I remember being a college student in Hirakata City, Osaka, Japan, when
a young 19-year-old female singing sensation hit the Japanese music
charts with her single First Love, which sold over 7 million copies.
When her first Japanese album called First Love, was released in Japan,
the whole country became engrossed in Utada-mania as her album became
the highest-selling CD in Japanese music history. It was the same
experience as being a kid in 1980’s American when Michael Jackson’s
Thriller came out and took the country by storm. With both artists, you
had people everywhere who owned the album and had a definite opinion.
Part of the success of First Love as a single was the fact that Utada
was bilingual and able to flawlessly switch between singing in Japanese
and English. Previous Jpop stars had thick accents when singing in
English; but not Utada.
Utada was born in New York City in 1983 to musician parents. She
recorded her debut CD under the name Cubic U, Precious, and it went
unreleased in the United States for a couple of years. She moved to
Tokyo to attend the American School in Tokyo that still has an excellent
English language curriculum. After graduating, she released two singles,
Automatic and Movin’ On Without You that achieved tremendous success on
the charts and when First Love debuted, Utada was a major star in Japan.
Part of Utada’s success is the fact that she doesn’t want to be a just a
cute-looking idol singer that dances around and lip-synchs like a
Britney Spears. In fact, on the video for Bohemian Summer, 2001, Utada
starts to sing and messes up and apologizes to the audience and then
asks the audience if it's OK to go back and start again. I have never
seen a singer do that and actually appear to care for her audience.
Another aspect of Utada is the fact that she writes her own songs and
just doesn’t allow a Japanese music producer to write a bunch of hits
for her. A lot of Jpop singers do that with the results lacking any
kind of personality and look into the artist’s thinking when you read
their lyrics. It's this type of authentic approach that can appeal to an
international audience, which is growing more cynical and always looking
for fakes.
I was also fortunate to see the release of Utada’s second Japanese album
called Distance that contained the singles Wait & See: Risk, Addicted
to You, For You/Time Limit, and Can You Keep A Secret?. Distance was
also a major hit within Japan but also with a growing group of niche
International fans. Several of my classmates that were learning
Japanese went out to buy Distance and that album showed me what was to
come.
Since Distance, Utada has tried to break into the US market with the
disastrous Exodus that had the single Easy Breezy that was such a
letdown from her past Japanese singles. Easy Breezy contains one of the
worst lyrics in any recorded song with the line: "You’re Easy Breezy and I’m Japanesey."
The problem here is a similar problem that Jackie Chan had trying to
make it in the US, when Asian entertainers cross over they are paired
with American producers who try to alter their abilities to fit in with
the U.S. market. The results of this localizing produces awful products
and do a disservice to the artists involved. If American producers
would leave Asian entertainers alone and not try to add Western
influences that look silly, the results would be much better. A lot of
times these people have no idea why someone is popular in Asia as when
James Glickenhaus was directing Jackie Chan in The Protector and telling
Chan to act like Clint Eastwood. Chan is a comedian and the stiff
approach of Eastwood did not work at all. Matsuda Seiko, a popular 80’s
Japanese singer had an equally bad experience when she tried to break in
the US and failed. Seiko wasn’t properly advertised and marketed in the
US and, once again, paired with music producers who had no idea of how
to work with a Japanese artist and also muddled the creative process so
much that whatever music was recorded and released was a total failure
from the beginning.
I get the same dissatisfied feeling after listening to Utada’s third US
English language CD, This Is The One, which contains bad lyrics, overt
sexual content (which doesn’t work for Utada), and brainless music
producers that are trying to groom an Asian Star for the Western market.
I recently saw on YouTube Utada singing Come Back to Me on American TV
and her performance was stiff and awkward. She lacked the energy and
playful dances from her Bohemian Summer concert. I’m not sure is she
was advised to appear that way by mindless PR people or if she is
changing herself for an American audience, whatever the reasons, it just
doesn’t work.
One trend I have noticed is that all of Utada’s US releases have modest
success here and then when they get exported to Japan have tremendous
success on the Japanese music charts. However, her Japanese releases
all do well in Japan and have International success with a small group
of niche fans who are not demanding that a singer sing in English. I
think her Japanese albums are better because in Japan she has creative
control and she already has a large fan base that allows her to
experiment and come up with interesting music. For This Is The One,
Utada comes across as trying to compete with Beyonce and Britney Spears
and her real singing ability is suffering as a result.
This Is The One had favorable reviews from several different music
critics. Part of this is probably the fact that those critics didn’t go
back to listen to her Japanese releases which contain better music,
lyrics, songwriting, and most importantly, singing.
Utada still has a major chance for the US and International market as
her tour dates for the US are currently selling out for next year’s
tour. I would go see her even if she was singing her second-rate US
hits but I would rather hear her Japanese songs.
If Utada had better marketing, and music producers that would leave her alone, I
believe she has the talent and it's just a matter of bringing the right combination
of people together to work on it.
"The Asian Aperture" is ©2009 by Jason Fetters. Webpage design and all graphics herein (except where otherwise noted) are creations of Nolan B. Canova. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2009 by Nolan B. Canova.