MOVIES,MUSIC & ENTERTAINMENT (79)
Korean Band Fad Goes Global
Asia’s Korean band fad is going global with top Western entertainment venues hosting performances by Korean dancers and musical artists.
K-Pop Goes the World
Surprising Attendance in California
The lights go on. The pounding dance beat starts. And 12,000 screaming fans rise to their feet in the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Acclaimed record producer Quincy Jones watches from his suite. Is this Beyonce? Rhianna? Lady Gaga? Nope. It’s an all-star concert featuring the likes of Girls Generation, Super Junior, BoA, TVXQ, f(x), EXO and SHINee. How can bands not played on American Top 40 radio fill a U.S. arena? Well, these are Korea’s top pop bands, and they played S.M. Entertainment’s third world tour on May 20, 2012. SME, a Seoul-based independent record producer, has held previous world tours with stops in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing and Taipei. Yeah, but was Anaheim’s Honda Center filled with 12,000 Koreans and Korean Americans? Nope. Around two thirds of the fans were non- Korean, a sign of the spreading popularity of Korean pop.
Korean Band Fad Goes Global
Two of South Korea’s biggest bands, TVXQ! and Super Junior, have taken their tours global as demand for K-pop grows around the world.
K-Pop Continues to Go Global
TVXQ!
TVXQ!, known as Dong Bang Shin Ki in South Korea, Tong Vfang Xien Qi in China and Tohoshinki in Japan, has twice held the Guinness World Record for the largest fan club in the world, with more than 800,000 in South Korea alone. They hold the current Guinness World Record for being the Most Photographed Celebrities in the World with more than 500 million photos taken. TVXQ! launched their “TVXQ! Live World Tour ‘Catch Me’” in November 2012 in Seoul before heading to China, Taiwan and elsewhere around the world. They made history by touring 11 cities in Japan between January and April 2012, doing a total of 26 shows as part of their “TVXQ! Live Tour 2012 ~TONE” with more than 550,000 in attendance.
Caroll Spinney
The Man Behind Sesame Street’s Big Bird and Oscar the Grouchbra
“I Am Big Bird” screened at the 2014 Los Angeles Film Festival. Tokyo Journal talked with the co-director of the documentary, Dave LaMattina, and Caroll Spinney, the 80-year-old Emmy and Grammy Award-winning puppeteer behind the iconic “Sesame Street” characters Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. The two discussed the documentary as well as the legacy of the beloved TV program and its characters.
Big Hero 6 Featured
Japan-Influenced Big Hero 6 Scores Oscar for Best Animated Film
Voice Actor Ryan Potter and CG Animator Matsune Suzuki Talk about the Heart-Warming East-Meets-West Story of a Boy and his Robot
Big Hero 6 is a magnificent mashup of Marvel-based Disney animation, Eastern and Western cultures, and the cities of San Francisco and Tokyo. Set in “San Fransokyo,” Big Hero 6 is an action-packed animated comedy adventure that finds robotics whiz kid, Hiro Hamada, forming a special bond with his personal companion robot called Baymax, while his diverse group of science-geek friends forms a band of unlikely heroes. Japanese- American actor Ryan Potter and Japanese CG Animator Matsune (Matt) Suzuki talked to Tokyo Journal shortly after the movie won the 2015 Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year.
Sex Pistols Featured
Sex Pistols
In the fall of 1976, I met the Sex Pistols for the first time when Malcolm McLaren took me to Club Louise in London. That same night, I also met The Clash, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Billy Idol and many of the people who went on to become the core of the infamous punk scene in England.
Shonen Knife
Shonen Knife
Pop Punk Trio Rock With 1,000+ Shows and 20 Albums Over 30 Years
The late Nirvana singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain was one of their biggest fans, saying, “When I finally got to see them live, I was transformed into a hysterical nine-year-old girl at a Beatles concert.” Formed in 1981, the Osaka-based all-female band Shonen Knife influenced ‘90s alternative acts like Sonic Youth and Redd Kross with driving beats, catchy melodies and simplistic lyrics about food and animals like “Banana Chips,” “I Am A Cat,” “Ramen Rock” and “Cannibal Papaya.” Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie carried out a backstage interview with singer/guitarist/founder Naoko Yamano, bassist Ritsuko Taneda and drummer Emi Morimoto prior to their October 2014 gig at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles.
Carl St. Clair
Celebrating a Quarter Century of ‘Good Conduct’ With Pacific Symphony
Carl St.Clair is one of the longest tenured music directors of a major American orchestra, celebrating 25 years at the helm of the Orange County-based Pacific Symphony this year. It is the largest orchestra formed in the last 50 years in the U.S. A graduate of the University of Texas, he went on to become a tenured professor at the University of Michigan and studied conducting under Leonard Bernstein and Gustav Meier as a Conducting Fellow at Tanglewood. He was the assistant director of the renowned Boston Symphony Orchestra with the legendary conductor Seiji Ozawa before joining Pacific Symphony. He is on the faculty of the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music and is the principal conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica. He has led symphonies in the largest cities of North America and he has appeared with orchestras in Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Israel and South America. Tokyo Journal’s Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie spoke with Carl St.Clair about his 25th anniversary.
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