A few months ago I wrote about a group of eight junior high school girls in a rock band that featured five guitarists and three drummers. Coconut Sable, a snack here in Japan, is behind the group, but that doesn't make the music any less interesting. And thanks to "the buzz" their video got over 1.8 million views in the first week alone!
Well, they're back with their new single, and the video is pretty awesome.
As I mentioned, 5572320 (spoken digit by digit in Japanese, so "Go Go Nana Ni San Ni Rei") is a junior high school band, with girls from Ebisu Private Junior High School. Their latest single is titled Ponpara Pecorna Papiyotta, and is about the young teens transitioning toward adulthood. They are trying to figure out whether to embrace or resist the change, and the resulting video is, well, surreal.
It all starts when you sit in the dark in a giant empty room at a school desk with hair that covers your eyes, eating a Japanese snack.
Then, you find yourself on a planet of fire facing an eclipse!
Before long, the poor girls are transported back to a 1980s Devo music video.
This animated "sculpture" head was really awesome.
Let's all dance with giant crackers. (Those are Coconut Sable crackers, and I think they're pretty good. And no I wasn't paid to say that.)
The sculpture head opens to reveal more sculpture heads.
Then, in a dessert, giant streamers erupt from your head which attack a giant cracker in the sky. And everybody has seizures.
It's time to rock in giant marshmallow costumes!
You have brought forth magma demons...
The giant rock school girl will save us all!
Seriously, the video was something I had to watch a couple times. It's amazing what happens inside of a junior high school girl's head when she eats a cracker, huh?
While most of you who normally read this blog don't know very much about Japanese music production, there are a bunch of "big" names attached: Yoko Kanno, an award-winning producer of anime and commercial music; KenKen, from RIZE; Hideki Aoyama, a drummer who was a part of (the totally awesome) Babymetal; Tsuneo Imahori, a guitarist; and director Sojiro Kamatani, who has been a part of other big commercials here.
Happy listening! 5572320's official website is here, and I believe if you have a Japanese iTunes account you can find the song there. I'm a bit behind on posting this, so by the time this post goes live it looks like the new video (seen above) will have already passed one million views.
This reminds me that I really want to go see a J-Pop performance live...
Japanese music can be pretty good. J-Pop may be a bit different from American pop like Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande, but it's fun and peppy.
I'm more of a rock guy. Queen, Bon Jovi, and Aerosmith are all favorites. There's something special about women handling an instrument though, and the latest Japanese rock group has eight of them.
There are five guitarists and three drummers in 五五七二三二〇 (pronounced Go Go Nana Ni San Ni Rei, literally 5572320). Their first music video, above, just got released today, and it's a loud hard rocking song with a catchy chorus, titled 半世紀優等生(Half a Century Honor Student).
The thing to keep in mind here is that these are all junior high school students, which puts them all at 13-15 years old.
The full version of the music video, above, starts off like a scene from the end of a movie about junior high school, with a peaceful piano solo ... then the girls show up in the school's field with giant inflatable hearts and dead bunnies (?!) and the rocking begins.
The chorus is simple but catchy, and there isn't very much singing going on, with more spoken-word lyricizing occuring. It's still fun.
About 2/3rds through the video, we are introduced to the members of the group in a way that reminds me of Sin City or similar movies.
Then, everyone eats cookies. I don't understand the lyrics so I don't get the symbolism, if any. But the imagery is similar to that used during the piano solo. And there is a reason they are eating cookies.
There's a lot of slowed down high speed film cuts too, which look pretty cool. The song ends with a very anime-ish tsundere yell and everyone stops playing. Female rockers aren't very common, especially in Japan. 五五七二三二〇 definitely has produced-pop feel to it, but the music itself is loud and hard. I'm certainly enjoying it! I've listened to the song a few times today as I've been writing this article. As for the names and stories of the girls involved, that is being kept a secret because, as their promotional website says, they want to focus on musical and academic activities.
So, about those cookies. If you look at the promotional group image near the top of my post, you'll notice a package of coconut sable cookies and images of the cookies scattered around the group. The translation is a little hard to fully understand, but it appears that the group was put together to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the cookies.
I'm sure the film-like clips of the girls eating cookies are going to be used in commercials in the near future if they aren't already, and this may be all we see from this group. But who knows, there may be a follow-up this summer (hopefully with more singing included). The single will be available on iTunes (worldwide, it seems) on March 25th.
I should note that I was "introduced" to this band by the band's publicist, though I'm not receiving any compensation of any kind for this post.
Kawaii means "cute" in Japanese, and that one word embodies almost everything about popular culture. Fashion, accessories, mascots, style - it's all kawaii here. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu is a J-Pop star who got her start in the heart of kawaii, Harajuku, and has gone on to become quite successful. Her songs are catchy and fun, and the music videos are fun and relatively unique. But beyond that, Kyary's fashion style is essentially the Japanese equivalent of Lady Gaga - outrageous, cutting edge, and one of a kind.
There are enough music videos, performances, and live appearances where Kyary has worn or included amazing fashion that an entire temporary exhibition was created. Originally displayed in 2013 in Roppongi, it returned this summer at Koshigaya Laketown mall, the largest mall in Japan. I can't find any details right now about any other locations, past or present.
After paying your admission fee, you're given a plastic lollipop that can cause exhibits to light up or interact. And in you go!
There are dozens of costumes on display, worn by Kyary and other performers on stage and in the music videos. The purple-top costume has a skirt made out of snack wrappers.
Yes, photography was allowed, and encouraged. There was even a Twitter hashtag for people to share their photos.
Most of the costumes are on stands that slowly spin around so you can see them at all angles.
I mentioned interactive exhibits. The thing on the right is inside a box; you stick your face through the hole and your smartphone on a small stand and you can take a picture that makes it look like you are wearing the costume. There were a couple costumes like this, and were some of the "interactive" exhibits that required use of the lollipop.
The dress on the right comes from Candy Candy, the first video I ever saw.How she ran in those heels I'll never know.
This dress was just awesome.
I haven't seen so much of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's music videos to know where all the costumes come from. But that pink dress mannequin is a zombie!
I believe these are stage costumes worn by her backup performers, though I couldn't be sure. If you watched that Candy video then you might recognize some from that as well.
Behind the backup costumes was a projected stream of music videos - I timed my photo just right to catch the Candy Candy video being shown, by chance.
The exhibit was certainly packed with pastel, and I think I got enough kawaii during my visit to last a good month or more. As I mentioned before, I don't know if the museum is headed for a new location, but it certainly was a fun way to spend an hour or so!
Everyone knows karaoke is big business in Japan, and I love to go belt out a few tunes with friends. It's also a comfortable place to kill an hour or two before catching a train or bus. I've even spent the night in one once as emergency lodging. I don't recommend it. The video you see here in my photos is the screen showing the lyrics to an AKB48 song called Heavy Rotation. It's quite a provocative video showing girls wearing cat ears and lingerie... and not much else. It's a fun song, regardless of the video. I blame my friend for introducing me to this song.
At least it has some English lyrics in it. I tried to sing along once and it's way too fast for me right now. Perhaps some day I'll be able to read Japanese as fast as this song goes.
I'm suffering from allergies big time. My body just isn't used to the pollen Japan throws at its residents every year. In the past, I haven't really had too big of a problem, but I think things are different this year. It hasn't rained lately and it's been quite windy: perfect conditions to rip the pollen from the trees and carry it all over town... and then leave it in the air.
This image is from the 2013 pollen season in Georgia.
Georgia turns yellow in the spring from the pollen. Tokyo does not. But the Cedar trees that were planted about 50-60 years ago for lumber and reforestation are now mature and producing pollen each year at their peak ability, one of the reasons Japanese people suffer so much more from allergies now compared to, well, 30-40 years ago.
Japanese cedar pollen
How bad is it? In a moment of nasal clarity, I could actually smell cedar in the air this evening. I may actually wear a mask outside tomorrow. It is supposed to rain Thursday and Sunday, and I'm really looking forward to some air-washing showers from above.
Meanwhile, I was just introduced to this awesome video. It was mostly shot in Akihabara, my favorite haunt in Tokyo. In fact, I can identify almost every single location, shot by shot. And it's a really cool video. ... No, I'm not in it. But if World Order wants to use me in a video, I'm down for that.
The song is called Have A Nice Day (hence the post title), by a group called World Order. I'm writing this post quite late at night, so I haven't looked at their other videos, but you can expect to see more of them on this blog in the near future!
