Sick Time Playlist

Okay, so I've been sick since Friday night, so I've been kinda down lately.  

SO.  

IT'S TIME FOR ANOTHER PLAYLIST!  Yippee Skippee!  

So, here are some songs that make me feel better while I'm stuck in bed.  

 Morning Musume--Shanimuni Paradise

So I'm currently listening to this song.  XDD  This song makes me feel so stupidly happy every time I listen to it.  The music has this awesome bouncy, skippy beat to it, and the girls sound so perky while singing!  Especially during the "yume ga aru--uuuuuu" parts.  I love that!  And I also love the staccato bit during "Shanimuni Let's Go Paradise."  So I posted a live version here because the dance doubles the happy!  It goes from stupidly happy to "ULTRA MEGA HYPER BRAVO HAPPINESS!"  The arm flapping and skirt swishing, and especially the knee wiggling make for a perfect combination of cheer-uppy-ness!  I know, that's not a word, but it describes the wonderfulness that is this song.  

ReniReni--Suspect A

ReniReni has been one of my favorite performers for just under two years now I believe.  She just came out with her new album "Hybrid Girl" at the beginning of this month.  She's known for her super "Moe Moe" performances around New York City with her maid cafe "Moe Moe Honey."  This song shows a new side of Reni, and boy do I like it!  This song is perfect for getting pumped up, and the electronic beats just want to make you get up and dance!  Her voice is very unique, and there's a lot of power behind it in this song, so even though I may not have a lot of strength while I'm sick, Reni helps me gain just a little more power with this song.  

Girl Next Door--DaDaPaRa

I don't really know much about Girl Next Door, but I love this song!  It's very uplifting.  Her voice is interesting to listen to, and the little harmonies and riffs behind her add this sort of ethereal sound to the song, even though it's very electronic.  I find that it has an interesting mix of sounds and that's what makes me like it so much.  

T-ara--Roly Poly

This song will ALWAYS be one of my top jams.  Ever since it came out over a year ago, I've been addicted.  It makes me happy whether I'm playing it in my car, in my room, with friends, or just through headphones.  I grew up on Disco music since my mom listened to it a lot, so the disco beat in this song makes my ears happy.  And the catchy "Roly Poly Roly Roly Poly" in the chorus is something you can easily sing along with.  The intro and end of the song especially make me want to get funky.  

Morning Musume--Onna Gokoro to Nanto Kara

This is one of those calming happy songs.  It gives you a sense of contentment when you listen to it I think.  It's good for relaxing too.  It has one of my favorite sounds:  the twinkle sounds.  Any Jpop song that has them I usually like, and this song is full of 'em!  The girls blend well vocally on this song, so that is another thing that makes it pleasant to listen to.  

AKB48 Team B (Well, former Team B)--Yobisute Fantasy

I have listened to this song on repeat on many occasions.  It's just so...happy!  I can't find really any other words to describe it.  It's a cute and happy song done simply, and done well.  Great job AKB!

AKB48--Heavy Rotation

"I WANT YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU I NEED YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU I LOVE YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU."  No wonder this song makes me happy. XDDD  How can you not be happy listening to this song?  The girls just love you so much!  This song is my ultimate "moe" guilty pleasure, and no lie, I watch the PV a lot.  It's just so cute and happy and sweet!  This song never fails to bring up my mood.  

Anyway, I'm gonna cap this off at seven songs.  And it seems the list went from "making me feel better" to "making me feel happy."  But being happy makes you feel better, right?  So I guess it all works out.  I feel much better after listening to all of these songs anyway.  Super happy!  I hope you feel happy after listening to this playlist too!

Let me know what songs make you happy too, I'd love to hear them!

The First Big Idol Producer---Florenz Ziegfeld

Okay, so any idol fans know about producers Tsunku and Aki-P, right?

But there is one man who is very interesting to me, and even though he isn't Japanese and never worked in Japan, what he did and the shows he produced were ahead of their time, and somehow that system made its way over to Japan decades later.  

First, here's some background information on old Flo. 

Florenz Ziegfeld was born on March 21st, 1867 in Chicago, Illinois to a German father and a Belgian mother.  His father, Florenz Ziegfeld Sr. opened up a Nightclub for the World's fair of 1893, with little success.  To help his father, Flo scouted a German strongman called Eugen Sandow.  Sandow was such a hit at his father's nightclub, that he decided to take business into his own hands.  

Flo had the idea of bringing Parisian Follies to America, and so, The Ziegfeld Follies was born.  The first follies was put on in 1907, and they were performed annually until 1931.  Flo had a keen eye for talent, from performers to composers and writers.  Some of the most famous performers and artists of the early 20th century got their start in the Ziegfeld Follies, such as composers Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and Jerome Kern.  Famous performers in the Ziegfeld follies were Fanny Brice, Ed Wynn, Will Rodgers, and his wife, Billie Burke (most famously known as Glinda the Good Witch in "The Wizard of OZ).  

Some of y'all may be thinking:  "He just sounds like a talent agent to me, what does this have to do with idols?"

Oh my friends.  I have yet to get to the most famous part of the Ziegfeld Follies.  Even though audiences adored the songs and performers, what was really big about the follies was the girls.  The Ziegfeld Girls.  The Ziegfeld girls were a massive group of chorus girls that decorated the stage during the follies.  Even if they weren't singing or dancing in a number, they would drape the stage with their over the top costumes, serving as set dressings (and eye candy) for the audience to see.  

They say that Flo had an eye for beauty, even if other people didn't see it.  Once he saw a girl, he knew immediately whether or not she could be a Ziegfeld girl, and the potential of her performance ability.  

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Flo also had interesting ways of publicizing the girls at that time.  While he would promote the shows, he would also put out personal information about the girls to spark interest of the general public.  Hist first big female star was Anna Held, and he raised public interest by releasing information about her daily milk baths.  After that, she shot up to national fame until the day she died.  

Now let's do some comparisons:  

I'll be keeping my comparisons within Hello!Project since I know them much better than I do any of Aki-P's groups.  

Now Flo cast some girls completely according to their looks, and I mentioned that some girls served as eye candy and set dressings.  

Let's go through the "Ziegfeld Girls" of Hello!Project by group.  

Morning Musume:  

Michishige Sayumi

Iikubo Haruna

Ikuta Erina

Berryz Koubou:

Tsugunaga Momoko

C-ute:

Nakajima Saki

S/mileage:

Wada Ayaka

Starting with Morning Musume:  these three girls can't sing a lick, but dammit they're gorgeous!  When they smile, laugh, or wink, you just turn into butter.  Whenever there's a photoshoot/photobook/magazine spread, they're the ones who take the best pictures because they were the ones scouted to be pretty.  That's just how some of the Ziegfeld girls were scouted, and that's how it works for these three.

Berryz Koubou:  If I had written this two or three years ago, I would say that Berryz didn't have a Ziegfeld girl, but with the direction that Momo is going, I'd say she's the closest to it that the group has.  She doesn't rely on her singing or dancing talent anymore to gain attention, she uses gags and routines.  She markets herself with no shame, and that's a part of what makes her entertaining to some people.  Tsunku realizes that, and let's her run with it since it also gives the rest of her group, and the agency as a whole, more publicity.  In a way, that makes Momo kind of like Fanny Brice, since once Flo scouted her, he let her have freedom with her own acts.  

C-ute:  Nakky represents the Ziegfeld girl who is a dancer.  Some Ziegfeld girls were tremendous dancers, and though they didn't get too many chances to dance outside of the chorus, they just had their way of shining that audiences took notice of.  In C-ute, I feel that's how Nakky plays her roll.  She gets the least amount of solo lines in all of C-ute's singles, but when she's up onstage:  BAM!  She's a standout because of her presence.  

S/mileage:  Oh Ayacho.  When S/mileage first formed, I honestly wondered why she was there. XDDD  I didn't care for her voice at all.  It wasn't until she started getting PBs that I realized why she was there.  She has a different look about her that makes her interesting.  She doesn't look like any of the other girls in H!P.  When you see her face, you can't mistake her, and that's to the advantage of the agency, since the general public can recognize her solely as Wada Ayaka of Hello!Project.  That's another thing to compare with Fanny Brice.  Brice was Jewish, therefore she didn't look like the other girls in the Follies, or in showbiz in general at the time, since Jewish features at the time weren't considered beautiful.  When people saw her, they immediately knew she was Fanny Brice from The Ziegfeld Follies, which brought in more publicity for the Follies themselves.  

Does this make any sense?  I'm sorry for the wall of text, but the similarities between follies and idols intrigued me, and since what I do at KKMS is like a mix between follies and idol concerts, I thought I would do a little research.  

Do you think idol producers learned from the Ziegfeld Follies?  Why or why not?  Let me know in the comments, and thanks for reading!  

DISCUSSION POST: 01--Idols in the West?

So this is the first in a series of Discussion posts, where I ask a question and clarify, and then you, my lovely readers, will answer it for me in the comments!

Your participation is really what makes this work, so please, talk to me y'all! XD

The question for today is:

Would an idol style group work in the US?  Why or why not?

If the group sang only in English, but promoted in the way an idol group does, would it work?

Or would the group be considered a girl/boy band instead of an idol group because they're westerners?

Okay, so there was more than one question. XD

But I'm curious to hear what y'all think about the subject as fellow wotas.  

COMMENT IT UP Y'ALL! <3

Kaya

AKB48--UZA

AW SHIT YOU GUYS.

AKB just made me eat my words from my last post, 'cause UZA is THE SHIT.

Like

My

Mind

Is

BLOWN.

IS THIS REALLY AKB48?!

This is something totally different than what they've done before, and I LOVE IT.

I mean, just look at all the stuff they have in this PV:

Ballerinas

Steampunk Army girls

Harley Quinn Jack in the Box

Victorian ladies with flirty fans

Complex dance formations and choreography

Dude....this is like a Geek's dream right here!

It's like a Halloween themed Geek Convention exploded.

THIS IS SO COOL.  

I especially love the smoke effects with some of the dance moves, like Yukirin in the jack in the box.  OOOOO and Jurina as the ringmaster!  That was super sexy and cool!  AND DID ANYONE SEE YUKO'S PERFECT TURN OUT IN FIFTH POSITION?  I'm so envious! XDD  

You can tell the girls worked super hard on this PV, and it certainly paid off!  

I'm so glad that FINALLY there is something different, and the fact that the song and the video actually fit together!

The song itself has some electronic flavor to it, which seems to be the trend nowadays.  And it also has the girls singing in a lower range than usual, which is really refreshing to hear.  

Now watch the video before it gets taken down!

NMB48-Kitagawa Kenji Short PV

OHMYGODYOUGUYS!

WHAT IS AIR?!

WHY ARE THESE GIRLS SO BEAUTIFUL AND PERFECT?!

This PV makes me so happy!!!

And this confirms in my mind that NMB48>AKB48 at this point in time.

Don't get me wrong, I still love AKB, but NMB has been putting out much better music!

Virginity was a great song, as was the B side Musou Girlfriend (KITTIES!), so I was wondering how they were going to top it, and now I know.

Instead of kittens, it's CANDY!  

They look like little sweets in the cutest poofy wrappers!

LOOK AT HOW CUTE THEY ARE!

And I love the school scenes too.  They're just so derpy!  I love how over dramatized they are as bored students.  The clock ticking motion with their pencils was very clever.  

Anyway, I know this song isn't as different as Virginity was, and that it is standard idol fare, but it's super catchy and fun, and the visuals in the PV make me like the song that much more!  Now all I will think of when I hear this song is cute, bouncing candy girls!  

I can't wait to see the rest of the PV!

One more month 'till the release on November 7th!

Wakuteka Take a Chance PV

So the new version of the Wakuteka Take a Chance PV has been uploaded!  YAY!

Okay, this PV has SO MUCH STUFF!  The editing was crazy cool, since it flipped back and forth between close ups, dance shot, table shot, light bars, fire shots, dance/close shots, and other shots of the girls' different features.  And the fact that shots of the members switched so quickly was amazing, and put together quite well!

My tension went UP when watching this PV.  WAY UP!  Much more than the previous version, since this had a lot more going on.  The dance sequences in this PV looked much better since it was up against black instead of white, so their costumes popped much more, and I think it matched with the song.  

The fast editing itself matched the song better, since it's so fast paced.  There were also some more flash/light effects added in this version, and it fits well with the electronic theme of the song.  It made me think of robots and aliens, which the girls seem to portray in the light bar shots.  

To be honest, I watched the PV multiple times just to make sure I didn't miss anything! XD  

Oh!  And I'm glad everyone got fire shots this time, not just Sayu and Riho like the last version had.  The fire didn't exactly fit with the whole robot/electro thing going on, but it does fit with the whole moving forward/taking chances/risks thing that the song has, so I like that it's in the PV.  

Woah.

I'm still kinda overwhelmed.  In a good way. XD

I apologize if this entry isn't exactly cohesive, but I just wrote this after watching the PV, I was just too excited!

Anyway, make sure to watch the video for yourself, and I hope you like it as much as I do!

Electro☆Cute!

So, as all of you know, I run an organization called the "KiraKira Moe Show," which runs like an idol company.  During this past Summer, we had 29 uncategorized members running around and performing at conventions.  

I do consider all of my girls debuted as idols once they join the Moe Show, contrary to other idol companies that place them in groups to debut.

BUT.

I do want to create smaller groups and promote them.

SO.

The first group to come out of the KiraKira Moe Show is:

Electro☆Cute!

The group is made up of four members:

Mayu

DOB:  02/04/1997

Hair color:  Blonde

Eye color:  Blue

Strong Point:  Dance

Member Color:  Baby Blue

Hazel

DOB:  06/04/1992

Hair Color:  Brown

Eye Color:  Brown

Strong Point:  DERP, Positivity

Member Color:  Emerald Green

Keiko

DOB:  10/27/1994

Hair Color:  Red/Brown

Eye Color:  Blue/Green

Strong Point:  Energy!

Member Color:  Cherry Red

Kaya--Leader

DOB:  11/02/1992

Hair Color:  Honey Brown

Eye Color:  Blue/Green/Hazel

Strong point:  Vocals

Member Color:  Bubblegum Pink

Electro☆Cute was announced on the KiraKira Moe Show Facebook Page on July 31st, with the members revealed one by one.  

We released our first dance cover on YouTube which was a cover of Pinku Project's "Pinku Invasion!"

A second dance cover was released about a month later, which was a cover of Danceroid's "Baby Maniacs."

We will be having our first live concert at Ikkicon VII in Austin, Texas on December 28th.  The title and setlist of the concert will be released at a later date.  

Currently we are working on our first single, which will also be announced at a later date.

We hope you look forward to our original work, and if you can come to our live, please do!

We'll be working hard from now on, so please support us!