Posts Tagged ‘jpop’

BoA’s debut English single “heats up” in the U.S.

A follow-up on our earlier post about the release of Korean Jpop/Kpop star BoA’s debut single “Eat You Up” in the United States:

The song was introduced on music sites MyTunes, Amazon, AOL, eMusic and MySpace at 3:00 am on the 22nd (Korean Standard Time) and reached 3rd on iTunes in the Dance category and 10th on Amazon’s list of Hot New Releases in MP3 Downloads and 21st among Today’s Top MP3 Songs.

ROK Drop attempted to verify the Chosun Ilbo’s claim and found that BoA’s single wasn’t even in the top 200 for the day. At the time of posting, it was “number 213 and dropping fast.”

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Scott Murphy sings in Japanese

The Japan Times has an article today about Scott Murphy, a Chicago-based pop-punk musician who had gained fame in Japan after performing cover versions of popular Japanese pop songs. His newest CD, “Guilty Pleasures 2,” is now being sold at music stores across Japan:

While gearing up for the release, Murphy hit the promotion trail, recently recording an appearance on FTV’s popular variety show “Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ” hosted by comedy duo Downtown. It was there that Murphy ran into Jero, who has made a name for himself by retooling old Japanese enka folk tunes with imagery and elements of production style taken from hip-hop. Like Murphy, he’s a Japanese-speaking American with a minialbum of cover versions (all Japanese in Jero’s case), but Murphy doesn’t see the comparison with Jero extending further than that. He points out, “We’re doing totally different kinds of music — I mean, he’s doing this Japanese folk thing, but what I’m doing is much more to do with pop music.”

One of the things that Murphy’s case highlights most strongly is the peculiar way that the Japanese music industry classifies artists. Despite the largely Japanese-language content of his record, he still lives in Chicago, where he plays with ex-ALLiSTER member Kyle Lewis in The Get Go, and he is clear that in Japan he is “definitely a foreign artist.” However, when it comes to Japanese CD shops, things aren’t so simple. “They just don’t know where I should go,” he says. “In HMV I’m in the Japanese section, but in Tower I’m in the foreign section.”

Samples of the new album can be found on Universal Music Japan’s website.

Tomohisa Yamashita Mobbed By Korean Fans

Interesting news via AllKPop.com:

Japanese pretty boy Yamashita Tomohisa of boy band NewS was nearly raped by Korean fans at Kimpo Airport on the 5th.

Yamashita Tomohisa was stormed by the crazy little Korean fan girls who grabbed and groped at the top star, tearing away his clothes. The fans also hit the star on his head with presents they were trying to throw at him.

Although the entire situation was extremely dangerous, Yamashita Tomohisa stayed calm, waved at the fans and even helped pick up fans who had fallen down. As soon as he had made it thru the gate however, Tomohisa’s legs gave out and he had collapsed for a little bit. Yamashita Tomohisa remained cool and calm, but his accompanying friends were extremely angered by the behavior of these Korean fans. They left cursing the fans, “these crazed Korean fans, are making Korea look extremely bad.”

A YouTube video of the incident (turn down your volume to avoid ear damage from the screams):

And another shaky video taken by a fan in the crowd:

Otaku In Finland

YouTuber Jacke747 has subtitled and uploaded this very interesting clip in which the news program Uutismixi explores Japanese culture fanatics in Finland:

Gravure Idols Mayuka Okada & Junne Okada Become Singers

Somebody picked a good promotional image to send the media:

The Sankei Shinbun is reporting that gravure idol sisters Mayuka and Junne Okada will be releasing an album next month. Although the large-busted sisters are sweeping the gravure idol world with popular DVD titles such as Breast-Breast Paradise (乳乳パラダイス), they actually dream about being singers instead. Their debut mini-album, entitled “Pink Pie JacK,” will be 5 tracks of spirited pop music, and is expected to hit stores February 14th (Valentine’s Day).