Thursday, April 30, 2009

Beni (J-Pop)

Beni is the latest relaunch of Beni Arashino, who is trying to reboot her career (and is getting popular) by the same route that Thelma Aoyama did, from being the featured singer on a song (by Dozhi T), and then releasing her own single singing the song, but with the original "rapper" (like Soulja was for Thelma) as the feature on her own single.

I don't know much about her aside that I like her latest two singles, and she seems to be marked for a push which is a great thing for her career. Here is her latest single, Kiss Kiss Kiss, which I think is also a great song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RkykFUBX50&feature=PlayList&p=969412E14568A524&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=6
Her initial career push had completely stalled a while ago, and with good reason, it involved boring single after boring single, completely uninspired. It makes me worried this latest comeback will be short lived, but who knows. (She has prior always been an artist whose presence and image outweighed her talent.)

You can see the video there, her record company disables the embedding for any video of her except live performances. (I'm not sure why, the single doesn't even have a DVD sold with it so what is the point. Force people to watch it on youtube?)

Some Links
http://www.youtube.com/user/BeniChanNeL - Her Youtube Page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beni_Arashiro - Her Wikipedia Page

Thelma Aoyama (J-Pop)

Thelma Aoyama is a relatively new artist on the J-Pop scene. (It's pronounced Teruma Aoyama, and sometime's spelled that way. In my opinion, she was the best new artist in 2008 (even though her debut single, the song above came out very late 2007 in it's original form. The song above is the answer song, Soulja song featured her and was addressing the girl, and she is answering him in her song, which features him. Very cool.) I LOVE this song to death. She has had 5 singles since then, and one real album, and two remix, collection etc. type cd's. The first cd was prior to the last 4 singles, so I think she really needs to have a second official cd very soon. Part of the reason I think she got famous is her heritage, for better or worse being only partially japanese is a draw and gives you credibility in music there. She is 1/4 Trinidadian. Her style is very R&B influenced although some more J-Pop undertones seem to be creeping in. She reminds me a lot of K-Pop, which features a lot more of the R&B/Pop fusion than Japanese music does (or i might even say DID as more and more artists are moving that way).

Some Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelma_Aoyama (Her wikipedia entry)

http://www.youtube.com/user/ThelmaAoyamaTV?gl=JP&hl=ja (Her Personal Youtube page)

Next time I think I'll start to take a look at the mini Korean Invasion into the US with the Wonder Girls (to be followed by looking at BoA and Se7en). Or Not. I have a lot to post!

WELCOME!!!


(This blog sponsored by Team Goma.)

Hi there!!! I love asian pop music (more japanese but korean and chinese also), and watch tons of japanese and korean movies, japanese dramas, tons of kids stuff for my daugher, and visit Japan once a year where i find all kinds of cool places and things. I thought it would be nice to post it somewhere, as a lot of cool stuff i know about I have found from others.

So expect lots of nice links, tons of embedded videos and songs, and some stuff that you know about, some stuff you didn't, and some stuff you will think I'm nuts for liking at all!

Don't expect downloads, i'm too old for cease and desist emails now. I'm not shy about posting where I know things are though. =)
Hope you enjoy!