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In January 2023, when Los Angeles-based songwriter David Arkwright accepted his Roc Nation-signed colleague Natania Lalwani‘s invitation to visit her home city of Mumbai, he thought, “Let’s go see India! This could be fun.” The next thing he knew, he was commuting two hours a day through heavy traffic to work 18-hour studio sessions all month with the singer-rapper King, whose 2022 hit “Maan Meri Jaan” has 446 million Spotify streams.
“King walked in, and he started to sing,” recalls Arkwright, who wound up taking two additional trips to India last year to work on King’s October album New Life. “We just went, ‘Aaaaaand we’re writing.’ After that, it was like, ‘Hi, nice to meet you.’”
With its population of 1.4 billion, India is one of the biggest potential international markets for streaming hits — and it’s just emerging as a music business powerhouse after years of dealing with online piracy and stream-ripping. So top publishers are funding trips for veteran Western songwriters like Arkwright to combine their pop skills with regional stars. And it’s not just India. In October, publisher Warner Chappell sent U.S. country songwriters to Sao Paulo, Brazil, for a camp that generated potential hits for top regional sertanejo stars. And U.S. songwriters have spent the last decade traveling to South Korea and Japan, working with regional labels to write K-pop and J-pop hits.
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“With the way socials are going, the world is such a smaller place, whether we’re talking Korea or India or Brazil,” says J.Que Smith, a Grammy-nominated L.A. songwriter who has co-written for Beyoncé and Justin Bieber and recently penned Japanese girl group XG‘s hit “Shooting Star.” “Thirty years ago, we weren’t really caught up on what India was doing, and India didn’t know what we were doing. But now that’s very different.”
For decades in the record industry, the only Western stars who could break internationally were those who could ship physical records to far-away countries — from Cheap Trick in Japan to Michael Jackson in Europe. In the streaming era, that has changed. K-pop stars, as well as Latin-music breakouts like “Despacito,” have demonstrated that international successes can emerge from anywhere, not just North America or Europe. Coachella showed this international breadth in April with headliners such as Mexico’s Peso Pluma and Carin León, South Korea’s ATEEZ and LE SSERAFIM, Colombia’s J Balvin, Argentina’s Bizarrap and South Africa’s Tyla, says Marc Geiger, the former William Morris head of music who is now head of SaveLive, which invests in independent live music clubs. “Music has turned into the Olympics,” Geiger says.
Roughly 14 years ago, Harvey Mason, Jr., a producer and songwriter who has worked with Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin and Justin Timberlake, accepted an invitation from South Korea’s SM Entertainment to work with a half-dozen other Los Angeles songwriters to crank out what became hits for K-Pop groups like Girls’ Generation and EXO. “We kind of just did what we did and took their sounds and took our sounds and put them together,” recalls Mason, now CEO of The Recording Academy, who continues to collaborate with K-pop artists. “New music markets are being developed and becoming more healthy and vibrant. Look at Africa — you’ve got 1.4 billion people on the continent, and they consume so much music. As the infrastructure of the industry starts to build, you’re going to see regional hits becoming just as important as hits in the U.S.”
India is perhaps the most fertile region for music-streaming opportunity: Total streams in 2023 were more than 1 trillion, second only to the U.S., according to Luminate, and the country ranked first in volume growth, well outpacing the U.S., Indonesia and Brazil. Then again, a monthly Spotify account in India costs roughly $1.42, so the revenues for artists, labels and other rightsholders aren’t yet as robust as they are in the U.S. and elsewhere. “The revenue generated for a track always depends on where it is streamed and what the end-user is paying for the subscription in that specific geography,” says Ludovic Pouilly, senior vp of music industry relations for Deezer, a streaming service available in more than 185 countries (though not in India).
In 2023, Asian recorded-music revenue increased 14.9%, according to IFPI, its fourth straight year of double-digit growth, while revenues in the Middle East and North Africa rose 14.4% and Latin America’s 10-year boom continued with a 19.4% jump. Major music companies are making heavy investment bets in these regions — Sony Music bought top Brazilian indie label Som Livre for $255 million in 2021, for example, to try to dominate the world’s ninth-largest music market, whose revenues increased 13.4% in 2023, according to the IFPI.
For publishers, the world market has become so robust that many are making like Arkwright and Smith and supplementing their song-royalty income from once-reliable U.S. markets with suddenly-reliable work in Asia and Brazil. “Five years ago, pop songs were huge in America, and it was easy to export our writers. It’s a bit harder now, because there’s a local hip-hop culture where Nordic writers are not as good to be in,” says Lars Karlsson, managing director of Warner Chappell Music Scandinavia, a region famous for pop mega-songwriters such as Sweden’s Max Martin. “It’s beautiful to have emerging markets open up for us.” Adds Ryan Press, Warner Chappell’s North American president: “For a while, it felt like you had to have success in the U.S., and that dictated everything. Now that’s not the case.”
In 2022, Universal Music Publishing Group launched an A&R team, the Global Creative Group, to plan cross-cultural collaborations such as a recent K-pop songwriting camp in Los Angeles and a country-and-Latin-music camp in Mexico City. It sent Elena Rose, a Venezuelan-American songwriter from Miami who co-wrote last year’s Becky G–Karol G hit “Mamiii,” to Morocco to collaborate with singer-songwriter Manal — and wound up with a duet and a reworked album. “It wasn’t like, ‘We’re going to send our Western producers to colonize some unsuspecting territory,’” says David Gray, the UMPG exec who leads the group. “It was, ‘We’ve got a great Latin artist and a great artist in Morocco, let’s put them together.’ This is not about imposing Western creative styles onto another country.”
Dominated by the Bollywood film industry and plagued for years with online piracy, India has struggled to develop its own recorded-music business, despite a period of Indipop and Punjabi pop hits in the ’80s and ’90s. But Universal and Sony have had offices in India for years, and Warner Music expanded its presence there in 2020, installing Jay Mehta as managing director; earlier this year, Reservoir Media signed publishing deals, including catalogs and future works, for Indian rappers MC Altaf and D’Evil. India is the 14th-biggest music market, increasing revenues by 15.3% in 2023.
Over the last few years, according to New Delhi-born singer-songwriter Subhi, the music business in India has broadened from strict Bollywood-industry guidelines to artists and music companies with a broader palette to create songs. That shift has led to more regional hits — and interest from major record labels and publishers, and more collaborations, like a songwriting camp Subhi attended through Anara Publishing and a co-writing session with a U.K. producer she’d met at a separate camp. “It’s a huge market to cater to, but also, slowly, we’re building an audience for independent music,” says Subhi, who is based in L.A. and Chicago. “It’s only the beginning.”
A regional star in India, King is a “sign that Indian music will have an increasing impact and influence on the global charts,” as the general manager of his label, Warner Music Middle East, said in 2023’s IFPI report. Now that King’s 2020 hit, “Tu Aake Dekhle,” has scored 395 million Spotify plays, Bhavy Anand, one of his managers, says, “We’ve been getting a lot of attention from international songwriters and publishers and media houses. This was unheard-of three years, four years [ago].”
Working with Warner’s Mehta, King’s team saw an opportunity to cross over from regional hits to international stardom, and recorded a new version of “Maan Meri Jaan,” with vocals in both Hindi and English. The label contacted Lalwani, the Mumbai-born songwriter who lives in Los Angeles. “I wanted to make it very effortless — Hindi and English isn’t something that’s always put together,” Lalwani says. Later, the label enlisted a U.S. pop star, Nick Jonas, to add duet vocals for the new version released in April.
For Arkwright, collaborating with artists outside North America and Europe is a crucial way to diversify his songwriting business. “People there are doing things that no one is doing here. I want to partner with those people,” he says. “I wish it could be like in the ’80s, where you could have a Michael Jackson B-side and buy a house in Malibu. But you have to look at things differently. You have to look at new and emerging markets.”
Chowon, a member of the K-pop girl group ICHILLIN’, was reportedly hospitalized after being hit by a foul ball at a professional baseball game that she and her band mates were participating in on Tuesday (April 16), according to local reports in Korea.
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At a matchup between the Kiwoom Heroes and KT Wiz and Kiwoom held at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, ICHILLIN’ opened the game with member Yeju throwing the first pitch and ICHILLIN’ leader E.Ji taking the ceremonial first bat ahead of a group performance later. While watching the game and waiting to perform, the group’s youngest member, 18-year-old Chowon, was struck by a foul ball during the third inning.
According to reports, the foul ball struck Chowon in the back of the head with the blow knocking the singer unconscious. She was taken in for medical assistance in the stadium and regained consciousness with the aid of on-the-scene physicians and officials. The star was transferred to a nearby hospital.
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The initial reports indicate Chowon was not seriously injured. However, the performance from ICHILLIN was canceled after the incident.
A YouTube account has uploaded video footage from ICHILLIN’s time at the baseball game where viewers can hear the crack of a baseball and see ICHILLIN and those in the audience near them spot a high-flying foul ball coming towards them. According to social media comments, the uploader chose not to include footage of the moment the ball made impact. The moment happens during the last five seconds of the video:
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Billboard has contacted KM Entertainment, the label and representation for ICHILLIN’, but did not immediately receive a response.
Consisting of members Chowon, E.Ji, Yeju, Jackie, Chaerin, Joonie and Jiyoon, ICHILLIN’ made their debut in September 2021 with the single “Got’Ya” to compete alongside the latest crop of K-pop groups vying for international attention. With three EPs under their belt, the group’s latest record, Feelin’ Hot, dropped on March 7, led by the single “On My Lips,” with its music video garnering almost a million views to date.
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Billboard Japan spoke with singer-songwriter kiki vivi lily for its Women in Music interview series featuring female players in the Japanese entertainment industry. The WIM initiative in Japan launched in 2022 to celebrate artists, producers and executives who have made significant contributions to music and inspired other women through their work. The first 30 interviews in this series were published in Japan as a “Billboard Japan Presents” collection by writer Rio Hirai.
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kiki vivi lily is a J-pop singer known for her soothing voice and various collaborative efforts with acts and artists in hip-hop and other genres, who realized her dream of making a living as an artist after working in the corporate world for a while. The 33-year-old sat down with Billboard Japan to look back on her career and share her thoughts on lookism and ageism in the Japanese music industry, cheerfully noting, “I think there are things I can do because I debuted as an adult.”
When did you decide to pursue music as a career?
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I’ve always loved music and apparently used to sing on top of tables since I was two or three years old. I formed a band in junior high but it was just for fun and we covered other people’s songs by imitating them. It wasn’t until I entered university that I began to think seriously about wanting to become a musician. I saw a documentary on (J-pop superstar) Yumi Matsutoya and seeing the process of how the things she wrote became the finished songs was so amazing that I decided to try writing my own.
You’ve always written your own lyrics. Is there anything you are mindful of when you work on them?
So I love Yumi Matsutoya and when you listen to her songs, it’s like the landscape opens up before your eyes. The way she depicts the scene is incredible and she transports the listener to a different world through her music. I try to keep that in mind when I write, so that my listeners can experience something like that through my music. I’ve matured now compared to when I first got started, so I also want to write lyrics that empower people who listen to them.
Was there a reason why you started thinking that way?
Looking back on my career, being a female artist is something I’ve often been aware of. When I first began working in music, there was a clearer distinction between men and women than there is now, and with the rise of social media, I’ve had people say things about my appearance. A lot of the musicians around me were male, but when I discussed this with them, they didn’t seem to receive as many comments about the way they looked. Female artists were often criticized about their appearance and age more than their music, so I’ve always felt that was weird. I’ve always focused on trying to make the coolest music I can in my career, but it felt like people were only looking at the surface. I just pretended to ignore it and let it slide at the time, but have always thought that one day, when I have more influence, I want to do something to help others who are feeling the same way.
So after some time passed, you decided to put those feelings from back then into your work.
Right. I’d sort of given up at the time, thinking I wasn’t in a position to make a difference. Times have changed since then and words like lookism and gender gap are more well known now, so it’s easier for me to say what I want to say. I’m also at a point where I don’t really care what people say about me anymore and trust that there are people out there who will get what I’m saying.
I’d like to think that we’ve made some progress since the days when lookism was rampant, and when artists like you make your position clear, it definitely accelerates that advancement. Also, the topic of how female artists can continue their careers for a long time in a healthy way while dealing with changes in their lifestyles is something I’d like to ask you about.
That’s a really important topic for me as well. What I try to keep in mind for the long haul is to not sell myself short. The artists who write songs that I want to listen to for a long time stay grounded doing what they do. So I’ve also been working with the belief that what’s important is to steadily keep making music I think is good.
I started my music career my mid-twenties, and was sometimes told back then that I was quite old. Staff members would say it to my face or I’d hear that someone had said so. It made me sad every time, but that’s why I stayed away from people in authority who judged me based on my age or appearance, and made songs with artists of my generation. Looking back now, I know I was right not to let such things bother me, and that as long as I take what I do seriously, time will take care of things. Now that I’m older than I was back then, I’ve come to think that getting older isn’t something to be afraid of.
Are there any female artists you see as role models?
I always look forward to watching the Grammys. It’s great seeing women be successful. I think Victoria Monét is particularly wonderful, and after doing some digging about the way she uses her platform to speak out on social issues, I feel she’s one of the figures I aspire to be. In Japan, Yumi Matsutoya of course, and seeing artists like Chara and UA staying in the forefront through motherhood makes me want to try it, too.
I’m in my thirties now and the women around me are going through various life stages. My musician friends are really energetic and active in their careers, and I’m having a lot of fun, too. Meanwhile, my friends who have families also seem fulfilled. I started auditioning while in college, but once I graduated, I found a job and continued to work at a company while doing music. When the pandemic hit, I decided to focus on music. Because I debuted relatively late, I often think about how to keep doing what I do for a long time, and I’m like, “I’ll just do everything I want to do.”
It sounds like you’ve gone through a lot but put things behind you and are now able to focus on your career. What message do you want to convey through your music?
That there are no rules in life, I guess. There’s no such thing as “too late” to start something, and there’s no rule that says female artists must look attractive. It’d be great if everyone could do what they long to do. I need to be spending quality time and be filled with good vibes or I won’t have the energy to send out positive messages to people, so I’d like to see the wider world and experience a lot of things from now on, too.
—This interview by Rio Hirai (SOW SWEET PUBLISHING) first appeared on Billboard Japan
Wednesday Campanella singer Utaha chatted with Billboard Japan for its Women in Music interview series featuring female players in the Japanese entertainment industry. The WIM initiative in Japan launched in 2022 to celebrate artists, producers and executives who have made significant contributions to music and inspired other women through their work. The first 30 interviews in this series were published in Japan as a “Billboard Japan Presents” collection by writer Rio Hirai.
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Utaha began her music career under unusual circumstances, joining a successful music project as the second-generation lead singer. The 22-year-old artist is now branching out into other fields as well, such as acting. Her striking, one-of-a-kind look has been her passion since before she debuted as Wednesday Campanella’s new frontwoman. After going through a period of feeling like she couldn’t live “normally,” she decided to first change her appearance to cast off her old self, and this transformation eventually led to major changes in her life as well.
I heard you weren’t thinking of becoming a singer before joining Wednesday Campanella. What do you think you’d be doing otherwise?
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Utaha: A designer…maybe? I studied design at an art college, and shortly before Wednesday Campanella, I was looking into internships at design companies. I was also uploading my outfits and the stuff I was thinking about at the time on social media. I was asked to join the group because they saw what I was doing, so I was able to start my current career pretty freely.
So your current hair, makeup, and fashion are extensions of what you were doing before.
Yes, the prototype already existed when I was in high school. I couldn’t adapt to school life very well. I didn’t have an icon or an ideal image of what I wanted to be like, but I wanted to break away from my weak self at the time. I wanted to be strong, so I pierced my lip and buzzed my hair.
I imagine it would take courage to do something different when you’re not feeling strong. Were you trying to generate momentum to change yourself?
There was a period when I never encountered anyone who could help me when things were rough, so I had no choice but to help myself. It was really hard for me to change how I felt because of deeply ingrained values. But I realized that all I needed to do was to take a step forward to change the way I look. After realizing that, I immediately took action.
Until then, what was difficult for you or made you feel you couldn’t adapt?
I’m not sure… I was a really normal kid. There was a time when I tried my best to “live like everyone else,” but that didn’t seem to suit me very well. But because I couldn’t do what everyone else was doing normally, I was able to think about what I could do and improve on that.
What changed when you changed your appearance?
I went to a public high school in Tokyo and TikTok was all the rage. It was normal for everyone to look cute like the girls on TikTok in my school, so there were no other girls who had their hair buzzed and lip pierced. There were some who thought I was weird and expressed that sentiment, but it felt like changing my appearance created a kind of barrier around me. I didn’t become stronger on the inside right away, but it was like I had another skin around my weak self. Eventually, it made me stronger on the inside as well.
After you debuted as Wednesday Campanella, you entered a phase where you were expected to express yourself with more than your hair and makeup. Did you feel uncomfortable about that?
I’d never thought of becoming a musician, so I started out not knowing anything at all, like what would happen when I did something on stage. Plus, I debuted in the midst of the pandemic and there were a lot of restrictions like not being able to speak or raise your arms (during concerts), so we got no reactions and I couldn’t tell what the right answer was. But after about six months, a song [“Edison”] went viral. After that, I had more opportunities to be featured in the media. When you get exposure, people say stuff about you on social media. I almost lost sight of what I really wanted to value, but after going through that period, now I’m able to work without losing sight of myself.
You’re in an unusual position where you took over from a predecessor, but it looks like you’re working with a clear idea of what you want to do. Could you tell us what it is you value to not lose sight of yourself?
Obviously I wondered if people would accept me and felt pressured about that, but once I got started, it turned out people were surprisingly welcoming. After I felt that response, I began to do more and think about my strengths. By accepting myself, that I’m cute the way I am, I want the people who see me perform to think that it’s OK to accept and praise themselves for being cute and amazing. “Value the things you like, but live with respect and consideration for others” is the message I can communicate from the stage, and that’s the strength of what I do.
While diversity is being celebrated these days, it feels like society is becoming more divided and our values becoming more polarized in reality. I can see how a lot of people would be encouraged by the way you value your distinctive style of cuteness in such an environment.
When I look at TikTok and such, it really feels like the ideal of what everyone thinks is cute is becoming more and more standardized. It’s kind of strange that my idea of cute is respected in a society where lookism is still so rampant. Obviously there are people who don’t share my idea of cute, but that’s just a matter of preference so I think if I pursue what I believe in, the people who share my outlook will congregate where I end up.
I’m sure there are people out there who don’t have the courage to do what they believe in like you do. Do you think such people should just give it a try?
I’m in a position to say, “Why don’t you give it a try?” because I actually went through with it and it worked out, but I’m sure there are people who aren’t able to take the plunge because of their environment. Especially if they’re students surrounded by adults who instill rules in their lives, I’m sure many feel it’s hard to take that first step. But when you go out into the world, don’t you think, “What a tiny world I lived in when I was a student”? The world is much bigger than that, so I think you can have more fun searching for freedom if you broaden your perspective.
Do you think being a woman has affected your career?
It probably has affected me, for better or worse. Nowadays, men are freer to wear skirts and do their nails and such, but I’ve loved makeup and fashion since I was little, so I was glad to be a girl to be able to enjoy those things freely. I used to not like the shape of my body before, but thanks to fashion I’ve come to like it. Ideally, though, I want such discrepancies between men and women to disappear. People are always arguing on social media about how women are like this and men are like that, and I know there’s no easy solution, but I hope there will be less discrimination all around.
Society is gradually changing and I want to think that people in their 20s like you sense things differently and have a more unbiased outlook. Do you think this is the case?
I’m probably surrounded by people who think like I do. I say stuff like, “Let’s look at people as people and not by their genders” and “Don’t call people names based on their looks,” so the ones who discriminate don’t come near me. But when I interact with people who aren’t my fans on social media, there are so many different opinions. It feels like things are changing when I’m just looking around myself, but I’m reminded that when I look at society as a whole, not much progress is being made.
I get the impression that you’re analyzing yourself and society very calmly as you go through life. Do you have ways of coping when you feel down or when you hit a wall?
I don’t think I’ve hit any walls yet, but there are times when I feel down. When that happens, I eat and sleep! [Laughs] You know how there are things you can’t do anything about right away? Like lookism, you can’t change that right away. Although I know there’s nothing I can do even if I keep worrying about it, I feel down sometimes, so I try to eat properly and go to bed before late at night to not be overwhelmed by it all. After 22 years of living, I’ve realized I’m more energetic in the morning than at night.
That’s simple and very good. OK then, what advice would you give yourself when you were just starting out?
I think I was really tense for the first year and a half of my career. I want to say edgier, but just a lot more pointed. I don’t think it was necessarily a bad thing though, and I’m glad I didn’t take in opinions that I couldn’t agree with, so I’d like to tell myself that I’m OK the way I am. I got to where I am today because I struggled and felt conflicted about things in my own way at the time.
–This interview by Rio Hirai first appeared on Billboard Japan
04/15/2024
From YOASOBI and LE SSERAFIM’s sets to the combining of star power thanks to 88rising Futures, the promise of Asian pop music was on full display in Indio.
04/15/2024
Park Boram, a breakout TV singing competition star who parlayed her powerful vocals into a decade in the K-pop industry, died Tuesday (April 11), according to a confirmation from her record label in Korea. Police are currently investigating the cause of death. She was 30. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, […]
Creepy Nuts’ “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” continues to rule the Billboard Japan Hot 100, now in its 11th straight week atop the chart released April 10.
The MASHLE season 2 opener is still at No. 1 for downloads, streaming, video views and karaoke. Downloads for the hip-hop hit are down by about 4.5% from the week before at 17,122 units, while streaming is steady at 22,797,748 streams (down 1%). Total points are at 18,799, approximately 2.2 times ahead of the track at No. 2.
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ILLIT’s “Magnetic” jumps 8-3 after debuting on the chart last week. Streaming for the new HYBE group’s single is up by about 48.6% with 10,866,450 streams, moving 7-3 for the metric, and downloads are up by about 15.4% with 2,277 units, moving 23-19. Radio moves 84-24, and the total for the song is at 6,953 points this week.
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“Tokimeki UNITED” by Real Idol Project bows at No. 5. This track by the project featuring 250 men in 38 idol groups hailing from various management companies was created as the theme song for the Real Idol Festival event being held this month at the Tokyo Garden Theater. Released Apr. 2, the CD sold 150,764 copies in its first week, topping the sales metric by a wide margin.
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The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from April 1 to 7, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account.
Pop hitmaker Hikaru Utada recently dropped the first best-of collection of their career entitled SCIENCE FICTION. One of Asia’s leading pop superstars since the late 1990s, Utada released a compilation encompassing their vast catalog entitled Utada Hikaru SINGLE COLLECTION VOL. 1/VOL. 2 in the past, but this was a collection of singles and not a best-of album.
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The 41-year-old artist has always been able to grasp the fluid atmosphere existing between themselves and the times, and then deconstruct and reconfigure themselves accordingly. This means that their best-of project isn’t simply a collection of songs from the past, but is a set of works that vividly reflects who they are today. As such, songs that were first released long ago have been remixed and re-recorded, and a brand new song has also been included in the project. The album, mysteriously crowned SCIENCE FICTION, is a fresh and ambitious “new work” typical of the veteran pop artist.
It’s still hard to say that Hikaru Utada’s recent works — with origins in R&B and magically transformed over the years by their absorption of other genres including electronica — have been widely embraced outside of Asia. Fortunately, the “Pink Blood” star’s talents are gradually being discovered in the U.S. BAD MODE, their latest album featuring a meticulously detailed soundscape featuring collaborations with A.G. Cook and Floating Points, was ranked No. 31 on Pitchfork’s list of “The 50 Best Albums of 2022.” Also, “Somewhere Near Marseilles” came in at No. 10 on the online music publication’s “The 100 Best Songs of 2022” list. A new version, dubbed the “Sci-Fi Edit”, of this track is included in Utada’s latest album.
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The “First Love” singer-songwriter’s performance on the main stage at Coachella in 2022 probably helped boost their visibility in the American music scene as well. After their first-ever music festival set alongside a variety of 88rising acts, the Asian star’s music is slowly gaining traction in the U.S. market. In fact, among the songs on SCIENCE FICTION, “First Love,” “One Last Kiss,” and “Kimini Muchuu” (crazy about you) all charted on Billboard’s Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. tallies (on the latter, at No. 61, No. 14, and No. 21, respectively), and “Face My Fears,” a collaborative track with Skrillex and Poo Bear, charted on the all-genre Hot 100 list.
All these highlights happened after 2019. Utada’s music and current environment have changed dramatically since their first album First Love became the best-selling album of all time in Japan and rewrote the history of the country’s pop music back in the late ‘90s. Now based in London, the J-pop giant is resonating with various corners of pop and left-field music being produced globally. That’s why this best-of album, SCIENCE FICTION, is the perfect opportunity to encourage further discovery of this illustrious musician’s appeal.
Seeing as this best-of set is so current that it could be considered new, let’s draw a few auxiliary lines to help listeners understand it. The first thing that catches our attention is the title of the album, SCIENCE FICTION. Since this is also the name of Utada’s upcoming concert tour set for later this year, it may be premature to try to unravel the mystery based solely on the contents of the album. But it’s a convincing concept when considering their career up to this point.
After starting out as singer-songwriter whose music leaned toward R&B, the “Automatic” artist has gradually moved further towards electronic music since their third album DEEP RIVER (2002) and has infused their songs with the physicality brought to life through computer music and enhanced by live performances. In BAD MODE, Utada experimented with more electronic sounds in collaboration with A.G. Cook and Floating Points, where the level looping rhythms and the off kilter alien-like sound processing inserted here and there strike a strange balance, although they’re contradictory. Let’s use “universality” and “discomfort” to describe these conflicting elements. When asked in an earlier interview about these two elements present in their works, they replied, “Music is a very physical thing,” and then went on to say:
“(Music) can be waveforms, it can be thought of in terms of frequency, in terms of texture, in terms of volume. I’m the kind of person who wants to achieve a very spherical shape. I think if you’re careful about the distribution of all the elements, you naturally end up with the overall balance you’re aiming for. I think about the predictable and unpredictable areas, like, ‘If it’s there only once in the song, it’ll be like I intended it,’ and consider how often and how much I should blend in that sense of discomfort down to each element. I also think about the relationship between those elements in terms of their distribution.”
Utada’s words indicate that they pursue balance with an extremely objective perspective, and their approach of expanding their sound by introducing a sense of discomfort into something universal can be said to be somewhat science fiction-like. The way the mechanicalness and physicality are precariously assembled under a tense sense of equilibrium, combined with their distinctive musical prosody through bilingual lyrics, prick our emotions every time we listen to their works.
Since revealing the name of their new best-of set, Utada has hinted that their interest in quantum mechanics and simulation hypothesis inspired the title. In “A Flower of No Color,” their latest single and included in the upcoming project, they sing, “According to renowned scholars / We are just illusions / But today / as always / I’m in love with you,” and, “But / if I can’t believe in myself / I can’t believe in anything / That’s synonymous with not existing / Only the facts that can’t be proven / Are called truths” These lyrics evoke themes such as the anthropic principle and philosophical realism — perhaps the “renowned scholar” is Nick Bostrom?
Another standout example from the album is their new song “Electricity,” released for the first time on this album. This track, with a rippling beat by Sam Shepherd aka Floating Points, again features some innovative prosody with a strange “E-E-E-E–le-e-e-e-ctri-i-city” sound, and Utada goes on to sing, “Fearing the unknown / addicted to conspiracy theories / To all such humanity / I want you to read a letter that Einstein wrote / to his daughter / Love is Light, Love is the quintessence,” referring to the much-discussed topic of fake news. In this age where fragments of meaning are endlessly propagated, the “Find Love” artist tells us that “the story engraved in our components / won’t end even if writing disappears from this planet,” offering a conclusion before disappearing into the distance with the sound of the saxophone.
While skillfully interweaving the dichotomies of pop/alternative, Japanese/English, universality/discomfort, and reality/fiction, Hikaru Utada the artist exists as the result of someone who has slipped through all such oppositions, fluidly moving between themselves and the times. Their presence shimmering just like science fiction, this lambent musician is now moving to the next phase of their career.
—This article by Tsuyachan first appeared on Billboard Japan
Ignazio Boschetto, Gianluca Ginoble and Piero Barone joke about 3 Body Problem, the Netflix series that everyone is watching and talking about. The comparison between them and the three planets comes naturally, also because Il Volo’s new album, Ad Astra, talks about stars and human fragility. The unsolved astrophysics problem that the series talks about is the difficulty of accurately predicting the way in which the three planets move, as well as the evolution of the system they constitute. Il Volo also shows a notable evolution with this new album, released on March 29.
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After 15 years of career and 13 albums, in Ad Astra, Il Volo for the first time decided to interpret original songs written for them by some of the most important Italian songwriters and producers (except for the cover of “Who Wants To Live Forever” by Queen): Michelangelo, Federica Abbate, Edwyn Roberts, Michael Tenisci, Stefano Marletta, Federico Nardelli, Luca Faraone and Bungaro.
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But it’s just the beginning. On April 20, their new world tour will start from China and then move to Japan. It will then touch the main European capitals in autumn and will arrive in the USA, Canada and Latin America in 2025.
Billboard Italy met them on a rainy morning at the end of March in Milan. They joke with each other from the start, except when they reflect on what their music means to their audience.
What determined this change of approach?
Gianluca: After great projects in recent years, especially the tribute to Ennio Morricone, we thought the time had come to sing original songs. We wanted to try to be ourselves 100%. Being an interpreter is great, but singing your own songs is a completely different thing. The songwriters got to know us personally because they came to our concerts. We tried to make a real concept album, very diverse, with an intro and an outro. The album perfectly reflects who we are. Well, some songs reflect one or the other of us in particular. We want to demonstrate that diversity is our strength.
Which song represents each of you the most?
Ignazio: I’d rather say which songs I would listen to every day: “Succede,” “L’infinito,” “Il Mondo all’Incontrario.” I don’t know which one represents me the most. Gianluca: My favorites are “Capolavoro,” “Frammenti di Universo” and “Ad Astra,” with that Genesis-style progressive suite and its theatrical and cinematographic inspiration.
Piero: I too would say “Ad Astra,” then “Saturno e Venere” featuring Irama. We immediately got on well in the studio with him, despite coming from different worlds, and we saw the way he writes his songs. Irama thinks of the melody first, then the words come. It was very fascinating to watch him at work. I also really love “Opera” for the message it sends: try to live your days without thinking too much about tomorrow. It is in small gestures that we must seek happiness.
What’s the most important message you would like to convey to young people who feel under pressure?
Piero: Always look for enthusiasm in what you do, always persevere by pursuing your passions, without putting money first.
Gianluca: I’d say the meaning of the Latin expression “Per aspera ad astra” [“to the stars, through difficulties”]: you cannot achieve great results if you don’t sacrifice yourself. The main problem for young people, but also for adults, is not knowing themselves enough. That way, you don’t feel a sense of purpose.
What kept you together for so long?
Ignazio: We could say the love for music, but that would be too obvious. It is the awareness that our strength lies in our unity and our diversity. As soloists we would never be the same.
Do you feel respected by other artists?
Piero: Things have changed over time: at the beginning we were just newcomers who had signed a contract in the United States, then we made ourselves known. The best answer was the “Tutti per uno” concert at the Verona Arena, with all the artists who wanted to participate. At the beginning it wasn’t easy for them to want to sing with us, but what could they do? There are already three of us and ours is a completely different genre from that of the other singers. But with “Tutti per uno” everyone was able to express themselves as they wanted and it was much simpler. This year too we already have many confirmations for the four night at the Verona Arena in May.
What is the most significant international tour you have done?
Piero: Definitely Japan, where we’ll be returning in a few weeks. We can’t wait. Our music genre gave us the opportunity to have unique, unrepeatable experiences. Last year they wanted us for the inauguration of the Kiyomizu-dera temple in Kyoto, a world heritage site immersed in a forest. We sang between the columns, dressed in white. The emotion was indescribable. Japan is a destination that we recommend to everyone: it showed us how we should behave, always. Respect for others, even for strangers, is an essential value there.
You said that at one of your concerts you initially thought the audience had fallen asleep.
Ignazio: The Japanese close their eyes to concentrate. At the end, however, everyone gets up and wants to come and say hello on stage – strictly waiting for the right moment, of course. Even the way of clapping is different, it’s quieter.
What have been the biggest sacrifices of these 15 years?
Gianluca: Sacrifices are constant, especially in terms of homesickness, despite we do what we love most. There were moments when we didn’t know what to do, like the year before we won Sanremo. In 2014 we kept changing record companies and didn’t know which path to take. With this new album we want to show who we are even more.
And the best moments?
Gianluca: There are many. The victory of Sanremo 2015, the tour with Barbra Streisand, the “We Are The World for Haiti” concert in 2010. But this last edition of Sanremo was also a way to show how much we have grown as artists.
What’s the most unexpected feature you would like to have in one of your songs?
Piero: Lazza, also because he’s very good at playing piano.
Two decades in any industry is worth celebrating, but Dynamicduo has not only persisted through the early, nascent days of Korea’s hip-hop scene but has also hit new creative and mainstream peaks ahead of reaching the 20-year milestone.
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Since childhood friends Choiza and Gaeko officially paired up in 2004 with debut album Taxi Driver, the pair have trailblazed their legacy after setting records for hip-hop sales in Korea, taking top honors at mainstream awards shows in music and videos, establishing their Amoeba Culture label, and collaborating with a range of stars through the decades like DJ Premier, J.Y. Park, Tiger JK, BoA, Rain, Wonder Girls and members of K-pop groups like BTS, EXO and Monsta X.
Dyanmicduo’s three-part album, 2 Kids on the Block, officially wrapped its 10-month rollout with the release of Part.3 on March 28, with the new tracks documenting two decades of inner dialogues and growth to ultimately decide to set their sights even higher by the LP’s conclusion. Parallel to the record’s past-meets-present concept, Dynamicduo experienced balancing an old and new track, both taking over on social media for a minute in 2023. Their 2014 single “AEAO” featuring DJ Premier” went unexpectedly viral on TikTok (landing itself as one of TikTok’s Top 10 Song of Summer from South Korea), while their collaboration cut “Smoke” with rising rapper Lee Young Ji for a popular TV dance competition also took off via dance challenges, earning the guys their first-ever entry on the Billboard Global 200 chart. Helping fuel DD’s 2023 hits were infectious dance and lip-sync covers from K-pop heavyweights like V and Jung Kook of BTS, Minho, EXO, SEVENTEEN, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, ITZY, ATEEZ and IVE, as well as stars across the J-pop and Korean hip-hop scenes.
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A day after the release of 2 Kids on the Block — Dynamicduo’s milestone 10th album together — was the unveiling of J-Hope from BTS’ latest solo project, Hope on the Street Vol. 1, featuring Gaeko on the lead single “NEURON.” Alongside this J-Hope collaboration, the slew of rising and established names in Korean pop, R&B, rap and even acting on 2 Kids all point to Dynamicduo’s continued influence and expert ability to navigate different musical realms for decades.
Speaking exclusively with Billboard, Dynamicduo reflect on their journey thus far, share their ambitious vision for the next decade, discuss differences between their BTS collaborations and more.
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Congratulations on the release of 2 Kids on the Block – Part.3. How does it feel now that the series is complete? With five full tracks, Part.3 is the longest chapter in the 2 Kids on the Block series. Was there a reason for breaking out the parts like you did?
Gaeko: We feel so happy to be able to release the album on our 20th anniversary. The timing was perfect.
Choiza: Our CEO, who had been with us since the establishment of our company, suddenly passed away as her condition worsened, and while she was here, she really liked the songs that we were working on from the tenth album. So we wanted to gift the release to her while she was still here with us. And the current state of the music market makes it impossible for people to listen to all the songs in an album. Even if we released all the songs at once, only one to two songs would have stood out, so we thought dividing it into parts would have people listen through all the songs. Lastly, this album expresses stories and the history of Dynamicduo, so we released it in several parts to sequentially tell different stages of our lives from past to present.
You also released a remix package for “AEAO” with DJ Premier and “Smoke” for Street Woman Fighter 2, both viral hits, in between parts. Was there a balance you had to find with these singles and returning to the album?
Gaeko: Apart from the hits of the two singles, we tried to refocus on maintaining the album’s concept and improving its level of completion. We took a short break, about two weeks, at the beginning of the year to refresh our minds and then got back to the grind.
Choiza: Actually, 2 Kids On The Block – Part.3 was originally going to be released as three songs last year, but “Smoke” became such a huge hit, so we couldn’t complete the album at that time. But, thanks to that, we were able to prepare five songs instead of three with the extra time we were given, and we are satisfied with how it turned out. The additional two songs that we added fit right in with the concept of the album.
Your new single, “PITAPA” featuring pH-1 and Junny, is really impressive. What inspired the theme of “pizza, tacos and pasta” and what do you hope listeners will take away?
Choiza: “PITAPA” is a song that resembles the aspiration of wanting our music to be appealing to people all over the world and to be known in such a way as pizza, taco, and pasta are as global foods familiar to everyone around the world. pH-1 and JUNNY are well-received in both Korea and overseas, so having them on the track added extra flavor and we think overseas listeners who like Korean hip-hop will have fun listening to it.
Gaeko: We felt that the words “pizza, taco, pasta” connected well and the line just stuck to our mouth. We felt the groove and loved the sound of it, so we were able to make the hook right away. “PITAPA” was the last song we worked on on the album, and it was completed quickly with the inspiration we got from our U.S. performance that we had just gotten back from.
Personally, I hear some DJ Premier influence on the production of “PITAPA.” Did his work inspire you or parts of this album after the resurgence of “AEAO”?
Choiza: “AEAO” is a song that gave us the courage to pursue overseas activities. We worked with an amazing artist, DJ Premier, and when the song resurged on TikTok, it helped bring in a wider audience, giving them exposure to who we are and our songs. The resurgence encouraged us to think that we have the potential to do something overseas and that the idea of rapping and singing in Korean would still appeal to the foreign market. “AEAO” gave us tremendous inspiration.
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BewhY gives props to Dynamicduo as inspiration for his career on the album track “Love Myself.” This LP has many rising rap and R&B stars. Do you have humbling moments like this where you realize your influence?
Choiza: We are very grateful that young artists are inspired by us and how long we’ve been doing this. We think one of the reasons we’ve been able to make music for so long is that we get a lot of help and learn a lot from working with new artists. We want to continue working hard and creating good music together.
Actor Jung Man Sik does the intro on “Dramatic,” which was very clever. How did he end up on the album?
Gaeko: When we got Man Sik’s part added to the song, it felt like we found the missing piece to the puzzle. We contacted him last minute, like two days before our scheduled mix session. We had nobody else in mind other than Man Sik and, luckily, it was his day off that day, and he understood exactly what we wanted and acted so quickly on it. He completed our puzzle and we want to thank him again.
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Gaeko, you collaborated with J-Hope of BTS on “NEURON” from Hope on the Street Vol. 1 album. Since J-Hope is enlisted and cannot share much about the song, can you tell us about how the track came together?
Gaeko: J-Hope came to my studio last year and we not only talked about music, but also talked about many different things in life — it was such a fun time and I felt his deep passion for music and dance. I think his energy transferred over to me because I was able to write the lyrics quickly. We recorded our verses separately, and I went over to HYBE and we recorded the hook together. It was a fun project.
All three verses on “NEURON” express a strong sense of positivity and gratitude. Can you share how you approached your verse? Did you hear J-Hope and Yoon Mirae’s verses, or was it all a surprise when the album came out?
Gaeko: It wasn’t until after 20 years of making music that I began to understand that good things come out only when you relax and empty yourself. I wanted to capture those emotions in the verse, and I also tried to make the overall structure of the verse simple and plain. J-Hope’s verse was already completed before I did my part, and I listened to Tasha (yoonmirae)’s verse after it was mixed. Their parts were so good so I had second thoughts on recording my part again, but I decided not to. If I did it again, I wouldn’t have been able to capture the same emotions from the initial recording, so I left it as is.
RM featured on Gaeko’s single, “Gajah” from 2017. How do the collaboration experiences and recording processes differ between RM and J-Hope?
Gaeko: I felt that the musical direction they were both pursuing was similar yet different. I felt that RM had a deep affection, understanding, and love not only for hip-hop but also for music itself. And J-Hope had a massive passion for hip-hop and dance and wanted to pour all his energy into them before enlisting into the army. I also received a lot of energy from those two.
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As Dynamicduo celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2024, how do you look back on the 20 yeras? Do you have anything special planned to celebrate this year?
Gaeko: Looking back now, we think that we were meant to do music. There were times when we experienced challenges, joy, and frustration, but the fact that the two of us were together in all those moments is probably the biggest accomplishment of our career.
Choiza: [The] 20th anniversary isn’t any special to us because we want to work just as hard as we’ve been and treat it like all our previous years. However, we will be holding a concert at the end of the year for our 20th anniversary and we want to make it big — we will be working hard and preparing a show for all to enjoy.
Collaboration has been a significant aspect of your career and we see it in 2 Kids. Whether it’s with fellow artists or producers, how do you approach collaborations to make them successful? Is there anyone still on your bucket list?
Choiza: We enjoy working together, but there are also a lot of new things that we discover when working with other artists. It’s fun to work with famous artists, but we also want to collaborate with rising, up-and-coming artists because we have a lot to learn from each other as well.
We think it would also be fun to mix various languages into one song. We are currently working with Thai rapper F.HERO, and we hope to work with artists from the U.S., Japan, Southeast Asia, and other parts of the world.
While K-pop impacts globally, Korean hip-hop and R&B are also rising. Do you have any thoughts—or hopes—of what it will take for these genres and artists to be more noticed internationally looking forward?
Gaeko: It’s important to make an effort to create the best work in whichever area we work in and to respect each other. We try not to set any high expectations for the results and just do our best in our field.
Choiza: Our goal is to be good at making music and to do it for a long time, so we’ll do our best to keep this going. We ask for your continued interest, and I believe that our overseas listeners will find songs that suit their tastes when they listen to all our songs that have been released so far. Please check out our 10th album as well as all our previous ones. We feel so grateful and honored to take part in this interview. Thank you for having us!
