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October 17, 2005
Channel H Release Party
Hifana’s Channel H release party was held this previous friday, and it was a huge hit, completely sold out with people lining up outside in the off chance that they might somehow be able to get in. All of the guest musicians, singers, and MCs appeared live in their respective featured tracks from the album, keeping the whole performance interesting throughout, and keeping the kids going crazy the whole time. It was by far the largest, liveliest and best show I’ve seen them give, and as it’s often been my job, I’ve seen them perform a whole lot.
On that note, I’d like to go ahead and make a declaration that Hifana is poised to hit it extremely large in Japan, in a major pop way I think, and I find this to be a very positive thing. With charts in this nation chock-full of utterly tasteless, uninspired and superficial music, Hifana is (conceivably) part of some new force of popular Japanese music that isn’t terrible, and moreover, that is culturally relevant.
With a large percent of the youthful masses turning toward pot-smoking, reggae, slow life, and generally having fun as a serious lifestyle, Hifana–who embody all of these things–are in a perfect position to assume the role of the musical and cultural symbol of said qualities, wrapped in a ridiculously cool contemporary Japanese image which builds on and promotes it’s own culture, referencing things Japanese and doing so proudly.
Immediately after it’s release, Channel H was mentioned in a slew of media (Plus 81, Relax, etc.) perhaps the most telling of which was the free english-speaking expat magazine, Metropolis. I’m paraphrasing here, but if I remember correctly, the author basically placed Hifana and their new album as something of a crown jewel of current Japanese GNC. Okay, so that’s a catch word that’s been thrown around enough already–in fact I’ve now heard Japanese using it themselves to define their own culture and how it relates to the rest of the world (explanation to come in a later entry). Anyhow, the point is there is certainly a truth to it.
When I first came to Japan, GNC (though I hadn’t heard of it at the time) to me was Flyrec, Tujiko Noriko, Superflat, Iwai Toshio, Chiho Aoshima, Aoki Takamasa, and the list goes on and on. I soon found out that just as in my own culture, no one (relatively speaking) was really taking note of these people. While I’m quite aware of the fact that the sections of culture I associate with and pay close attention to are overlooked by 99.9% of people, Hifana has the opportunity to transcend this. The beautiful thing is that they probably don’t really care, though if they come to represent the ultimate symbol of Japanese slow life youth culture, their brand could then travel overseas as a portrait of contemporary Japanese cool, defining (and selling) the nation to a new generation of kids internationally.
Posted by shane at October 17, 2005 12:00 AM