Time to take another trip around the world of Idols
First up is Alice 10 sister unit Topping Girls GT .You may notice that several members are from Alice 10 .That is because the members of Alice 10 are all in 2-3 other groups for their parent company Alice Project.
Morning Musume has released a PV for their 51st single, I can`t believe I’ve lasted all 51 singles as a fan; time sure has gone by fast.
This version of “Wakuteka Take a Chance” is a provisional or temporary version if you like, because Ayumi was injured at the time and could not dance, so an alternate version was released to meet promotional deadlines.
A new version is expected to be released at a later date.
This version features some close ups, some auto tune and CGI and 100% Morning Musume style cuteness.
This is one PV that your either going to like or dislike right from the start and the vast majority of fans here and overseas is on board with this. Overall I like Wakuteka Take a Chance and after 50 Morning Musume singles and countless albums I am use to how Tsunku works and thinks as well as Up-Front.
While there are some minor things that I am not a fan of from a visual standpoint, it`s not enough to vote thumbs down .So I think you`ll find this a thumbs up video, just like I did.
Alice 10 One of the current leaders of the new wave of a growing Indie idol movement that mixes Heavy Metal , Horror and other nontraditional cookie cutter idol concepts have been making a few waves as of late.
It`s a movement that in my own life I have embraced fully with the production of a newly debuting Independent Idol Group that also embraces this division of idol genre and it`s growing offshoots of concept diversity.
With Heavy Metal Idol branches and Horror Idol branches, this is a movement that will continue to grow, at a healthy pace as new units have started making debuts recently.
Much like Morning Musume and AKB48 opened doors for large member, cookie cutter traditional idols. Alice 10, BiS, BABYMETAL and others are embracing a different road and creating our own brand idol freshness.
So here is a look at what these mask wearing idols have been up to the last few weeks.
Quite a while ago, Tokyo Girls' Style released a music video for LolitA☆Strawberry in summer, which is part of their Road to Budokan 2012 single. Bad flower was already released, and can be seen in this post. Discord, the b-side hasn't been released yet. When I saw that the MV to this was finally revealed, I got so excited! I love SweetS. And I like that TGS is covering some SweetS songs. But I don't like the 3D animations that much, at least the ones that vocaloids often use. The dance moves always look so stiff and awkward. And because it's computer generated, the moves look way too perfect and synchronized. I'm glad their trying something new, but I just don't like the MV. This could have been a great MV, with the nice background and all. I hope that there's a version with the real members in it. Other than that, the song is awesome. I like the original version by SweetS, and it took a little warming up, but TGS's version is good too. It's somehow powerful sounding. I can't wait to hear what discord sounds like.
The long awaited full version of their new single “WING” PV is now out. And with everything they do I get lost in their vocals. This is the perfect vocal matchup.
If you remember in my teaser I said if only they throw some touches of Goth in when they transformed into vampires.
Well did I get my wish? You`ll have to watch to the end and see
It`s time for another Idol Round Up. Idol Round Up is not about me ,giving in depth reviews and commentary .Instead it`s simply a look at some of idol groups we cover and some debuting on PIH and what they have going on right now.
Returning to PIH is those loveable sisters of Dorothy Little Happy .
Party Rockets .
If you’re a fan of the Rockets then you’re going to find this performance simply awesome.
After making their debut on PIH ,through a profile segment by Meika , Pizza♥Yah! (ピッツァ♥屋) make their performance debut on PIH.
A new Heavy Metal Idol band is on the horizons and little is known about them at this time as they will not formally debut until Dec 21 .
HEART♥PANIC is different from BABYMETAL in that they are an actual band and their producers are very much in the teasing mood by showing them teases of Slipknot.
Just what the final outcome of their training and preparations will result in for these new JRock/Idols we will have to wait to see in December.
For now we have a couple of teasers , a twitter and a newly opened web site.
On the heels of adding the historic 11th gen member Oda Sakura ,Morning Musume has announce a move to build a stronger worldwide fan base.
Much of the details have not been announced yet ,however International fan handshake events have been announced.
The first three are set for Thailand ,Taiwan and France.
Details are below
Morning Musume Worldwide Handshake Event in Taiwan
Date October 15 ,2012 at 7PM [Local Time]
Location-誠品站前店K區地下街藝文西廣場(K12)台北市忠孝西路一段47號B1
Members who will be there: Michishige Sayumi ,Tanaka Reina ,Fukumura Mizuki ,Iikubo Haruna ,Ishida Ayumi
Participation is dependent on event tickets in the Taiwan version of Morning Musume`s new Album.
You can buy the CD from their Taiwan affiliate. http://www.forward.com.tw/
Morning Musume Worldwide Handshake Event in Bangkok
Date October 17,2012 at 5PM[Local Time]
Venue- Gateway Ekamai 982/22 Sukhumvit Road, Prakanong, Klong toey, Bangkok 10110, Thailand.
Members who will be there: Michishige Sayumi ,Tanaka Reina ,Fukumura Mizuki ,Iikubo Haruna ,Ishida Ayumi
Participation is dependent on event tickets in the Thailand version of Morning Musume`s new Album.
You can buy the CD from their Thailand Affiliate http://gmminter.gmember.com/
Morning Musume Worldwide Handshake Events in Paris
Date October 30 ,2012 [3PM Local Time]
Location- Hard Rock Café Paris ,14, Boulevard Montmartre, 75009 Paris
Members who will be there: Michishige Sayumi ,Tanaka Reina ,Fukumura Mizuki ,Iikubo Haruna ,Ishida Ayumi
Participation is dependent on event tickets in the France version of Morning Musume`s new Album.
You can buy the CD from their France Affiliate http://www.ankama-music.com/fr http://www.bishi-bishi.com/en
H!P Trainee and 11th Gen finalist Oda Sakura has Joined Morning Musume as 11th Gen Member
She is the only member of the 11th Generation .This is the 3rd time in Morning Musume`s history that one member has represented a generation.
From Morning Musume Channel ,just added.
Updates
Musume freaks out on stage as Oda Joins [Funny]
babyraids [baby rays] ,the new idol group that Idoling!!! Member Kikuchi Ami has been advising have released a teaser to their debut single “babyraids“.
babyraids are Oya Rikako, Takami Nao, Denya Erika, Hayashi Manatsu, and Watanabe Rio.
Tsunku-san said that he wanted to find strong vocals in this audition ,it`s hard to say with what little footage that is out ,if he achieved that goal , however he did follow the classic pattern of the girl next door Idol.
For this round my heart is for Nice Girl Trainee and member of Tsunku`s Backstage Pass Café idols Ono Haruka.
Even if she doesn’t make it , I am ok with that.
With the 9th,10th and 11th generations Morning Musume are reloading nicely for another exciting run and that run alive is enough for me whoever ends up being selected .
A PV tease for Passpo ☆ new single Wing is now out. It`s description is “German Metal” and is the third of the groups Passpo ☆ meets metal from around the world series .
As someone who has been musically influenced by German Melodic Metal and Hard Rock for years , I am going to avoid if it is or is not “German Metal” debate and just say ,i`m not ready to fully jump on that parade float . In some ways it is , but in a more ways it is not.
The wonderful thing about music ,is that you can be influenced by something and keep your original sound. In this case Passpo ☆ has managed to keep everything very much their own style while exploring new horizons.
Wing has the makings of a solid idol rock track that features the girls becoming vampires [would have like to see a transition to a darker costume look to enhance the transformation] and the group doing things the way they always do ,the Passpo ☆ way .
As a group Passpo ☆ never fails to deliver as the vocals of each member blend perfectly ,live and on CD. It`s hard to ever find anything bad to say about them.
For those of you wondering about the “German Metal” sound. “German Metal” is a broad range of sounds from light to very dark , melodic ,symphonic to industrial and all points in between, that is a history lesson all its own.
One spoke in this broad range of “German Metal” is performed by the most famous of German bands ,the Scorpions .So i`ll end this with a taste of them and a message to Passpo ☆ ,that they should always remember that “We were born to fly”
Another great Passpo ☆ song ,from a great and under-appreciated idol group
Time to take another spin around the world of Idol Genre
SUPER GiRLS have an outstanding new release ,while i am not a big fan of the group ,I find myself drawn to the group this time by their costumes as i like outfits with touches of military , ceremonial guard aspects and these outfits give that feeling .
There are no rights or wrongs in music , just the creating of memories in people’s hearts and every video, photo that a group makes will say different things to different people.
The PV has a little bit of everything , fire ,idol close ups, water , creative fan service teases and more.
BiS Marathon
Not long ago the girls from BiS held an impressive and grueling live promotion a 24hr live event. The event saw the group entertain their fans for 24 hours ,battling fatigue and insanity at the same time.
The event was broadcast ,for those who could not attend .Here is a look back at the madness. Credit to the group for figuring out stuff to do.
To finish off this episode a look at
Tsunku-San`s idol army of the Akihabara Backstage Pass Café .
And Tsunku in his wonderful wisdom has allowed them to audition for Morning Musume with one making it to the 11 gen final bunch. I think that is a great idea ,with the strength of idol genre being what it is now ,if you can bring in girls who have experience at any level into your ranks ,it allows you to reload at a faster rate
Oh i can`t end this without mentioning this unit is cuteness overload
With their own weekly and highly entertaining television show out of their fantastic cafe, the girls of Backstage Pass are collecting a solid following. Really if you ever get to come over to visit , you have to see this café.
For this unit we used a picture in a picture style as it`s video capture of a TV ,but still it gives you a good look at a local idol unit from a local TV ,lol. Not all roads are paved in gold like AKB makes it seem at times 90% of this genre is just simple thankless hard work in the shadows of the bright lights of fame.
Welcome to the 5th installment of Meika's Music for Thought! So, instead of music videos like I usually do for this segment or even in just single PV reviews, I decided to do lives on groups I have never looked at before. I myself much prefer watching PV's over lives. But with littler-known idol groups especially, only live videos are available to watch. And sometimes, there are "surprises" that can happen in lives that might not appear in PV's as much, like acapella, dance solos, skits, and crowd surfing. Will that happen in these videos? I'm not sure since I haven't watched any of them, yet, and will write my first impressions as I go. I'll also probably review lives in the future, but I'll see how it goes. So, let's get started!
JuRias
Before watching - Searching them up, I was surprised to see two guys in a group with five other girls. The only other "idol" group about their ages that I can think of that includes both sexes is Dream5, and they're not even an idol group. Out of the seven, the two guys and four girls make up the dancers, while the girl left is the sole vocal. I was at least hoping for two vocalists since listening to one singer might get boring, but hopefully, her voice keeps me interested.
Watching - When the video starts up, five out of the seven members are on stage wearing awesome black and white costumes that look like a twist on prom clothing. Once the song starts, although the instrumental is kind of hard to hear, I can hear that it has a slightly funky (slightly) and yet calm sound. This is personally my type of song and I quite like it a lot! But what I'm really impressed with is the vocalist's voice! For the most part if not for the whole time, she has stability, power yet softness, can hit those high notes, and she sounds like Kotori from Dream5, whose voice I love! XD The choreography is alright; it's simplicity and repetitiveness kind of disappoints me since I would've liked to see the dancers show off their skill more, even with a not so fast song. (I mean, they wouldn't be
dancers otherwise, right? :P) And the unity was kind of off which might have to do with the slow speed of the dance; with fast dances, mistakes are less visible unless you freeze for one or two seconds. They tried their best, though, and it was still enjoyable to watch. But when the guys started to do some B-boying at the end and then it STOPPED... What a tease. I really wanted to see what kind of moves they'd pull off, but at least from what I saw, they're great and cute B-boys. XD
After watching - JuRias has only released their debut single in July, but I think they already have a lot of potential to be great! I just wish they were given better choreography since I think they can handle it, (And I'm a sucker for dancers!) but their vocalist and their music style are on the right track...
Unless the song is a cover since I was going to review another one of their lives and the first song they sang was a cover of Happiness' Friends. So far, so good.
MAGIC
Before watching - On looking them up, the three members look quite young and ARE quite young, as the range is from the 6th year in elementary school to the second year in middle school. Their picture shows them in caps and vibrant tees, and right away I'm guessing that their main style is hip hop. Sure enough, in the description I can see "R&B HIPHOP", along with the pleasing words of "dance and vocal unit". Yes, another dance unit!
Watching - When the song starts, it really does carry the style of RnB and Hiphop; Lyrical hiphop, which is one of my favourite, if not favourite, music styles. It's calm again, yet hip. A lot of the instruments they use in hear I have heard in Western RnB songs from when I wasn't a Jpop fan, and I think they work well together. The vocals are autotuned. GRR!! But... Somehow... I'm sort of okay with it because of the awesome instrumental. Sort of. Still, I'd rather much hear their real voices since I believe their good singers. But it's nice to hear more than one singer as a contrast to JuRias. Overall, a wonderful song to me!
The choreography is better than the last one but still isn't the most exciting. At least it's less repetitive, but something about how all or some of the girls dance makes it look awkward... Maybe how they were hunching over? Maybe they weren't putting a lot of effort into it? I don't know. They also could be more united in their dancing, but individually, they're good dancers that I also think could use better choreography to fully show what they're capable of.
After watching - ... In the middle of the video is where I seriously just realized that it's just a rehearsal. ^.^; So obviously, some of my opinions can be argued as unfair since they are still practicing it, but I'm still not gonna change it because I'm lazy. ANYWAYS, I love this group's style and how all the girls are singing and dancing, but with better choreography and less to no autotune, we could see how much potential they really have to be a great idol group! Still, even with those things, they seem to be pulling it off, so I can't wait for future lives from this group!
Takasugi Minami
Before watching - Well, no soloists so far in this post, but that's about to change right now! From her Ameba blog profile, she's one year older than me, likes to sing and dance, and can do handsprings! Sounds like the perfect idol so far! Actually, I don't know if she's officially an idol, but I'll use it in this review to make it easier.
Watching - When the song first comes on, I thought the instrumental sounded cute but too empty. And what made it even worse was that it was very repetitive. I swear, I don't think I heard barely any variation in the instrumental when I was listening to it. Luckily, the composition itself is much more interesting. I think it could've worked with an upbeat rock kind of sound. Even more lucky is Minami's voice that really stands out! I feel it has an "oomph" to it and a young, fresh yet maturing "feel". Sometimes, she might've sounded nasally to me, but whatever; her voice is just excellent to my ears!
Actually looking at the video (Since I was solely listening to the song to focus on just that), I think she moves around just fine, though the times when she slouches makes her stage presence awkward to watch. I also she pulls of good facial expressions that are genuine, and the big smiles she makes are contagious! I think she could work on pumping up the crowd more during instrumental breaks, but for now, her just performing might be enough to hype the crowd. :P
After watching - In general, Minami's a really wonderful and young singer who I think deserves better songs than Darling. I mean, the composition wasn't that bad, but maybe, I'd like to see her challenge other styles of songs since I can really hear her voice in rock songs, or at least more serious songs. I'm also looking forward to seeing her stage presence blossom and just get better with time! That's really weird to say about someone who's older than me. ^.^;
Chu-Z
Before watching - This group looks REALLY intriguing from their photos! For me, it's because of their outfits; they wear clashing patterns, bright colours, shirts with different lengths and necklines, bottoms with different lengths and accents. Even wigs (I'm 99.9% sure) in one of their profile pictures. In their individual pictures, they already excude confidence and probably experience, whether in modelling, already being in an idol group etc. I really can't wait to see what the video has to bring!
Watching - The song first comes in and... Hmm, not what I was expecting. In both vocals and instrumental. The instrumental is much more idol-like than I thought it was going to be. (Though it still sounds good) And the high notes weren't exactly executed that well. Heck, I didn't even know there was going to be high notes. XD As the song goes on, I think I've come to the conclusion that the girls are much better at singing in duos or whatever groups they were in rather than unison lines. That, and I think the instrumental was better to listen to in comparison to the vocals. Man, I just wish there wasn't so much high notes in this song; I think they'd pull it off better, and in turn, make it a better song to listen to. On the bright side, I definitely heard some individuality in their voices, and that may be enough for me. So, more smaller group lines in future songs, please~!
The outfits are in the same style as the ones from their website, which I loved from their weirdness and uniqueness... Can't say the same about the choreography. So. Fricken'. SIMPLE. Maybe they aren't dancers like I was expecting, but this simple? On the bright side once again, I actually think they were quite united in their moves which is surprising for such a slow dance. I can also tell they put in effort and their facial expressions were all nice! I guess I'll just need to wait some time before I can see some better choreography and songs from this group.
After watching - Sorry, it wasn't a completely live video since there were backstage clips, (Which were fun to watch!) but I've come this far and am not going to another video. Moving on~. This group I feel has a long journey ahead of them in order for their singing and dancing to get better. For now, they should get songs that are more suited for their voices (i.e., less high notes) and maybe more challenging choreography that they can still pull off. Other than that, I think they already have the personalities, the looks, and the effort to be however successful they wanna be!
Out of all the groups today, I think I was most impressed with JuRias; even if they debuted less than two months ago, they already are pretty good dancers, have an awesome vocalist, and have a music style that appeals to me. But I think all acts have potential to be better, so let's hope they grow on their individual journeys! All in all, I think this first live review went well and I'll most likely be doing another in the future! If you wanna know more about these acts, please don't hesitate to check out the links below:
