Part 5 was actually up on youtube a while ago, but I got distracted by all this triple graduation stuff and forgot to post it here.
Part 5-
I love how they got every single original Otome-gumi member together for that performance.
Part 6-
Quiz time! Can you tell which two songs in part 6 are made of two parts? (Like, I cut a section out)? Without going and watching the original performances? I’d say one of them you can hear where it cuts a tiny bit, but one of them (not to brag) is pretty much flawless.
For your viewing pleasure, I’ve made an OPV with favorite moments of Eri, JunJun, and LinLin. I spent an obscene amount of time on this, but I’m pretty happy with how it came out! The music is Morning Musume’s “Namidacchi”.
Sorry about being late to the party here. I got back to America, then I went to Disney World, and now I’m trying to get ready for grad school, so I’ve been busy.
Okay, so our first graduate is Kamei Eri. On a personal level, this is the graduation I’m least upset by. Somehow, Kamei has never been one of my favorites, and at least her graduation is her choice. I will miss the three six gen girls as a collective unit, but that’s about it. However, I recognize that she is a strong performer with lots of fans, so I worry about the negative impact this will have on the quality and popularity of the group as a whole.
As for the pandas, I just feel so terrible for them right now. Tsunku decides the whole China expansion thing isn’t working out, so he just kicks them to the curb? Read the translations of their blog entries. They’re absolutely heartbreaking. I feel a bit less bad for JunJun, since she is the second oldest in the group, she knew her time would be coming soon. It’s LinLin’s graduation that absolutely kills me. The girl has an incredible voice and one of the most entertaining personalities in the group. Plus she’s the second youngest! I feel like at long last, she was finally gaining fan support, and now she has to leave. I will really really miss her presence in Morning Musume.
The good news is the 9th gen auditions. Long overdue. IMHO, Morning Musume is in desperate need to new blood right now. I’m hoping for a girl or two from the audition and a girl or two from the eggs.
Which eggs? I’d say Saho Akari is a good contender. She fits the age profile, and she’s been showcased a lot lately (new Aa!, Shugo Chara Egg, ManoEri backdancer). In Aa! she’s proven that she hold her own vocally with Miyabi and Airi, and that’s saying a lot.
My other pick may sound a little crazy, but I’m going to say Miyamoto Karin. Yeah, she’s young, but Tsunku’s set the age limit at 10 this time around, so it’s totally possible. She’s absolutely adorable, she’s got a spunky confident personality, and she can already out-sing and out-dance most of the other eggs. I think that the public could really fall in love with her.
My one request is this. Please PLEASE do not add Hirano Tomomi.
Here’s Part 4! And by the way, I’m officially not in Japan anymore. =( Some of these summer concerts have some really good and seldom-performed songs in them too.
Good news everyone! (did anyone else automatically imagine that in the professor from Futurama’s voice?) A preview of Morning Musume’s concert DVD has been released, and it just so happens to be the exact song I needed to complete part 2 of my new countdown!
So here it is, part 2, a bit earlier than expected.
About #84: If you like live singing, this entire concert is GREAT. Seriously one of the best concert DVDs H!p has put out in a long time.
People who can’t tell the difference between criticism and bashing.
I say that I don’t like many of C-ute’s recent singles, and I get comments like, “You and your blog both suck, you C-ute hater!!” . Noooo. When did I ever say “I hate C-ute”? Never, because I don’t!
I criticize AKB’s constant lipsyncing, and I get comments like, “Since you clearly hate AKB so much, you obviously are lying about living in Japan and seeing their shows, and you don’t know what you’re talking about.” I’ve just got to roll my eyes at that one, but it makes me angry because no one likes being called a liar. Suddenly the conversation went from discussion of AKB to a personal attack. Now, I could prove my point. I have ample evidence that I live in Japan and have attended idol concerts. I also have plenty of evidence that Morning Musume always sings live at their concerts(microphone recordings, mistakes like getting the lyrics wrong or forgetting a line, the fact that you can hear their voices cracking when they’re crying while singing, plus plain old “it’s really not that hard to tell”) But I won’t fight back at the forum anymore, because I know that the person in question is only prepared to face reasoned debate with sarcasm and insults, and there’s just no arguing with someone like that.
Turns out it’s possible to be a fan of a group and still not like every single aspect of every thing they do. There’s a difference between saying, “That group sucks!” and “I don’t like this about that group”.
But the internet is full of angry people who would much rather sling poo than talk things out, and so is the whole world for that matter. The more emotionally attached to something people get, be it political ideals or an idol fandom, the more difficult intelligent debate becomes. Giant squids of anger! Blaaarg!!! If you don’t get the reference, just ignore this part
Meh. Anyway, it’s my blog and I felt the need to rant a bit. Hope you don’t mind. Part 2 of the Live top 100 project won’t be out for a few weeks, because I need a performance that can only be found in the 10myme concert DVD, and that hasn’t been released yet.
I’ve finished part one of my redone top 100 project! Now with all live performance clips, easier to read titles, new songs, lots of changes in ranking especially in the bottom half, and more! Honestly, I don’t know why I didn’t make the original version with live performances. I just find them so much more interesting to watch. So first, the video, then some musing about live singing, so stick around for that if you’re interested. IMHO, it’s some of my better blogging.
I’m at 64,000 video views now. I’m hoping to hit 100,000 with completion of this latest project. Wouldn’t that be awesome?
Recently, I’ve been wondering why it is that I dislike lipsyncing so much. I mean, idols are entertainers first, singers second (acting, modeling, or other things might also rank above singing), and I realize that many of them just can’t sing very well. And singing while dancing is hard! I know it is. You get out of breath, you’re trying to concentrate on the dance moves at the same time as you’re trying to control your voice, the stage lights are hot, and the crowd is loud and distracting. Far from ideal conditions to produce the best possible sound. Try it. You’d be surprised how difficult it is. So yes, lipsyncing often sounds “better”. And shouldn’t I prefer listening to better singing?
There’s no way to discuss this topic without bringing up AKB again. See, I’ve heard AKB fans actually criticize h!p for not lipsyncing, saying that it’s better to focus on one task at a time so you don’t do both of them half-assed. But, all that said, I still hate the fact that AKB lipsyncs most of the time. In fact, if they switched to mostly live singing, I’d probably consider becoming a fan of theirs. The lipsyncing is the one major barrier standing in the way of that, and I just can’t get around it. It’s not because I think it proves their inferiority as singers or anything like that. It’s really that I flat out don’t enjoy watching a lipsynced performance as much as I enjoy watching a live one.
I think the major problem is that in a live performance, a girl can put the emotion she is feeling into her voice. She can reflect the energy of the crowd and her excitement and joy at being on stage. She can really “get into” a song in a way that she can’t in the recording studio. With a lipsynced performance, though her dancing and expressions might say she’s totally feeling it, her voice will have been recorded in a calm studio environment. That mismatch just feels off to me as a viewer. It’s frustrating when I watch a girl giving 100% with her performance, but the energy level in her voice is stuck at 50%.
Another big issue is the “sameyness” of every performance. Every nuance is the same. There are no bad performances, but there are also no extraordinary performances. I can’t get excited because, “Wow! So-and-so sounded great on that solo line tonight!” because she always sounds exactly the same every time. And when AKB performs the same stage for over a year, and every time a girl opens her mouth to sing a certain solo line, it sounds just as she recorded it over a year ago, it honestly just gets boring. I don’t mind watching the same song performed multiple times if it’s actually a different performance.
And lipsyncing removes the pleasure of seeing your favorite idols struggle and improve, at least in the vocal category. And even if singing is not the main point of being an idol, it’s still an important one. If a girl messes up on a line, I can forgive her, especially if she totally nails it the next time. That’s part of why we cheer for idols, isn’t it? Because they’re not perfect, and we love them anyway. Lipsyncing removes the risk of excruciatingly bad singing, but it also takes away the opportunity for “shivers down your back” heart-touching singing. The kind of experience you have as an audience member knowing that that music you are hearing has been created once, in this moment, and it will never exist in the same way again. Imagine if LinLin’s fantastic solo version of Aozora had been lipsynced. Could it have still had the same impact? I’d say definitely not.
End of musing.
Now if there are any AKB fans out there bristling with defensiveness, don’t try to tell me AKB doesn’t lipsync their shows. I’ve been to a couple of them. I’ve seen many LODs, and in recent times, live singing is very much the exception, not the rule. Really, I don’t know why they don’t drop the farce and do it “PV style”. No microphones. They’d have another arm free for dancing! And yes, I realize that MM lipsyncs occasionally too. But in their case, it’s lipsyncing that’s the exception. Live singing is the rule. And I have also heard the argument that AKB performs so much that singing live all the time would be too much strain on their voices. I find that hard to buy, but even if that is truly the case, how about singing live at least half the time? Even just singing the solo and duet lines live would be a major improvement. I don’t believe that AKB lipsyncs because they are terrible singers, at least not by idol standards. They do it because it’s safe. It’s predictable and controllable, and that’s how management likes things. However, by taking that route, I believe they are doing the fans, and the girls themselves, a great disservice.
I’ve decided what to do for my youtube channel! (55 subscribers, oh my). I am going to redo my Top 100 countdown using all live performance footage (unless none exists), with new songs added, and the order rearranged to reflect my current tastes.
See, I was watching my videos, and I noticed that I tend to enjoy the live clips more than the PV clips. Also, I keep getting comments like “SONG should be higher!” and I’m thinking “Yes! I agree with you now! Oh why didn’t I rank that song higher?”
So that’s what I’m working on. Hope it turns out well.
