Introduction Have you ever wondered what prompted the creation of your favorite Japanese music site? Who created it? Through this weekly series of interviews Keikaku hopes to shed some light on the motivation and driving personalities behind some of my personal choices for the best English language based Japanese music sites on the web. Created and maintained by Greg Bueno, Musicwhore has been around in its various forms since 1996. Trained as a journalist, Greg's objective editorial style provides a virtual encyclopedia of popular music. Musicwhore covers not only Japanese artists but also music in general, with profiles, news and reviews of such artists as Downy, Condor44, Port of Notes, The Killers, Björk and Youjeen. With the added feature of listening to these artists on one of Radio Musicwhore's stations, or targeting a specific artist's work covered in profiles and reviews with Audiobin, Musicwhore provides readers an informative and interactive experience. When asked "Please elaborate on what motivated your decision to create your site?" Greg replied, "But a more important part was using that journalism training on something I genuinely cared about. I really wanted to connect non-Japanese speakers with Japanese music, and the only way to do that was to break the language barrier." back to features		Best Japanese music sites... Musicwhore Can you remember your first reaction to listening to a Japanese artist? What were your initial thoughts? Greg Bueno [Musicwhore]: I was introduced to Japanese pop music in the early 1990s through anime, such as "Bubblegum Crisis" and "Megazone 23". I thought it was cool that I could listen to really well-written pop music in a foreign language. It forced me to concentrate on the other parts of the music -- melody, harmony, rhythm. It was a new way to listen. I was starting my classical music training in college at the time, so it was helpful. As you've become more knowledgeable about the Japanese music scene how has that effected your personal choice of artist? Greg: I'm pretty picky about what I listen to, and after a while, the anime theme songs just didn't do it for me anymore. Back then, it seemed Japanese music came in two extremes -- pre-packaged pop such as Nakamori Akina and Matsuda Seiko, or noise and punk along the lines of the Boredoms and Shonen Knife. I wanted to listen to something in between, something that rocked but you could sing to as well. When I ran across Cocco in 1998, I found what I was looking for. And Cocco made me crave for other artists doing their own thing. When you first looked for artist information on the web what type of English sites were available? What sites attracted you? What was it about these sites that made you a frequent visitor? What was lacking? Greg: Truthfully? I changed the focus of Musicwhore.org BECAUSE I couldn't find a web site in English that featured the bands I was interested in. Most of the English-run sites were fan pages on free servers riddled with pop-up ads, and they inevitably focused on visual bands -- X-Japan, Dir en Grey, Luna Sea. Paul Wheeler's Rock in Japan was the only site of its kind (as far as I could find) to cover indie and punk rock, and it was refreshing to see the breadth of his coverage. The design is a bit too chaotic for my taste, but that's just the web professional in me speaking! Rock in Japan is an incredible resource. I also ran across the Tomobiki.com J-Pop/J-Rock Guide, which was also helpful in the beginning, but the writing style came across as too opinionated. I've worked in newsrooms during and after college, and I wanted to find a site that had a more traditional editorial style. So I built one. To go from fan to reporting on the artists is a big step. Please elaborate on what motivated your decision to create your site? What has been your biggest challenge? Triumph? Greg: Actually, there's a large degree of self-interest in creating Musicwhore.org. I used the site as a way to learn about web database programming, and I also used it to keep my journalism training in shape after I decided to move from content production to software development. It's the biggest entry in my portfolio. But a more important part was using that journalism training on something I genuinely cared about. I really wanted to connect non-Japanese speakers with Japanese music, and the only way to do that was to break the language barrier. But if the music were to be taken seriously, I had to approach it like I would something that would get published in a newspaper. The biggest challenge, of course, was translating. By the time I started covering Japanese music, it had been a good five years since my last semester of Japanese class in college. I took Japanese all over again to dust off what I learned. (And it was something to do while I was unemployed.) After taking Japanese again, maintaining the site became much easier. Keeping the site running while I was either unemployed or earning minimum wage was another challenge. I can't say I'm in very good financial straits for keeping Musicwhore.org online, but at the same time, I wouldn't have been able to find a better-paying job without it. When deciding content what criteria and or who decides what your site will cover? What sources do you use for information? Greg: I rely a lot on Bounce.com, mainly because it too follows a print editorial style. I also visit Oops-music.com, but that site is run more like a community weblog. I also try to take note of what gets discussed in various forums. But I pretty much run Musicwhore.org on my own, so it's reflective of my own tastes. In that sense, the site isn't totally objective, and there are major holes in coverage. Asian Kung-Fu Generation is really big among rock fans right now, and I like them myself -- just not enough to devote the time to cover them in-depth. Have you noticed an increase in English pages being offered at many Japanese artist official sites and record companies? Do you have an opinion as to why this may be? Greg: Yes, I have noticed an increase in English-language content, and part of me wonders whether A&R reps at Japanese labels visit sites such as Keikaku.net, Project-J and Musicwhore.org. There's no way to prove it (well, maybe there is, but I sure don't have the time to do the research), but I think file sharing is pushing artists and management to address a global audience. Japan is the second largest music market in the world, and successful Japanese artists could conceivably make a living without having to break into the US. But file sharing and the Internet can produce tangible evidence of an artist's popularity outside of the country. And smart artists who want to target those pockets of worldwide audiences would do well to leverage the Internet to accommodate them. How do you see your site's contribution if any, in bringing recognition outside of Japan to Japanese artists? What does your site offer that other sites don't? Could you describe your dream site? Greg: If I were to pitch my site to venture capital investors, I'd call it a SonicNet for Japanese artists. (SonicNet was bought out by VH-1 a long time ago, so that reference is way dated.) I've avoided turning it into a community site because I wanted to create more of an encyclopedia than a forum. And I think most of my traffic comes from people looking up track listings and discographies. I'm not sure if Musicwhore.org really offers anything different from other sites. (I'm not counting the community or BitTorrent tracker sites because that's an entirely different league.) The technical end, I think, sets it apart, and I still try to write in either a newspaper or zine style. Finally I'd like to ask; what do you perceive to be the current state and focus of the Japanese music scene outside of Japan? Greg: (Let me know if I'm understanding this question correctly, but I'll take it to mean, how are Japanese musicians approaching audiences outside of Japan?) I'm not sure just how seriously Japanese musicians want to break into America. Japan is the second largest music market, so most Japanese musicians don't have much incentive to crossover. Keith Cahoon, who runs Tower Records in Japan, said as much a few years back during a SXSW panel. The pop artists who do want to crossover invariably fail because they don't choose their English-language material discriminately. I bought the English version of "Sing or Die" by Dreams Come True back in 1998, and I just couldn't bring myself to like it because the writing was plain weak. Although not Japanese, Coco Lee's English-language debut faltered for the same reason. And there's this perception in Japan that any US crossover HAS to be performed in English, which Pizzicato Five and Shonen Knife don't quite prove. Sony Entertainment learned the crossover lesson the hard way when the company attempted to export Matsuda Seiko to the US after buying up Columbia Records. It failed. So now, they're using the back channels of college radio -- by sending artists like Boom Boom Satellites and Puffy to the SXSW and CMJ festivals -- and anime -- by launching Tofu Records -- to reach audiences. But the hurdle every foreign band, whether they're from Japan or the UK or Mexico, faces is touring. In order to break America, you have to do face time. Mono, eX-Girl and Electric Eel Shock do most of their touring outside Japan, partly because Japanese audiences don't warm up to them but mostly because foreign audiences do, and they're going where the money is. Interview from 2005.02.24. Keikaku.net staff would like to thank Greg Bueno of Musicwhore for his participation in this interview. - Denise Smith
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