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What I Musically Love about Japanese Music

I may be able to extract a post for Texihabara on this subject from this, but I kind of want to be a little freer here. There is something about Japanese music that fascinates me.  Well, several things, really. Babymetal has a song, “Da da dance”.  It’s an extraordinarily high energy song with lots of flaily dancing and mostly meaningless words.  Basically somewhere in the techno genre – I’m sure nerds out there will have a better name for it.  EDM?  But there’s this part in there that really fascinates me… Read More »What I Musically Love about Japanese Music

My Tumultuous Relationship with Music

Good morning! It’s Labor Day in my country today, which for most people means a day off, barbecues, that kind of thing. I am taking the week off. I have been working at my company for over five years, which means I get three weeks now, and I plan on using all of them. Plus since it’s a holiday, I only have to take four days. Yay me!! Okay, so on to the post. I have made my thoughts on music like JPop, KPop, etc., pretty clear. I like some… Read More »My Tumultuous Relationship with Music

Morning Musume, and the “Sealing” of Babymetal

So, today, I have been working on adding further reviews to Texihabara. There’s a bit of a technical issue I have to iron out where not all of the reviews are accessible, but I suppose that’s something that I can iron out with a bit of support and elbow grease. Anyway, the two songs I did so far were Koi no Dance Site, and Happy Summer Wedding. Now I’m not going to lie and tell you that I think they were great and wonderful songs, because I don’t. But I… Read More »Morning Musume, and the “Sealing” of Babymetal

Why I’m Not a YouTube Reactor

When I opened my new site, I had several options as to how I wanted to proceed. One of the simplest and probably most effective ways to do the kinds of reviews I’m currently slogging through was to become a YouTube reactor. It seems to be a tried and true pattern. You find videos, react to them, beg for Patreon subscriptions. At some point, you either find Babymetal or pretend to find them, (seriously, there’s a roving horde, of which I very occasionally participate, that moves from Babymetal reaction to… Read More »Why I’m Not a YouTube Reactor

I do not Love Suzuka Nakamoto

I am something of a fan of Babymetal I do enjoy their music, even though I’m not usually a fan of metal. I think I’ve written about this before, so I won’t go into further detail One thing I have notice (and I may be doing a little bit of this myself, unwittingly; forgive me) is that Youtube reaction channels seem to take off whenever they do a Babymetal reaction. There is this horde of fans that follow people around and give channels probably one or two thousand subscribers almost… Read More »I do not Love Suzuka Nakamoto

The Kawaii Metal Phenomenon

I was first introduced to “Kawaii Metal” a couple of years ago, when a coworker showed me “Gimme Chocolate” by Babymetal. My first thought was “What did I just watch?” And then I fell just a little bit down the foxhole. I don’t like all their music, but I like a significant amount of it. Babymetal is somehow special. It’s not that they’re a metal band, because I don’t like metal all that much (though it’s growing on me a bit). It’s not that they’re cute, because on the cuteness… Read More »The Kawaii Metal Phenomenon

Gimme Chocolate

The year is 1945.  Japan has been ravaged as a nation, and many of its larger cities have been bombed into an unrecognizable mess.  Hiroshima and Nagasaki’s core business districts are flattened wastelands of radioactive rubble, and hundreds of thousand of Japanese citizens have been killed.  Most of those citizens had nothing whatsoever to do with the war.  They were just living their live, and some politician somewhere decided they were going to go to war with the United States, as well as committing atrocities all over the pacific rim.… Read More »Gimme Chocolate

Kawaii Aidoru

YouTube is an incredible distraction throughout most of the issues that have been going on in the world, and in my country. One thing I’ve been watching is Babymetal reactions.  It’s quite amusing to see someone reacting for the first time – “Well, this is a band with… three girls?  And they’re Asian?  Korean maybe?  Well, I have no idea what to expect…”  “SOMEONE GIVE THOSE GIRLS SOME CHOCOLATE”  Anyway, I find it amusing. There’s this one guy, NeonReaperGaming, who has been really going down the foxhole – to the point where… Read More »Kawaii Aidoru

Babymetal

Over the past year or so, I’ve become something of a fan of Babymetal.  This may seem odd to people who know me, because I’m a classically trained musician, and I find most metal to be just people making noise, loudly.  But Babymetal has proven to be an exception. There is a particular characteristic of classical music, in my view:  it’s all perfect.  As I’ve mentioned, I’m a huge fan of romantic era piano concertos (Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, etc.) and I’ve come to believe that every one of them is perfect,… Read More »Babymetal

Why does a Classically Trained Pianist like J-Pop?

As I might have mentioned at one point, I am a classically trained musician.  I am familiar with most of the works of many major composers, but my favorite classical pieces – or romantic pieces, as the case may be, are some of the more famous piano concertos.  Those by Saint-Saens, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Schumann – I love them all and have been listening to them for many years.  I love the complexity, the interplay between the soloist instruments and the orchestra, and most important, how even though there are many… Read More »Why does a Classically Trained Pianist like J-Pop?