KinKi Kids real PV and performance videos at karaoke
How to find real Johnny's videos at karaoke
I was excited to find KinKi Kids’ PVs (yes, I still say PV…) and performance videos on the DAM karaoke system in Japan and wanted to share for anyone else interested but didn’t know about it. (Also my apologies for my unskilled photos of the karaoke PVs themselves! I also realised I didn't get any of the earlier PVs, taking photos was obviously not my priority.)
This post will explain how you can find real KinKi music videos (as well as other Johnny's groups) in the DAM system for karaoke. I will also briefly cover Joysound, but since there aren't KinKi videos there, I have not gone into as much detail.
Karaoke Systems
In Japan, there are two main karaoke systems (Joysound and DAM), and when you go to a karaoke place, especially where you rent a private room, you often have a choice of systems. I personally have been a Joysound girl for a number of years, because I’ve used their at home service on Nintendo Wii in the past and recently on Nintendo Switch. I’m just used to their interface and audio, so I tend to almost always ask for Joysound as a consequence. I am a creature of habit.
However, this past winter when I was with a friend in Tokyo, we ended up going to a karaoke bar that used only the DAM system and I discovered it had PVs and live performance videos for KinKi Kids songs when it was my inevitable turn to sing.
Thanks to that little episode, I then thought I needed to check out the DAM system properly, and sure enough, they have quite the selection of KinKi Kids real videos!
So which KinKi Kids’ PVs and videos do they have?
Currently there are 20! You can view a list here on DAM’s website.
I searched for KinKi, obviously, and found there are 20 real videos:
Aisareru yori Aishitai
Aitai, Aitai, Aenai.
Ai no Katamari (live performance)
Anniversary
Amazing Love
Ame no Melody
Am/Pere
KANZAI BOYA (Video clip version)
*Garasu no Shonen
Koi wa Nio e to Chirinuru wo
Kojundo Romance
The Story of Us
*Jet Coaster Romance
Zenbu Dakishimete
Topaz Love
Hakka Candy
Bara to Taiyo
Flower
*Boku no Senaka ni wa Hane ga aru
Mada Namida ni naranai Kanashimi ga
* = Good sound = a slightly better than usual sound they have for a selection of songs
They are all PVs except for Ai no Katamari which I believe was a live performance from KinKi's 10th Anniversary, iirc.
What about other Johnnys?
So DAM does have a number of other Johnny’s groups with real videos. (Joysound has a few but it does seem there are a lot more with DAM than Joysound.)
KinKi videos are only on DAM systems at the moment.
DAM currently has real videos for the following current Johnny’s groups: KinKi Kids, NEWS, Kis-My-Ft2, SexyZone, A.B.C-Z, Johnnys West, King & Prince, SixTONES, and Snow Man, as well as former group V6.
SMAP and Arashi don’t have any currently on DAM (that I could see… but I have known them to exist before cos I’ve seen real videos for both before!)
Why is this special?
Well, unless you’re a new Johnnys fan, you probably know how coveted Johnny’s PVs have been for years! Now we are seeing them released on YouTube and all sorts of … changes, but for those more familiar with the tightly controlled jimusho model of business, basically the PVs are special content that you paid to access by buying limited edition releases of singles, or even before Johnny’s started packaging and selling the PVs with CD singles, they were still pretty elusive to see.
20 years ago, I recall Big Echo having SMAP PVs at select locations or rooms (maybe it was systems specific? Sorry it was so long ago!). I just remember it being advertised that they had Johnnys PVs at their karaoke and when booking the room we asked for it specifically. (Big Echo tends to be more expensive, so I haven’t been there in such a long time.)
How to search for the real PVs and videos yourself?
On DAM’s website: https://www.clubdam.com/karaokesearch/
Enter the artist in the search bar and select the artist/performer on the 歌手名 tab either at the top or the centre of screen.
(You can do this before searching or after but if you do it after, I still recommend clicking on the singer tab so you don’t get other artists or songs which contain your search terms)
Once you have selected the singer/performer, then under the drop downs, select the following: コンテンツ → 本人映像
Note that it will default to ‘AI Live DAM’ and in the last column, and you can try all the specific DAM systems to check each one… I have to say I haven’t done this and just used AI Live DAM here, but depending on the exact system you’re using you may find slightly different results.
How to find the songs at karaoke?
You can look for the 本人映像 text next to the song title in the list of songs, or you can usually filter for these videos by selecting something like 本人映像 from the top of the search results. (I wish now I had taken a photo of this to share, sorry!)
Here’s a list of some of the KinKi real videos, this was before ‘The Story of Us’ was released, so why there’s only 19 results instead of 20.
What about Joysound?
The search is a little bit more annoying on Joysound’s website.
Visit their website: https://www.joysound.com/web/
Enter the artist in the search bar, either preselect 歌手 from the drop down, or click the tab on the search results, and click on the artists name again.
If they have any real videos, there will be a content box with the singer’s name + の映像コンテンツ
Click on the bar : 映像コンテンツをもっと見る to expand the list
Or you can try doing an empty search (keep scrolling down) of all the songs by selecting 本人映像 and then clicking on 検索.
I didn’t do a check myself on Joysound, but according to a search result when I checked if there were other Johnny’s real videos on karaoke, there are SexyZone, A.B.C-Z, SixTONES, and Snow Man on Joysound as well. No KinKi as already mentioned!
Hopefully this is helpful to someone and if anything has changed, or isn't clear, feel free to send me a message! Happy karaoke-ing!