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Since the pandemic, streamed shows have become a well-known format for live performances. Initially, these shows were seen as being streamed live because it wasn’t possible to perform in-person shows. However, they’ve evolved over time, and now many shows include elements that create an appeal that only streaming shows are capable of.
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One example are shows that use the metaverse — an online 3D virtual space. With the metaverse, for example, it’s easy to completely change the stage, location, and costumes for every song, something that isn’t feasible with in-person shows. Also, because the venue is the internet, it’s easy for listeners in Japan or around the world to enjoy watching the show using just their everyday smartphone. For example, in August 2020, Kenshi Yonezu became the first Japanese artist to hold a virtual Fortnite show with his Kenshi Yonezu 2020 Event / STRAY SHEEP in FORTNITE. Yonezu himself appeared as an avatar wearing a sheep’s mask like the one on the jacket of his STRAY SHEEP album. Fans (or, rather, the avatars of fans) from around the world gathered to see his performance.
In the case of the Fortnite show, the onstage performance wasn’t technically by Kenshi Yonezu himself, but by his avatar. This surely didn’t sit right with some listeners, who want to see the actual artists as they perform. But what if, instead of an avatar, it were the artist themselves, performing in the metaverse? ReVers3:x (pronounced “reverse cross”), created and released by Sony Music Labels, is an “XR” short live performance project that seeks to create content that brings together the best parts of in-person live performances and metaverse live performances.
XR stands for “cross-reality,” a collective term for the pioneering technologies of augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR). ReVers3:x uses the latest technologies from the Sony Group to perform volumetric capture using 3D cameras. This technique captures the subjects it films — both their movements and their locations — as 3D data. With volumetric video, people can enjoy high resolution, natural-feeling live videos that appear like an artist actually performing within the virtual space. Another key point of the project is that original virtual spaces that act as the performance stages can be created for each performance.
ReVers3:x is updated irregularly, but so far it has been used for a total of four live performances. These performances were broadcast around the world through its official YouTube channel, and the channel’s archives contain all four performances in their entirety. The majority of these shows have been by hip-hop artists. For the first show, held in March 2022, in the middle of the pandemic, they selected the artist KEIJU. The second show, in May 2022, featured OZworld, an NFT artist in his own right. The third show, which was the first to be broadcast live, was a multi-artist show by CHEHON, Ryoff Karma, and CHICO CARLITO.
And just recently, on October 30, 2023, the fourth show was broadcast: BOSO TOKYO Presents “ReVers3:x Feat. GIRL’S POWER.” This show, the project’s first collaboration, was held within Virtual Halloween 2023, an online event conducted by KDDI, Future Design Shibuya, and the Shibuya City Tourism Association. Perhaps due to the Shibuya location, or perhaps inspired by the “Y2K” trend, the concept of this event was “gyaru.” The main artists were Yayoi Daimon, a singer-songwriter and choreographer who recently has drawn a great deal of attention by supplying music for Hypnosis Mic, and the creative team Sister Hood, which Daimon leads and which includes creators like dancer BROWNFISH ERI, makeup artist and designer MARIN KADOWAKI, and DJ XUNA. The show also featured three women rappers: CYBER RUI, a finalist on ABEMA’s RAPSTAR Tanjyou 2021, Rei(c)hi, who rose to fame from her “high school girl battle” with Chanmina on BS SKY PerfecTV’s BAZOOKA!!! High School Rap Tournament, and MaRI, who is still fresh in our memories thanks to her guest appearance on Awich’s “Bad Bitch Bigaku.” The virtual site also had 10,000 gyaru audience members. Together with the stage set, a Halloween-inspired design created in conjunction with the BOSO TOKYO NFT project, it was a show where you could feel the same excitement and passion as a real, in-person performance, right through the screen.
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ReVers3:x defines itself as a “collaboration project that combines planning and production for real-world live events, exhibition events, NFTs, and more,” focusing on XR live performances. Its official YouTube channel contains not only live show videos but also behind-the-scenes videos and original music by the project’s own virtual artist, ICQ. It shares excitement in a variety of ways, from both musical and technological perspectives.
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Worldwide. XR. NFTs. Every one of ReVers3:x’s keywords is one that has taken the limelight in today’s Japanese entertainment content industry. Eyes are trained on the future to see what kinds of new creations the Sony Group will produce using its state-of-the-art technologies.
—This article by Maiko Murata first appeared on Billboard Japan
Ado’s “Show” continues to break its own record for weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, now in its eighth week atop the chart dated Nov. 22.
On the week ending Nov. 19, the “New Genesis” singer’s latest hit dominates downloads, streaming, and video views, while coming in at No. 16 for radio and No. 6 for karaoke. Overall points totaled 10,532, down 10 percent from the week before but still 1.4 times higher than the song at No. 2.
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Naniwa Danshi‘s “I Wish” debuts at No. 2 this week. The boy band’s sixth single is being featured as the theme for the drama series My Second Aoharu starring member Shunsuke Michieda. Released Nov. 15, the CD launched with 395,722 copies to hit No. 1 for sales, while also coming in at No. 17 for video and No. 43 for radio.
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STU48’s “Kimi wa nani o koukai surunoka” (“What will you regret?”) bows at No. 4 on the Japan Hot 100, coming in at No. 2 for sales with 231,972 copies sold in its first week after its release on Nov. 15. The girl group’s tenth single features member Yumiko Takino in center position of the choreography and is slated to be her last, as she will be graduating the group.
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Stray Kids’ “LALALALA” soars 33-9 to break into the top 10 this week. The boy band performed the song during the 2023 Billboard Music Awards presented by Marriott Bonvoy that took place Nov. 19, where the group’s album 5-STAR won the award for Top K-Pop Album. Streams surged 153 percent from the week before to rack up 6,610,148 weekly streams, jumping 43-6 for the metric. Video also increased by 25 percent and climbed 9-5. The South Korean group is set to perform on NHK’s annual year-end music extravaganza, the 74th Kohaku Uta Gassen, which often results in the performing acts’ songs to linger for a while on the Japan charts in the new year.
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LE SSERAFIM’s “Perfect Night” also rises a notch to hit No. 10. The girl group’s first English-language digital single comes in at No. 7 for streaming (6,447,007 streams), No. 27 for downloads (1,730 units), No. 16 for video, and No. 37 for radio, performing in a balanced way overall.
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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 Nov. 13 to 19, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account.
The scene at the Chipotle on Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley at first looked much like any other Friday evening. Six good-looking guys in their early 20s sat around a table eating burritos, laughing and ribbing one another. They had landed at LAX that morning after a 16-hour flight, but despite their jet lag, the vibe was lively.
Then an emergency alert lit up one of their cellphones. Seconds later, a warning buzzed on another device. And then another, and another, and another, and yet one more. It was Oct. 6 — already Oct. 7 on the other side of the world in Israel — and the moment things got very real for as1one, the first-ever boy band comprising Israeli and Palestinian musicians.
The guys had arrived in Los Angeles from Tel Aviv, Israel, to lay down tracks for their forthcoming debut album — a trek made following months of visa coordination and more than a year since the group officially formed, after first being conceived in the United States years prior. The team behind as1one, led by longtime music executives Ken Levitan and James Diener, envisioned a Middle Eastern version of BTS, and in the effort to create it, Israeli and Palestinian casting directors had held auditions in major cities and tiny villages throughout Israel in 2021. (Auditions could not be held in the West Bank or Gaza due to logistical challenges.) A thousand young men auditioned; the six who were glued to their phones at the Sherman Oaks Chipotle had made it in.
There’s Sadik Dogosh, a 20-year-old Palestinian Bedouin Muslim from Rahat, Israel, with a piercing gaze and an acting background. Neta Rozenblat, a Jewish Israeli who’s 22 but looks younger, grew up in Tel Aviv, where he studied computer science before getting into singing, which led to a 2021 performance on the Israeli version of The X Factor. Hailing from Haifa, Palestinian Christian Aseel Farah, 22, is the group’s rapper and its self-proclaimed introvert. Twenty-three-year-old Jewish Israeli Nadav Philips grew up near Tel Aviv, idolizes Mariah Carey and used to perform as a wedding singer. Niv Lin, 22, is a Jewish Israeli from a desert town in southern Israel and played professional basketball before shifting to singing. (He also performed on The X Factor.) And Ohad Attia, also 22 and a Jewish Israeli, grew up in Tel Aviv singing and playing the guitar, a skill he flexes beautifully in the group.
On the surface, the six young men check all the usual boy group boxes: They strike the requisite balance between dreamy and adorable and sing ballads and bangers with heart-melting harmonies about girls, love and “dancing like the whole world is watching,” as one of their songs proclaims. But while each knew they were signing up for a boundary-pushing endeavor simply by joining a group composed of Palestinians and Israelis, they couldn’t have predicted that their message of unity would be so intensely tested before they had even released any music.
When the guys went to sleep at their L.A. rental house on the night of Oct. 6, they weren’t yet sure what to make of the alerts. They had all grown up accustomed to intermittent rocket warnings that often passed without incident. But by morning, it was clear what was happening back at home had little precedent: Hamas operatives had killed about 1,200 people throughout southern Israel in coordinated attacks on villages, kibbutzes and at a music festival. (“Niv lives not far from where that rave was, so he undoubtedly would have been there,” Diener says, adding that the woman Lin had just started dating, along with other friends, was killed in the attack.) Their scheduled sightseeing tour of L.A. was canceled. Instead, the guys spent the day frantically calling and texting with friends and family back home.
As news of the Oct. 7 attacks spread, as1one was given the option to fly back to Israel as soon as possible. But after talking among themselves, they decided to stay. “In the beginning, we really felt bad that we couldn’t do anything, that we couldn’t help our families and friends in Israel,” Attia says. “But then when you think about it, you really realize we’re on a mission and that we can be helpful. We can show the world.”
Ohad Attia
Austin Hargrave
The next day, as1one went to its scheduled studio session and met with songwriter-producers Jenna Andrews and Stephen Kirk, who together have credits on mega-hits like BTS’ “Butter” and “Permission To Dance.” Andrews and Kirk had already joined as1one for writing sessions in Israel, and that familiarity helped the duo channel the group’s intense emotions into music as the horrific news from Israel continued.
“The toughest moments were during the sessions,” Rozenblat says. “I was told about two friends that were killed, Niv was told about friends of his that were killed — a lot of us found out about really awful stuff during that session, not to mention that now there’s a whole war going on.”
But by the end of the session, they had a new song. Two-and-a-half weeks later, in a sun-drenched conference room in Century City, they play it for me through a beat-up Bluetooth speaker.
“What if we just stopped the world/Hold the phone/Faced the hurt/Take me home/We’re not built for this/We’re built for more/Forget the score/Show me what it’s like when we stop the world,” the sextet sings over a pulsing beat. It’s the kind of anthem that’s vocally reminiscent of the Backstreet Boys’ heyday and thematically evocative of — depending on how you’re listening — either a tumultuous romance or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“How crazy is it to get hugs from Palestinian friends when my Israeli friends died?” Lin says. “That’s our story.”
Sadik Dogosh
Austin Hargrave
As1one wasn’t necessarily intended to function as a singing six-man answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Seeing how K-pop and Latin music became global forces over the past few years, Levitan and Diener wanted to form a group from outside the Western world that they could build into a superstar act. They had experience with this caliber of artist: Levitan helped develop Kings of Leon, managed Bon Jovi and, as co-founder and president of Nashville-based Vector Management, has worked with Kesha, The B-52s, The Fray and more. Diener launched A&M Octone Records, where he developed acts including Maroon 5, and after the label sold its 50% share to Interscope Geffen A&M, he co-founded the music publishing and management firm Freesolo Entertainment.
Together they looked to Israel, a place, Diener says, where “we felt that what they have to say musically hadn’t really been given a shot on the world stage.” The pair weren’t seeking to create a group made up of Israelis and Palestinians — only to, as Levitan says, “leave no stone unturned” in their search for the country’s very best talent. They began traveling to Israel in late 2021, first to find the Israeli and Palestinian casting directors and consultants who could get them access to local music schools, conservatories and recording studios where they would scout talent. (They’ve been back to the country every two months since the first trip.) Ami Nir, an A&R executive at Universal Music Group in Israel, became their partner in the project and was crucial in creating connections.
Aseel Farah
Austin Hargrave
Even before meeting any prospective singers, the pair — who refer to themselves as the group’s founders and producers — encountered plenty of challenges: raising investment money, working in a foreign market (and during a global pandemic) and, above all, the historic tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. During one meeting, a potential Palestinian talent scout was so opposed to the idea of a mixed band that she flicked her cigarette ashes at Levitan and Diener.
“We were really working from negative one, not even at zero,” Levitan says of the meeting. “She was very pessimistic.” But as the two explained their history in the business and their vision for the group, the scout uncrossed her arms and listened — and, shortly thereafter, joined the team. Such unlikely changes of heart happened again and again at meetings throughout the country. “I think people felt our sincerity,” Diener says. “They didn’t feel like this was in any way a gimmick or a pretext.”
As Diener explains, assembling a group from this part of the world inherently meant being “confronted by the question of, ‘Are you willing to put together a group that may be mixed?’ ” He and Levitan agreed that they were — but that it would require choosing “the right guys who could handle and appreciate that mix of talent within the band,” Diener says.
As they narrowed down the talent pool during auditions, Levitan and Diener met with families of potential members, selling parents, siblings and extended relatives on the idea, often through translators, and many times while sitting around the family’s kitchen table after a meal.
Nadav Philips
Austin Hargrave
By this point, they had also enlisted a documentary crew to film the process; cameras were put in place after people close to Levitan and Diener suggested what they were doing “might just be historic,” Diener recalls. Ultimately, the local Israeli team was replaced with a crew from Paramount+, which has since shot hundreds of hours of footage for a forthcoming five-episode docuseries produced by James Carroll (Waco: American Apocalypse, Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer). “It’s in no way a reality series,” Levitan says. “This is something much more thoughtful and cinematic.”
The cameras were rolling during the final phase of the audition process: a May 2022 boy band boot camp in Neve Shalom, an Israeli village founded in 1969 by Israeli Jews and Arabs to demonstrate that the two groups could live together in peace. Here, the guys played instruments, posed for photo shoots, showed off their dexterity with social media and sang together. “You’d be singing to yourself, then someone standing on the other side of the road would be doing a harmony with you,” Attia recalls.
A psychologist was on site as well, not only to ensure potential members were mentally prepared for the demanding work schedule ahead, but also to weigh in on whether they would fit well within the unique mixed-group dynamic. “There were [guys] we really wanted to work with,” Diener says, “but as their community and parents became more aware of what this was going to look like, they couldn’t endorse it in the same way they’d endorsed the audition process, so we lost a few really good prospects.” (Levitan adds that these prospects wouldn’t have necessarily made it into the group.)
A year-and-a-half after starting the scouting process, Levitan and Diener had settled on the right six guys — it was just by circumstance that four were Jewish Israelis and two Palestinian.
When Levitan and Diener Zoomed Dogosh to tell him he had been accepted, the camera crew caught him jumping around so enthusiastically that his microphone broke. “Getting accepted in the band, it was like a fever dream,” says Rozenblat, who had been tracking 25,000 steps a day while pacing around his house waiting for the news.
Neta Rozenblat
Austin Hargrave
Recording started shortly thereafter, with the guys intermittently traveling from their respective homes to a Tel Aviv studio. Philips and Lin say they had never spoken with a Palestinian person until joining as1one — a name that the guys chose from a few options that the team had come up with and that is pronounced “as one.” Over time, camaraderie grew, and by the time they gave their first live performance at a private event for TikTok Israel eight months after their inception, they were looking, sounding, moving and working the room like a band. (Levitan and Diener often use the words “brotherhood” and “unity” when describing the group’s bond.)
The bonding process ramped up in August, when as1one traveled to London to record at Abbey Road Studios with Nile Rodgers, who plays guitar on one of the songs written by Andrews and Kirk. (The session came together after Diener sent Rodgers the group’s cover of Rodgers’ Daft Punk collaboration, “Get Lucky.”) After they wrapped, Rodgers gave his guitar to as1one guitarist Attia, who says he was “literally shaking” and immediately FaceTimed his mother to tell her. (Overjoyed for her son, she cried.)
On Oct. 5, as1one boarded a flight for what was meant to be a monthlong trip to L.A. The scheduling turned out to be prescient: The team had considered flying the guys out a few days later — which, had it happened, would have put the project on perpetual hold amid a war that to date has killed around 1,200 Israelis (and claimed an estimated 240 hostages) and more than 11,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to reports from Gaza’s Health Ministry (an agency that, as The New York Times has reported, “is part of the Hamas government in Gaza but employs civil servants who predate Hamas’ control of the territory”).
While their families remain in the increasingly precarious situation abroad, as1one is in L.A. indefinitely, living in a rented house in Sherman Oaks with Andrew Berkowitz (the group’s executive in charge of talent who was involved in casting and has more than 30 years’ experience in artist promotion at labels including RCA and Arista) and traveling to various local studios making music. “Our policy with them is whatever they need, including if they need to go home, we will make that happen,” Diener says. “There’s a lot of people keeping their eyes on them.”
The group has recorded seven songs in the four weeks since its arrival, with collaborators including Andrews, Kirk, Danja (Nelly Furtado’s “Say It Right,” Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack,” Britney Spears’ “Gimme More”), Justin Tranter (a go-to co-writer for Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Maroon 5 and Imagine Dragons) and Y2K (Doja Cat’s “Attention”).
Niv Lin
Austin Hargrave
The songs as1one performs for me live in this conference room include a stirring ballad with lyrics fashioned in boilerplate boy band parlance (“I wouldn’t be me without you!”), rendered in gorgeous six-part harmony and delivered with passion. (They close their eyes a lot while singing.) When the guys launch into a peppier, sexier jam about being hot-blooded animals on the dancefloor, it’s easy enough to imagine a stadium full of fans screaming along. The songs are clever and well-constructed, and the melodies stay in my head long after the meeting is over.
The guys, along with Levitan and Diener, are quick to clarify that they’re less a “boy band” and more a “male pop group,” given that they play instruments (Attia is on acoustic and electric guitar, keyboard and drums; Lin plays keys and acoustic guitar; Philips plays keyboard; Rozenblat plays keyboard and acoustic guitar; Farah is on percussion; and Dogosh is learning piano) and don’t plan on performing choreography. And Levitan and Diener expect that the group’s story will attract a wider-than-usual fan base for an act of this kind. Still, as the duo sees it, their core fan base will likely be — in the high-pitched squealing tradition of groups like *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys — what Levitan calls “a very, very excited and active female audience.”
It’s not yet clear when the first as1one single will be released, and the group hasn’t yet announced a label signing. (Levitan and Diener say they can’t disclose details on label negotiations beyond that “there’s real interest in the band.”) They’re backed by a 30-person team and 15 lawyers representing each member individually and collectively across trademarks, music, film and general counsel, and repped by WME, where they also have film and TV representation. That documentary crew lives with them, still capturing their every move — from jam sessions at the house (where there is a “No harmonicas after 11 p.m.” policy) to the much darker and more complex moments of their recent history.
All this infrastructure is being forged with a singular vision: to make as1one the biggest musical group in the world. “I mean, seriously,” Levitan says. “That’s our goal.”
The stakes for as1one were always high, but they’ve of course become significantly higher over the last six weeks. Eight of the group’s friends and family members have been killed in the conflict. It would be overwhelming for anyone, and certainly must be for the six young men now living 7,500 miles from their home, where a brutal war is being fought. But whether through coaching or genuine belief, the guys present a silver-lining attitude.
“There’s no way to describe how bad you feel,” Philips says. “Your first instinct is to go back and be with your friends and family. Then a few days later, you realize there’s no better service to the world than what we’re doing, and it just gives us a bigger purpose.”
“We don’t want to be political,” adds rapper Farah. “We just want to be humanitarian.”
From left: Sadik Dogosh, Ohad Attia, Niv Lin, Nadav Philips, Aseel Farah and Neta Rozenblat of as1one.
Austin Hargrave
They also don’t want to be inextricably linked to the conflict that, like it or not, has defined their formation. “One of the things we’ve told them,” Levitan says, “especially with everything going on now, [is that these events] can be an influence [on the music] but just can’t be directly related, because [the music] has got to be broad enough where everybody can relate to it.”
Right now, though, the inherent message of an Israeli-Palestinian group named as1one may give the act a greater meaning than Diener and Levitan could have ever imagined, regardless of what the guys are singing about. Conversations now aren’t just about being the biggest band in the world, but about the Nobel Peace Prize.
“You may say it’s a pie-in-the-sky kind of goal,” says Levitan. “But what this has become is that important.”
This story originally appeared in the Nov. 18, 2023, issue of Billboard.
The scene at the Chipotle on Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley at first looked much like any other Friday evening. Six good-looking guys in their early 20s sat around a table eating burritos, laughing and ribbing one another. They had landed at LAX that morning after a 16-hour flight, but despite their jet […]
On Nov. 3, six venues in Tokyo — Spotify O-EAST, Spotify O-WEST, Spotify O-nest, Shibuya duo MUSIC EXCHANGE, club asia, and Shibuya 7th FLOOR — hosted BiKN shibuya 2023, a multi-site event that brought together high-profile artists from across Asia.
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BiKN shibuya is a new event, held for the first time this year. It featured performances by the Taiwanese guitar-centered band Sunset Rollercoaster, which truly shined in this year’s Coachella and Summer Sonic, Korea’s Silica Gel, Malaysia’s babychair, ena mori from the Philippines, and more. Japanese artists included Ai Higuchi, DYGL, She Her Her Hers, The fin., and other artists who have already received effusive praise overseas. All in all, 35 artists performed at the event.
The opener at Shibuya duo MUSIC EXCHANGE was Japanese rock band DYGL. Vocalist and guitarist Akiyama kicked off the show with “Good morning. We’re DYGL!” and launched into “Waves.” The gentle, warm sound of the band immediately rang through the venue. DYGL had just finished its Asian tour in October, playing in Taiwan, China, and other locations, and this was the first time it had played in Japan since returning.
They then played their newest song, “Acervation,” which was released on October 11, and followed it with four new songs in a row, “New Song,” “Evil,” “Ain’t Nothing,” and “Shadow,” captivating the audience in both mind and body. “We’re so glad to be able to play here in BiKN today,” said the singer before belting out the closing song, “All I Want.” The band was a great top batter, leaving the whole audience feeling satisfied as they left the stage.
At 2:20 p.m., Japanese artist Cody Lee took the stage at Spotify O-EAST. Their set began with the beautiful but wistful arpeggio of “Dancing Lights.” The entire audience, from venue wall to venue wall, swayed to the cozy soundscape. The band then played the danceable “Tootles” and the funky “Aliens and Sweltering Nights.” The crowd continued to heat up. Their diverse set kept going with “Sayonara,” a heartrending song with a retro feel, and the powerful “Wo Ai Ni” and “Mong Mong.” They mentioned the band Sorry Youth, who their set overlapped with, and talked about their love for Taiwan before launching into “See You at Night Market,” a song they wrote in a Taiwanese night market. The slow pace of the song, which had a particularly Chinese feel, was exquisite.
Vocalist and guitarist Takahashi talked again about how unfortunate the overlapping timetable was, and then the band began playing a cover of the Sorry Youth song “Sorry No Youth.” Towards the end of the song, members of Sorry Youth, who had finished their own set, joined Cody Lee on stage as guests in a special collaboration, bringing to song to an exciting climax. The last song of the set was the punk-inspired “When I was cityboy.” The band showed the primal urgency behind their music as they brought the genre-spanning set to its end.
In the middle stretch of the event, ena mori, an artist with Filipino and Japanese roots, was joined by keyboardist Tim and drummer Cairo in club asia. This Japanese performance was ena mori’s first set with a full band. She started with “VIVID,” an energetic, danceable tune, to the cheers and applause of the audience. From the very start, there was power in her voice, which she occasionally accompanied with tambourine. Her cute pop performance immediately captivated everyone in the crowd. As the audience grew larger and larger, she performed killer tunes like the party anthems “KING OF THE NIGHT” and “TALK TALK.” As the band ratcheted the excitement up with its powerful grooves, the voltage in the air of club asia reached its peak.
She then performed “A HIGHER PLACE,” a song about how her experiences kept from getting up her expectations, and then “SOS,” which brought out rounds of applause. During the show, ena mori talked about how playing live in Japan had been something she had dreamed about since her teens, having lived in the Philippines since first going there at the age of 15 as an exchange student. She performed “Ichigo Milk,” a collaboration with Tomggg, and “WHITE ROOM,” before finishing off with “RUNAWAY HOLIDAY!” It was an unparalleled performance, like the physical embodiment of music itself. She left the audience enthralled as she exited the stage.
At 7:10 p.m., Korea’s Silica Gel took to the stage as the finishing act at duo MUSIC EXCHANGE. It was the band’s first time to play in Japan in five years. The set began with “Sister,” which painted a fantastic soundscape with its synth highlights and rough undertones. Most of the set’s songs were from Machine Boy, which the band released earlier this year. The intro to “NO PAIN” brought out huge cheers from the audience, and then “Budland” showed off the band members’ emotional playing and staging. The heavy groove of “Realize” pumped the venue full of energy. In “Tik Tak Tok,” a funky, danceable rhythm intertwined with sharp guitar lines. The ensemble reached a fever pitch, creating an overwhelming spectacle.
The band spoke to the audience in Japanese and English, sharing their joy at playing in Japan for the first time in such a long while, a sentiment which was palpable to the audience. The next block showed off the band’s cooler side, with “Mercurial” and “Desert Eagle.” “We’ll be coming back to Japan, so make sure to come see us again!” With that, the show reached its grand finale as the band began its last song, the up-tempo “Everybody Does,” which was one of the band’s first numbers. The audience could not contain its excitement, though, so the band immediately returned to the stage for an encore. They played the bittersweet “9,” an unplanned addition to the set, as their true final song, bringing an end to their first Japanese performance in years.
At Spotify O-EAST, the headliner of the entire BiKN shibuya 2023 event was Sunset Rollercoaster. This guitar-centered band from Taiwan also played at this year’s Coachella and SUMMER SONIC. For the assembled crowd, packing the entire venue from the stage to the back, the band chose to open with “Burgundy Red.” The languid, nostalgic song, evocative of 70s pop, had the audience swaying to and fro. Somewhat surrealistic visuals played on the screen, complementing the song.
After speaking to the audience for a moment, the band played four songs in a row: “Summum Bonum,” “New Drug,” “Teahouse,” and “Vanilla.” After each song ended, the venue rang with applause and cheers. The urban, mellow sound was perfectly balanced, with its winding bass line and superb sax and synths, which was beautiful, groovy, and simply amazing. Then the band started heating up its performance with timeless, polished pop like the anthems “My Jinji” and “Greedy,” before finishing with “Candlelight.” The venue filled with warm applause, and the band encored with “I Know You Know I Love You.” Vocalist and guitarist Tseng Kuo-Hung beamed at the audience, exclaiming with gratitude, “I love you, Tokyo! Thank you so much!” The band members lined up at the front of the stage and bowed, and the curtains closed to deafening applause.
—This article by Haruki Saito and Rumi Miyamoto first appeared on Billboard Japan
Kenshi Yonezu‘s “KICK BACK” was recently certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. It’s the first song with Japanese lyrics to reach this milestone.
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Released on Oct. 12, 2022, “KICK BACK” was written as the theme song to the anime series Chainsaw Man. The series enjoys popularity in North America; many listeners probably discovered the song through the anime.
Gold status means the song has achieved over 500,000 units in the U.S. Billboard Japan spoke with the multi-hyphenate about his latest global hit that became the first-ever J-pop song to achieve this feat in the American market.
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How did you feel when you heard about being certified gold in the U.S.?
Really happy. It’s all thanks to Chainsaw Man. It’s still kind of hard to believe, but in any case, it made me happy.
This is a certification within the U.S. market. What are your thoughts on the American music scene and listeners there?
I’ve been listening to American pop music since I was a kid, so it’s really gratifying to have been accepted there. I want to know what kind of people are enjoying my music, so I sometimes wonder what it’d be like to sit down with them and ask directly. I’ve never been to the U.S. before but it’d be great if I could go do a show there someday.
The 32-year-old creative wrote the music and lyrics for “KICK BACK” and enlisted Daiki Tsuneta of King Gnu and millennium parade to work on the arrangement with him. Yonezu has been a fan of Chainsaw Man since the serialization of the original manga began, and being tapped to work on the opening theme for the anime version was a meaningful experience to him.
The song also drew attention for sampling J-pop girl group Morning Musume.’s “Souda! We’re ALIVE.” With drum and bass as its foundation, the track is unique with frequent key changes and full of outlandish developments. The “Lemon” hitmaker looked back on the creation of this single.
You mentioned you have been a fan of the Chainsaw Man manga that the anime is based on. How do you feel about the work now that you have written the opening theme for the anime?
The manga Chainsaw Man is still being serialized and I always catch it when it comes out every week. It’s always gripping and I think it’s a truly exceptional manga. It’s a great honor for me as a pop songwriter to be involved in such an amazing work, and that feeling seems to grow more and more each day.
Could you share the songwriting process with us? Looking back, what kind of song were you aiming for?
First, I remember feeling that I couldn’t do this assignment half-heartedly and that I didn’t want to ruin the manga by being involved in it because It’s such a great work. I had a lot of fun working on the song. It was also more like hanging out with a friend than work because Daiki Tsuneta and I communicated about the arrangement. Looking back, I strongly feel that it was a really enjoyable time. When we were making “KICK BACK,” the vibe was full of this sense of messing around, like, “Let’s go nuts with this,” or something like that. I’d love to do this kind of thing again.
The lyrics of “KICK BACK” are in Japanese. The “Lemon” hitmaker’s observations about his commitment to writing songs in Japanese and about the way the appeal of a piece of music can be conveyed without depending on words were also noteworthy.
“KICK BACK” is the first song with Japanese lyrics to be certified gold by the RIAA. What are your thoughts on Japanese-language songs making their way across borders to be heard in other countries?
I’ve lived as a Japanese person for 32 years, and am someone who has truly surrendered my identity to the Japanese language. When I write songs, I really get the sense that things like my methodology, what I want to do, and the joy I feel when singing and performing are largely tied to the Japanese language. It’s what feels most comfortable to me. To go even further, that special power won’t reside (in the song) otherwise. So, I hope to continue doing what I do while facing myself in this way.
But to be honest, I’m not sure at all how my songs are being interpreted by people outside of Japan, and especially people in the U.S., as in this case. I’d love to actually meet with people who like this song and hear what they have to say.
The emotion and energy of a song can come across even if we don’t understand the meaning of the words. What are your thoughts on this particular work?
I often find myself hearing a song in a language I don’t understand and thinking, “That’s good.” I’ve been feeling really strongly lately that I want to value that sense of “I don’t understand it, but It’s good.” Looking at social media, I get the feeling that if people start flocking to a single place all the time by seeking value and meaning in a song, that fundamental aspect of music will become increasingly obscure. So if people who don’t understand Japanese hear this song and think “that’s good,” then I’m glad I made it. If that’s how people are interpreting it, I feel grateful.
The music video accompanying “KICK BACK,” directed by photographer/video director Yoshiyuki Okuyama, also made a splash. Featuring Yonezu and Tsuneta working out at the gym, the situation gradually escalates in an over-the-top way as Yonezu tries to one-up his music collaborator who maintains his cool. The experience of shooting the mind-boggling visuals — make sure to watch until the credits — was apparently an emotional one for Yonezu.
You have received comments from many countries on the music video for this song. The video left quite an impact. How do you feel looking back on it?
That was amazing. That was the skill of the director, Mr. Okuyama, and I feel so fortunate to have ended up with such a great music video. For the past few years, I had been in this mode where I try to incorporate humor and funny elements into my songs and music videos to sort of remake myself by observing from a bird’s eye view. When the visuals for “KICK BACK” were done, I felt that there was nothing more I could do. It was such an epoch-making event for me. I feel like I’ve done everything I could.
Yonezu continues to have a busy and fulfilling 2023, releasing three new songs: “LADY” on Mar. 21, “Moongazing” on June 26, and “Spinning Globe” on July 17.
“Moongazing” was written as the theme for the video game Final Fantasy XVI. “Spinning Globe” is the theme for Hayao Miyazaki’s latest animated film The Boy and the Heron, set for release in U.S. theaters Dec. 8. Both songs are reaching audiences around the world.
The prolific singer-songwriter reflected upon the position of “KICK BACK” at this point in his career and shared his outlook for the future.
How do you consider “KICK BACK” to be positioned in your career?
As I said earlier, it’s a song that ended a mode in my life, and I think it’s also a song that disrupted my public image. I also reconfirmed a lot of things by writing this song. I realized people wanted something like this, and it also occurred to me that I like this kind of thing. All in all, it’s become very important to me.
What do you have in mind for your future endeavors?
I recently traveled abroad and it was a great experience. Not for my career or anything like that, but in the sense of spending time in cities built by people who grew up in a completely different culture, where the language is different from my own. I’m more interested in that kind of thing and… I’m not sure how to put it, but I just want to make good stuff. If I can do that, then that’s enough. And I also kind of feel that if my senses don’t change in a gradual way like that, I won’t be able to make good stuff anymore. I hope to have fun doing what I do. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen.
This interview by Tomonori Shiba first appeared on Billboard Japan.
By: Billboard Japan / Photo: Courtesy Photo
Ado’s “Show” holds at No. 1 for the seventh week on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated Nov. 15, breaking the singer’s personal record for weeks at No. 1 on the list.
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On its 10th week on the Japan Hot 100, “Show” surpasses the six-week record set by “New Genesis” (as Uta from One Piece Film Red). The USJ Halloween event theme is at No. 1 for streaming and video views, No. 2 for downloads, No. 6 for karaoke, and No. 15 for radio. Among these, points for radio increased by about 2.4 percent from the previous week, indicating that the song is steadily expanding its reach to the general public outside Ado’s core fan base. Overall points totaled 11,812, down by approximately 15 percent, but remains 1.2 times higher than the song at No. 2 this week.
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The top 10 is dominated by songs by boy bands this week. IMP.’s “CRUISIN’” leads the pack, bowing at No. 2. This song was released digitally worldwide on Aug. 18 and topped downloads on the chart dated Aug. 30 with 14,259 units on its first week. The physical version of the group’s first single dropped Nov. 8 and sold 98,780 copies, hitting No. 2 for sales. While the digital version has been out for a while now, it was downloaded 3,801 times this week to come in at No. 12 for the metric, and the track also rules radio airplay, collectively powering the track to its No. 2 spot on the Japan Hot 100.
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King & Prince’s “Aishi Ikirukoto” bows at No. 3. The title track off the group’s 14th single is the theme song for the legal thriller Houteiyuugi starring member Ren Nagase. After going on sale Nov. 8, the song sold 353,077 CDs in its first week, falling short of the 546,829 first-week sales of the group’s previous single, “Nanimono,” but still hits No. 1 for the metric by a wide margin over its competitors.
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THE RAMPAGE from EXILE TRIBE’s “Katasumi” rockets 80-5 this week following its physical release, also on Nov. 8. The theme song for the movie MY (K)NIGHT launched with 58,937 copies — not quite on the level of the group’s personal best of 229,498 first-week copies achieved by its previous release “Summer Riot ~Nettaiya~/Everest” — to come in behind IMP. at No. 3 for sales.
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The last of this week’s top 10 boy band debuts is BE:FIRST’s “Glorious,” which bows at No. 7. Released digitally Nov. 6, the track will be featured as the anthem for the 102nd All Japan High School Soccer Tournament. The song was downloaded 20,392 times in its first week to hit the top spot for the metric, and also racked up 3,254,749 weekly streams to come in at No. 29 — the highest among the tracks that debuted this week. The song is off to a good start, coming in at No. 6 for video and No. 9 for radio.
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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 Nov. 6 to 12, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account.
The dance industry’s biggest conference, ADE, happened in Amsterdam Oct. 18-21, with loads of business happening by day and the industry flexing what it does best with even more parties by night. Ranging from intimate shows to stadium-sized spectacles, parties took place in more than 100 clubs and event spaces throughout the city during the […]
Japan’s Ikimonogakari, the band responsible for NARUTO‘s theme song “Blue Bird,” has now began a new chapter as a duo consisting of Yoshiki Mizuno and Kiyoe Yoshioka and has released its latest double A-side single “Ureshikute/Tokimeki.”
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Billboard JAPAN spoke to Mizuno and Yoshioka about the single, which contains both “Ureshikute” (theme song of the film Pretty Cure All Stars F, with sound production by Koichi Tsutaya) and “Tokimeki” (Pretty Cure 20th anniversary commemorative song and opening theme of the TV anime Kibo no Chikara – Otona Pretty Cure ’23, with sound production by Masanori Shimada).
This is your first single since becoming a duo. It’s a double A-side with “Ureshikute,” the theme song of the movie Pretty Cure All Stars F, and “Tokimeki,” the Pretty Cure 20th anniversary commemorative song and opening theme of the TV anime Kibo no Chikara – Otona Pretty Cure ’23. I heard that you wrote “Tokimeki” first?
Mizuno: That’s right. Pretty Cure was going to be celebrating its 20th anniversary, and we were honored to have them reach out to us to ask us to write a commemorative song. I think this was around last summer. People who watched the first season of Pretty Cure are now in their 20s or 30s. The people at Pretty Cure said they wanted the song to be one in which Pretty Cure encouraged and uplifted listeners again, wherever their lives had taken them, and reaffirmed their value. We felt a connection with that theme, as well. Our band’s very structure has undergone changes, we’ve set out on our own, and the environment around us has changed. We came to focus more on Yoshioka’s role as our singer, and we wanted to make a song that reaffirmed our own new style.
Yoshioka: Yes, I really connect with the song when I sing it. Of course, we wrote the song for the 20th anniversary of Pretty Cure, but there’s a lot that resonates with our own situation. When we went into the recording process, I was preparing to give birth. In that respect, as well, like Mizuno said, it felt like a song of self-affirmation, and I think that comes across in the tone of my vocals. It’s a song that gives you this feeling of optimism, no matter what your situation, so I truly poured my heart into it.
The first two lines, “The world sparkles now/because I decided it would,” are really self-affirming.
Mizuno: Thanks. I think with the spread of social media, people are deciding their values based on what they hear from other people. “It’s good because people say it’s good” or “other people are attacking this person, so it’s okay if I do, too.” I feel like we live in a world where it’s hard to decide your values for yourself and write your own life story. There’s a lot going on in the world, and people are struggling, so I wanted to make this a song with a message of “I think it’s okay, so it is.”
It’s a reflection of the tone of modern society?
Mizuno: I guess if you put it in formal terms, yes (laughs). When Pretty Cure came out, there weren’t very many anime with female protagonists that had fight scenes. I think the creators wanted to express that kind of powerful sense of dynamism.
The sound is truly vibrant, too. Masanori Shimada handled the sound production, right?
Mizuno: We wanted to make the sound both radiant and powerful. Shimada isn’t really the meticulous type, but instead builds up a solid sound while also taking a band-like approach to sound production. We knew that the song would be in good hands with Shimada.
I see. The sound production for Ureshikute was handled by Koichi Tsutaya. The orchestration of the song is amazing.
Mizuno: Right. When the demo arrived from Tsutaya, we started to worry about how much recording would cost (laughs).
Yoshioka: (Laughs) I think there were more musicians on the recording than any song we’ve done so far. It was like 60, wasn’t it?
Mizuno: Yeah. We were aiming to make it a really majestic song from the very start of the writing process. Our concept for the sound was something like the Los Angeles Olympics fanfare by John Williams. A lot of Pretty Cure characters appear in the movie, so we wanted a part where all of their voices came together in unison.
Yoshioka: On the first demo, it was just Mizuno on piano and me singing, but even at that stage the feeling really came through, and I was thinking to myself “this is truly an excellent song.” Towards the end of the song I’m singing at the top of my lungs. I don’t think we’ve ever sung a melody like this one. The lyrics, about accepting each other, are a perfect match. Accepting each other while respecting that there are things you’ll never truly understand. The song’s cheery, but there’s definitely a sensitive side to it.
Mizuno: I read through the movie scenario before writing the song. I drew out the key parts of the story (and reflected them in the lyrics). Like Yoshioka said, it’s about accepting one another, but that’s no easy matter. Everyone has their own sense of right and wrong, and it takes courage to rely on others. I wanted to try to express that in a fun yet gentle way.
The song has one phrase that really makes an impression: “Respect the differences you cannot understand/you don’t need to all be the same.”
Mizuno: You don’t need to unite as one; you can each follow your own path, working together with others to take on problems and challenges. We wanted to make a song that would still impart that feeling, even outside of the Pretty Cure context.
It’s a long song, clocking in at over six minutes.
Mizuno: It turned out to be pretty long (laughs). It starts with the chorus, then you’ve got a solid verse and bridge, then there’s modulation, and then a second chorus. It’s got it all (laughs).
It has all of the distinctive features of a J-Pop song. What do you think makes J-Pop so interesting and appealing?
Mizuno: I think it’s how packed with information the songs are. I think one of the characteristics of J-Pop is complexity within a fixed form. There are a lot of songs with a verse, bridge, chorus structure, and there’s complexity in the chord progressions, as well. I feel like that’s because the rhythm doesn’t form the foundation of the songs. Also, the melody reigns supreme. The singing is the heart of the song. Yoshioka, as well, has always striven to make sure that her vowels are enunciated and the melody shines through clearly.
Yoshioka: Right.
Mizuno: I think placing the emphasis on the singing, and not anchoring songs in their rhythm, is what makes J-Pop feel unique to overseas listeners. Also, J-Pop localizes songs imported from overseas. It’s like it combines different outside elements and develops them in a unique way. It’s one of the things that’s fascinating about Japanese culture.
Good point. It’s like Japanese culture itself.
Yoshioka: Throughout our band’s career, Ikimonogakari has always believed in that kind of music. I always listened to J-Pop, and it’s what shaped me through the years. So I’m actually curious about what overseas listeners think about it (laughs). I hope they find it unique.
One of the Ikimonogakari songs popular with overseas listeners is “Blue Bird” (opening theme to the TV anime Naruto: Shippuden).
Mizuno: I keep hearing from people who’ve heard it while overseas. An acquaintance who travelled to Vienna told me they heard “Blue Bird” playing in a coffee shop. Overseas musicians have covered it, and one girl sang it on a Chinese audition show, which got the crowd really excited.
Yoshioka: Someone who was a junior of mine in junior high sent me an email saying that he was listening to Blue Bird in Latin America when a local student said “I know that song.” We have a lot of international Instagram followers, too.
Mizuno: Yeah. I got a DM from a DJ overseas who wanted my permission to remix “Blue Bird,” so I gave them the contact information for getting permission (laughs). The year before last, we played an event (Bilibili Macro Link 2021) organized by bilibili (a Chinese video streaming service), and the reaction to “Blue Bird” was huge. We’ve also been getting more offers to play overseas.
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Do you want to share your music with even more overseas listeners?
Mizuno: Of course. I’ve been saying it for a long time, but my hope is that J-Pop can be exported just like that — as J-Pop.
So the best thing would be if people listened to it as it is, with Japanese lyrics and Japanese song structures?
Mizuno: That’s right. I think that would be the most successful approach.
Yoshioka: I’m really happy that people abroad are listening at all. When we debuted, I never imagined that we’d have overseas listeners. It’s still surprising (laughs).
—This interview by Tomoyuki Mori first appeared on Billboard Japan
APOKI, the virtual Korean artist “like a rabbit that lives somewhere in space,” has released her first album, Earth Space Time.
Her debut song, “GET IT OUT,” which she released in February 2021, was created with first-class writers like songwriter Melanie Fontana. Along with its accompanying music video, which encapsulated her spacy, near-future aesthetic, it served as a powerful calling card for this unrivaled virtual artist. She followed this up by working with writers like Melanie and GG Ramirez and producers like A-Dee and Lindgren to create some of the world’s most cutting edge and cool tracks, with a K-pop spin.
Now, she’s finally completed her long-awaited first album. With a total of 11 songs, including both previous releases and new songs, it speaks volumes about why the virtual artist APOKI has drawn the attention she has around the world. Billboard Japan spoke with APOKI about the album.
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What kind of album were you setting out to make with this, your first album?
The key concepts of this album are “reminiscing” and “beginning.” There are brand new songs, but there are also songs I previously released. It’s a record of my travels as an artist, and a present to my fans.
What’s the story behind the album’s title, Earth Space Time?
These three words express my aesthetic, both in the past and spreading out into the future. If you look at my past activities, I think it’s be clear what it means.
The songs were written by a team of hit-makers from around the world, like Melanie Fontana and Andreas Carlsson.
Over the past few years, in the K-pop scene, it’s become standard for songs to be created by overseas teams, including co-writing efforts. I think there’s a synergy between the tracks they create and the Korean lyrics. It feels like the divisions between genres have been disappearing lately, so I’ve been able to show off various aspects of my world. I’m inspired by the varied songs being put out by K-pop artists.
Tell us about what went into creating “Space,” the lead song on the album.
“Space” is filled with my feelings about my birthplace — space. In writing it, I was thinking about how there are all of these aspects of space that have yet to be discovered by earthlings…but what exactly those are is still a secret (laughs). But I’m very happy and grateful to see listeners interpreting it from all kinds of different perspectives. I’ve released various versions, so make sure to check those out, too.
The sound of the album is really cool and polished, but the melodies are very accessible.
There’s such a thing as a language barrier, but there’s no such thing as a melody barrier. That’s why I’m sure people around the world will listen to the album. I want to keep making melodies that all listeners can identify with.
The album contains your August release, “Hold On.” This is your first original Japanese song. What’s the response been like?
This April I collaborated with Girls² on “Countdown feat. APOKI,” which reached a whole new group of fans. Since releasing “Hold On,” I can tell that the number of Japanese APOKI fans is on the rise. I heard that it hit fifth place on Japan‘s USEN Weekly Request J-pop Chart (on November 11), which is wonderful.
Your new ballad, “Fuyu No Sakura (Winter Blossom),” features guitarist Kotaro Oshio. What about Oshio’s guitar playing do you find so appealing?
Actually, in the early stages of the song there was no guitar part, but I asked Kotaro Oshio, who I have a ton of respect for, to play guitar on the song. I love his delicate guitar playing and the slightly wistful sound of his guitar. In his playing, I feel a sense of warmth within that wistfulness. It was an honor to be able to work with him.
I’m sure it’s a hard choice for you, but what songs do you particularly like on the album?
I love them all (laughs). But if I had to pick one, it would be my newest song, “Hashtaggg.” It’s a mid-tempo song with a very stylish atmosphere and a unique sound. The lyrics are a bold emotional declaration, shouting at someone you love “Hashtag me! Look at me!” I think this is a feeling that every girl that’s ever been in love has experienced at some time or other. When I recorded the song, I imagined the relationship between myself and my fans, who give me so much support.
Your music videos, which are made using state-of-the-art computer graphics, always generate a lot of buzz. What creators and artworks have you been particularly inspired by? And how did you develop your own truly unique sensibilities?
My visuals are just everyday life up in space, where I was born, but if earthlings find them novel, that’s great. I’m still studying earth aesthetics, so everything here on this planet is new and inspiring to me. Some of my artwork is inspired by Japanese sci-fi comics like AKIRA. You should check them out.
The Korean music scene is seeing a rise in the number of virtual artists. What do you think is the biggest difference between you and these other artists?
The number of virtual artists and virtual idols in Korea has been really climbing lately. I feel like this year, in particular, the number of fans has really swelled. My goal is to further expand the virtual market along with my fellow artists and to work and grow together. I think artwork is very important for a virtual artist, but musical sensibilities are also critical. I’d like to set myself apart through my musical sensibilities and to stay focused on originality.
You’ve becoming quite a center of attention, with over five million social media followers around the world. I think you play an important role as an influencer because you connect the virtual and real worlds. How do you see your relationship with fans in the social media era?
I’ve yet to meet my fans face-to-face, but I try to actively communicate with them through things like my Instagram live performances. I’m always struggling with how to look cool while staying approachable. I’m very appreciative of the comments and input I get from everyone, and I try to reflect them in my own activities.
So you have ambitions and hopes for a live show?
One of my big goals is to have fun communicating with my fans at a live show. I’d love to play in public, and, in fact, preparations are already underway. Just hold on a little longer!
—This interview by Hisakatsu Tanaka first appeared on Billboard Japan