If you were unaware...
14 years ago
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Asia: Forever Doomed to Obscurity
I love how incredibly easy it is to write blogs about music. On Livejournal, I used to make music posts constantly, because it just took me a few minutes to post some lyrics and a download link to some random mp3 I was listening to. I don't want to fall into that same rut, but music is just so big a part of my life that I can't help it. I'm constantly listening to my favorite songs, new or old, and it's inevitable that I write about them. I'm always passing off random mix cds or transferring a random song to someone because it just makes me happy to share things that make me happy. The problem with Livejournal, though, was that I have too many friends there. Naturally my posts would get thoroughly ignored, and I would feel like crap that out of fifty-something friends, I can't get a single comment. That's why I like you, blogger! I don't have any expectations of comments or any of that nature.
Today's topic is the crappy debut singles given to Asian singers trying to break into the U.S. market. It's a question that has plagued mankind for... not too terribly long, but it's very applicable. Prepare for a deluge of youtube videos, as I have a big point to prove.
For those readers who know their history, what was the one and only Japanese-language song to top the Billboard charts? That's right, it was Kyu Sakamoto's wonderful tune "Sukiyaki" in 1963. The song's real name is 上を向いて歩こう (Ue o muite arukou - I shall walk looking up) and has absolutely nothing to do with an absolutely delicious meat dish, but that is neither here nor there. The song topped the charts for 3 weeks and has been covered by nearly fifty other musical acts, but the thing that was so amazing about it was that it didn't pretend to be "just another American song". The song isn't particularly Japanese other than some of the instrumentation and, obviously, the lyrics, but it was an artist singing a good song in a language he knew in a style that he had mastered. Clearly this paid off, as no other Japanese-language song has topped the U.S. charts since.
Fast forward several decades. After multiple failed attempts by Pink Lady to make an impact on the American music scene, one of the biggest names in Chinese music, Coco Lee, released her American debut album "Just No Other Way" in 1999. One of the best ways to describe Coco Lee would be a Chinese Mariah Carey (the good years). Coco has quite a set of pipes, looks, perfect English, and every other thing that should have guaranteed her to be hit material. She already had eleven hit cds in Chinese-language markets, so it seemed like a can't-miss opportunity. Naturally, "Just No Other Way" became a best-seller in Asian markets and had multiple top ten singles, but due to terrible (read: no) marketing in America, only one song ("Do You Want My Love") on the cd received any recognition whatsoever, making it to the top fifty on the "Hot Dance Club Play" chart. The cd overall was a fairly lame attempt at capturing the R&B/pop hybridization that was happening in America at the time, but all the songs sounded stale, and it was just a sad event. The songs weren't terrible by any means, but there was just nothing special about them to really showcase what Coco Lee was known for.
A year later, in ultimate irony, Coco Lee was up for an Oscar for her song "A Love Before Time" from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". Although she was robbed of her moment of glory, it was a nice second chance at showing America what she could do. Apparently it was enough for the American record labels to give her a second look, as she was set up for a second disastrous American release with "Exposed" in 2005. Although I like the cd, it's nothing more than a trashy urban album. Again, it received massive sales in Asia and is still charting in some countries, but with a grand total of no marketing in America and a sound that makes it do anything but stand out from the crowds, it went absolutely nowhere in America. Although some of the songs really are great, such as "All Around the World", which was released as the theme to the Korean version of "Charlie's Angels 2", a majority of the album was just recycled beats, such as the lead single "No Doubt" featuring the groundbreaking idea of pairing a rapper no one has heard of with a female vocalist performing over earth-shatteringly fresh beats. Great club album, not much else.
Another in the great line of amazing Asian careers, what-were-you-thinking American releases is the Japanese-American superstar Utada Hikaru. Utada is the daughter of two parents in the music business and grew up in both Tokyo and New York City. She's been recording since she was 13 and holds the record of all-time best selling Japanese album with her debut Japanese cd "First Love" selling over ten million copies. A perennial "album of the year" and "single of the year" winner, Utada seemed another sure bet with an American album. With an all-star team behind her, including a few songs worked on by Timbaland, "Exodus" seemed a shoe-in for sales. Released in 2004, the album sold over a million copies in Japan and ended the year at number six on the album of the year charts. Being the highest-selling English-language album in Japan ever (a record previously held by Mariah, interestingly enough), "Exodus" was a disaster in America, to date selling barely over 50,000 copies. The album itself is fairly amazing, showcasing how diverse Utada can be, but pairing zero marketing and a lead single with a hot mess of a music video and a musical style that was nothing like what was on American airwaves at the time, it proved hopeless. Utada has been working on a second English-language album, so here's hoping that proves a better success in English-speaking markets!
Finally, we arrive at today's market. Several amazing talents from Korea have set their eyes on American shores, and they all seem to have what America is looking for. Bi ("Rain") is a brilliant Urban performer: a veritable Justin Timberlake. His style is what's playing in America today, and his dancing skills are unimitable. He was featured in TIME as a face to watch, and he has achieved relative success in Japan. There is trouble in paradise, though, as several of his concerts have been cancelled due to low ticket sales and the like. With no English-language album, though, there's no real reason for him to have that big of a following. I have a feeling Bi could have quite the career with the proper handling.
The real pressing issue today, though, is what will happen to Boa Kwon, one of the top-selling artists across multiple Asian countries. Boa started her musical training at a young, young age before her Korean debut. She had also been trained in Japanese so she would be able to top the ORICON (Japanese music charts). About ten top-selling albums later (spread amongst Korea, Japan, and China), BoA is releasing her official debut English single "Eat You Up". The song itself is pretty decent, and her dancing in the two version of the video that have been released are still as amazing as ever. The only problem, though, is that the song is plagued by her thick accent (belive it or not, it used to be worse) and the lack of freshness to the track. I have no doubt this could be a huge club hit, but club hits rarely create careers nowadays. I believe this could take off, as BoA has amazing talent, but with the terrible track record of Asian singers in America, I doubt she'll receive and promotion and will be doomed to slip back to Asia and continue her hit-making in relative obscurity. Considering the song has received nothing more than an online promo release yet, it has achieved relative success, topping the breakouts hot club play charts. I'm presenting both versions of the "Eat You Up" music video, just because they're both pretty amazing. The videos are labelled as nothing more than "Version A" and "Version B", so enjoy!
Today's topic is the crappy debut singles given to Asian singers trying to break into the U.S. market. It's a question that has plagued mankind for... not too terribly long, but it's very applicable. Prepare for a deluge of youtube videos, as I have a big point to prove.
For those readers who know their history, what was the one and only Japanese-language song to top the Billboard charts? That's right, it was Kyu Sakamoto's wonderful tune "Sukiyaki" in 1963. The song's real name is 上を向いて歩こう (Ue o muite arukou - I shall walk looking up) and has absolutely nothing to do with an absolutely delicious meat dish, but that is neither here nor there. The song topped the charts for 3 weeks and has been covered by nearly fifty other musical acts, but the thing that was so amazing about it was that it didn't pretend to be "just another American song". The song isn't particularly Japanese other than some of the instrumentation and, obviously, the lyrics, but it was an artist singing a good song in a language he knew in a style that he had mastered. Clearly this paid off, as no other Japanese-language song has topped the U.S. charts since.
Fast forward several decades. After multiple failed attempts by Pink Lady to make an impact on the American music scene, one of the biggest names in Chinese music, Coco Lee, released her American debut album "Just No Other Way" in 1999. One of the best ways to describe Coco Lee would be a Chinese Mariah Carey (the good years). Coco has quite a set of pipes, looks, perfect English, and every other thing that should have guaranteed her to be hit material. She already had eleven hit cds in Chinese-language markets, so it seemed like a can't-miss opportunity. Naturally, "Just No Other Way" became a best-seller in Asian markets and had multiple top ten singles, but due to terrible (read: no) marketing in America, only one song ("Do You Want My Love") on the cd received any recognition whatsoever, making it to the top fifty on the "Hot Dance Club Play" chart. The cd overall was a fairly lame attempt at capturing the R&B/pop hybridization that was happening in America at the time, but all the songs sounded stale, and it was just a sad event. The songs weren't terrible by any means, but there was just nothing special about them to really showcase what Coco Lee was known for.
A year later, in ultimate irony, Coco Lee was up for an Oscar for her song "A Love Before Time" from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". Although she was robbed of her moment of glory, it was a nice second chance at showing America what she could do. Apparently it was enough for the American record labels to give her a second look, as she was set up for a second disastrous American release with "Exposed" in 2005. Although I like the cd, it's nothing more than a trashy urban album. Again, it received massive sales in Asia and is still charting in some countries, but with a grand total of no marketing in America and a sound that makes it do anything but stand out from the crowds, it went absolutely nowhere in America. Although some of the songs really are great, such as "All Around the World", which was released as the theme to the Korean version of "Charlie's Angels 2", a majority of the album was just recycled beats, such as the lead single "No Doubt" featuring the groundbreaking idea of pairing a rapper no one has heard of with a female vocalist performing over earth-shatteringly fresh beats. Great club album, not much else.
Another in the great line of amazing Asian careers, what-were-you-thinking American releases is the Japanese-American superstar Utada Hikaru. Utada is the daughter of two parents in the music business and grew up in both Tokyo and New York City. She's been recording since she was 13 and holds the record of all-time best selling Japanese album with her debut Japanese cd "First Love" selling over ten million copies. A perennial "album of the year" and "single of the year" winner, Utada seemed another sure bet with an American album. With an all-star team behind her, including a few songs worked on by Timbaland, "Exodus" seemed a shoe-in for sales. Released in 2004, the album sold over a million copies in Japan and ended the year at number six on the album of the year charts. Being the highest-selling English-language album in Japan ever (a record previously held by Mariah, interestingly enough), "Exodus" was a disaster in America, to date selling barely over 50,000 copies. The album itself is fairly amazing, showcasing how diverse Utada can be, but pairing zero marketing and a lead single with a hot mess of a music video and a musical style that was nothing like what was on American airwaves at the time, it proved hopeless. Utada has been working on a second English-language album, so here's hoping that proves a better success in English-speaking markets!
Finally, we arrive at today's market. Several amazing talents from Korea have set their eyes on American shores, and they all seem to have what America is looking for. Bi ("Rain") is a brilliant Urban performer: a veritable Justin Timberlake. His style is what's playing in America today, and his dancing skills are unimitable. He was featured in TIME as a face to watch, and he has achieved relative success in Japan. There is trouble in paradise, though, as several of his concerts have been cancelled due to low ticket sales and the like. With no English-language album, though, there's no real reason for him to have that big of a following. I have a feeling Bi could have quite the career with the proper handling.
The real pressing issue today, though, is what will happen to Boa Kwon, one of the top-selling artists across multiple Asian countries. Boa started her musical training at a young, young age before her Korean debut. She had also been trained in Japanese so she would be able to top the ORICON (Japanese music charts). About ten top-selling albums later (spread amongst Korea, Japan, and China), BoA is releasing her official debut English single "Eat You Up". The song itself is pretty decent, and her dancing in the two version of the video that have been released are still as amazing as ever. The only problem, though, is that the song is plagued by her thick accent (belive it or not, it used to be worse) and the lack of freshness to the track. I have no doubt this could be a huge club hit, but club hits rarely create careers nowadays. I believe this could take off, as BoA has amazing talent, but with the terrible track record of Asian singers in America, I doubt she'll receive and promotion and will be doomed to slip back to Asia and continue her hit-making in relative obscurity. Considering the song has received nothing more than an online promo release yet, it has achieved relative success, topping the breakouts hot club play charts. I'm presenting both versions of the "Eat You Up" music video, just because they're both pretty amazing. The videos are labelled as nothing more than "Version A" and "Version B", so enjoy!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Mulan, as sung by Lisa Loeb
For my first World Lit. class at UAH, we were given the assignment of finding an ancient text and writing, effectively, whatever we wanted. Being at the extreme peak of my apathetic, self-pitying state, I went for the obvious and chose the shortest text I could possibly find: the original ballad of Mulan. The text itself wouldn't be more than a printed page in the original Chinese (cf. here, may require some fiddling with text encoding), and the English translation isn't much longer (cf. here). I figured it couldn't possibly be too terrible, as I could just write about the Disney movie/Christina Aguilera if all else failed.
As it turned out, the story was pretty awesome, and I wrote a not awful paper about it. Seeing how the source material was transformed into the movie was nifty to the max, given how little there was with which to work.
When it comes right down to it, this song has absolutely nothing to do with Mulan or even my essay. The topic of the song is slightly reminiscent of Mulan, but it's actually about a princess instead of a peasant; virtually everything else is the same, though. It's actually extremely depressing if you listen to the lyrics, but it's such a pleasant song that I manage to look past that.
As everyone here ought to know, Lisa Loeb is the ridiculously cool/indie singer, who was the only artist ever to top the Billboard Hot 100 before actually being signed to a record label with her song "Stay (I Missed You)". Somehow, though, I'd managed to go without ever hearing this song until recently, and I've always absolutely adored her for her song "I Do".
Rin', the group providing the music for this track, is a trio of Japanese ladies who perform a type of world fusion music using traditional Japanese instruments: the koto, a 13-stringed, zither-like instrument that doubles at the national instrument of Japan; the sangen--better known as the shamisen--a three-stringed, banjo-like instrument; the shakuhachi (lit. "1.8 feet"), a flute traditionally made of bamboo; and a number of other instruments. I often consider Rin's music to be the true soundtrack of my life. In 2006, Rin' collaborated with Leigh Nash (Sixpence None the Richer) and Lisa Loeb to release an English-language album.
I present, for your consideration, "Anti-Hero", by Rin' ft. Lisa Loeb.
As it turned out, the story was pretty awesome, and I wrote a not awful paper about it. Seeing how the source material was transformed into the movie was nifty to the max, given how little there was with which to work.
When it comes right down to it, this song has absolutely nothing to do with Mulan or even my essay. The topic of the song is slightly reminiscent of Mulan, but it's actually about a princess instead of a peasant; virtually everything else is the same, though. It's actually extremely depressing if you listen to the lyrics, but it's such a pleasant song that I manage to look past that.
As everyone here ought to know, Lisa Loeb is the ridiculously cool/indie singer, who was the only artist ever to top the Billboard Hot 100 before actually being signed to a record label with her song "Stay (I Missed You)". Somehow, though, I'd managed to go without ever hearing this song until recently, and I've always absolutely adored her for her song "I Do".
Rin', the group providing the music for this track, is a trio of Japanese ladies who perform a type of world fusion music using traditional Japanese instruments: the koto, a 13-stringed, zither-like instrument that doubles at the national instrument of Japan; the sangen--better known as the shamisen--a three-stringed, banjo-like instrument; the shakuhachi (lit. "1.8 feet"), a flute traditionally made of bamboo; and a number of other instruments. I often consider Rin's music to be the true soundtrack of my life. In 2006, Rin' collaborated with Leigh Nash (Sixpence None the Richer) and Lisa Loeb to release an English-language album.
I present, for your consideration, "Anti-Hero", by Rin' ft. Lisa Loeb.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Blog'o'crap
With two lame blogs to my name thus far--a livejournal that's been mine for years while going steadily downhill, and a myspace that's seriously not even worth pretending exists--I've decided it's time for a new start. I can't promise what will be in here, but I can promise it will be new and unexpected. Plan for a myriad of exciting topics, ranging from my attempts to grasp the state of politics to my most recent amazing youtube finds. I forewarn every reader that I can have a pretty sketchy taste level at times, but if you come along for the ride, you'll probably get a good chuckle along the way.
Here's to the future!
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