Spread the Beat

[DarkSky]

Avex is not the problem. The problem are the publishers for most part, as they should seek for companies that would want to license the music. But they don't. So that's one thing that has to change.

Aren't most of the songs released on SEB given exclusivity to Avex?

For Asia. Yes.

[zoupzuop2]

At work, can't say much right now.

I wonder if Avex would benefit from adopting the Monstercat model? (Yes, they publish EDM and whatnot. That's not what's important, their publishing/promotion model is what I'm proposing here.)

[Mindsweeper]

DarkSky, your new sig is kind of huge...

[Wataru Akiyama]

DarkSky, your new sig is kind of huge...

Like xbox?

[Mindsweeper]

HUEGER

[otter87]

Avex is not the problem. The problem are the publishers for most part, as they should seek for companies that would want to license the music. But they don't. So that's one thing that has to change.

Aren't most of the songs released on SEB given exclusivity to Avex?

I can't answer this, but I would imagine if so, you wouldn't see the labels releasing the same tracks independently. Some of them even do so before they appear on SEB even when I'm sure Avex was already planning on using them for the series (Get Somebody To Love Him)

[Jay]

The "plan," if you want to call it that, has a number of faults.

First, my biggest concern is your claim that we need to get children interested in the genre. Did you forget that eurobeat lyrics are inundated with sexual innuendos and other unsavoury material, making it unsuitable for a younger audience? Every album has several songs with obvious innuendos; it is part of what makes eurobeat what it is. Even if you force labels to write tamer lyrics to attract this demographic, you cannot stop younger people from accessing older material. Parents will not allow it.

Second, there is an obvious postcolonial taint to your plan. I am not sure what you mean when you say that eurobeat needs to adopt "Western techniques" with respect to marketing and advertising, but in any case, why should it? Who is to say that these so-called "Western marketing tehniques" are better than Eastern ones, especially in Asia? I know you grew up in a culture that has attuned you to Western ideology, but that does not infer that your way of life is the best. Read up on postcolonialism sometime; you may be enlightened.

Third, and finally, I do not know why anybody would bother listening to you when you are jumping the eurobeat ship due to "lack of time." That sounds euphemistic to me. If you really cared about the genre, you would stick around and try to save it, would you not?

Eurobeat needs much more than a shoddy and rushed plan like this one to save it. As others have said, just let eurobeat live and die naturally and do not turn it into something that it is not. For all you know, you may just drive everybody away for good if you do.

[Akira]

I agree with some of the stuff on the plan. Especially I think what eurobeat needs is a bit more exposure. I'm sure eurobeat has plenty of potential listeners who will never know of its existance. And that's a pity.

I disagree with Jay when she says eurobeat cannot be sold to children. If I have understood DarkSky, the releases for children would be different from the regular releases. Just like Eurobeat Disney some years ago. I think that is not incompatible with the system eurobeat has worked until now. Not that I think eurobeat SHOULD be targetted to children, I just think it's an option compatible with Super EuroBeat and the releases we've had until now.

As most of the people here, I don't think eurobeat will ever be mainstream. Not that it matters, though. However, a wider audience (yet in the underground scene) definitely would be positive for the genre.

[synthjunkie]

I think what Avex should do to make Eurobeat popular again is to start promoting Eurobeat artists as independant artists with their own albums, such as they used with artists such as Nuage and her own album, among others. Another artist that could totally pull it off is Pamsy. Japanese maybe don't want compilations anymore with artists with fake aliases, they want artists they can look up to, watch on tv, and watch on interviews and personalize with, gossip about, etc. Give the eurobeat artists an image, a few music videos from each song of their own album, and promote it as such. If eurobeat looks cool, regardless of how it sounds to the ears, people will listen to it. Just look at other examples how people buy into looks first over sound. This means that eurobeat can still keep it's sound as long as it LOOKS cool on tv, magazines, official websites, commercials, etc. It has to cater to the youth of today, who are going for what is cool today, and not what their parents used to listen to.

First start off on a lower budget and have a eurobeat singer promote a new solo album through Avex on a popular TV show in Japan, and see how it sells. If it sells alot on the charts, then get other labels to join in and start releasing other solo artist albums as well. After they make enough money, they can budget for some better quality music videos and better advertising which will then generate even more sales. Get artists to participate in Japanese commercials. Japanese love seeing foreigners on their tvs. Just my thoughts..

The key is for eurobeat artists to stop being so transparent in Japanese media. Promote though looks, which sounds so bad, but seriously, looks, shock value, sex, that is what sells...however sad it is..But if eurobeat producers do not want to go down this avenue, I would totally understand since it is a risk.

[vinyl12]

First start off on a lower budget and have a eurobeat singer promote a new solo album through Avex on a popular TV show in Japan, and see how it sells. If it sells alot on the charts, then get other labels to join in and start releasing other solo artist albums as well. After they make enough money, they can budget for some better quality music videos and better advertising which will then generate even more sales. Get artists to participate in Japanese commercials. Japanese love seeing foreigners on their tvs. Just my thoughts..

Avex today is not that powerful in japanese music industry. For the last 5 years, It has been suffering from loss of earning and lack of opportunity for promoting its own japanese artists(especially since Girl Next Door's recordbreaking failure). Even Avex's most popular artists, such as Ayumi Hamasaki, Kumi Koda, AAA, get featured by broadcasting stations less than before(Hamasaki is virtually disappeared from TV). Then how can it make chances to get italians, totally unknown to japanese tv authorities, not able to speak japanese, not physically attractive or witty, on popular TV shows? No, even bigger or competitive record companies like Sony Music Japan or Universal Japan can't do that.

[drnrg]

bring back vinyl

[DarkSky]

bring back vinyl

That wouldn't solve a thing

[synthjunkie]

First start off on a lower budget and have a eurobeat singer promote a new solo album through Avex on a popular TV show in Japan, and see how it sells. If it sells alot on the charts, then get other labels to join in and start releasing other solo artist albums as well. After they make enough money, they can budget for some better quality music videos and better advertising which will then generate even more sales. Get artists to participate in Japanese commercials. Japanese love seeing foreigners on their tvs. Just my thoughts..

Avex today is not that powerful in japanese music industry. For the last 5 years, It has been suffering from loss of earning and lack of opportunity for promoting its own japanese artists(especially since Girl Next Door's recordbreaking failure). Even Avex's most popular artists, such as Ayumi Hamasaki, Kumi Koda, AAA, get featured by broadcasting stations less than before(Hamasaki is virtually disappeared from TV). Then how can it make chances to get italians, totally unknown to japanese tv authorities, not able to speak japanese, not physically attractive or witty, on popular TV shows? No, even bigger or competitive record companies like Sony Music Japan or Universal Japan can't do that.

We shouldn't underestimate what the Japanese find appealing towards Westerners. You will be surprised at what Japanese can find attractive, witty, popular, or whatever you want to call it when they see a Westerner.

Compare this to what in the West would be considered weird, unfashionable, not cool, ugly, stupid, etc if we saw people looking like that on TV.

Also Westerners are not expected to speak Japanese either, so that isn't the problem at all. Some Japanese might even find it strange if you can speak Japanese.

The problem as you say seems that Avex is not properly promoting any of their artists very well in the media, but if that could change somehow...

I still think a good option would be to promote the artists as solo Eurobeat Artists or as duos with their own proper image in the Japanese media (of course, still under Avex and all), with their own singles (possibly with various remixes on each single) and albums is a good option.

Some Parapara enthusiasts might hate this, but maybe today's crowd doesn't want to dance to the same style of music their parents once did (just as an example, would you want to dance to 70's or 80's disco music like some people's parents did in their youth?). Maybe parapara dancing needs to evolve too, just as its music has. Create something that today's young crowd wants to actually dance to. It makes no sense that Eurobeat's sound has evolved over the years, but the dance has been the same for like -- forever....

[eXtaticus]

-redacted-

[Bonkers]

^ So basically commercialize Eurobeat and take out the originality and characteristics of the genre to make it appeal to a certain age group? Here's what happens with age groups: They grow up. What may be cool now may not be cool 9 months from now. Leave Eurobeat as it is and let people come to it themselves!

Avex needs to buy TV airtime and start broadcasting commercials for the SEB albums. Instead of "music videos", the commercials could show club footage of para dancing. As far as this whole "Youth not wanting to dance to what their parents did", that argument is void. ALL EDM genres of today have roots in the past: House was House in 1995. Techno was Techno in 1995. Trance was Trance was in 1995. Sure, these genres have evolved throughout the years, but the point is, the genre itself was here, and the parents of today's youth danced to it just as the youth does now. Just because you go to a club/rave event doesn't mean all the songs you'll hear are from the current year. I just went to a rave 2 weeks ago and they had a tribal house set...that genre was pretty much dropped in the late 90s, but people YOUNGER THAN ME were bouncing around to it. One of my DJ friends plays old 90s/early 2000s Tidy Trax material and age groups of 16+ bounce around to it.

Para Para dancing is fine the way it is. If you want to evolve para para, stop packaging it up to Americans as "Anime convention showcases". ParaPara dancing needs to be "marketed" in the States just as it is in Japan: A nightlife event. WHY NOT market a promotion of teaching ParaPara in the States? Like a StarFire USA, or SEF-USA. The people behind these promotions could work with either a local rave promoter or club. ONLY make routines for the current SEB material so that consumers would have to purchase the albums. Then, start having an embedded para para dance sessions at the club/rave. Wa La! You've reached the masses AND given them an accessible outlet to reach the music.