How do boy bands feel when they encounter real musicians?

[Animeniax]

There are a lot of variety and music performance shows in Japan where the guests range from real musicians who sing, write music, play instruments, and compose music, all the way down to the vacuous pretty boy band members who just sit around trying to look cool while the little girls scream at their presence. I wonder how the boy band members feel when compared to the real musicians and talents on the show.

[Ryllharu]

That would depend on their egos. I'm sure there are lots of boy bands where that kind of thing doesn't bother them one bit. "But we're more popular." The key omission being "right now." They are so full of themselves and their own awesomeness, that they view themselves as the superior musical act. Not unlike that other shitty band in Beck that was getting all the press, despite Beck/Mongolian Chop Squad being a more beloved/talented band.

Luckily in America, back in the days when I would watch MTV (back when it was still tolerable and still played more music than not, circa 1999-2000), interviewers would occasionally ask boy band members who their own musical idols where, and whether it was just scripted from their production company or not, they still acknowledged the occasional legend.

But Japan is a little different. Visual Kei bands exist there, and are more prominent and gain more popularity than their equivalents Stateside do (shitty wannabe punk bands). Appearance really can be everything over there. If the j-rock ones can get away with relying only on power chords, they're good enough at guitar to put out on the market.

[XanBcoo]

There are a lot of variety and music performance shows in Japan where the guests range from real musicians who sing, write music, play instruments, and compose music, all the way down to the vacuous pretty boy band members who just sit around trying to look cool while the little girls scream at their presence. I wonder how the boy band members feel when compared to the real musicians and talents on the show.
As far as Japan goes, the only singer I listen to is Rie Fu (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaMjmeNv7mA), because she's a completely self-made musician, and works hard at what she does. The rest of the pop princesses (and I'm including the effeminate guys here) can screw themselves. God knows there's probably a way, it is Japan after all.

In general though, I have no idea what Pop stars think of themselves. It's entirely possible that they don't even identify themselves as "musicians," but rather "entertainers". Do they even try to pass themselves off as talented? I really don't know because I'm not familiar with enough of them. Personally I've never seen the two groups interact, so I don't know what "real musicians" and "entertainers" think of each other.

A friend of mine bought Paris Hilton's album. When I asked him how he could possibly even consider endorsing her and her "career", he told me he wasn't endorsing her, but rather the producer who (obviously) did all the work. In the end, he liked the music, and that's what really matters.

[Animeniax]

Good points all. In Japan, boy band members get to try their hands at acting as well, with many of them starring in dramas and movies, so they get to develop and expand their talents a bit based almost solely on their prettiness. A big entertainment conglomerate is Johnny's, which is a machine that puts boy bands together that are all very successful. One of their better creations though is the band TOKIO, where the 5 pretty boy members actually write some of their own music, play instruments, and some star in TV and movies. But most are still like KAT-TUN and Arashi, where it's mostly "pretty" guys who dance and sing and mess up perfectly good dramas with bad acting.

Like I was saying, they have these variety music shows every week where they have both boy bands and real artists together, and they all seem to get along well enough, but it's hard to tell if there's any reverence for musical talent, or if popularity is all that matters. Xan, that's a good point about being an "entertainer" instead of a musician. I think in general in Asia, the former is more important than the latter.

You all should check out YUI. She sings the 5th OP and ED for Bleach. She rules. I saw her on one of these variety shows once where she was pitted against 2 pop princesses and her performances smoked the other two pretty girls.

[XanBcoo]

Like I was saying, they have these variety music shows every week where they have both boy bands and real artists together, and they all seem to get along well enough, but it's hard to tell if there's any reverence for musical talent, or if popularity is all that matters. Xan, that's a good point about being an "entertainer" instead of a musician. I think in general in Asia, the former is more important than the latter.
Wherever there are pre-teen girls, there will be bad music to cater to them. If U.S. media has taught me anything, it's that you don't have to be talented to get a lot of exposure or be popular. If a conglomerate exists like Johnny's, who has the money and power to endorse pop figures, then I'm not surprised they're so popular.

Reminds me of the Grateful Sound festival in Beck, where the headlining performances were rap and flavor-of-the-month pop stars.

Edit: I feel I'd have more to say about this if I had watched the Grammy's last night and had any idea what was going on in popular music right now. But honestly, who could be bothered?

[Animeniax]

Yeah those silly preteen girls somehow have a lot of disposable income to support these boy bands. What's weird is the prevalence of ugly guys in these pretty boy bands. I wonder if we should hate them twice as much as the real pretty boys, or like them more because they're not pretty. In the US I can understand the "variety" necessary to appeal to the broad cultural backgrounds of the fans, but in Japan I can't see how that would have to be a consideration. It's a dilemma to be sure.

I have no idea about the current music scene in the US, though I don't think there are any active boy bands there, which is a good sign.

[¥»»ÄzäzëL««¥]

it doesnt matter how the feel, cause unfortunately, people around the world are forgetting what real music is. recently i've met a few people who have never heard of pantera, anthrax, or korn. that's rather screwed up, but the list gets worse. so i imagine boy bands have an even better self-image since they're listened to by the wide number of tasteless retards in our society today.

[The Heretic Azazel]

I for one wish I had never heard of Korn or Anthrax (non-John Bush)

And what the hell are you doing with my name anyway? Two Azazels is too confusing.

[¥»»ÄzäzëL««¥]

I for one wish I had never heard of Korn or Anthrax (non-John Bush)

And what the hell are you doing with my name anyway? Two Azazels is too confusing.

well, at least you have heard of the two. also, i've never seen any of your posts, i dont think i have. more people know about azazel than i thought... you do know who he was right

[David75]

I guess you can answer the question if you know what an industrial chicken thinks of a "natural" chicken.

It's serious...
The industrial chicken will say it sells a lot more, even if its final product is told to be bad in numerous ways, yet it sells a lot!
The "natural" chicken will say its quality is clearly at the top, yet it doesn't sell in massive numbers. It may even sometimes be very small sales.
The problem being that in both cases you can have troubles with quality...

Example taken from the True Tears Noe metaphor ;)

[XanBcoo]

Someone needs to tell David75 that chickens can't talk...:p



people around the world are forgetting what real music is
This is how much I read before I stopped taking your post seriously.

[The Heretic Azazel]

well, at least you have heard of the two. also, i've never seen any of your posts, i dont think i have. more people know about azazel than i thought... you do know who he was right

He was a person? I just thought it was random letters I strung together. Hmmm.

[¥»»ÄzäzëL««¥]

He was a person? I just thought it was random letters I strung together. Hmmm.
haha, are you serious. azazel was a demon, he's the eternal guardian of hell. he protects satan with 42 legions of goat demons and possessed souls. so nice ''random stringing of letters'', they have quite a meaning

[XanBcoo]

haha, are you serious. azazel was a demon, he's the eternal guardian of hell. he protects satan with 42 legions of goat demons and possessed souls. so nice ''random stringing of letters'', they have quite a meaning
He was being sarcastic you dipshit.

I'm upset this thread derailed so fast. It was a pretty interesting prompt.

[Animeniax]

Leave it to two goths to mess up a thread. Anyway, I'm a little upset that Japan is responsible for continuing the trend of manufacturing boy bands. It kills me that some of these "pretty boys" are ugly and untalented, and they still feature in commercials and dramas and variety shows. Even worse, the Backstreet boys are currently in Japan, and still being treated like celebrities. Did you all know, that it's down to 4 boys now?

[darkmetal505]

~ Girls need boy bands otherwise the world will phail. ~

Animeniax, I don't know why this is troubling you so much. It's a social anthropology question, and if you really wanted to know, you would have to look at the development of teenage culture, external influences from other countries, etc.

It's really nothing to get your panties in a bunch for.

[Animeniax]

Personally I'd prefer girls worshiped real musical talents like John Mayer or Eric Clapton. I think they could do without the boy bands, considering most boy band members aren't even "hot" or talented.

Did you all know that Howie from the Backstreet boys was an AV nerd in high school? With a little Hollywood processing, he became a boy band celebrity. That's what's wrong with the whole boy band industry.

I am very interested in social anthropology, especially as it concerns hot chicks, the Japanese, and hot Japanese chicks. I started liking the band Fuel because I saw their music videos with concert footage of screaming hot chicks, so I figured whatever they are doing to attract screaming hot chicks, they must be doing it well. But they are not a boy band. While I admit to finding one or two boy band tunes catchy and not half bad to listen to, I would not call myself a fan of their music, for the simple fact of their artificial manufactured nature, and I definitely am not a fan of the "band" members, since they represent what I hate about the entertainment industry.

[David75]

Personally I'd prefer girls worshiped real musical talents like John Mayer or Eric Clapton. I think they could do without the boy bands, considering most boy band members aren't even "hot" or talented.

Did you all know that Howie from the Backstreet boys was an AV nerd in high school? With a little Hollywood processing, he became a boy band celebrity. That's what's wrong with the whole boy band industry.

I am very interested in social anthropology, especially as it concerns hot chicks, the Japanese, and hot Japanese chicks. I started liking the band Fuel because I saw their music videos with concert footage of screaming hot chicks, so I figured whatever they are doing to attract screaming hot chicks, they must be doing it well. But they are not a boy band. While I admit to finding one or two boy band tunes catchy and not half bad to listen to, I would not call myself a fan of their music, for the simple fact of their artificial manufactured nature, and I definitely am not a fan of the "band" members, since they represent what I hate about the entertainment industry.

I think your rant comes from the fact you think they spoil what you think as "real artist" from doing their job at a greater level.
I'm not sure that is true, I mean "real artists" have their niche, but it's not that expandable.
Next, boys band do sell in Japan. So what, let them be, you're not forced to hear from them. And if they are in commercials, you don't care, unless you're a commercial addict.
You said it yourself, they're not artists, so they shouldn't really bother you. They are entertainers, as someone said here.

It's very common to find things with wrong labels...
For example some countries are thought to be democratic... and their leader thought to
respect freedom and democracy. But then, eventhough they are so strict about thinking they are in the Axe of good (sometimes almost stripping a letter for God...), they in fact tend to lower their country standard to almost axe of Evil they say they fight.
But then I may be a little out of topic. Sorry.

[XanBcoo]

Personally I'd prefer girls worshiped real musical talents like John Mayer or Eric Clapton.
I don't know what to think of John Mayer. When he's playing with the John Mayer Trio (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qla13aWrNP4), he's a really soulful guitar player, but he does nothing but push out terrible solo pop songs like "Your Body is a Wonderland". I don't get it.

Also lots of girls do listen to him. Apparently learning how to play one of his aforementioned terrible pop songs is an automatic panty-dropper.

Edit: He's also honestly an "SRV 2.0" but that's not such a terrible criticism.

[Animeniax]

I'm not really griping and it's not like this is tearing me up inside, it's just one of those questions that popped into my head while watching a Japanese variety show. It's weird, as I type this, the weekly Music Station show is on, and the Backstreet Boys just performed to decent applause. Some J-hiphop group performed right after and got mediocre applause. It's weird watching the Boys sitting after they performed, listening to all the Japanese yammering and not understanding a single word being said (as far as I can tell). The hostess of Music Station is such a cute babe.

I'm not a fan of John Mayer, I just couldn't think up any other music artists since I'm out of the American music scene. Maybe Chris Daughtry, but I can't stand his music and I think he's an American Idol factory reject anyway.

My newest archenemy: the J-r&b group Exile. It's 7 guys, but it appears only 2 sing while the other 5 dance the whole time.

[XanBcoo]

Well Animeniax, I seemed to have just inadvertently stumbled upon a video that answers the very question you asked in the OP:

Noel Gallagher talks about Pop music; also featured: Liam Gallagher and Damon Albarn (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkSSn_Mfg-o&NR=1). The band Noel is referring to is S-Club Seven, an English pop band from several years ago. Basically features Noel being irreverent as always, Liam not giving a shit, and Albarn being subtly condescending.

I don't even like Oasis, but Goddamn, Noel is instantly quotable in any interview he does. I love it.

[Animeniax]

Well I'm back at camp where youtube is blocked so I can't see the video you linked, Xan. I'm sure it's enlightening from the side of a musician commenting on a boy band. I'd love to see an interview from the other side though, to see a boy band member defend himself about not being a real musical talent.

[Rek]

I tour with a band, signed to a label owned by the guy from LFO ("I like girls that wear abercrombie and fitch") and he pretty much acts like he has been there before, and taken every step ahead of us... basically he sees himself as a real musician, and since he developed more fame than us, and he writes our checks, there's a little condescension.

...he calls me Queen Bee.

[KitKat]

I tour with a band, signed to a label owned by the guy from LFO ("I like girls that wear abercrombie and fitch") and he pretty much acts like he has been there before, and taken every step ahead of us... basically he sees himself as a real musician, and since he developed more fame than us, and he writes our checks, there's a little condescension.

...he calls me Queen Bee.
Now....is that because you showed him that picture of you in your underwear?

[Animeniax]

I tour with a band, signed to a label owned by the guy from LFO ("I like girls that wear abercrombie and fitch") and he pretty much acts like he has been there before, and taken every step ahead of us... basically he sees himself as a real musician, and since he developed more fame than us, and he writes our checks, there's a little condescension.

...he calls me Queen Bee.
So I guess it's a two-way street with snobbishness from both sides? At least the real musicians have something to be snobby about. Though a million screaming fan girls is something to feel cool about too.

[Rek]

I have shown absolutely no pictures of my underwear from any member of a boyband. ...that's like dropping the soap in prison, girl.