wall in Akihabara.

and very interesting. You may meet people cos-playing too. If that doesn’t whet your appetite, there’s the Imperial Palace not so far from Tokyo station in beautiful gardens, and then there’s Akihabara. This famous district of Tokyo is not only the place to buy your cameras and electronic stuff, but it’s full of the strange Maid Cafes, is steeped in ‘geek culture’, and is where the group AKB48 is purported to come from!

Yokohama.

And yet there is more and more in Tokyo. It’s an amazing place. However, Japan offers more and more. Check out the beautiful castle in Nagoya, a very pleasant city (as long as you’re not there in August where the heat and humidity is unbearable). If it is the height of summer and you want to escape the blinding heat, why not head to Nagano-ken? Former winter Olympic Games site, I visited Hakuba last year where it was pleasantly cool in August, not to mention very beautiful. Great opportunity to relax, enjoy the cooler weather, and go hiking.

The down the road you have Yokohama, a wonderful bay-city with a beautiful bay, skycrapers and a ramen-museum (a museum for noodles!). What more do you want?

Further north Sendai is the main city of note. A really nice city with an interesting museum and a great citadel watching the place a-high. Not far from Sendai is Ishinomaki, now my favourite place to go when I want to see a movie. It’s an interesting town, devastated by the 2011 tsunami. However, it is well back on its feet today, and has a couple of things of interest. It’s quite the centre for Manga, and one of the best places in the country is the Ishinomaki Mangatten Museum. Devoted primarily to a famous Manga artist from Ishinomaki, Shotaro Ishinomori. There’s also the replica of the galleon, San Juan Baptista, worth seeing on the bay.

Closer to home, Iwate Prefecture has a bit to see and do as well. Not too far from Ichinoseki are two gorges with annoyingly similar names. ‘Geibi Gorge’ and ‘Genbi Gorge’. Both are very pretty places indeed, but the first is slightly more famous because you can take a special boat trip where the punter will sing for you. It’s a very special place.

Golden Hall, Chuson-ji

The crowning glory of this region though is the town Hiraizumi – only 7km from Ichinoseki. There’s more than one temple of interest in this town, but Chuson-ji, perched atop a hill, is really spectacular. Part of this hilltop complex is Konjiki-do, a gold-leafed hall, not quite as spectacular as Kinkanhu-ji in Kyoto, but nevertheless an impressive sight.

Japan has much more than I can cover reasonably in two blogs. I enjoyed hiking in Yamagata-ken over the peaks known as ‘Dewa Sanzan’, staying in the eastern town of Tsuruoka. In town Zenpo-ji is a very interesting temple complex too. Then there’s Kyushu in the south of the country, and Hokkaido in the north. Both with great beauty and interest, but of the three main islands of Japan, Honshu remains the only one I have visited thus far. Japan is an amazing place, with so much packed into three main islands (and indeed others).

What will be number five on my list? Well, again you’ll have to wait for that one!

10 – Slovakia

9 – Romania

8 – Mali

7 – The United Kingdom

6 – Japan

My travel writings (available on Kindle) can be found here:

Dhaka to Dakar