author

 
 
 Steve McClure

Meta

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.
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
May 2, 2001
Power Puffy girls
...
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Apr 25, 2001
A stunningly beautiful work of Great 3 genius
One sure sign of the maturation of a pop-music culture is when artists start releasing albums that are organic, cohesive works of art, instead of collections of their latest hit singles with some B-grade tracks as filler. "May and December," the latest from Japanese pop/rock band the Great 3, is such...
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Apr 18, 2001
Battle of the pop divas
Please sit down. There, are you comfortable? Perhaps you'd like a drink to calm your nerves, because what I'm about to say may come as somewhat of a shock.
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Apr 11, 2001
Trans-Pacific partnership serves up universal sound
A few years back, the big news on the J-pop scene was the "independent producers boom." Following the lead of the then-ubiquitous Tetsuya Komuro, freelance producers such as Takeshi Kobayashi (Mr. Children, My Little Lover), and Hiromasa Ijichi (Speed) were supposed to usher in an era in which a new...
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Apr 4, 2001
And the Gold Disc goes to... well, what did you expect?
Show-biz awards ceremonies -- who needs 'em? They're formulaic, plastic, inane, banal, maudlin, crass . . . There's no end to the pejoratives one can use to describe them.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 25, 2001
Love Psychedelico hits the blue notes
It's every struggling musician's dream: One moment you're scrounging around for gigs and a record deal while trying to keep food on the table and pay the rent, and the next moment, you've got a hit record on your hands and suddenly the talk of the town.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 14, 2000
King's not dead, long live Crimson
Robert Fripp is rock 'n' roll's quintessential English eccentric. Not in a flamboyant, over-the-top way like the late Vivian Stanshall or Keith Moon, but in an offbeat, understated manner -- like a country vicar whose avocation is the study of reptile eggs or quill pens. Fripp's quirky, yet iron-willed...

Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'