What's obsession with unmasking Eurobeat artitst?

[drnrg]

I'm actually posting this for feedback. I got an email from a certain Eurobeat someone asking me what is the obsession with finding out vocalists' tru identities. They spend TIME comming up with names to give the genre more excitement. Furthermore that some really don't wanna be acsccociated with Eurobeat and when found out, leave.

Anyways, I really didn't see the big deal, but I have come accross some comments that some would rather remain anonymous. To me it's the same to know or not to. I do not have very good distinguishing abilities and often forget quickly.So what are some of the most common reasons you guys can think of...and NO, it wasn't Newfield nor D'all Ora who asked me this question.

[Cosmic_Bard]

People are interested in knowing as much as possible about their favourite musical artists... is it so hard to beleive that these people are doing eurobeat?

...and running away, shamed from eurobeat because you get discovered? If that's your attitude, I personally don't want you performing in the first place. Don't waste my time if you have no passion for your artform.

And anyone looking for feedback from this should know that we're not going to stop trying to uncover your identities anytime soon, so either get used to it or get out of the scene and go do some music you won't be so ashamed of.

[KitsuneStar]

People are interested in knowing as much as possible about their favourite musical artists... is it so hard to beleive that these people are doing eurobeat?

...and running away, shamed from eurobeat because you get discovered? If that's your attitude, I personally don't want you performing in the first place. Don't waste my time if you have no passion for your artform.

And anyone looking for feedback from this should know that we're not going to stop trying to uncover your identities anytime soon, so either get used to it or get out of the scene and go do some music you won't be so ashamed of.

I think that's a bit of an unfair comment, as most Eurobeat singers are doing it as an extra/side project.

It's NOT the type of music they love most, and typically got into it because a producer heard their voice and asked them to sing a eurobeat song for them. The fanbase they've built up in their chosen type of music is likely to abandon them once they find out that the singer is doing eurobeat, and that's going to take a lot of money out of their pocket.

I'm personally not going to ask these guys to expose themselves and risk their careers in the name of "Eurobeat Pride". (I may be curious, but I'd never demand to know, nor go out of my way to find out)

[Bore]

Singing in the first place puts you on the spotlight, don't really see any reason to why the fans wouldn't want to see or know more about the actual singers. It's the natural course of action in the media anyways, if there's a secret, it will be uncovered at some point.

To me it's more of a puzzle as to why it would be such a shame to be singing eurobeat. Or not get the credit for vocals.

[Nine]

When I was trying to find out as much as I could about Domino - it was part obsession part curiosity, and (later) part wanting to provide Eurobeat fans the opportunity to learn more about the person behind the vocals (hense the website). With co-operation of the poor receptionist I harassed at ABeatC years ago, Marcello, SCP, and Alessandra her - we got dominonline.net. That's who I just really wanted to know though.

I'm probably the last person on these forums who still don't know who half of these people are and what label they're from. Ask Amanda - whenever we're chatting about artists and she throws Italian names around, for those that aren't obvious I'm just like "...who?" lol Also, I bug Panu with what artist is what label. Outside Go Go's Music these days I'm clueless.

I assume that with American music culture, we know absolutely every god damn thing about artists - I guess that need to know follows us with this genre as well.

I know that I like to know at least what the singer looks like - for some reason is really bugged me when I had no idea what Lolita looked like when I first started to listen to her stuff. That just goes with everything with me, I hate not being able to put a face to a person in any situation. I still have to bug my friend to give me a picture of this person she constantly talks about. lol

It's sad to hear people who do Eurobeat quit after being 'discovered.' The mentality of not wanting to be outed in this situation really confuses me, it's like those celebrities saying "I hate all the attention, pictures, stories etc." to a lesser degree of course. With the Internet and globalization and all that stuff, even if you're half way around the world - if you do something that will create an interest in some sort of fanbase, you'll get your face seen or some information discovered. Even if it's seemingly anonymous enough as lending your voice to a side project under some random alias.

[Sadie]

When I was trying to find out as much as I could about Domino - it was part obsession part curiosity, and (later) part wanting to provide Eurobeat fans the opportunity to learn more about the person behind the vocals (hense the website). With co-operation of the poor receptionist I harassed at ABeatC years ago, Marcello, SCP, and Alessandra her - we got dominonline.net. That's who I just really wanted to know though.

I'm probably the last person on these forums who still don't know who half of these people are and what label they're from. Ask Amanda - whenever we're chatting about artists and she throws Italian names around, for those that aren't obvious I'm just like "...who?" lol Also, I bug Panu with what artist is what label. Outside Go Go's Music these days I'm clueless.

... Then I accidently call Nuage 'Daniela', and you freak-out on me with "OMG IT'S DENISE GET IT RIGHT" haha. But what dearest Phil says is true.

I also have to agree with the website thing - when I first got into eurobeat I noticed so little was known about the vast majority of the artists. Little bits of information were here-and-there. That's why I made my site, so more could be collected in one spot for fans about a certain artist. But Mega NRG Man was the only artist I really wanted to know more about. Learning about other artists over the past years has been a bonus for me, so it seems.

I, for one, am not as curious as many are regarding discovering new vocalists. I'm only curious regarding the artists that have been around since the mid-90's. I say it depends on the individual artist - if they want their identity left unknown (or) to be discovered. I can understand how their sales might go down due to their 'experiments' in/with the Japanese music market. And we all have different interests in music essentially, so I say that's fine.
Panu's puzzle comment made a lot of sense to me as well, as-to why fans are so curious.
HOWEVER - If a person sings a few songs that I like in eurobeat, but is also involved in other genres, I would be curious to hear them. Example - Luca Torchiani also does pop and dance music. "Santek Photograph" is a GREAT song, but without his eurobeat, I would probably never have heard it - let alone him. Would this not help any given artist a person hears and likes, with sales?

In the end, it's up to the individual. As stated earlier, pursueing each and every eurobeat singer is not a big interest of mine. Only the few I really enjoy, but know little about.

[drnrg]

I beleive in respect and It bugs me also to know that some artists don't really care for the genre they sing, weather it be for money or not, but can any of you guys actually think of an artist who just stopped singing Eurobeat, once they were found out, because I can't

[jeurobeat]

In the early days, eurobeat used to be a safe, secure place for session singers who didn't want to become public property. They could just do their job without being exposed. It was a win-win situation: they could make some money while maintaining their privacy, and we were able to listen to songs with good vocals. I don't see what the problem is!

It's nice that the vocalists who don't mind, expose themselves to the listeners of the genre. However, it's utter crap that some people here demand the vocalists to expose themselves, especially when I only see aliases on forums like this, instead of real names. I think it's only natural for vocalists to leave the eurobeat biz if their privacy is not respected by some of their so called "fans".

[Jay]

To be honest, all of these "unearthing the identity of X" topics really bore me and most of the time that's all this forum is based around: posting MySpaces, photographs and personal websites of the vocalists (which I'm sure some don't appreciate). And who really cares if you don't know who the vocalist behind an alias is? If the song sounds great then that's all that should matter.

I'm sure most people remember the Tobias Sammet/Ace Warrior debacle that transpired years ago. Such a situation clearly showcases the level of harassment that people are willing to go through to get the information they want.

Many people from here constantly used to e-mail A-Beat C demanding to know who the man behind Ace Warrior was and some even tried to contact Sammet personally (who, through rumours and insider information, was the main man presumed to be Ace Warrior). Some certain members here took part in the charade to the point of harassment, which resulted in Sammet feeling extremely ticked off. The truth never fathomed either.

It really is unfair on the vocalists involved and also those being falsely accused who need to put up with the shit. Of course, there is a fine line between 'curiosity' and 'obsessive', but it's scary how much is known about some of the vocalists when I'm sure they never intended for their fans to know much, if anything, about them in the first place.

[cheeseman]

OK, guys...

Since some people aren't really fond of what I've been doing for the past year or so, I might as well stop doing this.
If Eurobeat is a shame to some vocalists, well... I don't want anyone to quit the business because of me.
However, I don't think discovering their real identities has anything to do with privacy.
Are we interested in who they are dating or what they eat for breakfast? Not really.

I find the whole thing hard to believe.
For example, I'm going to order Broken Melody's album once it's released on CD...
And I would never know about them if it weren't for Francesco Palmieri's Eurobeat work.
Isn't that additional publicity for the artists?
I was actually planning to post a topic to promote non-Eurobeat work of all Eurobeat artists.

Oh, and one more thing.
Even though I didn't want to post this yet because it's far from being complete, here's what I've been working on recently:

http://cheese.republika.pl/catalogue.xls

This was going to be the most accurate listing of all Eurobeat songs ever made, including the most obscure ones.
I was planning to assign catalog numbers, authors, producers and vocalists to each track.

However, if you think I should stop the research, it's OK with me... Just let me know.
Maybe I should put up a poll or something?

[para_rigby]

I personally have no probably wanting to know who sings under what alias. If I didn't want to know, I wouldn't have been able to personally email back and forth with Luca Torchiani (thanks to Laurent, of course). I think it's very interesting to know what other kinds of music that our favorite singers are involved in...like Stefani Martin for example: found her website and a great jazzy ballad mp3 my roommates and I love.

Of course, if we harass them, that's just plain dumb. I guess I came in late on the Ace Warrior thing, but I can't believe people bugged A-BEAT C so damned much about it. I would really like to know who sings under Kiki & Fancy, but I'm not gonna harass SCP about it to the point of pissing them off. I love those guys...

My long four cents.

[Cosmic_Bard]

To be honest, all of these "unearthing the identity of X" topics really bore me and most of the time that's all this forum is based around: posting MySpaces, photographs and personal websites of the vocalists (which I'm sure some don't appreciate).

If it's a publicly available site, no one should be crying if it gets posted around.

And who really cares if you don't know who the vocalist behind an alias is? If the song sounds great then that's all that should matter.

No one has a gun to your head, forcing you to read those posts.

I'm sure most people remember the Tobias Sammet/Ace Warrior debacle that transpired years ago. Such a situation clearly showcases the level of harassment that people are willing to go through to get the information they want.

Many people from here constantly used to e-mail A-Beat C demanding to know who the man behind Ace Warrior was and some even tried to contact Sammet personally (who, through rumours and insider information, was the main man presumed to be Ace Warrior). Some certain members here took part in the charade to the point of harassment, which resulted in Sammet feeling extremely ticked off. The truth never fathomed either.

I remember him being rather amused by the whole situation, laughing it off. He thought it was funny people guessed he was singing for some tracks.

It really is unfair on the vocalists involved and also those being falsely accused who need to put up with the shit. Of course, there is a fine line between 'curiosity' and 'obsessive', but it's scary how much is known about some of the vocalists when I'm sure they never intended for their fans to know much, if anything, about them in the first place.

Any information we get or are told is all public knowledge. We're not breaking into Italian government offices and stealing drivers license photos.

[#Infinity]

Cheeseman, don't just stop the Eurobeat Catalogue. I'm quite interested to know more about the labels' history, even if the vocalists remain a mystery.

[Nine]

cheese - i think it would be a shame if you stop what you're doing. if you do, I might as well close down dominonline.net (even though i dont update it ), amanda should close down her meganrgman website, panu should close down eurobeat-prime, etc.etc. hey, let's close down myspace while we're at it.

I personally don't recall the Ace Warrior thing - maybe because I have little to no interest in Ace Warrior to begin with. lol

I dunno, this whole thing is a hard concept to grasp, especially since the majority of Eurobeat's momentum over the past 5+ years has been due to the Internet. I don't believe a professional would be so ignorant to the fact that their name and photo could appear if they lend their voice to a "popular" genre with an established fanbase. All they have to do is deny it, if it really bothers them. It's not like such a 'scandal' would hurt their 'other' career, whatever they do.

[cheeseman]

Thanks for the support, guys!
I just need to make sure that I'm doing the right thing and not ruining the lives of artists who are ashamed of singing Eurobeat...

By the way, Bore, are you able to export the EP database to Excel (or something similar) and send it to me?
I only need the tracks with credits. That would help me a lot with my project