Friday, January 10, 2014
Fairies "Run With U" music video released
After only releasing one single in 2013, Fairies is back with a new single! I'm sure many Fairies fans besides me hope that they have a much better year in 2014, so let's look at how Fairies is starting the year!
Fairies released the music video for their new song "Run With U" on their YouTube channel today. I'm having mixed feelings about this one. On my first watch, I thought it sounded very rough. For one, Momoka (basically the lead singer of the group) sounds very odd when she sings low. Secondly, the music does not have a very pleasant sound, and in the bridge it slightly overpowers the vocals. Finally, the dance in the chorus was unimpressive compared to the rest of the dance.
However, upon my second listening, as always happens, it began to grow on me. I can appreciate the song for being a fun dance song with a strong melody in the chorus, and Momoka does find one good line near the end of the song. While the song isn't technically the best, I wouldn't mind listening to it every now and then as background music for my day.
Though the music video is little more than a collection of dance shots, the girls show that they have fun with what they do, and I do enjoy the contrast between the vibrant highlighter-colored outfits and the beautiful black-and-white clothes they wear. The over-sized striped jackets aren't really my thing, though.
I wish Fairies had had a much stronger start to their year, and to be honest I haven't been wow-ed by them since "Beat Generation". But still I hold onto hope that I will adore them just as much as I did when they made their debut.
(If you like this song, please support Fairies and pre-order their single from CDJapan.)
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Berryz Koubou's new song "1 Oku 3 Senman Diet Oukoku" performance on Hello! Project Station #49
With my new blog name, I'm also trying to produce a nice balance of news and opinions in my posts. I'm kind of just experimenting here so we'll see how this goes!
On today's episode of Hello! Project Station, many high-quality performances from the Hello! Project concert at Nakano Sun Plaza were featured. Each of the groups, including Hello Pro Kenshuusei, sang a song from their latest single, and we finally got a preview of Berryz Koubou's next single song: "1 Oku 3 Senman Diet Oukoku" (which is one of two A-sides).
I really like this song. It's got that cool, almost-electronic-but-not-quite sound that I think fits them very well (see "Heroine ni Narou ka!" and "WANT!"). Tsunku has been having a lot of fun with these dance, electro songs lately, and I will bet you money that Okubo Kaoru arranged this one. Some people think it's repetitive, but I say if it works, the fans love it, and it's done well, then I love this kind of sound!
The choreography is great, too; I especially love the part where they do the wave!
I can't critique the song too much right now because we haven't heard the studio version yet, but so far I've got high expectations for this, and I'm very interested to hear how the vocals are mixed. Maybe we'll get a music video soon?
Berryz Koubou's 10th anniversary of their debut is March 3 (my birthday!) this year, so I hope this single and their compilation album are successful!
(If you like this song, please support Berryz and pre-order the single from YesAsia)
On today's episode of Hello! Project Station, many high-quality performances from the Hello! Project concert at Nakano Sun Plaza were featured. Each of the groups, including Hello Pro Kenshuusei, sang a song from their latest single, and we finally got a preview of Berryz Koubou's next single song: "1 Oku 3 Senman Diet Oukoku" (which is one of two A-sides).
I really like this song. It's got that cool, almost-electronic-but-not-quite sound that I think fits them very well (see "Heroine ni Narou ka!" and "WANT!"). Tsunku has been having a lot of fun with these dance, electro songs lately, and I will bet you money that Okubo Kaoru arranged this one. Some people think it's repetitive, but I say if it works, the fans love it, and it's done well, then I love this kind of sound!
The choreography is great, too; I especially love the part where they do the wave!
I can't critique the song too much right now because we haven't heard the studio version yet, but so far I've got high expectations for this, and I'm very interested to hear how the vocals are mixed. Maybe we'll get a music video soon?
Berryz Koubou's 10th anniversary of their debut is March 3 (my birthday!) this year, so I hope this single and their compilation album are successful!
(If you like this song, please support Berryz and pre-order the single from YesAsia)
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Finding the Magic
For a long time this blog has been basically nameless. At first I was fine with this, because the simple "Shayna" at the top pretty much described the theme of my blog. But now it's time for a change…
I started this blog over a year ago as just a place for me to vent and share whatever I felt like talking about. I knew that no one really cared much about what I had to say most of the time, so I just said whatever was on my mind. And then the impossible happened: people started reading it. Oh, it wasn't a lot, and it's still not, but it was enough to make me realize that maybe this blog could be something more if I really put some effort into it.
For the past several months I've been asking myself questions like, "What kind of blog do I want to run?" and "What do I want to achieve by blogging?" Because, while writing depending on my mood was fun for a while, I began to grow bored with the lack of theme. Despite all this soul-searching, I couldn't come up with a single name for my blog. Normally when I'm stuck, I can at least come up with something awkward and cheesy as a placeholder, but I had literally nothing.
In my room, I have a very large collection of notebooks that I've acquired throughout the years, big and small. I use them for things like story- and song-writing, journaling, or just scribbling a quick to-do list. A couple of years ago, I was given a simple pink spiral notebook. Nothing particularly special about it, but this notebook became my new diary, and while I had tried to keep a journal before, I normal quit doing it regularly after about a month or even less sometimes. However, last fall, a very bad time for me emotionally, this diary became the only thing I had to talk to. I would be here all day if I told the whole story, but in short, this diary now means a lot to me. It is my most prized possession and I don't know what I would do if I ever lost it.
On the front of that notebook are the words "Find the magic in everything."
One day, when I was just looking at it, I realized that's what it's all about. It may just be a silly phrase from a cheap notebook, but I think it describes me quite well. I want to look for the positive in everything and everyone. Not that I'm a total optimist, but I like to be happy, and I like to look at the big picture of things and see how magical it is that everything in life just fits together so perfectly.
I think it describes my blog, too, in a way. I like to search through different groups and songs and find what I like and share what I like. Plus, since part of my blog is focused on magical girls, well… there's the magic right there!
So today I am officially renaming my blog Finding the Magic. I think it's cute and girly and adventurous and almost everything I want my blog to be.
Also, today I want to make it clear that my main focuses will officially be girl groups (from all countries) and magical girls (ditto). There's a lot I want to do with these concepts, and a lot of ideas that I have in mind, but I'm reminding myself to take it one step at a time for now. Today's step is the name, and a new layout.
The URL will stay the same, because, well... I like it. It may move eventually, but for now you can always find me at himynameisshayna. ;)
I love you all!
<3 Shayna
I started this blog over a year ago as just a place for me to vent and share whatever I felt like talking about. I knew that no one really cared much about what I had to say most of the time, so I just said whatever was on my mind. And then the impossible happened: people started reading it. Oh, it wasn't a lot, and it's still not, but it was enough to make me realize that maybe this blog could be something more if I really put some effort into it.
For the past several months I've been asking myself questions like, "What kind of blog do I want to run?" and "What do I want to achieve by blogging?" Because, while writing depending on my mood was fun for a while, I began to grow bored with the lack of theme. Despite all this soul-searching, I couldn't come up with a single name for my blog. Normally when I'm stuck, I can at least come up with something awkward and cheesy as a placeholder, but I had literally nothing.
In my room, I have a very large collection of notebooks that I've acquired throughout the years, big and small. I use them for things like story- and song-writing, journaling, or just scribbling a quick to-do list. A couple of years ago, I was given a simple pink spiral notebook. Nothing particularly special about it, but this notebook became my new diary, and while I had tried to keep a journal before, I normal quit doing it regularly after about a month or even less sometimes. However, last fall, a very bad time for me emotionally, this diary became the only thing I had to talk to. I would be here all day if I told the whole story, but in short, this diary now means a lot to me. It is my most prized possession and I don't know what I would do if I ever lost it.
On the front of that notebook are the words "Find the magic in everything."
One day, when I was just looking at it, I realized that's what it's all about. It may just be a silly phrase from a cheap notebook, but I think it describes me quite well. I want to look for the positive in everything and everyone. Not that I'm a total optimist, but I like to be happy, and I like to look at the big picture of things and see how magical it is that everything in life just fits together so perfectly.
I think it describes my blog, too, in a way. I like to search through different groups and songs and find what I like and share what I like. Plus, since part of my blog is focused on magical girls, well… there's the magic right there!
So today I am officially renaming my blog Finding the Magic. I think it's cute and girly and adventurous and almost everything I want my blog to be.
Also, today I want to make it clear that my main focuses will officially be girl groups (from all countries) and magical girls (ditto). There's a lot I want to do with these concepts, and a lot of ideas that I have in mind, but I'm reminding myself to take it one step at a time for now. Today's step is the name, and a new layout.
The URL will stay the same, because, well... I like it. It may move eventually, but for now you can always find me at himynameisshayna. ;)
I love you all!
<3 Shayna
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