J-pop comes to WABC radio in New York

[Madara]

In New York, local radio host Mark Simone does a Saturday night oldies show on WABC-AM which I frequently listen to. Tonight he decided to do something I’ve never heard before. He played the #1 songs from other countries and chose the songs from Japan, France, and Germany. The song from Japan was “Sakura Girl,” by the News. He didn’t play the whole thing, but he professed a liking for it and played far more of it than he did of the songs from France and Germany, neither of which he liked.



Never heard of the song or the group, but it was kind of nice to hear something Japanese on such a mainstream station. Mr. Simone, as much as he likes (older) pop music, sometimes comes off as pretty close-minded and conservative, so I was kind of surprised at his reaction. Although, he has played the one Japanese song that was a hit in the U.S., "Sukiyaki," by Kyu Sakamoto.

[Ap2000]

I am somewhat confused... he played the current #1 of the country's charts during an oldies show ? (I don't know the song "sakura girl")



Was this the song from Germany ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QSgNM9yNjo (Ugh... the video is worse than anything UFA ever produced for MM =/ )

While I don't hate the song, I hate her slight UK english way of pronouncing everything.



EDIT:

Oh... News is a band ? I wasn't sure what you meant with "by the news". haha

[kitaoji]

Madara has finally heard a JE song, and all is right with the world. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... tongue.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':whatthe:' /> 'Sakura Girl' is NewS's latest single..

[Madara]

[quote name='Ap2000' post='78887' date='Apr 18 2010, 09:58 AM']I am somewhat confused... he played the current #1 of the country's charts during an oldies show ? (I don't know the song "sakura girl")



Was this the song from Germany ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QSgNM9yNjo (Ugh... the video is worse than anything UFA ever produced for MM =/ )

While I don't hate the song, I hate her slight UK english way of pronouncing everything.



EDIT:

Oh... News is a band ? I wasn't sure what you meant with "by the news". haha[/quote]



RE: the German song: without being able to access YouTube on my home computer, I can only say that your description sounds exactly right. The singer I heard was identified as Lena Meyer.



[quote name='kitaoji' post='78888' date='Apr 18 2010, 10:00 AM']Madara has finally heard a JE song, and all is right with the world. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... tongue.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':whatthe:' /> 'Sakura Girl' is NewS's latest single..[/quote]



What's JE?

[EmEl]

[quote name='Madara' post='78897' date='Apr 18 2010, 04:43 AM']What's JE?[/quote]

JE is Johnny's Entertainment. It's the agency that houses all the boy bands that constantly top the Japanese charts.



This is slightly off-topic, I guess, but Chatmonchy was played on NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.p...oryId=125857578 It's quite a surprising song to choose when they could have easily chosen one of the singles, but instead they chose would I consider to be the best song on their last album.

[Haru]

JE's got...Arashi, NewS, I'm wanting to think they have SMAP too. Male Hello! Project is what I've heard it touted as.



Is "Sakura Girl" still number one? According to JPopAsia, the number one is "Yuuki 100%." I think NYC is Johnny's too.

[Geof]

What's radio? <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... tongue.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':whatthe:' />

[eri]

[quote name='Ap2000' post='78887' date='Apr 17 2010, 05:58 PM']Was this the song from Germany ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QSgNM9yNjo (Ugh... the video is worse than anything UFA ever produced for MM =/ )

While I don't hate the song, I hate her slight UK english way of pronouncing everything.[/quote]



Hm being totally unfamiliar with European music trends...



Is it common to have German pop stars release songs that are 100% sung in English?



Also, this song is very...boppy. It isn't bad.

[kitaoji]

[quote name='Haru' post='78902' date='Apr 19 2010, 12:24 AM']JE's got...Arashi, NewS, I'm wanting to think they have SMAP too. Male Hello! Project is what I've heard it touted as.



Is "Sakura Girl" still number one? According to JPopAsia, the number one is "Yuuki 100%." I think NYC is Johnny's too.[/quote]



Johnny's has... a lot of people. To say that JE's boybands tops the charts is a sort of understatement; KinKi Kids is in the Guinness for the greatest number of consecutive #1 singles (29), KAT-TUN for the most days (consecutively) performing at a stadium (more than 50,000 people), and so on. They're sort of 'management done well', since they've been managing boybands since 1964.



In the past, they've had:

The original Johnny's

Four Leaves

Go Hiromi

Kondo Masahiko

Tahara Toshihiko

Shibugakitai

Hikaru Genji



...to say the very least, and they're still managing

SMAP

TOKIO

V6

KinKi Kids

Kanjani8

KAT-TUN

Hey Say Jump



and yes, NYC is part of Johnny's, too.

[Ap2000]

[quote name='eri' post='78909' date='Apr 18 2010, 08:12 PM']Is it common to have German pop stars release songs that are 100% sung in English?[/quote]



Yeah, very common.

I'd say 80% of the german/austrian Top 50 singles each year are English. Many sung by germans/austrians.