Introducing: EXILE TRIBE

EXILE TRIBE is another Japanese mess of brother- and sistergroups, units, collective units and subunits. But they're awesome. Their basic idea is that they have vocalists & performers separated - some members of the group are purely dancers. Here's a chart for you to understand the parts of EXILE TRIBE:

Simply: HIRO created J Soul Brothers, which became EXILE. Later, second (Nindaime) and third (Sandaime) generations of J Soul Brothers existed. THE SECOND from EXILE is basically the same group as Nindaime J Soul Brothers. There's also a unit called Generations (from EXILE TRIBE) and some other minor units. Many of these artists above are also part of the main group EXILE. E-Girls is short for EXILE Girls unit, and it consists of units Dream, Flower and Happiness as well as some original members.
EXILE TRIBE is a collective name for these units.
There was nothing simple about that.

What is simple is that their music is great. And that their "Short Versions"
of songs usually last for 5 minutes. It's heaven.

Introducing: FEMM

Betterly known as FEMM, Far East Mention Mannequins is a group everyone should know about. I, as well as many other fans of theirs, believe these girls will go viral at some point. It would not be a surprise, because everything about them is unique.

FEMM's concept is that they're plastic mannequins fighting for their rights, managed by their personal agents. They sing most songs completely in English. Decent English. Their songs are daring. I'm pretty certain their dances would have me taken to the hospital. They even have this gorgeous website built for interaction with fans.

Having debuted last april with the EP Astroboy, FEMM now has 13 music videos, if I understood right, for each of their songs. They released a full album, FEMM-ISATION in October.  It rocks.

One thing I love about FEMM is their funny and daring lyrics, like in Wannabe above, or Fxxk boys get money: "Gimme your number, Imma give that shit right back."

FEMM has also started a campaign called "DANCE IS NOT A CRIME."
and it's important.

Japan, until this day, has a law that basically forbids dancing after midnight, because somehow it's still associated with prostitution. Many clubs are troubled by this law, obviously. The Japanese mostly acknowledge this law is way out of its time, but nothing is done to it. Damn, let the people dance!

Do you think FEMM is awesome?

Listen to! May

Long post ahead. Mostly random thoughts. Hope you enjoy, please do comment ♥

First off. People are always talking about the big entertainment labels in South Korea, but can we talk about Japanese Avex Group for a moment? One actual musical powerhouse that is. I still haven't had time to get familiar with all their artists, simply because there are so many of them! They're really advanced both musically and visually. Avex is the current label to names like Gackt, Ayumi Hamasaki and Namie Amuro, as well as the Japanese base for artists like BoA, 2NE1, After School, Super Junior and U-Kiss. They're launching new artists all the time, god damn it. So often that they don't even have time to all of them - Da-iCE switched to Universal Music Japan some time back because Avex didn't have time for them. That's not nice.

Anyway, here's one great Avex group, VIVIVID, which you should totally check out if your taste is even close to mine.

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To other great music. I'm starting with BTL's Too-G. Nice song. But are these the guys that-- no, they're not them. They just look, sound and feel the same. Even the name of the group and the song sound familiar. Get over your everyone-needs-to-be "hiphop" groaning, South Korea.

Last up is the new Berryz song, which I do like a lot. It's another song that shows the skill of empathy Tsunku has. I really hope Berryz are, indeed, proud, because at least I'm very proud & thankful of them.

What's your favourite song right now?