Music Spotlight: All You Wanted to Know About AKB48

The past decade has been dominated by many K-Pop acts–PSY, to BIGBANG, to BLACKPINK, to BTS. Elsewhere, in Japan, the idol industry has been dominated by Japan’s largest girl group, AKB48. They have had more than a dozen songs sitting on top of Japan’s Oricon charts in the several years since their debut. However, their popularity has dipped in the past few years. In this post, a non-AKB48 fan talks about another non-AKB48 fan covering a video that chronicles their rise to fame.

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Music Spotlight: Jang Geun Suk’s “Let Me Cry” and “Amagoi” (雨恋)

Back in late 2011, I wrote a Music Spotlight post (FKA “Ni-Ongaku Spotlight”) highlighting a song released by South Korean actor Jang Geun Suk. At the time of writing he was the most desired actor Japanese fans wanted to see in the midst of the Korean Wave in Japan, trending above even AKB48, and performing at a sold out concert at the Tokyo Dome.

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Music Spotlight: Jang Geun Suk’s “Crazy Crazy Crazy”

Note: The following was written in November 2011, and it was originally for Jang Geun Suk’s single, “Let Me Cry”. In the time following the original publication of the post, he released his full album, “Just Crazy”, which includes Let Me Cry. However, for republication, I am going to include “Crazy Crazy Crazy” to highlight his aforementioned first album, released in 2012.

I wanted to talk about a popular Korean Wave actor who trends above all the others in Japan (in before AKB48) and had a sold out concert at the Tokyo Dome. His name is Jang Geun Suk (also written as Jang Keun Suk), who rose to fame after starring in the 2009 Korean drama, You’re Beautiful, and had a cameo appearance in the Japanese adaptation of YAB, Ikemen Desu Ne.

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