Japan in music

I complained :-) that R. Kelly's Video of "Thoia Thoing" has many mistakes about Japan. Well, I suppose maybe he basically did not have an interest in Japan. Some other bands have made music videos related to Japan too. Most of them are so funny and I like to see them because I can sense their interest in Japan, even though they show some strange images of Japan

A striking example will be weezer. In the music video "Hash Pipe," they sing with a Sumo Wrestler. In their "Dope Nose" video, they perform in front of a Japanese motorcycle gang or "bosozoku". Before making these videos, they showed their interest in Japan through their CD Jackets on the Lion and the witch and Pinkerton. Pet Shop Boys made a funny music video called Flamboyant with a Japanese costume play TV show. The Icelandic band Kimono made BW video of Japanese police man. I can tell they like Japanese animation and old TV shows because they tried to imitate the editing techniques of those types of shows. Yeah, I can't see the violent movie parts, but I think that the movie has a pretty good Japanese mood.

Talking about lyrics, many artists use Japanese words or sing in Japanese. Teo toriatte by Queen and Ai no Sono by Stevie Wonder are nice samples. Funny samples are here.

"Mr. Robot" by STYX. They sang 'Domo arigato Mr.Robot, Itsu no hinika' = Thank you Mr.Robot, in the future.

"Song for the Dumped" by Ben Folds Five. They sang 'Takai meshi**** da sono*** = Expensive food something.

In "The War Song", Boy George sang 'Senso Hantai Senso Hantai' =Against the war, against the war.

Worst one would be "Love Missile F1-11" by Sputnik.  They said 'Kagekina Boryoku, Tabemono wa oishi, mizu nondewa ikemasen' = Extreme violent, Foods are delicious,  but don't drink water............ha?

Comments

[art paintings]

The pleasure we obtain from music comes from counting, but counting unconsciously. Music is nothing but unconscious arithmetic

[Candace]

I think the Ben Fold's song was originally only written in English, then translated into a Japanese version (for Japanese concerts?). That's interesting...I once heard a Japanese translation and performance of Sixpence None the Richer's "Kiss Me" and at the time, I was surprised that they decided to do that.

[Mari]

Hi Eric Thank you for your nice words to my blog. I am very glad to know you like my blog.

[Eric at Paris Daily Photo]

Hello there. I just found your blog all the way from Paris. I am loving it! What a great way to discover another culture. We see many Japanese in Paris and now I can't understand why. You have so many beautiful things and are really trend setters these days. Merci!

[Mari]

Hi There
Thank you for everybody, so many mistakes ne!
I changed PV part now. Thank you taro and Jenn.

[taro]

Ha, ha. Yes, that "Don't drink the water" lyric is way off tune since nowhere in Japan is public water a problem.

----
Just a little suggestion Mari:
The abbreviation "PV" is way, wa-a-a-ay too obscure jargon for regular English speaking folks to understand. "PV" had me scratching my head to figure out what you wanted to say. It's like the other Japanese favorites "CM" and "BGM" which are very common Japanese "words" that are hardly normal in everyday English and used only within the media industry.

[Jenn]

Maybe the "Love Missile F1-11" line is a translation of "the food is delicious, but don't drink the water"?

This is kind of an English kimarimonku about traveling to foreign countries... don't drink the water! (You'll get sick.)