Popular all-girls J-pop group “Morning Musume” welcomes their 1st (and 2nd) non-Japanese members to the group.
The 2 latest members of the band are Li Chun (李純, 19, pic on our left) and Qian Lin (銭琳, 16) from China.
Morning Musume (@ Morning Girls, @ Mōningu Musume etc.) is an interesting project by “Hello Project” agency. The members of the group are mostly teens, and are constantly reshuffled with older members retiring from the group (normally at around age 20) to expand their solo career (if chances are granted), while new members are constantly added to refill the spots.
Morning Musume has been very popular in Japan for the last decade, but I can’t recall any of its ‘retirees’ doing particularly well after going solo. A few Japanese superstars are however discovered from their auditions, such as Koda Kumi, Aya Matsuura and Mai Kuraki etc.
[Image courtesy of sanspo.com]
March 18th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
never heard about this group before…
March 18th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
the second one is 16?
aw cool.
:]
March 18th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
me too raybella i never heard bout them…lol
March 18th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Raybella and farah… I’m not surprise that people never heard of them before. They are not as famous in other nations compared to in Japan. Also the Japanese pop influence has dropped a bit across Asia in recent years.
-mimie… yupe, 16 as I read. They have (or had) members as young as 13 actually.
March 18th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
Not to sound too pessimistic, but I really think that’s a ‘convenient’ excuse for “Hello Project” agency to get rid of aging performers by saying they are being released to pursue solo careers. Maybe some of them will actually go on to do that but that’s really just their way of nicely telling them “get out, you’re too old now”. jmo
“Out with the old and in with the new”. The bulk of the singers keep getting younger and younger. Next thing you know they’ll be putting toddlers on stage. But I guess as long as it’s mostly the little 15 -16-year old (girls) who are spending Mom and Dad’s money on music and concerts, then they’ll keep catering to them.
LOL, you’re “over the hill” at 18 these days. :D….Sad really.
March 18th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
Oops, change that to be “over the hill” at 20, since that new girl, Li Chun is 19.
Lol,
Most singers don’t reach their full skill potential vocally untill age 25 or so.
Goes to show it’s more about image than developed talent nowadays.
March 19th, 2007 at 12:10 am
joe… true about the ‘retiring’ thing, it could be a reason to kick out some girls. Normally those that are more popular in the group are given solo chances or go acting before they retired from the group.
Japanese entertainment is a weird world… most of the idols started at early age. The all time best selling album in Japan should still be Utada Hikaru’s “First Love,” which she released when she was 16 if not mistaken. Another superstar Amuro Namie started at teen age too.
Ya it’s about packaging these days. Talent matters, but without a whole package… it’s never easy.
March 19th, 2007 at 2:25 am
You’re right on yummy. It’s all packaging.
Kiddos, enjoy your youth while you got it, cause these days, your’s is over alot sooner than past generations. As far as entertainment goes, once your out of your teens nowadays, you better have a back up plan. Or start shopping for a nice casket. lol (just joking guys, couldn’t resist, but it’s not too far from the truth).
Yummy you made the observation about Japanese and I’m not putting down Japanese by any means so please nobody get offended. Just an observation, but they seem to have this thing with an image of a “woman/child” in their female entertainers . But not just Japanese I’ve noticed…
I also saw a really “bizarre” Korean MV lately that showed a little girl about 5 or 6 years old, lip syncing to a woman’s voice singing. (maybe you know the one yummy). Seems I saw it on some Korean news blog. Even the Korean blogger said it remindied him/her of an “alien”. I thought that was a good description, it was freaky. lol.
The little girl had a real tight helment looking hairdo with perfect bains hugging and framing her face, wearing a high collar coat and singing in that woman’s voice. She was surrounded by all these grown men and women playing orchestra instruments I think. The camera was circling her the whole time. It almost had the look of some of these Korean horror films. Very dark and moody. What made it more eerrie, was that the song was all serious, adult and about a love relationship etc, and she actually shed a tear at the end. Great acting I guess but….whew.
March 19th, 2007 at 10:42 am
I am not putting down Japanese as well… but it’s a fact that they created the trend of teen idols in Asia. Other places these days are having younger idols as well… I am going to blame (or credit lol) Japanese for that.
Never seen the Korean video though… sounds freaky.
March 19th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Yep, I agree and I have no doubt alot of that came about during what I feel was the “westernization” of Japan for decades as they took alot of cues in entertainment from western world (for good and bad). Japan was definitly the first in Asia to adopt alot of western culture in general over the decades. Namely because they were so closely tied in business and trade etc. Alot of the other stuff spilled over as well, imo.
It’s all global nowadays…everything.
March 19th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
wow! they’re cute!
wei, umm, how is joo ji hoon toaday? what’s the latest news about him?
March 19th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
jore… I can’t remember writing about Joo Ji-hoon actually. Ermm you mean the Joo Ji-hoon from “Goong”? His latest TV drama has just released, something named “The Devil.” He is currently flying places to promote the drama…
April 6th, 2007 at 12:09 am
you look fine
April 11th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
this is crap.
chinese wannabe-japs?
i just cant STAND it…
they might be cute…
but now idk wut to say…
sighh
April 11th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
The world is going into globalization… there will always be cultural intercrossing, I can’t say it’s good or bad… but it’s happening.
June 3rd, 2007 at 3:53 am
I like how people are having an opinion here without knowing much about the culture(s) being discussed. Not that people have no right to opine but most of the comments here are so ethnocentric. Most of you are trying to see the world from your own culture. A lot of the things being said in these comments are unfounded. If you want to talk about world affairs and about other countries you need to look at things with an open mind and investigate a little before coming to a conclusion, kind of like Yummy and Joe.
June 3rd, 2007 at 9:54 am
Jake… most of the readers and commentors here are young people, lots of them just teens… so I am not expecting too much from them; as long as there are having fun, I’m fine with it.
They will always be people that only see things from their own perspective though (regardless of age)… from some other threads we can see strong hostility sometimes, which is kinda sad actually.