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November 21, 2024
 

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Steve McClure

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Steve McClure
Steve McClure has lived in Tokyo since 1985. Formerly Billboard magazine’s Asia Bureau Chief, he now publishes the online music-industry newsletter McClureMusic.com.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Sep 18, 2002
Talk about the passion . . .
Can Kiyoshi Hikawa save enka?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Sep 11, 2002
Putting the J in J-punk
It's taken a while, but punk rock seems to have finally broken into the J-pop mainstream.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Sep 4, 2002
X Japan pianist/drummer is now a global commodity
If you've walked by the Laforet building in Harajuku recently, you might have noticed a huge banner that draped the structure's exterior featuring a masked character, looking something like a pro wrestler, poking his head out of what appears to be a body of water.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Jul 31, 2002
Rock 'n' roll is here to stay
The silly season -- when the midsummer heat engenders a sort of benign lunacy -- is well and truly upon us. And you can't get much sillier, in the nicest sense of the word, than The Yellow Dogs and The Bunnies, two resolutely retro bands who have recently issued albums whose primitive musicality is more...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Jul 24, 2002
Women whose work is never done
"Senko (Flash)," singer/songwriter UA's first single in three years, further cements her status as one of J-pop's most enigmatic and original artists. Released July 24, "Senko" is a dark, moody piece that's half tone poem and half pop song. UA and co-producer Rei Harakami have created a sparse, ambient-ish...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Jul 17, 2002
Really looking forward to old age
Rock stars can do things us regular folks can't. They can get good tables at crowded restaurants without a reservation. They can have promiscuous sex and take all sorts of exotic drugs and then be knighted by the Queen. And if they're Eikichi Yazawa, they can travel forward in time to visit their future...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Jul 10, 2002
A card-carrying regular guy
One interesting aspect of Japanese meishi (name-card) etiquette is that entertainers never give them out. It took me a while to figure out that one. Several interviews with musicians I thought had begun inauspiciously when I handed the artist my meishi only to receive nothing in return.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Jul 3, 2002
Make way for the gloom
Mr. Hyde is waiting to be interviewed in the chicly decrepit confines of Casa del Japon, a Western-style house in Azabu that was the residence of China's ambassador to Japan before World War II and is now a bar and restaurant.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Jun 26, 2002
Starting off on the right foot (and ending on the left . . .)
The Japanese music biz produces boy-girl pop duos with clockwork regularity -- think Love Psychedelico or EE Jump. The most recent example is Orange Pekoe (that's pronounced "peh-koe," by the way), which comprises Kobe natives Kazuma Fujimoto and Tomoko Nagashima.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Jun 19, 2002
What's the real problem behind music file sharing?
Share and share alike -- that's what we were taught when we were kids.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Jun 12, 2002
Message in a pop song
You've probably noticed a big mascara-lined eye staring out at you from billboards all over town lately. The eye in question belongs to Lisa, former vocalist with hip-hop/R&B trio m-flo, and the billboard is plugging her new single, "Babylon no Kiseki (Miracle of Babylon)," which was released on May...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Jun 5, 2002
With Shina, the songs don't have to remain the same
All too often, albums of cover songs are just stopgap efforts put out by artists whose creative juices have run dry. So when I heard that Ringo Shina was making her comeback in the form of a covers album after taking a year's maternity leave, I was skeptical. But my expectations were raised as the names...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
May 29, 2002
And the 'nice try' award goes to . . .
It is my sad duty to report that the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards Japan, held May 24 at the Tokyo International Forum, was a less than spectacularly successful affair.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
May 22, 2002
For Utada, third time's, uh, same-ish
Set for a June 19 release, Hikaru Utada's third album, "Deep River," doesn't contain any major surprises, staying true to the pop/R&B synthesis that has proven so successful for the singer since she burst onto the scene with her debut single, "Automatic/Time Will Tell," back in December 1998.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
May 15, 2002
Misora's ship has come in
Die-hard fans of the late Hibari Misora -- the greatest enka diva ever -- may want to book passage on the "Queen Hibari Misora cruise," a unique, if somewhat morbid, maritime event being held June 12 and 13 to mark the 14th anniversary of Misora's death at the age of 52 after a prolonged illness.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
May 8, 2002
Go West, PuffyAmiYumi!
If you've ever seen pop duo Puffy perform live, you know that a key part of their shows is their low-key, slightly ironic between-songs banter. So naturally Yumi Yoshimura is worried that her inability to speak English will make it hard to enjoy that kind of communication with audiences during Puffy's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
May 1, 2002
A heaping spoonful of satire helps the politics go down
Mixing music and politics is always tricky. While it sometimes results in great art (e.g. Bob Dylan's pacifist tirade "Masters of War"), often the music is ruined by too much didacticism (John Lennon's "Some Time in New York City" is a prime example).
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Apr 24, 2002
Two men and a poor baby
I have a thang, as Isaac Hayes would say, for Yuki Koyanagi. Maybe it's her sultry pout. Maybe it's her bleached-blonde hair. Or it could be her gloriously trashy fashion sense.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Apr 17, 2002
Happy End all over again
British rock band Oasis will be playing live in Tokyo on May 23. But exactly where is a mystery.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Apr 10, 2002
In a sentimental mood
For Westerners of a certain age, the '60s were an era of social and cultural ferment, when the Vietnam War, the Pill, rock music, drugs and the sexual revolution shook the foundations of society. In Japan, however, a "can-do" spirit prevailed as the postwar blahs were left behind and the country entered...
Ishiba delays meeting with Trump, citing legal restrictions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waves upon arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, in Callao, Peru, on Friday.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

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