The year 2000 as envisioned in the year 1910
In 1910, French artist Villemard produced a series of illustrations depicting what life might be like in the year 2000. Yeah, he pretty much nailed it
en el año 1910, así se creía que se les iba a enseñar a los niños en el 2000.
(Source: adras)
Today marked the release of Pamyu Pamyu Revolution, the debut full-length from Harajuku-fashion-blogger-turned-model-turned-pop-star Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. Her arrival on the J-Pop scene hasn’t been a muted affair - for the past month, her photo has graced magazines (I counted five at the local 7-11), television and billboards. Warner Music Japan president Keiichi Ishizaka called her an “artist to watch in 2012,” and strangest of all was when her album finally became available - I saw more people tweeting about its arrival than any other J-Pop album of the past year, and these people lived in the West. She’s become popular in Japan and, thanks to her eye-popping videos, something talked about in the West, even if it’s just snarking material for blog comment sections.
To celebrate her album’s release, Pamyu and Warner Music held a special free live show in Harajuku yesterday…an event I didn’t know would be happening until about noon of the day of, when I saw someone post something about it on Tumblr. Despite not getting much sleep the night before and losing my voice earlier in the day - my regular job, English teacher, requires me to talk loudly a lot, and it finally caught up with me this week - I decided the price was right and I would try going to this show. Once the final school bell rang, I rode the subway over to Harajuku.
The Pamyu Pamyu concert was held at Laforet Harajuku, a shopping complex which I figured would be in the heart of the Harajuku everyone knows about through magazine photos and Nicki Minaj’s fashion choices, the part of town where Pamyu got her start. It wasn’t though - it was in the ritzy part of Harajuku, minutes from designer purse stores and the new Ben And Jerry’s which has prompted two-hour-long lines.
Her show would be held on the sixth floor of Laforet. Once I got up there, I figured this concert would be more exclusive than I thought as about three security-looking types milled about the entrance. The first two people I saw enter…two men wearing denim jackets…flashed their cell phones at the potential bouncers, so I thought you needed some sort of invitation to get in. More people started coming and they didn’t show anything, though, and once I saw regular high-school students streaming in I just went for it.
My walk up the stairs was going smoothly until one of the officials at the front galloped after me. “Do you have an invitation?” I told him no, but he said “ah, OK” and let me through. Initially I thought I had just gotten lucky until I got inside and realized he must have thought I was an important person because…I was very out of place at this show. Most obvious, I was the only non-Japanese person there, and also the least fashionable. The Warner officials, in nice casual clothes, hung towards the back. The front, meanwhile, was occupied the Harajuku diehards wearing every shade of pink imaginable and sporting eyeball pinky rings and over-sized hair bows that should have tipped them over. Before the show started, an MC announced they would be having a Kyary Pamyu Pamyu cosplay contest, which is when I noticed the handful of people who came to this dressed up as Pamyu - from her various magazine shoots or her music videos.
Soon enough, the lights dimmed and the stage (pictured, poorly, at the top) came to life. It was supposed to be like a child’s playroom, with giant letter-engraved building blocks with tops that flapped and a few giant teddy bears. One bear’s head rotated completely around, likeThe Exorcist. Capping it all off were what appeared to be purple tentacle jutting out of the middle of the stage.
Note: Warner was very diligent about stopping people from taking photos, so…this bad shot of the stage is all you get. Sorry!
We were told that the only way to draw Pamyu out to perform was if we shouted out “Kyary!” once, really loudly. The audience did, and out she came wearing an oversized bow and a dress she later said was inspired by Rubik’s Cube, albeit more pastel. She launched into her latest single “Candy Candy,” and the crowd (sorry) ate it up.
Live, Pamyu puts on a surprisingly solid show, albeit in ways I didn’t expect. The beat becomes much louder and dominating live than it does on her recorded material, giving her music-box pop more oomph. This might say more about me being cynical, but I was surprised to also see her actually singing along with her songs, with her mic feed louder than the pre-recorded track cued up for each number. A group like the techno-pop trio Perfume…produced by the same guy who does Pamyu’s music…barely hide the fact they are lip synching live, and plenty of other big-time J-Pop acts do the same live. Pamyu, not nearly as big, might have to prove herself, but she’s still established herself enough to get away with some synching…yet she didn’t
Her attitude onstage was just as surprising. From her videos, I expected a really lively and jubilant character, but live she leaves all the hyper-extensive dancing and mugging to her gaggle of backup dancers - who, in my notes, I called “technicolor Hamburglars,” except they didn’t have the hat so throw that one out. Instead, Pamyu looked serious and at times detached…it struck me as trying to appear too-cool for the situation at hand. Critically, though, she didn’t let that carry over to her interactions with the fans - whenever she interacted with the audience, she became bubblier and livened up significantly. The crowd loved her, and seemed enthusiastic to hear whatever she had to tell them, whether it was instructions to do a dance for the next song or to shill for Kentucky Fried Chicken, who she just started doing ads for. She would make a great cult leader, and that’s not a knock - she has a weird charisma and charm that makes people want to follow her, and it bleeds into her music.
The set didn’t last that long - 30 minutes at most - but she played all of her big singles, including “Pon Pon Pon,” which sent all of us (and, yeah, this included unfashionable me, trying to act cool but unable to deny how much I like “Pon Pon Pon”) into a tizzy. She said she had to go, the crowd did the usual Japanese thing of shouting out “ehhhhhhhhh?” but then applauded. Then the more casual fans - which is to say, the more casually dressed fans - left while everyone else, the hardcore Harajuku types (and, uh, me, in too-big slacks) stuck around to see the results of the Pamyu Pamyu cosplay contest.
After a few minutes, the crowd summoned Pamyu once again (“Kyary!”) so she could hand out prizes to the five best cosplayers. What came next was the sort of scene that a few years ago I would have been deeply cynical about…I mean, cosplay! At a concert!…but was touched by. As the winners came onstage to claim their gift bags, each one of them got emotional at the prospect of standing near Kyary, and eventually shaking her hand. The one dude who entered the cosplay contest was visibly very nervous, while the five-year-old girl who dressed up as Kyary (which: dawwwwwwwww) did what any toddler would do when meeting someone they look up to - freeze up. The winner shed a few tears. It was a reminder of how much pop stars can mean to certain people, especially folks who are part of a community seeing one of there own achieve nation-wide success. Strange as it sounds, that was probably the best part of the show.
Stay tuned, as next week I will actually be reviewing her album for The Japan Times. Yep, I’ve fallen into a Pamyu Pamyu blackhole.
Thank you so much for the fan account of Kyary’s Harajuku live! I wish I could’ve made it. I’ll make sure to post a link to your “Pamyu Pamyu Revolution” article here as well. :)
And you were right, you were actually supposed to have an invite because the fans who were invited all had to dress up as Kyary Pamyu Pamyu to get in haha. You were only allowed to come if you said beforehand that you were going to dress up like Kyary because they were having the cosplay contest. Lucky you gets the free pass for being a gaijin :P
-Ringo
