This year - not Arashi, but KAT-TUN? Johnny's Expectations
Last year, the highest riding stars in the entertainment world were Arashi. Even as we come into 2010, the drama starring all five members of the group, Last Promise (Fuji TV), has already been marked as a high rating drama, showing that 'Arashi mania' is set to keep going. However, in the typical style of Johnny's, it seems that 2010 is set to be KAT-TUN's year.
KAT-TUN started the new year early, with an appearance on the live broadcast of SMAP×SMAP. While most appearances on this programme are advertised, KAT-TUN appeared with none. "By letting them appear in their sempai's long running, popular TV programme, we can push KAT-TUN's name recognition status" is, for whatever reason, the clear expectation of the Johnny's Entertainment camp.
Furthermore, early into 2010 the movie BANDAGE, marking member Akanishi Jin's first starring role, opened in cinemas. Various prominent names are involved in this film, including Kobayashi Takeshi (producer of such bands as Remioromen and Mr Children) as director and musical supervisor, and with Iwai Shunji (of movies Swallowtail and All About Lily Chou-Chou) in charge of the screenplay. The rock band of the film, LANDS, also released a single in November, BANDAGE, and an album, Olympos, on the 13th, both becoming hits. Moreover, the film is set to be distributed in Taiwan and South Korea.
As for the dramas of the moment, Kamenashi Kazuya's new drama, Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge ('The Wallflower'/'Perfect Girl Evolution') has just started. Kamenashi has a reputation as a 'poor ratings actor' (?), but the drama has ridden this out, and with Uchi Hiroki and Tegoshi Yuya of NEWS co-starring, as well as Katou Seishirou (who had his big break last year with the Kodomo Tenchou 'Child Store Manager' Toyota commercials), there is no shortage of conversation topics when it comes to this drama.
Akanishi's box office record and Kamenashi's ratings are something to worry about, but it's entirely possible that KAT-TUN, like Arashi last year, can make their big break this year. So, what tricks has Johnny got up his sleeve this time?
Two known graduates from sucessful girl j-pop group Morning Musume, Rika Ishikawa and Hitomi Yoshizawa, form a unit Hangry & Angry that expands into the international music market with punk-pop vibe.
"Hangry & Angry is a brand of popular Japanese designer h.NAOTO. Illustrator GASHICON draws the gurokawa (grotesque-cute)-style characters "Hangry" and "Angry" who came from the H44 Star Nebula in order to save the world from global warming. They arrived in the present in their time machine dubbed "LOVE MACHINE."" They made a debut with a self-titled album with two singles "Sadistic dance" and "Kill me Kiss me" however the album does not feature the original version of some single released content.
It is interesting to see more of the asian market being immersed in the global market of music :)
To check out a full promotional video of "sadistic dance" check out dohhhups! link.http://www.dohhhup.com/movie/Q4PvhzMHPQt97ftf764iBI2qL6hQxNu6/view.php
Bright to release 2nd Avex (RZ) Studio album "Real"
Bright, a promising 4 girl-pop group, is to release thier 2nd full album called "Real" on Februrary 24th, 2010 after thier release of thier upcoming ballad single. Following the release of the 2nd album, they will embark in a nationwide tour to promote "Real" as thier 4th live.
Bright is known to have an outstanding fan base and also music that is like 'pure pop'. Most songs are written by BRIGHT and are R&B or acoustic with good to great vocals. They debuted with the song "Brightest Star" in a mini-album and with strong perserverence from the girls, they are steadily gathering attention. Bright is also known for having an consistent images on thier CD covers.
Nana Mizuki to participate in upcoming Kouhaku Uta Gassen
--Nana Mizuki, popular seiyuu and singer, is scheduled to appear on the 2009-2010 Kouhaku Uta Gassen. This will further her sucess in the business as 2009 served as her most sucessful year with hit singles and a #1 album "Ultimate Diamond". Nana Mizuki is also the first known Seiyuu (or a voice actress) to ever top the oricon charts since the creation, in combination to her many sucessful singles such as "Trickster" which also recieved the RIAA certification for 100,000 unit shipments. Her music usually can be described as crossover pop with many instrumentals and nostalgic lyrics, in addition to her Enka style voice performance. The last single from Ultimate Diamond "Shin Ai" will be her tentative performance song.--
--Nana will share the stage with other debut acts such as NYC Boys, Kaela Kimura, AKB48, flumpool, Funky Monkey Babys, and other known acts however this year will not feature Morning Musume, and Mizutani. --
--For the full list of artists performing and thier specific song for the Kouhaku Uta Gassen on NHK (2009-2010), Check the following link.--
Arashi, a well 10 year celebrated five piece boy pop band group from Japan dominates 2009 with outstanding results.
Produced by johnnys entertainment, they have been able to reach a new height of thier career with countless no.1 singles within these recent years. In 2009 they released thier 10th anniversary album "ALL THE BEST" featuring all the hits from debut till now (withthe eexception of the single 'everything'). Besides thier sucessful top 10 singles for the year so far, the 10th anniversary albumreached past a Million Copies sold making it one of the first publicly known platinum selling album from Johnnys. In this case, in september 22nd, this album reached two weeks at #1 in Japan and two weeks at #1 Globally. Making it one of the very few Japanese artists that reached this defeat like Koda Kumi has with Second Best. Currently All the Best is the #1 selling album of the oricon 2009 year.
Jejung & Yuchun's single easily tops Japanese ChartsAside from Tohoshinki's activities, Jejung and Yuchun released thier first Japanese duet single. The last time a band member was featured was in sister-band TenjoChiki's single Juicy Love as a B-side. The ballad single "Colors ~melody & harmony~" managed to easily top Japanese music charts and having a threashold sales of at least 105,000 (approx.)physical single copy sales in the first day.Tohoshinki originally is S.Korea's famous 5 piece boy band. Recently they are among the many Korean Celebrities as the Korean Wave sweaping the Asian Industry and world entertainment with countless top 10 hits and with thier 2009 album TRICK at #2.Tohoshinki (DBSK) music is usually r&b, pop with cool and wild feelings. Tohoshinki's first global single debuted in Fast & Furious soundtrack with "Rising Sun". Jejung is the leading vocal front for thier group despite the fact that every member does sing.Thier current popularity is being compared to EXILE's power however due to discrepencies, there have been claims that the group will not be active for a moment.Sources:avexnet.jp (picture retrieved Oct.30 2009 HST)Oricon Statistics (retrieved Oct. 30,2009 HST)Wikipedia (accessed October)Imageshack.us (temporary bandwith)
"Singer Namie Amuro, 32, continues to shine in her fourth installment of commercials for hair care brand Vidal Sassoon, which will air next month.
The first one airs from Oct 1 and sees Amuro reborn in space before floating back down to Earth, her hair shining in the glow of the sun and flowing freely in the vacuum of space.
The second one features Amuro decked out in Russian, Los Angeles and British fashion and airs from Oct 15. Amuro said on the latter commercial: “We tried to project the flavor of each area in both the hairstyle and the fashion. I don’t dress up like this often, so it was very refreshing.”
Two new songs by Amuro – “My Love” and “Copy That” – play in the commercials and are scheduled to be on her new album due out at the end of the year."
AZNPOP REUNION STARTS! Our aznpop reunion is underway, so meet old friends, talk about some juicy stories, and whateverr. It's a lounge for all aznpop members to see what everyone's been up to and maybe what everyone's listening too. This subforum is accessible in the chit chat corner section. Create topics about yourself, about others, or memories haha. This event will last for awhile so have fun .
Important:
-If you are having issues with registration or validation, please contact this special email address aznpop.email@gmail.com (or) Ichiban or Unkowwn. We will address this with priorty as some.
-If you only registered to any former versions of Aznpop, remember you gotta register to this new one in order to access the forums & downloads. If you already have registered for this new one then just start posting lol.
Former Morning Musume singer Nozomi Tsuji, 22, was the guest of honor at a recent promotional event for the 2008 Emmy-winning American TV series “Pushing Daisies.”
The show, which lasted two seasons on ABC, features a pie maker, Ned, who was born with the ability to revive the dead just by touching them. However, if he touches them a second time, they will die again—and stay dead. A crazy turn of events finds Ned resuscitating his first love with his powers, only to be faced with the dilemma of not being able to lay a single finger again on her.
“I can’t wait to watch the next episode,” Tsuji gushed after viewing the first episode. “I can’t imagine not being able to touch the person I love, because I’m very affectionate.”
In honor of Ned’s profession as a pie maker, Tsuji was presented with a pie made in the shape of a ribbon and filled with sweet potatoes.
Reminiscing on her own love life, she said: “I was the one who madly approached my husband. I got rejected three times before he finally asked me out. It’s hard having a crush on someone because you can’t snuggle up to them no matter how much you want to.”
“Pushing Daisies” airs on AXN Sundays from 9 p.m. "
Being reffered to be a part of the Korean Wave sweaping the world, Big Bang emerges into the Japan Music Industry with thier #3 single "My Heaven". Similiar to Tohoshinki (DBSK), Big Bang includes a team of 5 members and follows the r&b genre with more direction to mainstream pop and fashion. With thier high popularity in S. Korea, they have branched into the japanese market. Following the release of "My Heaven", a second japanese single "Gotta Gotta Go!!!" due July 8th being described as a dance track.
Thier single "My Heaven" is a light pop single that was recently introduced by Oricon and Media. This single is the highest selling debut Korean single in japan thus far, beating BoA's ID: Peace B and Tohoshinki's "Stay with me tonight" debut performance.
Source: YGEntertainment Big Bang Offical Site, Oricon, Wikipedia (Image Credit)
Happy Holidays and have an awesome new year! Best, Aznpop
-------- I know I've been kinda lagging on News, i'll get on it, I just recently finished a term paper about Japanese music for College. Pretty sure you guys have been busy too, so i'll get that running in a bit. Yeah, there were issues about members commenting on frontpage news, it's still being looked at .
2010? It's getting close to Aznpop's 10th anniversary isn't it ^^?
Don't be intimated to send suggestions or comments to staff through PM or E-mail.
A member have brought up that homepage topics can't be commented on (thanks Krazoom); it is now being under the attention of the staff. For the meantime, all news updates will have topic in the respective subforum until then.
Validation problems? Hope not...Been saying this every update but if you folks have problems please bring it to our attention so we can serve you fast.
I look foward to a cool month and a long-awaited 31 days of Halloween!
Hey Aznpop, Thanks for those who came and made the reunion a very interesting event, with old and new members. It's very cool to see what everyone was up to and such. The Aznpop reunion subforum will be left open for a while for any more participating members and whatevers~.
For those having issues with validation, please contact either the website e-mail, my e-mail, or Ichiban's e-mail. If your registered, you should be able to personal-message us as well. So if you are currently experiencing validation issues, don't take it personally!! ><
Also good luck to those students going back to school! Yay for coffee >:]
Extra thing: In support of an organzation. I'm spreading the word about Over The Edge, an organization led to aid special olympics; giving families financial support for events and funding for events. Classmate Danielle is leading this with nearly half of her goal amount acheived! Help her by sponsoring donations for Over The Edge This event will start on November 13th 2009.
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