*mind is blown*
Much of my current enjoyment of Asian pop music in terms of its music, comes from my enjoyment of its pure bubblegum offerings, those delightful unapologetically positive songs that are hard to truly find in the American market anymore, as the Disney Channel Stars who are the only "happy song" singers nowadays always come off as insincere because they're itching to get out of this fracking cutesy image and want to start doing topless photoshoots since they're clearly too mature for this shit.
But in Asia, where kawaii is king, the idols that can truly master the bubblegum rule.
Consider Ayaya, who was arguably the number one female soloist for a short time in Japan when she was churning out hits like Momoiro Kataomoi, Yeah! Meccha Holiday, and Nee?. Even her ""ballad" hits during this time weren't full-blown tear-jerking affairs, but more pleasant ditties.
Also consider Arashi, who without a doubt is THE biggest thing in Japan right now. Despite Tohoshinki now having enough power to make lesser Johnny's acts back down, Arashi could seriously crush DBSK underfoot easily in terms of popularity. And how many SRS BSNS singles do they have? About one. The rest that could be considered serious still have this uplifting and fun tone to them, including their so-called ballads, which are more just like fluffy inspirational songs. But their hits? Rainbows. Moar rainbows.(That can be scarily well-set to HSM) Hell, watch their 1006 Asia Song Festival Performance, especially the last song. Freaking unapologetic, as opposed to the DBSK Balloons MV which felt slightly satiric of all the cute ridiculousness. Wish(the last song) on the other hand was even cuter than the drama it was the main theme for, Hana freaking Yori Dango. And yet to me all of the above songs are supremely delicious bubblegum, and I enjoy listening to them in the background. (WTF, IKR)
But most importantly, I've noticed that Arashi's best songs have a very old-fashioned sound to them, a feel that is pervaded across all of Jpop. Their Happiness single pretty blatantly rips Diamonds, a Jpop oldie released in 1989, while Step and Go is clearly going for an 80s sound. The old-fashioned sound has even been in Kpop with all of the cutesy concepts that flew around pre-2009. Think Kissing You, Balloons, Let's Go On a Trip, Haengbok/Happiness(WHICH IS FUCKING SAMPLING HANDEL WTF), and especially 뻔&Fun/Sweet Talking Baby. And before that, Kim Gun Mo and JYP making their oooooold-school style hits in the 90s decades after those sounds were over in America. It was noted in MTV Iggy's Kpop Uncovered Introduction that Kpop has been recycling the Seo Taiji formula, and he started in the early 90s being "a great importer and adapter of popular Western music in Korea, and his subsequent albums covered a wide range of musical genres, including industrial, hardcore, and even gangster rap." So Kpop's ever-prevalent 80's sound, as well as their Michael Jackson worship? There's their root. (Tangent: said MTV Iggy post quotes this enlightening post on how Seo Taiji basically killed the Korean live music scene, lol. But he also makes good points about the contract wank.)
Similarly, we've joked before about how Asian pop seems to be obsessed with disco.
Anyhow, one of the reasons I find that I love these happy songs despite how much I despise cutesiness IRL is that these songs are so damn melodic, a quality they share with their 60s, 70s, and 80s sound ancestors. And Jpop in particular loves to draw on styles from that era.
Above you have a song from the Ronettes and Tanpopo each, with the latter displaying the "Wall of Sound" techniques developed by Phil Spector, the producer of the former.
And then above we have a couple of songs from Tanpopo and Morning Musume showing their British Invasion roots of the Beatles and Queen, respectively.
A few more songs that hit my weaknesses with a good old-fashioned groove:
Ryuusei by Tia Displaying that same 1-2 upbeat that makes 뻔&Fun/Sweet Talking Baby such a guilty pleasure for me.
Magic of Love by Taiyou to Ciscomoon. SOUL, BIZNATCHES.
resistance ~Makenai Kimochi~ by SweetS PURE DISCO, BEYOTCHES.
Waracchaou yo Boyfriend by Berryz Koubou Another Wall of Sound style song, though not as authentically as Tanpopo's.
TANGENT: If you ever want a girlgroup dance track with the black styling without fail-wailing a la Lupin or annoying melody a la Crazy Because of You, I just discovered the new dream song today, and it seems quite Kpop without some of the annoying dead horses Kpop keeps beating latelyautotune abuse, Womanizer/Right Round triplets.
But what prompted me to write this rambly post that turned all pimp-like halfway through in the first place, as well as inspiring the title of said post? Showtunes, of course. I was browsing through Tony Awards performances when I came across the Jersey Boys showcase:
Original version of the song by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
Live version by Frankie and the Four Seasons with softer instrumentation
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: "Jersey Boys is a documentary-style musical based on the lives of one of the most successful 1960s rock 'n roll groups, the Four Seasons. The musical opened on Broadway in 2005, and won four 2006 Tony Awards: Best Musical, Best Actor, Best Featured Actor, and Best Lighting Design. The Four Seasons is an American pop and rock group, with a sound somewhat reminiscent of doo-wop, although they were not thought of as actually being a doo-wop group. By the mid 1960s, they had become an internationally famous rock-and-roll act (the Vocal Group Hall of Fame has stated that it was the most popular rock band before The Beatles)."
Frankie Valli was the Four Seasons's lead singer and "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You", the first song in the video as well as the song of interest in this post, was released as his solo single. What is the relevance here? Listen to that chorus again, and imagine if Frankie repeated a couple words, so that it went "I love you baby, baby, baby..."? Doesn't that sound familiar?
*brain explodes all over again*
...I knew there was a reason I loved that song.
But in Asia, where kawaii is king, the idols that can truly master the bubblegum rule.
Consider Ayaya, who was arguably the number one female soloist for a short time in Japan when she was churning out hits like Momoiro Kataomoi, Yeah! Meccha Holiday, and Nee?. Even her ""ballad" hits during this time weren't full-blown tear-jerking affairs, but more pleasant ditties.
Also consider Arashi, who without a doubt is THE biggest thing in Japan right now. Despite Tohoshinki now having enough power to make lesser Johnny's acts back down, Arashi could seriously crush DBSK underfoot easily in terms of popularity. And how many SRS BSNS singles do they have? About one. The rest that could be considered serious still have this uplifting and fun tone to them, including their so-called ballads, which are more just like fluffy inspirational songs. But their hits? Rainbows. Moar rainbows.(That can be scarily well-set to HSM) Hell, watch their 1006 Asia Song Festival Performance, especially the last song. Freaking unapologetic, as opposed to the DBSK Balloons MV which felt slightly satiric of all the cute ridiculousness. Wish(the last song) on the other hand was even cuter than the drama it was the main theme for, Hana freaking Yori Dango. And yet to me all of the above songs are supremely delicious bubblegum, and I enjoy listening to them in the background. (WTF, IKR)
But most importantly, I've noticed that Arashi's best songs have a very old-fashioned sound to them, a feel that is pervaded across all of Jpop. Their Happiness single pretty blatantly rips Diamonds, a Jpop oldie released in 1989, while Step and Go is clearly going for an 80s sound. The old-fashioned sound has even been in Kpop with all of the cutesy concepts that flew around pre-2009. Think Kissing You, Balloons, Let's Go On a Trip, Haengbok/Happiness(WHICH IS FUCKING SAMPLING HANDEL WTF), and especially 뻔&Fun/Sweet Talking Baby. And before that, Kim Gun Mo and JYP making their oooooold-school style hits in the 90s decades after those sounds were over in America. It was noted in MTV Iggy's Kpop Uncovered Introduction that Kpop has been recycling the Seo Taiji formula, and he started in the early 90s being "a great importer and adapter of popular Western music in Korea, and his subsequent albums covered a wide range of musical genres, including industrial, hardcore, and even gangster rap." So Kpop's ever-prevalent 80's sound, as well as their Michael Jackson worship? There's their root. (Tangent: said MTV Iggy post quotes this enlightening post on how Seo Taiji basically killed the Korean live music scene, lol. But he also makes good points about the contract wank.)
Similarly, we've joked before about how Asian pop seems to be obsessed with disco.
Anyhow, one of the reasons I find that I love these happy songs despite how much I despise cutesiness IRL is that these songs are so damn melodic, a quality they share with their 60s, 70s, and 80s sound ancestors. And Jpop in particular loves to draw on styles from that era.
Click to viewAbove you have a song from the Ronettes and Tanpopo each, with the latter displaying the "Wall of Sound" techniques developed by Phil Spector, the producer of the former.
And then above we have a couple of songs from Tanpopo and Morning Musume showing their British Invasion roots of the Beatles and Queen, respectively.
A few more songs that hit my weaknesses with a good old-fashioned groove:
Ryuusei by Tia Displaying that same 1-2 upbeat that makes 뻔&Fun/Sweet Talking Baby such a guilty pleasure for me.
Magic of Love by Taiyou to Ciscomoon. SOUL, BIZNATCHES.
resistance ~Makenai Kimochi~ by SweetS PURE DISCO, BEYOTCHES.
Waracchaou yo Boyfriend by Berryz Koubou Another Wall of Sound style song, though not as authentically as Tanpopo's.
TANGENT: If you ever want a girlgroup dance track with the black styling without fail-wailing a la Lupin or annoying melody a la Crazy Because of You, I just discovered the new dream song today, and it seems quite Kpop without some of the annoying dead horses Kpop keeps beating latelyautotune abuse, Womanizer/Right Round triplets.
But what prompted me to write this rambly post that turned all pimp-like halfway through in the first place, as well as inspiring the title of said post? Showtunes, of course. I was browsing through Tony Awards performances when I came across the Jersey Boys showcase:
Original version of the song by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
Live version by Frankie and the Four Seasons with softer instrumentation
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: "Jersey Boys is a documentary-style musical based on the lives of one of the most successful 1960s rock 'n roll groups, the Four Seasons. The musical opened on Broadway in 2005, and won four 2006 Tony Awards: Best Musical, Best Actor, Best Featured Actor, and Best Lighting Design. The Four Seasons is an American pop and rock group, with a sound somewhat reminiscent of doo-wop, although they were not thought of as actually being a doo-wop group. By the mid 1960s, they had become an internationally famous rock-and-roll act (the Vocal Group Hall of Fame has stated that it was the most popular rock band before The Beatles)."
Frankie Valli was the Four Seasons's lead singer and "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You", the first song in the video as well as the song of interest in this post, was released as his solo single. What is the relevance here? Listen to that chorus again, and imagine if Frankie repeated a couple words, so that it went "I love you baby, baby, baby..."? Doesn't that sound familiar?
*brain explodes all over again*
...I knew there was a reason I loved that song.