After I posted this article, many people asked me who listens to that berserk music. Well, it's most popular with Japanese girls lumped under the general term "gyaru". It is not really a fashion movement per se, as it has fractured into scores of rapidly-evolving subgroups--usually hostile to each other, even though many appear the same to the uninitiated. In fact, the book Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno, published in 2007, is already said to be out of date. This website is a bit more current. What do "gyaru" look like? There are now quite a few slideshows of gyaru on the streets of Tokyo on YouTube. Examples: here, here, and here. And for those who need to buy these "fashions", the primary bibles are FRUiTS and Egg. There is something wrong with that country.......
posted by metasonix on Dec 23, 2007 - 78 comments

I've heard a lot of bizarre music over the years, but Eurobeat has to take the cake for sheer W-T-F insanity. Virtually all the artists and producers are Italian, and the only place where their recordings sell in any quantity is, oddly enough, Japan. That's right, Eurobeat doesn't sell to Europeans. In most dance-music styles, 135 beats per minute would be considered rather fast; in Eurobeat, 155 BPM is considered slow. The lyrics are nearly always in English, with occasional Japanese--despite the fact that very few English-speaking people buy the stuff. And the artists tend to record under an assortment of pseudonyms, maintaining some degree of anonymity. Eurobeat had a major influence on the parapara dance scene. Which led directly to this. Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music called Eurobeat "sped-up, spastic Euro Disney cheese". And that fits perfectly, because the only places Americans are likely to hear Eurobeat are in a DDR game---or on a Radio Disney station. Eurobeat is (apparently) only available on costly Japanese imports, most released by Avex Trax.

Despite the anonymity of Eurobeat singers, at least one--Alessandra Mirka Gatti, aka Domino--has managed to become famous enough to have a fansite. In English, no less. Go there and examine her discography. That obscure, helium-voiced singer has been putting out records for twenty years. Someone is buying them.
posted by metasonix on May 28, 2007 - 56 comments