Welcome to Wota Wonderings! We are a group of english-speaking Japanese music bloggers brought together once a month to answer questions posed by me, johpan. We strive to be creative and entertaining, and we may even shed a bit of new light on interesting musical and cultural topics. Any questions about how we work should be directed to johpan. Don’t forget to check out the other posts from this month at the bottom of this post. Enjoy!

This month’s question was if you were the Japanese music industry, what would your New Year’s resolution be?

Image sells.

Outward appearances, no matter how fake, have always made a difference. You can see it in pop culture since the majority of people in front of the camera tend to be easy on the eyes, mostly thanks to armies of stylists and make-up artists.

For certain acts, I feel as if it’s less about the music and more about marketing and sales. The main argument I’d like to bring forth is the overabundance of members in a number of Hello! Project Units. I don’t want to bash only on H!P since other groups in all other industries do this, but in our blogosphere, it’s the most blatantly obvious example. It’s been happening since the start with Nacchi, then Gocchin, then Ai-chan and Reina in Morning Musume, Berryz has Risako, Momoko, and Miyabi, and (if we’re lucky) Yurina. And finally C-ute has Maimi and Airi. In Tsunku’s eyes, these girls have the strongest voices or the best image or “sellability” in their units, but at the same time, there are the other girls that don’t get any spotlight. That’s just how it is in the idol business but I’m not a fan of it. I’m not proposing we take them out, but I’m saying, use them to their full potential if you’re going to include them in the group. Yeah, they get a few lines with some other members in a few of the singles, a few solo lines in album tracks and they sing live in concerts or whatever, but there’s a lot of wasted talent that goes by unnoticed. On the flip side of the same coin, there are some girls that are clearly there just for their character or image since they’re THAT adorable that they push singls, albums, and PB / DVD sales. Or maybe if this coin were magically 3 sided, (maybe it’s just some crazy thinking on my part) but maybe some girls just want to be in the background and enjoy it. I won’t be too specific since everyone has their own favourites in each group but well, the first part of my resolution would be to involve everyone in all groups more regularly or (like how Koha rolls) get songs tailor-made for those people with questionable vocals and bring the music back to sounding good instead of just … making noise.

On the other side of this argument, going into a professional career and not having a marketing plan or something that sets your group apart from the rest is like running head first into a brick wall, unless you’re just really lucky, or get a big break through some sort of tie in with a product or tv show or a celebrity endorsement. Not many people get famous from word of mouth, but with the way the internet is these days, it’s not hard to get your fifteen minutes as a youtube or myspace celebrity or have a dot com blog and start a ruckus. Then again, it’s all in the people you know online. Or the people who find you.

The second part of my resolution is me wanting the industry to be more about the music like it still is in some places in the world and less about sales and marketing. I know there are administrative and facility fees and people need to make money in this business but consider how overpaid these people are. I could go on about overpaid celebrities but I won’t. But something that bothers me is when labels release multiple editions but just because of the things packaged with it (aside from DVDs with the PV / dance shot / and making-of). I understand selling a CD only version and a CD+DVD but anything outside of that should be readily available for all fans regardless of whether they bought the CD or not; I’m talking about mini-photobooks, trading cards, little accessories, the whole nine yards. You shouldn’t have to buy a product more than once to get something that isn’t even worth the price of the CD.

Another example of this would be to allow easy access to vocal tracks and other prominent instrument tracks, just like how instrumental/karaoke tracks are currently available. It can’t be TOO hard to do this since some labels do include all of these in their releases. From my experience, it’s mostly in the North American Hip Hop scene that this happens since it’s one of the most popular genres spun in clubs, making the market huge. Maybe for these special “mixing” CDs, I would understand buying a limited edition.

I’m not bitter towards the industry at all. Just from a real music lover’s stand point, they’re not doing much to keep me that interested in some acts as well as others. I’d like to see more smaller groups to allow more even spotlighting or at least more sharing in the spotlight in the bigger groups. I don’t like how some special inserts or items make the collectors buy something they already have but I guess it’s all subjective to how much of a “fan” a person is. At the same time, I give into the media hype and do get pretty fanboy-ish about a certain technopop group, but then again, they only release CD only and CD+DVD releases – none of that other filler. No Japanese singles I’ve run into carry vocal tracks but I don’t think I should hold my breath. I suppose it’s a lot to ask for to start some change but at least I got that off my chest.

Check out these Wota Wondering 01 posts too:
Wota Wonderings 1: New Year’s Reolutions (Solo Space)
Wota Wonderings 001: New Year’s Resolutions (Merry Go Round)
…on The Japanese Music Industry (Stardust)
WOTA WONDERINGS: New Year’s Resolutions (The Groove Music Life)
[Wota Wonderings] New Years Resolution… (Renai Revolution 21)
Wota Wonderings: Resolutions, anyone? (boylikesmusic)
Wota Wonderings 001: New Year’s Resolutions (Tsuyoki De Yukoze)