It's this little creature that crawls up into your ears and burrows into your brain so you can't get it out!
Lots of songs are catchy and get stuck in your head, but nobody's songs are as consistently infectious as Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's.
I'm a Japanese culture enthusiast, but the time when run-of-the-mill Japanese rock and pop did it for me past about ten years ago. (That said, Ayumi Hamasaki's July 1st and Evolution are still solid little slices of Japanese factory-pop, and I can't fault anything Utada Hikaru or Halcali put out. I digress.)
Kyary began her career as a blogger, then model for Japanese street fashion magazines before releasing her own brand of false eyelashes.
Here's where Kyary gets confusing, for me. The above song, Kyary's first single "Tsukema Tsukeru" with it's strange collection of images for a video is basically an advertisement. I'm not kidding, the opening lyrics are "Putting, putting, putting on my falsies, the false eyelashes that make me blink."
On first listen as someone who can't understand that stuff, it's a catchy pop tune with some cute music-box sounds. Once I knew what it was about, though, I couldn't help but wonder about the opinion on Kyary over in Japan. If some western pop idol released a single promoting their line of merchandise, I'd scoff and be pretty disgusted. Asking around on youtube, the Japanese seem to be okay with it, a commenter telling me that her out-there style and the catchiness of the songs kind of make her an oddity, even for them.
Kyary's debut promotional release, PonPonPon went viral on youtube - And you can easily see why.
It has everything. It's catchy, cute, bright and fucking bonkers.
Candy Candy is yet another relentlessly catchy song. There's something so inoffensive and innocent about this stuff that I really love. It doesn't take itself seriously, it's not hyper-sexualised like 89% of western popular music seems to be, it's just...fun.
Kyary is currently on a small world tour doing one show in select cities around the world. London happens to be one of those cities and I happen to be going to see the show. I fully expect to lose my shit and become 7 years old again.
Update: I did indeed. My legs hurt from dancing, my voice hurts from yelling along to songs and cheering but most of all my face hurts from smiling. Kyary sang all of her popular singles and sang some new songs, all of which were great. One very much in the vein of Capsule, with whom she shares a producer, one similar to a YMCK track and one which I will be entirely shocked about if it doesn't end up as an opening/ending for Naruto entitled Ninjari Ban Ban.
A personal highlight was the crowd interaction song Minna No Uta ("Everybody's Song.) If you didn't figure it out by listening, it's the classic "Call and response" type of song, with "Pan" being the audience's que to clap. I felt like an excited child dancing away, yelling and joining in. I don't know about you but I LOVE that feeling.
Before the show they politely asked us not to take photos but so many people did that I had to get a little memento during her final encore.
Kyary is currently on a small world tour doing one show in select cities around the world. London happens to be one of those cities and I happen to be going to see the show. I fully expect to lose my shit and become 7 years old again.
Update: I did indeed. My legs hurt from dancing, my voice hurts from yelling along to songs and cheering but most of all my face hurts from smiling. Kyary sang all of her popular singles and sang some new songs, all of which were great. One very much in the vein of Capsule, with whom she shares a producer, one similar to a YMCK track and one which I will be entirely shocked about if it doesn't end up as an opening/ending for Naruto entitled Ninjari Ban Ban.
A personal highlight was the crowd interaction song Minna No Uta ("Everybody's Song.) If you didn't figure it out by listening, it's the classic "Call and response" type of song, with "Pan" being the audience's que to clap. I felt like an excited child dancing away, yelling and joining in. I don't know about you but I LOVE that feeling.
Before the show they politely asked us not to take photos but so many people did that I had to get a little memento during her final encore.
I really hope the fact that the show sold out and that the crowd were great encourages Kyary to come back again.
Until next time!
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