Words of the Wise: Verbal

[aide]

"For me fashion links directly to music," he says. "I even care what color underwear I wear. When I'm tired, people ask if I use vitamins and supplements and stuff, but I just wear red underwear to remind myself 'today I'm going to be hot!'"

Smart man. I need to invest in some great power underwear. The rest of the article is here. I think he is one of the artists I would most like to meet. Not only is m-flo amazing and I love Verbal's raps, but he's not even Japanese. People say that BoA was one of the first Korean artists to open the door in 2002 but people always forget that Verbal and m-flo have been rocking out since before 1999.

I want to see more groups like Monkey Majik and Def Tech here in Japan. More (visibly) foreign artists making music in Japanese. There's Jero doin' his Enka and that's great but he's also part Japanese. The only other non-Japanese artist I can think of now, Himeka, was tapped for her appeal to anime fans: not that she can't sing, but I don't really see her getting a big foothold in the Japanese market. And then there's this girl from Britian that I can't even find the words for. If only we could all get famous by posting videos of ourself jumping around our bedrooms. Wouldn't life be grand?

Comments

[iaoiua.livejournal.com]

I love m-flo, have since Lisa was still a member, and long long before I ever heard of Arashi or even JE :D. But, I contend that while Verbal is of Korean ethnicity, he was never a a pop star in Korea — unlike BoA. I can't stand the girl, but she can't be considered remotely zainichi Korean and really can't be directly compared to Verbal, Miyavi, or even Wada Akiko. BoA, for what it's worth, is one of the first (if not the first) examples of a popular cross-over artist in Japan. Other kpop artists had released Japanese versions of their singles before BoA (such as S.E.S, who also belonged to BoA's management company at the time), but none of them could be considered successes.

Trouble is, my guess is very few completely non-Japanese people have any interest in breaking it into the Japanese market. (I've never listened to HIMEKA, but I've heard the girl can barely speak Japanese x:) Honestly, I'm not sure how the Japanese view fully gaijin artists? At the risk of sounding judgmental, I get the impression that Japan likes gaijin-looking celebrities, but not necessarily fully gaijin ones.

That all said, I love Verbal. I care about what color underwear I wear, too :D

[maiaide.livejournal.com]

Well. Unlike Japan, I say Wada Akiko and Miyavi ARE Japanese because their parents (and grandparents?) were born here. And by now they're like, 1/8th Korean so who cares. Verbal on the other hand, is fully Korean and I didn't think they immigrated, but were just here as expats, though I don't know for sure. He wasn't born here so that's different. BoA's an import and is undoubtedly the first successful Korean cross-over, I agree. She may be the first big cross-over of any kind in Japan. I know Wang Leehom did 1 Japanese album but it wasn't very big at all and he only did the one.

That is also another thing: foreigners know how hard it is to be taken seriously in this country so a lot probably don't even want to bother. And if you want a serious music career, you want success. If this Himeka chick really wanted to be a singer, why didn't she get a deal in Canada? It was just lucky that she came over for some singing contest and won. That doesn't mean she isn't interested in Japan or doesn't want to be here, but I think if she were that serious about wanting to be a singer IN Japan, she'd have been at least studying the language before she got here. The dudes from Monkey Majik were here as English teachers and then made a band and actually write all their songs which are in Japanese. And they've gotten pretty successful.

Ah, I could go on forever debating racism in Japan.

[iaoiua.livejournal.com]

I definitely see your point; I think it's just a matter of nuance. BoA is not regarded the way she is just because she is Korean, but because she is a cross-over arist. The fact that Verbal is Korean has, for what it's worth, never been a "selling" point for (or highly emphasized in) m-flo, in my opinion (I always thought Lisa's mixed ethnicity was more interesting). In contrast, BoA was always marketed as a Korean pop star. She is the first artist from SM that embarked on a serious Japanese career, i.e. releasing Japanese singles that weren't just versions of her Korean singles in Japanese — to the extent that her career in Korea waned (relatively) while she concentrated on Japan so seriously.

As far as my knowledge of kpop goes (only until 2001 or so), the girl group S.E.S. (also of SM Entertainment) were either the first or among the first to attempt some sort of presence in Japan, at least in part because one of its members was supposedly fluent in Japanese (grew up in Japan or something). S.E.S. had a few Japanese versions of their singles, as well as a stand-alone single named Yume wo Kasanete (which was later released in Korean), but they really were never anywhere as popular in Japan as they were in Korea, in contrast to BoA.

At around the same time as BoA, K, a Korean ballad singer, best known for singing the theme song to 1 Litre of Tears, was also widely talked about as one of the first top Oricon charting Korean singers (but he wasn't popular in Korea, in contrast to BoA). Since BoA, every major kpop star has attempted Japan (Shinhwa, Rain, Se7en), some artists started off in Japan and then made it big in Korea (Younha), but only DBSK (and possibly Big Bang in the future) have been successful in both countries.

There's also an issue of when Korean imports were allowed into Japan ... I'm not sure of the details, but it hasn't been that long, supposedly, since Japan re-opened up Korean imports, and Korean entertainment companies decided to pursue the Japanese market more strongly. My guess is that this change correlates with the hallyu wave of Korean pop culture into Japan

Leehom's Japanese album was terrible. I'm quite sure he was just piggybacking off his role in that movie with Gackt and Hyde.

Sorry for the lecture! x: