Just say no

Over the past few months, I’ve gotten to know a very special lady by the name of Chihiro Onitsuka. I know I boarded the boat late, but it’s been smooth sailing ever since (I know, nice word play). Her music can be described as folk rock, but her ballads are more hauntingly simple and completely amazing. Usually opting to go solo with her guitar and piano (sometimes a violin comes in, too) has not harmed Onitsuka at all.

Of course, with amazing comes a few mishaps. Like the very big one that I’m more fond of her later work and am not apt to buy a whole album of hers for one song from her older work that I do enjoy. However, I was planning on snatching up her latest album as soon as it came out. Yes, I was going to succumb to the lulling gentleness of said artist. Yeah. Doesn’t look like that’ll be happening anytime soon. Today I discovered that Onitsuka has been booted from her record company for refusing to comply with their demands to place copy protection software on her discs and release a best collection. See what happens? An artist stands up for her rights and refuses to let others tamper with her art and how they want it distributed and record companies go nuts. Not only am I sorely disappointed, I’m pissed that a record company (with such a serene name (c’mon, Melody Star is badass and you know it), and wow I just placed a parenthesis within a parenthesis (there’s gotta’ be a grammatical rule against this somewhere) and oh, crap I did it again!), would actually void a contract with an artist over such a thing as copy protection, the most needless invention since the cellular phone. Yeah, we all need it. Like a hole in the head. So all I have to say about that is bravo, Chihiro, stand up for your rights! And since you’re going, why not go to a new record company and continue to grace us with your music?

The MTV Japan Awards were held this week as well. Yes! Another prize-winning documentary of the stars at their best! I love these stupid awards they hand out. It’s like the people at all the record companies assembled together and decided they didn’t get enough recognition for their work…I know, let’s hand out awards to each other! Show-stopper Ayumi Hamasaki walked away with, count it, three awards. I agree that she totally deserved best female video award for one of the coolest videos this year, I’m almost absolutely sure Justin Timberlake has no business invading the island with his smut. Other international awardists (awardees?) included Missy Elliot for best video of the year (!) and Good Charlotte for best rock video (!!).

Supposedly, there were announcements of Morning Musume members graduating again. Good riddance. Maybe next year all the members can graduate.

In conclusion, say no to CCCD, say no to the MTV Japan Awards, say no to Morning Musume…hell, just say no.

T.M.R.: Slowly rising or quickly falling?

OK, I’ll admit it. I was a huge T.M.Revolution fan back in the day when he released progress. This was around the time when I first started getting interested in Japanese music in general and to me, his sound and look were both new and exciting. Now, almost four years later, the man has decided to release some new music, a follow up to his newfound fame at Tofu Records and the American anime scene. And honestly, what the fuck?

It’s sad that T.M.R’s fame has been put to such shame as to be relentlessly tied into anime promotions just to have his music heard and sold. However, with a quick listen to his latest album SEVENTH HEAVEN it’s pretty obvious why: there’s nothing new. The album has the same sound and feel of progress, released four years prior. I guess it’s not such a shame to recycle such redundant music for new fans who haven’t his work before but what about his older fans? Shouldn’t his sound revolve around the idea that his fans are also four years older and looking for something a bit new and different?

It’s also questionable why they chose T.M.R in particular to represent the Jpop scene by playing so many lives at anime cons here. If we’re going down the Jpop route, it’s misleading to attach someone with his unique sound as a staple of Jpop to newfound listeners who might mistake his eccentricity as a write-off for the rest of the Japanese artists. Let’s face it, T.M.R does not come close to the “pop” that’s being put out there. And while we’re on the subject of propaganda, Nami Tamaki (another anime con performer in the US) isn’t either.

I guess what I’m trying to get across here is that this whole anime-con thing is one big silly promotional method to try and get “Jpop” popular here in the U.S. Unfortunately, by attaching these artists to anime-cons, they’re just making the whole thing seem geeky and inaccessible with T.M.R getting stuck in the crossfire. It’s too early to tell how this is affecting his popularity in Japan (wait, what popularity?), but it’s pretty obvious this has given his career a boost (prior, he hadn’t released anything for ages), but just how long can he keep releasing the same sounding tunes before both American and Japanese fans get annoyed enough to finally stop buying his albums?