Tag: music (Page 3) | RocketNews24

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Music Group Fronted by Japanese Monks Bring Buddhist Sutra to the Dance Club, Wear Awesome Helmets

May 25, 2012 by Steven
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Well Dubstep, you had a good run but it’s time to drop out and make way for a new genre of dance music straight from the Buddhist temples of Japan: Dubsutra.

Okay, so maybe I just made that word up, but it is a real thing thanks to Tariki Echo, a musical unit fronted by two Japanese, bike helmet-wearing monks who have turned the Buddhist sutra into dance music.

May 21, 2012 by Kay
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Okay, so the economy may be down, it may be a drag go to work each morning on the murderously crowded trains (or the impossibly jammed highways), and you may be feeling tired of everyday life in general, but you can’t let things like that kill the rock ‘n’ roll spirit inside you, can you? Well, now there’s a new line of alcoholic beverages from Suntory Holdings Limited that will help you get back into the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll – in Rolling Stones fashion! Read More

New Goth-Loli Vocaloid Ready to Take the Stage, Maybe Some Heads Too…

May 15, 2012 by Steven
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A new Vocaloid character named Mayu was announced by Exit Tunes, a Japanese record label that produces Vocaloid albums, during their live event at Saitama Super Arena on May 6.

Mayu dresses in goth-loli style, wearing a black dress with red ribbons and a beret that with a speaker attached. She holds a plush rabbit with a microphone at the top its head and pictures on the official site suggest she uses the doll when performing.

While red ribbons and plush bunnies sound adorable enough, Japanese netizens have noticed one slightly discomforting detail: Mayu is gripping an axe with her right hand.

May 7, 2012 by Steven
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I was watching television here in Japan the other day when something caught my eye. A TV program was featuring a beautiful young white girl with adorable curly blonde hair singing in fluent Japanese.

This in itself is nothing special: Japanese people love seeing foreigners who can speak their language, and variety shows here make stories out of them all the time. What dropped my jaw, though, is when I looked closer and realized that this beautiful young girl is actually a boy.

May 6, 2012 by Master Blaster
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It’s hard making it as an idol group in Japan. In this business thousands of girls and boys are struggling to find their niche be it with snaggleteeth, clean towels, or chainsaws.

This time RocketNews would like to present a girl group who have taken a more fishy road to success, by pitching in at their local sushi shop. Every Sunday you can catch up-and-coming Idol Class do a free concert then sell you some octopus after the show, in what they call Sushidols.

Apr 18, 2012 by Jessica
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You may have heard of the recent dental trend in Japan called tsuke yaeba, where women get their canines capped to get a crooked set of chompers. If so, you might have guessed that a snaggletooth girl group couldn’t be far behind, and here they are: TYB48. Read More

Spa Staff Pop Group OFR48 Warms Hearts With Song and Dance, Naked Bodies With Daily Work

Apr 13, 2012 by Mac Denny
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You may have raised an eyebrow the first time a fully clothed spa staff member ambled into the sauna and whistled while she worked in front of you and the other sweaty, naked dudes.

You’re a pro by now, though, and you hardly bat an eyelash while the spa staff simply blend into the background.

A new Japanese female idol group is out to change the status quo. OFR48 is comprised of women who actually work at hot springs resorts, saunas and other public bathing facilities throughout Japan. The women sing and dance on stage at spa facilities, entertaining customers and fostering deeper communication and familiarity with them. Read More

Dial M for Music: Push-Button Telephone Cover of Vocaloid Song is Off the Hook 【Video】

Apr 11, 2012 by Steven
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Before the days of downloadable ringtones, the only way you could get original tunes on your cell phone was by using the built-in ringtone composer, using the phone’s numeric keypad to enter a sequence of tones (press 1 for Do, 2 for Re, etc) to create a custom monotone melody.

While the days of trying to figure out the right key combination for “Hit Me Baby One More Time” have long since passed, it seems the tradition of push-button telephone composing has been carried on into the 21st century and mastered by Japanese Otaku.

Apr 3, 2012 by Steven
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It looks like little monsters hoping to see Lady Gaga kick off her world tour in Seoul on April 27 will have to stay in their caves: on March 30, a South Korean government agency decided to ban people under age 18 from attending the US pop diva’s concert on the grounds that it is “harmful to minors.”

Mar 3, 2012 by Steven
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A cover of “Hey Jude” performed by Aki Toyosaki, a Japanese singer and voice actress best known for her role as Yui in the anime K-On!, has become the joke of the internet after a video of the performance was uploaded to YouTube earlier this year.

Toyosaki is an avid Beatles fan and in the video, which is taken from the DVD of her first solo tour “love your live,” she appears to singing her heart out in tribute to the band.

Unfortunately, that enthusiasm only seems to amplify Toyosaki’s ‘cutsy’ high-pitched voice and thick Japanese accent, which, to the ears of most of the internet, make for an unforgivably disastrous cover of the beloved Beatles classic.

Mar 2, 2012 by Steven
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Japanese convenience store chain Family Mart announced that Vocaloid idol Hatsune Miku will “hijack” four stores around Tokyo Dome City as a part of the Miku no Hi Kanshasai concert event that will take place on March 8-9.

The promotion will run 8 days from March 3-10 and each participating store will be decorated with glass decals and life-sized posters of Hatsune Miku, as well as offer a selection of limited-edition Hatsune Miku goods.

Furthermore, during the event days of March 8-9, each store will be giving away a different original Hatsune Miku clear plastic file, limited to the first 8000 customers who make a purchase of at least 390 yen (US $4.80). Each store will have only 1,000 files per day to give away, and quantities will be limited to one per person.

Feb 22, 2012 by Steven
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Considered one of Japan’s three best hot springs since the 17th century, the onsen of Gero continue to draw over a million visitors each year, most of whom seek relaxation in the open-air hot spring baths that line the Hida river.

While you would think this 400-year-old reputation would provide enough publicity for the town, Gero Onsen also has a J-Pop theme song sung by 19-year-old gravure idol and Gero native Tomomi Asa.

The song, titled Gerokko☆Kyurunn, is your standard Japanese female pop idol fare, held together with a simple chorus where Tomomi shouts “Gero Gero Gero Gero!” over and over in her most adorable voice, which is all fine and dandy except for one little detail: gero is also the Japanese slang word for vomit.

Jan 28, 2012 by Steven
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Since the Great East Japan Earthquake last March, musical artists from Japan and all over the world have showed their support for victims of the disaster and Japan as a whole through holding benefit concerts or media such as song and video.

The latest and perhaps most ambitious charity effort by the music community is Japan United with Music, a collaboration project led by composer and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto and producer Takeshi Kobayashi that gathered 30 of Japan’s leading artists in the studio for an all-star cover of Japan’s favorite feel-good song, “All You Need Is Love.”

Nov 24, 2011 by Steven
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Perhaps the most beloved band in history, the Beatles’ music continues to charm and inspire fans across the world. Their music has also been covered and arranged by countless artists over the decades, with each generation interpreting the band’s timeless sound in their own characteristic way.

Now, as if to represent the audacity our generation, English DJ Ramjac has created an arrangement that uses every Beatles song ever created (probably).

Unfortunately, as is with the dreamers of today, this bold ideal fails to hold together in an imperfect world and quickly descends into audio chaos. Read More

Lady Gaga’s ‘Bad Romance’ As Performed By a Group of Enthusiastic 70 Year Old Chinese People

Nov 11, 2011 by Steven
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If there’s one thing we like about old Chinese people, it’s that they’ve got spunk. Whether it’s getting up early in the morning and doing Tai Chi in the park or dressing in drag and dancing on the streets every evening, elderly Chinese people just don’t let their age get the best of them.

The men and women of the Funan Province Retired Seniors Activity Center Choir Group are a prime example of this geriatric gusto: the group, whose members’ average age is over 70, caused a sensation in China and abroad this year after performing an enthusiastic—and, frankly, bizarre—Chinese rendition of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” on television. Read More

Pick a Card, Pick a Tune: Custom Guitar Pick Punch Strums Up Strong Following

Nov 9, 2011 by Mac Denny
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I tried playing the guitar once. I was a huge fan of Jimi Hendrix, but not so entranced with my own sound. I wondered what the hell was wrong with me!

I’m embarrassed to say that I was just picking around, going by trial and error. One thing I thought of doing was changing the pick I used. At the time, I could feel the different picks produced slightly different sounds, but I still couldn’t find Jimi’s.

If I’d had a Pickmaster at that time, I could’ve tried many more picks. The Pickmaster works like a hole punch and cuts teardrop shapes out of plastic sheets like credit cards.

Oct 13, 2011 by Steven
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Lady GaGa has gained international fame for her often-bizarre and always-dazzling performances.

In China, there is word on the street of a new performer in town who rivals Lady Gaga in audacity of dress and performance with one not-so-subtle difference – he’s a 70 year old man. Read More

New AKB48 Sketch Comedy Program Features Cute Girls Making Silly Faces And More!

Oct 3, 2011 by Steven
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On September 29, Yuko Oshima and several other high-profile members of popular Japanese idol group AKB48 stepped off the dance stage and into the studio to commemorate the launch of their first ever sketch comedy and variety show, Bimyo～, with a special press conference broadcasted live over television and Japanese video-sharing site Nico Nico Douga. Read More

Free Admission – Twelve of Tokyo’s Best Kept Secrets

Sep 25, 2011 by Mac Denny
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Expensive Tokyo living got you down? Are you staring another three-day weekend in the face and wondering what havoc it will wreak on your wallet?

There are places to enjoy yourself for free all over Tokyo, if you know where to look. RocketNews24 has sifted through the many options and has come up with 12 suggestions that will not disappoint. Try them next time you have a last-minute date or cobwebs in your billfold! Read More

Magnesium-Packed Pills Offer Quick-Fix For Awful Singing

Sep 22, 2011 by Steven
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Your friends dragged you along to karoke and you know those bastards won’t be satisfied until they’ve heard you try and push Since You’ve Been Gone through those amateur cords.

It’s for embarrassing karaoke-induced situations like these that that Japan has developed the “Charming Beautiful Voice” pill which, as the name implies, will do for your voice what auto tune did for Britney Spears’. Read More