kaki

I don't like Mika Nakashima either. Her songs are bleh, but she can hit some really hit notes. I think the better singers tend to get crap songwriters. Like, I hate ALL of Fukuhara Miho's songs, but she does have the gospel training that few Japanese singers have. Not sure when Hey Say is having a new single. Sadly, I think HeySay Jump is more talented than many of their "older brothers". (This is not saying much though.) I don't follow them much, but I did think their last few singles were entertaining. I got invited to a Kanjani8 concert for next week. Not sure if I want t

In your eyes, who has singing talent?

This was on the news yesterday: http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20090304...ic-ent.view-000 Arashi as Tatsunoko Pro characters. Since Sakurai Sho is playing the lead in Yattaman (which for some reason is being directed by the awesome Takeshi Miike, even though classic anime doesn't seem to have much potential beyond B movie), originally a Tatsunoko production, so for the promotional video for the theme song (of course being sung by Arashi, as Japan loves their tie-ups), they drew all of the members as classic Tatsunoko heroes. I told Alabaster last night, that this is like

The news today had something relevant to our discussion here. It seems that the popularity of Johnny's is begining to wane. Where they used to get 30% ratings on tv shows, they barely maintain the 10% range now. They are saying that they will start paying Johnny's less for the use of their talent as Johnny's no longer bring in the numbers. They blame it largely on Johnny's old age and say that he is not able to "raise" idols like he used to. I think though people are starting to get tired of "idols" and now are looking for "talent" that actually has talent. Female idols went do

There have been a few new acts here and there that I like, such as Kanon Wakashima, twenty-4 7 and JAYED, but more than any new acts, I've been getting back into old acts and finding old acts that I like so much more now that I'm older. My favorite singers to sing at Karaoke are Yamaguchi Momoe (who was the queen of pop during her heyday, before I was even born), Iwasaki Hiromi and Teresa Teng (affectionately referred to as "Asia's song princess" in Japanese, even after her death). Iwasaki was popular through the 80's, but I don't remember much of the 80's. I did have two of her siste