Ok so I still don't have much time to blog while doing this University research, but I had to post this. So without going into all the nitty gritty, Jin posted a message on some official JE phone site which basically said that he was to leave KAT-TUN to become a solo singer. The fans seem to be divided, one side is very upset...being fangirls and all. The other side is kinda meh and they were meh about him...him being a bit of a douche at times and all. One can't deny however that he was probably [well in my opinion anyway] the best singer in the group and his absence will leave the group with a different type of sound. Personally I don't like that he is leaving, I never really cared for him as a celebrity or whatever but he was a great singer, plus the group were together for years, even before their debut. What affects me most however is the future of KAT-TUN. Will it remain KAT-TUN, Kame possible lending the A in his name or will they have a name change. Can you image awaiting a new song from a group called KU-NNT?

What are your thoughts?

1. N.M.P. (NO MORE PAIN)
2. Love yourself ～Kimi ga Kirai na Kimi ga Suki～ (Love yourself ～君が嫌いな君が好き～)
3. FARAWAY
4. THE D-MOTION
5. RIGHT NOW
6. ROCKIN' ALL NITE
7. Going!
8. SWEET (Kamenashi Kazuya)
9. LOVE MUSIC (Taguchi Junnosuke)
10. MAKE U WET -CHAPTER 2- (Tanaka Koki)
11. RABBIT OR WOLF? (Ueda Tatsuya)
12. FILM (Nakamaru Yuichi)
13. PROMISE SONG
14. HELLO (Regular Edition only) 

As you can see the album contains the single Going!, which ye may know my feelings towards, but we also get 13 brand new tracks which is awesome, 5 of these are solo songs for each of the members.The title track of this album is N.M.P (NO MORE PAIN) for which a pv was made. now let us go and watch this pv and cap it to hell then talk about the rest of the album m'kay!.....................................

Have you ever listened to a song or watched a songs video and thought it was great. Have you also seen a live version of this songin which you thought that the hearing it live was even better. Was it to do with the natural un-touched voices of the performer....or was it to do with the extra energy that was pumped into the performance by the chanting the performers got while singing. In all forms of music there will be people shouting and chanting to their music stars but lets compare the all too overly compared Jpop and Kpop music scenes in terms of chants.

Now before I begin, believe me I know they are 2 totally different types of music and cultures etc but for the sake of arguement lets just move on. Anyway the 2 groups I shall be comparing in terms of chants will be to "Oh!" by "Girls Generation" and a "Renai Revolution 21/Love Machine" medley by "Morning Musume". Not a perfect comparrison but it shall do.



As soon as the girls start to sing, the chants begin. The chants shouted after each line are the names of the girls in the group, shouted out in a particular order ending in a mass "So Nyu shi dae". Where the girls have solo lines however, usually people only scream rather than shouting the members name like the wota do. Also throughout the song, the fans can be heart chanting along with the "Ha!" and "Oh!" parts. Another round of name shouting begins in the chorus. At the end of the song however we hear a long chant that the fans have made up to coincide with the instrumental, this is an aspect of korean pop chants which is superior to jpop chants. The chant also has some meaning aswell which makes it even cooler, for example, the long chant at the end of this song is "xxx".

Pros: Members names chanted while group sings, Unique chants created for each individual song usually working with the instrumental
Cons: No chanting of indivdual members names during solo lines with only screams to be heard, not much chantng during chorus besides name shouting.



In this medley, the chanting begins when the instrumental starts as opposed to the kpop fans which dive right in as the singing starts. The chaning here is the old faithful "Oi!" of the wota which when chanted seriously escalates the energy in the room. This chanting is also times to fit around certain areas of the instrumental and is not just shouted throughout the whole thing. When the singing does start the wota join in with the "Fu Fu" and similiar noises, however when the group sings together, there is no chanting. Chanting resumes again however when the girls solo lines kick in. Here the audience chant the members names until thier line is up, the wota will then chant the next singers name. However this is not a constant, where the chanting can stop at a certain point even if a solo singer has a line which can sometimes seem like they are shunning that person, even though eveone knows there not. The chanting of the 'Ooowah', 'Yeah!', 'wow's' 'Oh' etc continue throughout where appropriate like that of the kpop songs.

Pros: Chanting Members names during solo parts, Use of 'Oi' to increase energy is extremely effective
Cons: No chanting during group singing, Use of the cyber, fiber, driver, tiger mix thing seems very random and non sensical

Conclusion: Both types of chants have their por's and Con's and both are effective when they are used. Both are very different, the kpop going for unique and thoughout chants where as the jpop group go for instand energy boosting chants. The chants obviously change for each song and no 2 are the same, also the types of music are a bit different too which will affect the chants. But I do think that both groups could take a leaf out of each others hymn chant books to make some epic chants. And personally I would come up with something a bit more creative than the H!P cyber tiger mix thing....but I havent been to a live concert so I can't appreciate its full affectiveness, but as a very distant observer those are my views.

  Say whaaaat!! But yes, have you ever listened to a song by your favourite artist and you ust thought, "Man I just love to ride that!" ...well now you can with Audiosurf! Yes of course audiosurf, what did ye think I was talking about.

For those of you who dont know, audiosurf is a game which allows you to  ride your music in a way that is somewhat similiar to Dance Dance Revolution.To play this game you need to buy it or get it by 'other means'. Once you load the game, you choose your difficulty easy, medium and hard, and also the type of game. Persoanlly, I play the mono type on medium level.

The aim of the gameis to collect as many colourd blocks as possible and avoid hitting the grey blocks which hinder your coloured block collection ability, thus reducing your score. For every coloured block you collect you get a point, then at the end of the game, your total score can be posted on a worldwide scoreboard where you can compete with other riders of idols.

to give you a better idea of what I am talking about, here is a video of me playing:



As you can see, with the right song, you can get a kickass track, mixed with a great song added with blowing neon colours. Its a full body sensual experiance. Not onlt is it an insanely addicting game, but it can also heald with your hand eye coordination and stuff. A warning though...it is insanely addictive so be prepared. I love this game and as you can see, I sometimes record my progress and show it off to the youtube world.

Overall it enhances to music experience, your not just listening to it, you are riding in and on the music, making you appreciate the different layering and stuff thats put  into the music. Not only do you play it and thats that, but its also uploads your played music to your Last.Fm account which is always handy. So give it a try and let me know what you think, but done blame me when you get addicted. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Yes!! My favourite Korean techno pop wizard is back with a new album and a smokin hot new look.

Lee Jung Hyun has burst onto the music scene this may with the release of her 7th album entitled "LEE JUNG HYUN 007TH". It was released on the 11th and contains 12 tracks, 6 of which were already released on her 2nd Mini-Album "Avaholic"...........

Yes dear readers, the time has come for the last in the expanding music horizons series. Please dont be sad as today we are looking again into the Korean lads which pump out some great music. So lets dive straight in shall we. And if you can't find Part 3, its HERE

Ya so a few days ago KAT-TUN, my 2nd favourite Jpop group released the PV for their 12th single "Going!". Now just a bit on the single itself....I am kinda meh about it. It seems more like a filler song on an album.. It just lacks impact and a chorus thats memorable unlike "THE D-MOTION" & "Love Yourself" which both had great catchy beats that I would find myself humming without realising. Also this single is missing Akinishi Jin, in my opinion the groups best singer. Its weird, the last single they released without Jin I didn't like either so maybe I subconciensly like him more than I think. Any way here is the song and pv so you can listen to it yourself.................

Welcome to part 3 in my expanding music horizons series. This time I shall be focusing on the rapidly increasing and influential Korean pop music. And from this genre, I shall be seeing what girl groups/artists I have branched out to and who I have liked and so forth. So without any delays lets get the it:

OMGaki, this ios the best week for gaki news ever!!! So 2 days or so ago I say on the Hello! Online twitter that Gaki was to release a DVD, so I rushed over to the relavent release thread at the site and got the most glorious information. On the 14th of July this year, Risa will release her 3rd solo DVD entitled Alo Hello! 3. This is great, she always gives us great stuff from her dvd's. Her 1st was awesome and full of fun energetic Gaki. The second one was about how she has become a mature lady as it was to me knowledge released sometime around her 20th birthday. This time I am hoping for more genki crazy gaki with as many crazy reactions thrown in as possible. The DVD was also announced on the same day, this is yet untitled but who cares. Her last photobook was released 25th of April 2008, thats over 2 years ago so she was overdue a new pb, and from peoples reactions around the web, everyone is delighted for her. This means great shots of her in great location, short-haired gaki pics...hopefully with different styles and most importantly....BIKINI'S! Yay I'm so happy. July COME ON!

relavent info:

アロハロ！３　新垣里沙　ＤＶＤ（仮）

商品番号 EPBE-5382
予定税込価格 3,990円
発売予定日 2010年7月14日
ジャンル イメージ/イメージ（女性）

e-hon page

モーニング娘。のサブリーダー新垣里沙が1年半ぶりにソロDVDを発売。元気あふれる新垣里沙のハワイでの映像をお届け! もちろん水着シーンもたっぷり収録。 W購入者特典応募ハガキ封入。 ※写真集 (7月14日発売: キッズネット)とのW購入者特典実施。 (応募〆切: 2010年8月31日当日消印有効)

Neowing page

Onto the blog...

When Risa was doing some live webcast thing on UStream, Gaki asked if she could have a blog, a while later she was told she could....que REACTIONS!!!



The blog is yet untitled and can be found HERE. She has somesmall entries put in so far, basically saying that she has a blog and how happy she is. These people have translated the entires so far and will hopefully continue to do so for ever and ever.

This is great news. Risa has always said that she wanted to go into acting for drama's and movies and to have a blog. And well now, out baby has a blog. This of course means loads of intimate pics of our angel in various situations with so and so people doing cute poses and hopefully help us to get to know the reaction queeen a little more.

Well thats all I wanted to say. I thought I would let ya'll know and to ask ye to supporther by buying the DVD or PB if ye can, and of course to enjoy the new blog!

oh Risa <3

Time for Part 2 in this expanding Music Horizons series. This entry will be in the same sort of format as the previous one. This entry will focus on....

Welcome to the first in a series of posts on my ventures out of the realm of Hello! Project...no wait please don't go yet!

These are basically to show the other stuff I listen to and to open a door way into blogging about other music besides that of H!P. [oh also some these groups are pretty new to me so don't expect really in depth stuff]. To aclimatise those of you stuck in a H!P bubble, I shall talk about a safe topic first:

this is Risa. She thinks she can moonwalk.....



Oh Risa I love you and your spazzy ways <3

Tomorrow [March 17th], Morning Musume will release their 10th Album, 10 My Me. Wow, their 10th album, thats pretty impressive, lets just hope that the music inside is as impressive as the achievement.

Before I go onto the music let mw just say a word or two on the cover. The cover above is the Limited edition and better of the 2 covers. Its a nice simple cover with the girls sitting, kneeling and standing together. The girls looks in the cover are hit and miss. e.g HIT = LinLin. Maaan she is totally hot right now, great outfit. MISS = Risa. Yes I have to admit it, Risa's outfit and hairstle are.....not good lets just say. She had good hair on utaban, and at that modelling thing where she had the hat but here it looks crap, sorry hunny bun. The way she is styled too makes her look a bit like a granny and thats not how I want my Risa, or any of my idols to look like..............

Anyone remember this girl?? No! Well let me tell you about her.

Her name is Jang Da Yeon and last year this 15 year old girl won the Hello! Project Koea audition. Oh yeah, remmeber her now?

Well its nearly a year since she was announced the winner of the auditions, but since then not a word has been said about her....

well before we delve any further, lets look at some facts.

- The winner of the audition [there was to be only 1 winner] would go on to become a member of Hello! Project, specifically, NOT a member of Morning Musume.
- She'll go to training in Japan, and her training will be "Japanese style", taking all the steps that a Japanese entertainer would take for debut.

Now I may be looking WAY too much into this, but I have been increasingly interested in K-pop and so the future of this girl interests me. And so I get frustrated when I see that almost a year later we have heard nothing since she departed from Japan, except for her appearance at the champloo concert in which she came on briefly as a special guest.

Also if you check both the Hello! Project and UFA sites, you will see that she is not listed as an act under them.

UFA artist index
Hello! Project artist index

Maybe I am just being paranoid though as it seems only debuted artists or soloists are shown. But surely the UFA ite would have here there. Now this could also be just an over sight as there are some groups there that are no longer active such as SHIPS and MilkyWay.

This scares me a little as she just seems to have been forgotten about. No one ever talk about her, where is she, whats she at. She just doesn't exist. But It may very well be that she is still training very hard for her debut. I know that in Korean, people can train for years before they debut, this could be no different. I suppose its not unreasonable for her to take this long to learn Japanese to a certain level of quality, and learning to dance could take a long while too, I dunno I can't dance. Vocal training too is important, so all these factors could explain her long absesne. But I dont recall Ice-CreaMusume taking this long to train before their debut. But look at how crap and easy their dance was. Maybe UFA are putting a lot more effort into Jang.

They may also be deciding what to do with her. Will she debut in Japan alone or also in Korea. What style of songs will she be putting out, techno, RnB, pop. What will her style be, cute, hot, indifferent, cool. Will she be a soloist or will she be put as part of a new unit, made up of other girls from H!P or UFA.

This point brings me to the end of my thinkings as I say what I would like to become of her.

As you may or may not know, I have began to listen to a lot of K-pop lately and so have grown a fondness for both japanese and Korean pop music. That said, I would not mind if she became a soloist. If her music was up to the standars of Girls' Generation then I will more than gladly follow and support her.
But what I really want, if it would be a good or bad thing I dont know, but I would love for UFA to put her into a unit as part of a Duo or Group.
Together with some select eggs they could make a great group. I would love to see Saho Akari, Sengoku Minami as well as possibly Kitahara Sayaka and Kikkawa Yuu. As we have seen in Aa, Akari would be great in a pop group that may have RnB type influences, the 2 girls from MilkyWay would be more suited to a more pure pop type but I think the group would be quite interesting to watch develop.
As for being in a duo, you have to have guessed who I would pair Jang up with. Yes of course Risa. I think it would be awesome for Jang and Risa, to debut as a Duo in both Japan and Korean, releasing both Japanese and Korean music. I can just imagine it, and it makes me a happy man.

ok so thats my kind of rant on this mysterious korean girl. Let me know what you think, I would love some feedback.

ok so this seems to becomming some what of a pattern.

I blog, then a long gap, then I blog again.

Well loyal followers and readers alike. After getting requests from some people to start blogging again, I have decided to MAKE time out of my stupidly bust University life to make time for some blogging. At the start this may be done only at weekends but you never know. Also, I will be keeping the name and banners and everything but since I was away I broadened my musical horizons A LOT, and so I will talk both inside and out of H!P and Jpop itself.

But of course anything to do with H!P will be Gaki biased.

WATCH THIS SPACE PEOPLE. and sorry for the wait.

Liam xxx

Japans idol industry is a huge money making business that started in arounf the 60's. And since then there have been a multitude of idol types to choose from, singers, actors, entertainers but the main deciding point is to wether, follow male or female idols. To somepeople who might be new to the whole idol world, they might think that an idol is an idol and that being a man or woman shouldn't make a difference. To some who have followed idols for a few years will see very distinct differences in male and female idols.

Female idols as a general rule tend to be aimed at men. Female idols can begin their career from as young as 5 years old and can remain one up to their 30's. It is believed that the peak of an idols career is usually between the ages of 16 and 20, this obviously varies from idol to idol, for example, Morning Musume, when new girls arrived after winning auditions they were roughly 12-14 years old. These girls would enjoy approximately 5 years of being a top idol, they would then be graduated from the group in their early twenties to join H!P as a soloist, for the bulk of the soloists this lead to a career into obscurity.

The appeal of female idols varies slightly from company to company but they are all based on roughly the same recepe of portraying an image of an entertaining, loveable, cute and innocent girl. This image is easily mantained by most in their teens and early twenties, but as idols get older they would naturally want to experience life which might not fit the idol and may cause a scandal. So after a certain age most are graduated from whatever group they are in or are just graduated from idol status, this ensures that if the girl did something risque it would not tarnigh the companies reputation ensuring that legions of more idol worshipers would continue to support idols coming from that company.

The main audience that female idols are aimed at are male fans ranging in age from teens to as old as you can get. Of course there is also a following of female fans, but the companies managing female idols market them to appeal to men. This is all fine and dandy, but there are 2 types of male fans of japanese female idols. One is the everyday joe soap listener who likes them, knows them, supports them by buying their merchandise. And the second is a group of avid fans of the idols called Wota [a name given to a class of otaku that are said to be obsessed with idols]. These fans not only buy the merchandise [some do so in bulk to support their idols even more], but at concerts they perform dances and chants at the concerts. To most fans of japanese idols, these wota are understood as just big fans of the idols. To people who may be ignorant of the whole idol/wota thing, this can be seen as creepy and sometimes perverted as wota may be up to 60+ in age. This then places a stigma on males who follow female idols wether they be young, old, innocnt or perverted [never really the case]. A fan is a fan and should not be judged as a group based on a mere impression given off. I have never heard of females being thought of weirdly for being a female idol fan.

So here we are again. 2009 Summer Hello! Project concert. This concert features Morning Musume, Berryz Koubou, C-ute, Buono, Mano Erina, Guardians 4. S/mileage as well as revived groups from the champloo album. Before I go on, sorry about the quality of the caps, 1. my copy of the concert wasn't great and 2. its hard to cap the girls when they move so much.

setlist:

01 Guru Guru JUMP (All)
02 Piriri to Yukou (All except S/mileage)
Opening Video
MC1（Inaba/Makoto）
03 Ama no Jaku　(S/mileage)
04 Omakase♪Guardian　(Guardians 4)
05 Minimoni. Jankenpyon!　(Shin Minimoni.)
MC2（Makoto/Mano/Lin Lin/Takeuchi・Miyamoto）
06 Sekai ha Summer Party　(Mano Erina/S/mileage)
07 Shochuu Omimai Moshiagemasu　(℃-ute)
08 Seishun Bus Guide (Berryz Koubou)
MC3（Makoto/Shimizu/Natsuyaki）
09 Nanchatte Renai (Morning Musume.)
10 Shouganai Yume Oibito (Morning Musume.)
MC4（Inaba/Makoto）
11 Debut! ~Koi Suru Kado ni wa Fuku Kitaru~ (Ice Cream Musume)
12 Yume to Genjitsu (Aa!)
13 Pira!Otome no Negai (Petitmoni V)
MC5（Makoto/S/mileage）
14 Heya to Yshatsu to Watashi (Tanaka Reina)
15 Umbrella (Tanpopo #)
16 My Boy　(Buono!)
17 JUMP　(All)
MC6（Makoto/Yajima/Nakajima/Okai)
18 Cosmos　(Takahashi Ai)
19 ONLY YOU　(Zoku Biyuuden)
20 Iku ZYXFLY HIGH! (ZYX-α)
21 Diamond　(High-King)
22 C＼C　(High-King)
MC7（Makoto/Takahashi/Kusumi/Michishige）
23 Special Generation (Berryz Koubou)
24 Tokaikko Junjou (℃-ute)
MC8（℃-ute）
25 Resonant Blue (Morning Musume.)
26 Sono Bamen de Bibiccha Ikenaijan! (All)
27 Koko ni Iruzee! (All)
MC8（Member introduction)
28 Aozora ga Itsumademo Tsuzuku youna Mirai de Are！　(All)