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.
“For God will not permit that we shall know what is to come... those who by some sorcery or by some dream might come to pierce the veil that lies so darkly over all that is before them may serve by just that vision to cause that God should wrench the world from its heading and set it upon another course altogether and then where stands the sorcerer? Where the dreamer and his dream?”
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.
As far as Japan goes, the only singer I listen to is Rie Fu, 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.Originally Posted by Animeniax
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.
<@Terra> he told me this, "man actually meeting terra is so fucking big", and he started crying. Then he bought me hot dogs
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.
“For God will not permit that we shall know what is to come... those who by some sorcery or by some dream might come to pierce the veil that lies so darkly over all that is before them may serve by just that vision to cause that God should wrench the world from its heading and set it upon another course altogether and then where stands the sorcerer? Where the dreamer and his dream?”
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?
Last edited by XanBcoo; Mon, 02-11-2008 at 01:32 PM.
<@Terra> he told me this, "man actually meeting terra is so fucking big", and he started crying. Then he bought me hot dogs
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.
“For God will not permit that we shall know what is to come... those who by some sorcery or by some dream might come to pierce the veil that lies so darkly over all that is before them may serve by just that vision to cause that God should wrench the world from its heading and set it upon another course altogether and then where stands the sorcerer? Where the dreamer and his dream?”
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.
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.
"They call it 'The American Dream' because you have to be asleep to believe it" - George Carlin
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
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
All the things I really like to do are either illegal, immoral, or fattening. And then: Golf.
Someone needs to tell David75 that chickens can't talk...
This is how much I read before I stopped taking your post seriously.
<@Terra> he told me this, "man actually meeting terra is so fucking big", and he started crying. Then he bought me hot dogs
He was a person? I just thought it was random letters I strung together. Hmmm.
"They call it 'The American Dream' because you have to be asleep to believe it" - George Carlin
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
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?
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.
“For God will not permit that we shall know what is to come... those who by some sorcery or by some dream might come to pierce the veil that lies so darkly over all that is before them may serve by just that vision to cause that God should wrench the world from its heading and set it upon another course altogether and then where stands the sorcerer? Where the dreamer and his dream?”
I have shown absolutely no pictures of my underwear from any member of a boyband. ...that's like dropping the soap in prison, girl.
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