Tag - strange-boutique

 
 

STRANGE BOUTIQUE

Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Oct 27, 2011
Cruel to be kind: Does noruma work in bands' favor?
One of the first stumbling blocks you'll probably come across starting up a band in Japan is trying to book gigs. You'll explain to the booking manager about your music, give them a demo CD or a link to a place they can hear you online, they'll say, "Sure, I love your sound" — and then they'll...
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jul 28, 2011
Tis the season for some girl-pop classics
In Japan, observation of the seasons is an ingrained cultural trait that not only forms the basis of haiku poetry and many classic works of art, but also marks the calendar for cultural ephemera from special-edition Kit Kats to alcoholic drinks to pop music. Since summer is now at full burn, here are...
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jun 30, 2011
Every day we're schaffeling: What Girls Generation are doing right
A big part of what has made the current wave of South Korean idol pop so successful in Japan is obviously the image. K-pop's often crass objectification of young women makes for a welcome break from J-pop's often crass objectification of barely pubescent girls. However, laughable though we may find...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
May 26, 2011
'Golden age' of kayoukyoku holds lessons for modern J-pop
On April 21, 2011, the actress and singer Yoshiko Tanaka, aka Sue from 1970s idol group the Candies, died after a relapse of the cancer that she had been living with for 20 years. A tragedy, at the relatively young age of 55, and one that comes during a period of deep soul-searching for the Japanese...
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Apr 22, 2011
Japanese music fans need the shows to go on
Last month I wrote a hastily conceived piece for this column documenting the immediate reaction of the music scene in Tokyo to the Great East Japan Earthquake. It was a difficult article to write because the situation was still unfolding and so much was unresolved; however, a month later, a picture of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Mar 18, 2011
Indie scene aims for normalcy in unusual situation
As I write this on Tuesday afternoon, four days after the earthquake that hit northeastern Japan on March 11 and with the continuing drip, drip, drip of nerve-shaking news from the damaged nuclear reactors in Fukushima forming background noise to life in Tokyo, I see on the BBC news feed that Canadian...
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Feb 25, 2011
Nationally themed gigs make no sense in a post-Web world
March is almost here, and on the music calendar that means eyes are on the South by Southwest (SXSW) music showcase in Austin, Texas. For many Japanese bands and for much of the local press, SXSW means the festival's Japan Nite event.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jan 28, 2011
Japan's indie acts need to break domestic scene's 'glass ceiling'
There's a feeling in the air these days, not least on these pages, that Japan is becoming more culturally insular. Japanese video games are losing out to South Korea and the West in the race to explore the online frontier; animation, once the standard-bearer of "cool Japan," has retreated into a self-congratulatory...

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'