I know that the age difference between these musicians and Drum Corps International (22 max age) is vast, but the marching band show had me thinking about how much fun I used to have watching the DCI championships on PBS with my late brother back in the '80s, and set me to looking for a modern show that could give me a sense of the current state of DCI showmanship:
https://youtu.be/8EktPlyf7Ok?si=CEO9hjqJqB4bRi5d
Bluecoats: Downside Up 2016 performance.
Their 2014 show - Tilt - is also pretty amazing from a technical standpoint as they are performing the whole thing at an angle to the field markings, which seems like it would take a ton of practice to pull off consistently. I liked the music for the 2016 show a little better, though, so that's what you get.
2025-12-14 19:44:14
I always think of noise rock, math rock, and post-rock when I think about influential Japanese musicians: MONO, Toe, Boris, Merzbow - all hugely influential far beyond Japan itself. (I'm tempted to throw Sigh into the mix as well, with their avant-garde black metal catching some of that noise and dada influence.)
It seems to me that Japanese rock splits itself into the groups that are coming at things from an Idol influenced direction - having a huge emphasis on visual presentation and fandom - and the more otaku side that is dedicated to exploration of some aspect of music with willful disregard for the Idol ethos.
I would say that I prefer the latter over the former, but I listen to a lot of BABYMETAL, so I am not immune to the charms of the idol aesthetic.
2025-12-14 01:53:05
cleek - that one is fun. For Japanese post-rock I think the grandmasters are probably MONO.
https://youtu.be/hlh6-M04pt0?si=IcY6ROkql4hsqP7P
2025-12-12 19:05:06
Interesting. I'm fairly familiar with how China does their music education because of the music writing class I've taught. There the emphasis is more on testing and certification than on ensemble playing. I'm sure that there must be a lot of young people who did the lessons and found something they loved, but most of the students who have written essays about their experience complain that it was too much about technical ability and challenge, and not nearly enough about play. They were pushed into it by their parents in order to have an objective certification of their diligence and discipline. Expression was secondary. Their stories are mostly about rediscovering music and learning to love it only after they had either refused any further lessons, or crashed and burned out of the competitive testing at a lower level of proficiency. They only learned to love playing after they came back to it with no outside pressure to excel.
Are there parallels in Japan, or is this one of those cultural differences over how each nation expresses their collectivity?
I know that the age difference between these musicians and Drum Corps International (22 max age) is vast, but the marching band show had me thinking about how much fun I used to have watching the DCI championships on PBS with my late brother back in the '80s, and set me to looking for a modern show that could give me a sense of the current state of DCI showmanship:
https://youtu.be/8EktPlyf7Ok?si=CEO9hjqJqB4bRi5d
Bluecoats: Downside Up 2016 performance.
Their 2014 show - Tilt - is also pretty amazing from a technical standpoint as they are performing the whole thing at an angle to the field markings, which seems like it would take a ton of practice to pull off consistently. I liked the music for the 2016 show a little better, though, so that's what you get.
I always think of noise rock, math rock, and post-rock when I think about influential Japanese musicians: MONO, Toe, Boris, Merzbow - all hugely influential far beyond Japan itself. (I'm tempted to throw Sigh into the mix as well, with their avant-garde black metal catching some of that noise and dada influence.)
It seems to me that Japanese rock splits itself into the groups that are coming at things from an Idol influenced direction - having a huge emphasis on visual presentation and fandom - and the more otaku side that is dedicated to exploration of some aspect of music with willful disregard for the Idol ethos.
I would say that I prefer the latter over the former, but I listen to a lot of BABYMETAL, so I am not immune to the charms of the idol aesthetic.
cleek - that one is fun. For Japanese post-rock I think the grandmasters are probably MONO.
https://youtu.be/hlh6-M04pt0?si=IcY6ROkql4hsqP7P
Interesting. I'm fairly familiar with how China does their music education because of the music writing class I've taught. There the emphasis is more on testing and certification than on ensemble playing. I'm sure that there must be a lot of young people who did the lessons and found something they loved, but most of the students who have written essays about their experience complain that it was too much about technical ability and challenge, and not nearly enough about play. They were pushed into it by their parents in order to have an objective certification of their diligence and discipline. Expression was secondary. Their stories are mostly about rediscovering music and learning to love it only after they had either refused any further lessons, or crashed and burned out of the competitive testing at a lower level of proficiency. They only learned to love playing after they came back to it with no outside pressure to excel.
Are there parallels in Japan, or is this one of those cultural differences over how each nation expresses their collectivity?