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bmsgTranslation of Apartment B, Episode 7 (2024.06.12)
Note 1: Music industry referred to henceforth refers to the JP music industry
Note 2: Any currency or money referred to henceforth refers to JP yen
In the last 20-ish minutes of BMSG's latest music TV show, "Apartment B", SKY-HI was one of the guests on the show. The theme in the last portion was around "issues in the music industry". Random people on the street, music insiders, artists and musicians were interviewed on what they saw were issues in the JP music industry.
SKY-HI also shared some of his thoughts and the episode turned out to be really interesting for me, personally!
LEO (Ali): So when’s SKY-HI coming on [to Apartment B]?
[And he talked about how boss always planned on appearing, to talk about things he sees in the industry. LEO (Ali) sent a survey to people around him for questions they wanted to ask boss]
LEO (Ali): This is the first time paper has appeared on this show, lol. We don’t have a script [for Apartment B]
🌞: That’s true, to think we’d have paper appear on here 🤣
On cancel culture:
- Something about the Olympics and the song “Imagine” being used and people being against it…?
- Something about SALU saying there’s very few rappers who sing about [their] failures in the industry (in his song “Fxxk You”) – boss found that very cool.
First group (three guys): There are a lot of idols who sing well, but when they’re on TV it seems like they’re lip synching
Second group (two girls): In KR, everyday there’s a different music show program, how come there’s so few music shows in Japan?
Third (one girl): I think the timing of when BE:FIRST’s CDs drop is great. For most students, it’s like we’ve saved up enough money and the next CD is coming out
ALL: 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
LEO (Ali): You planned that?!
🌞: No I didn’t! 😂
Mani (MV producer): If there’s an extra 100K ~ 200K to the budget, the quality [MV] can completely change. If there’s cars, we can find cooler ones; or if it’s a five-member band we can spend 20K on each person. Major labels don’t pay us, basically, I can kind of understand that. But I think there are a lot of artists who are willing to pay, if they can…
X-shi with voice-changer: I worked at a certain major label under promotions and management. There are a lot of music awards given out in Japan, so everyone, of course, works hard and does their best to earn those awards… But the award-winning artist [I was involved with] disbanded within a few years. It’s also not unheard of for artists to debut in KR after their group disbands. Probably, for artists who get Billboard #1s, I have a feeling these are the people who are dominating the domestic awards race in KR.
If possible, I would like award races (in JP too) to have some influence and reach overseas. I think that would make the music industry a lot more exciting.
LEO (Ali): Ohhh, that cut deep!
🌞: There was a lot in that!
LEO (Ali): On music awards… I was thinking CreepyNuts is insane. They’ve held that #1 for weeks and even reached overseas… I was thinking there should be a lot more buzz around it, domestically.
LEO (Ali): There should be a lot more news on it! Like “Let’s do it!”, “We did it!” that kinda thing.
🌞: There are a lot of KR-driven companies that produce dance and vocal groups, but there isn’t this sense of rivalry. STARTO groups appeared in our event [DUNK], LDH… Seniors [from the industry], Miura Daichi.. Everyone wants to go overseas, dance and vocal groups. It’s the same for hip hop isn’t it? BAD HOP too, that created a lot of discussion (on-screen text said the group held their last live before their disbandment at Tokyo Dome).
(something about the country coming together..? Not sure about this part)
🌞: So the music industry is not only in a tight spot, but also there are a lot of chances. Whether for CreepyNuts or YOASOBI, they got their big hits through anime. I think that’s great. Even though we’re in a pinch, there are still opportunities.
LEO (Ali): It’s like the world has found that Japanese music is interesting.
LEO (Ali): Even though we think “Ahh, it’s gotta be English!” but Japanese can be interesting too. Even on Spotify, the most popular song isn’t English.
🌞: There are a lot of Hispanic artists.
LEO (Ali): It’s quite interesting at the moment, isn’t it?
🌞: It is, very. If it wasn’t for the Internet, I think Bad Bunny wouldn't have been as big as he is right now. I think there are a lot of artists like him right now. Even in Japan like… imase-kun?
LEO (Ali): Yeah, he got viral in KR
🌞: Yeah, you don’t have to do it a certain way anymore. (something about chemical charts and chemical music programs??) It’s not organic, the heat that comes from it. I want to treasure that fire / passion / heat.
Aoi: Even when I turn on the TV, it’s the same people appearing on music shows; people who are selling well; playing what everyone likes… It makes you think, “why is it always these people?”
Aoi: It’s probably changed a little bit now, I think there should be a variety of people on these shows.
LEO (Ali): Honestly though, there’s very few music shows rn right? 🤨
🌞: I think it’s because what Aoi-san thought is exactly what is on everyone else’s minds.
LEO (Ali): So they took them away / 🌞: Took them away
🌞: It’s like X and Y idols are both popular, but the offices are also pretty strong. “So let’s get them on every time!” But then it becomes politics and not music anymore. If we didn’t forget about the music, then I’m sure anyone can start liking music. [not sure about this last bit]
Zozhit (Dos Monos): I have a lot of interests, watching movies or reading books, but there’s nothing better than talking about good music and music you like.
[Junon drowning plants on the balcony with “Softly”]
🌞: A lot of the issues in the music industry right now is due to faults in the system (ALL: mmmmm). The business that got too big in the 80s and 90s, and didn’t update itself…
Zozhit (Dos Monos): Plus everyone else was moving from CDs to streaming / subscription which helped them stay afloat. While Japan kept on selling CDs….
🌞: Exactly.
LEO (Ali): We’re like world #1 or #2 right
🌞: The music industry is like traffic laws – whatever was set in the past has not been updated and has stayed that way up until now (He uses the example of “You can only drive at 30km here” and how that becomes a problem if it’s not updated)
🌞 [to staff]: Maybe add an on-screen text for my analogy here lol
Aoi: You explained it really well 👍
LEO (Ali): I happened across SKY-HI’s video..
🌞: Ah the company pitch?
LEO (Ali): It was super good!
🌞: Awwh yay!
LEO (Ali): It was really good!
🌞: A lot of musicians praised me for that actually.
LEO (Ali): It was 40 minutes right?
🌞: Yeah just about
LEO (Ali): And then when you were talking about trainees, I was like, “Man, I’d put my kid there [BMSG Trainee program]”
🌞: [Boss laugh]
LEO (Ali): No really, I thought – as a parent – if it was [boss], [my kid] will turn out to be a good person.
🌞: Thank you~
LEO (Ali) thought it was super cool of boss to bring up the excessive use of plastic.
🌞: Our Trainees, RUI and TAIKI are 16 right now… 20 years from now, they’ll be my age. It’ll be 2044 right.
🌞: If we keep going like this, we’ll be subcontractors to KR labels, or as a counterpiece to KR. So even if RUI and TAIKI get to debut, 5 years from then if no harm is done… It’s possible they might be working part-time jobs as they [do artist work], that is a possibility. [not sure about this part]
Zozhit (Dos Monos): It’s pretty crazy what’s happening with the music industry right now
🌞: Yeah! It’s not just a music industry problem, but Japan’s… Entertainment and music is closely tied right. You need music in movies, anime, and CMs too. In CMs you need artists and talent… so if you liven up entertainment the whole nation goes up. That way maybe the yen will get to the hundreds too, [boss laugh]
Nao (Maximum The Hormone): When it’s the first child, you have to put activities on pause and take leave. That was 15 years ago… With the second child, you try fertility treatments, and you can try to cancel or arrange your leave in advance. But you get told off a lot doing that. Especially if you’re part of a band and not a solo, all of the band members’ activities are put on hold.
These days, when some of the junior band members or musicians take maternity or paternity leave… Instead of the reaction being “EHHHH? 🤨” it’s “Congratulations!! 👏” it makes me happy. There is still a small portion that still goes “EHHHH? 🤨”, which makes me a little sad.
I think if the congratulatory mood goes around among the current generation of [artists and musicians].. Not saying that music can change the world or anything, but I do feel like it can solve our low TFR (total fertility rate) problem lmao 😂 I hope matters like [maternity / paternity leave] can be accepted more positively in the future.
LEO (Ali): I would want to take 5 years off
🌞: 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
KENZO (Da Pump): You’re not credited as the choreographer, basically. We got no money for that U.S.A dance you know! I mean, I guess it’ll be hard [deciding how the money is distributed], or like moves with names to them and such, there are people who made that. Dance is something you have fun with, and as a dancer myself I want dance to be something that cheers someone up. But as something I’ve made and as an artwork, I would like copyright on it.
LEO (Ali): Did you get any of what KENZO mentioned?
Aoi: The [dancer] who looked out for me wanted to up the status of dancers, they always talked about it. When we appear in CMs or MVs, staff would prepare a tape, and just write “dancer” on it. In the dressing rooms we stayed in too, people just write “dancers”. If someone called me, “Hey dancer-sann!” they’d get angry and tell them "She’s not dancer-san! She is “Aoi!" They’d get them to call me properly by my name.
🌞: That’s really important.
Aoi: Because of that, I’d start introducing myself as Aoi too. Now I have my own seat, so I think it’s changed.
Zozhit (Dos Monos): Talking about the music industry, when I gather with other musicians and artists, we often talk about, “Is it OK if we keep selling [these numbers] and not do better?” Like, we actually want to sell more and work harder you know..
Zozhit (Dos Monos): Like the world “ureru” (what sells), is it referring to one CD costing 1 billion or? Doing music, you focus on getting the views up and that equals to “what’ sells” and becomes a chain.
🌞: The biggest problem in the 2010s was the failure to create success stories out of the artists at the time.
🌞: Even though there were people who didn’t sell well, they were doing cool things. Yet people who did sell well were doing uncool things, and that was the vibe [of the industry] for 15 years. I think that was tough. If we didn’t lose those 15 years, people like Hoshino Gen who did that song during COVID… If we talk about why he was the person.. As a person, he’s pretty cool, and making music. On top of that, he successfully delivered the music he wanted to the masses. There were 10 people after him that went to America, went to KR… It gets me sad and frustrated.. But that’s why we gotta work hard.
LEO (Ali): There’s one thing I want to bring up… When I went to Taiwan for this big music festival, like Fuji Rock… They were interviewing this politician, he’s also a musician – a heavy metalist. Working as a politician! So it’s really down to if we don’t have money, the industry can’t go on if it’s not making money. I think that’s why SKY-HI’s also challenging himself with a lot of things.
🌞: Very much so.. When I was in my teens I didn’t feel a lot of the stress and kept going, but I knew if I kept it up I'd die. When I was 30 I thought, “I can’t live like this.” It was either I die, or I change the world. I really thought there wasn’t any other option besides these two. I really want to change the society.
ALL: Let’s keep working towards that! 🔥💪
🌞: Right? Let’s do our best together 💪 And that’s all for Apartment B~ No?
ALL: 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Hope you enjoyed!
Please note I translate these for free and I'm not a professional, so they may not be 100% accurate.
Retranslations or sharing of the summaries is fine! For retranslations, please notify me beforehand and credit once posted!
Translations do take time to complete, so if you like my translations you can consider tipping me on Ko-Fi!
Note 1: Music industry referred to henceforth refers to the JP music industry
Note 2: Any currency or money referred to henceforth refers to JP yen
In the last 20-ish minutes of BMSG's latest music TV show, "Apartment B", SKY-HI was one of the guests on the show. The theme in the last portion was around "issues in the music industry". Random people on the street, music insiders, artists and musicians were interviewed on what they saw were issues in the JP music industry.
SKY-HI also shared some of his thoughts and the episode turned out to be really interesting for me, personally!
LEO (Ali): So when’s SKY-HI coming on [to Apartment B]?
[And he talked about how boss always planned on appearing, to talk about things he sees in the industry. LEO (Ali) sent a survey to people around him for questions they wanted to ask boss]
LEO (Ali): This is the first time paper has appeared on this show, lol. We don’t have a script [for Apartment B]
🌞: That’s true, to think we’d have paper appear on here 🤣
On cancel culture:
- Something about the Olympics and the song “Imagine” being used and people being against it…?
- Something about SALU saying there’s very few rappers who sing about [their] failures in the industry (in his song “Fxxk You”) – boss found that very cool.
Vox pop on the street time
First group (three guys): There are a lot of idols who sing well, but when they’re on TV it seems like they’re lip synching
Second group (two girls): In KR, everyday there’s a different music show program, how come there’s so few music shows in Japan?
Third (one girl): I think the timing of when BE:FIRST’s CDs drop is great. For most students, it’s like we’ve saved up enough money and the next CD is coming out
ALL: 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
LEO (Ali): You planned that?!
🌞: No I didn’t! 😂
Industry insiders time
Mani (MV producer): If there’s an extra 100K ~ 200K to the budget, the quality [MV] can completely change. If there’s cars, we can find cooler ones; or if it’s a five-member band we can spend 20K on each person. Major labels don’t pay us, basically, I can kind of understand that. But I think there are a lot of artists who are willing to pay, if they can…
X-shi with voice-changer: I worked at a certain major label under promotions and management. There are a lot of music awards given out in Japan, so everyone, of course, works hard and does their best to earn those awards… But the award-winning artist [I was involved with] disbanded within a few years. It’s also not unheard of for artists to debut in KR after their group disbands. Probably, for artists who get Billboard #1s, I have a feeling these are the people who are dominating the domestic awards race in KR.
If possible, I would like award races (in JP too) to have some influence and reach overseas. I think that would make the music industry a lot more exciting.
LEO (Ali): Ohhh, that cut deep!
🌞: There was a lot in that!
LEO (Ali): On music awards… I was thinking CreepyNuts is insane. They’ve held that #1 for weeks and even reached overseas… I was thinking there should be a lot more buzz around it, domestically.
[On screen text: Music achievements should be celebrated more]
LEO (Ali): There should be a lot more news on it! Like “Let’s do it!”, “We did it!” that kinda thing.
🌞: There are a lot of KR-driven companies that produce dance and vocal groups, but there isn’t this sense of rivalry. STARTO groups appeared in our event [DUNK], LDH… Seniors [from the industry], Miura Daichi.. Everyone wants to go overseas, dance and vocal groups. It’s the same for hip hop isn’t it? BAD HOP too, that created a lot of discussion (on-screen text said the group held their last live before their disbandment at Tokyo Dome).
(something about the country coming together..? Not sure about this part)
🌞: So the music industry is not only in a tight spot, but also there are a lot of chances. Whether for CreepyNuts or YOASOBI, they got their big hits through anime. I think that’s great. Even though we’re in a pinch, there are still opportunities.
LEO (Ali): It’s like the world has found that Japanese music is interesting.
[On-screen text: An era where even the Japanese language can compete with the rest of the world]
LEO (Ali): Even though we think “Ahh, it’s gotta be English!” but Japanese can be interesting too. Even on Spotify, the most popular song isn’t English.
🌞: There are a lot of Hispanic artists.
LEO (Ali): It’s quite interesting at the moment, isn’t it?
🌞: It is, very. If it wasn’t for the Internet, I think Bad Bunny wouldn't have been as big as he is right now. I think there are a lot of artists like him right now. Even in Japan like… imase-kun?
LEO (Ali): Yeah, he got viral in KR
🌞: Yeah, you don’t have to do it a certain way anymore. (something about chemical charts and chemical music programs??) It’s not organic, the heat that comes from it. I want to treasure that fire / passion / heat.
Aoi: Even when I turn on the TV, it’s the same people appearing on music shows; people who are selling well; playing what everyone likes… It makes you think, “why is it always these people?”
[On screen text: Is the casting for music programs too narrow?]
Aoi: It’s probably changed a little bit now, I think there should be a variety of people on these shows.
LEO (Ali): Honestly though, there’s very few music shows rn right? 🤨
[On screen text: JP’s music shows on the decline?]
🌞: I think it’s because what Aoi-san thought is exactly what is on everyone else’s minds.
LEO (Ali): So they took them away / 🌞: Took them away
🌞: It’s like X and Y idols are both popular, but the offices are also pretty strong. “So let’s get them on every time!” But then it becomes politics and not music anymore. If we didn’t forget about the music, then I’m sure anyone can start liking music. [not sure about this last bit]
Zozhit (Dos Monos): I have a lot of interests, watching movies or reading books, but there’s nothing better than talking about good music and music you like.
[Junon drowning plants on the balcony with “Softly”]
🌞: A lot of the issues in the music industry right now is due to faults in the system (ALL: mmmmm). The business that got too big in the 80s and 90s, and didn’t update itself…
Zozhit (Dos Monos): Plus everyone else was moving from CDs to streaming / subscription which helped them stay afloat. While Japan kept on selling CDs….
🌞: Exactly.
LEO (Ali): We’re like world #1 or #2 right
[On-screen text: The problem with moving away from the CD business model]
🌞: The music industry is like traffic laws – whatever was set in the past has not been updated and has stayed that way up until now (He uses the example of “You can only drive at 30km here” and how that becomes a problem if it’s not updated)
🌞 [to staff]: Maybe add an on-screen text for my analogy here lol
Aoi: You explained it really well 👍
LEO (Ali): I happened across SKY-HI’s video..
🌞: Ah the company pitch?
LEO (Ali): It was super good!
🌞: Awwh yay!
LEO (Ali): It was really good!
🌞: A lot of musicians praised me for that actually.
[recap of when boss did his State of Union address and the part on reducing plastic with BE:FIRST’s Masterplan release]
LEO (Ali): It was 40 minutes right?
🌞: Yeah just about
LEO (Ali): And then when you were talking about trainees, I was like, “Man, I’d put my kid there [BMSG Trainee program]”
🌞: [Boss laugh]
LEO (Ali): No really, I thought – as a parent – if it was [boss], [my kid] will turn out to be a good person.
🌞: Thank you~
LEO (Ali) thought it was super cool of boss to bring up the excessive use of plastic.
🌞: Our Trainees, RUI and TAIKI are 16 right now… 20 years from now, they’ll be my age. It’ll be 2044 right.
[On screen text: SKY-HI’s vision of the music industry 20 years from now]
🌞: If we keep going like this, we’ll be subcontractors to KR labels, or as a counterpiece to KR. So even if RUI and TAIKI get to debut, 5 years from then if no harm is done… It’s possible they might be working part-time jobs as they [do artist work], that is a possibility. [not sure about this part]
Zozhit (Dos Monos): It’s pretty crazy what’s happening with the music industry right now
🌞: Yeah! It’s not just a music industry problem, but Japan’s… Entertainment and music is closely tied right. You need music in movies, anime, and CMs too. In CMs you need artists and talent… so if you liven up entertainment the whole nation goes up. That way maybe the yen will get to the hundreds too, [boss laugh]
Artists taking maternity or paternity leave
Nao (Maximum The Hormone): When it’s the first child, you have to put activities on pause and take leave. That was 15 years ago… With the second child, you try fertility treatments, and you can try to cancel or arrange your leave in advance. But you get told off a lot doing that. Especially if you’re part of a band and not a solo, all of the band members’ activities are put on hold.
These days, when some of the junior band members or musicians take maternity or paternity leave… Instead of the reaction being “EHHHH? 🤨” it’s “Congratulations!! 👏” it makes me happy. There is still a small portion that still goes “EHHHH? 🤨”, which makes me a little sad.
I think if the congratulatory mood goes around among the current generation of [artists and musicians].. Not saying that music can change the world or anything, but I do feel like it can solve our low TFR (total fertility rate) problem lmao 😂 I hope matters like [maternity / paternity leave] can be accepted more positively in the future.
LEO (Ali): I would want to take 5 years off
🌞: 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
As choreographer and dancer
KENZO (Da Pump): You’re not credited as the choreographer, basically. We got no money for that U.S.A dance you know! I mean, I guess it’ll be hard [deciding how the money is distributed], or like moves with names to them and such, there are people who made that. Dance is something you have fun with, and as a dancer myself I want dance to be something that cheers someone up. But as something I’ve made and as an artwork, I would like copyright on it.
[On-screen text: Issue – A dancer’s status]
LEO (Ali): Did you get any of what KENZO mentioned?
Aoi: The [dancer] who looked out for me wanted to up the status of dancers, they always talked about it. When we appear in CMs or MVs, staff would prepare a tape, and just write “dancer” on it. In the dressing rooms we stayed in too, people just write “dancers”. If someone called me, “Hey dancer-sann!” they’d get angry and tell them "She’s not dancer-san! She is “Aoi!" They’d get them to call me properly by my name.
🌞: That’s really important.
Aoi: Because of that, I’d start introducing myself as Aoi too. Now I have my own seat, so I think it’s changed.
Zozhit (Dos Monos): Talking about the music industry, when I gather with other musicians and artists, we often talk about, “Is it OK if we keep selling [these numbers] and not do better?” Like, we actually want to sell more and work harder you know..
[On-screen text: Issue – The axis for what sells]
Zozhit (Dos Monos): Like the world “ureru” (what sells), is it referring to one CD costing 1 billion or? Doing music, you focus on getting the views up and that equals to “what’ sells” and becomes a chain.
[On-screen text: SKY-HI points out “The Lost 15 Years”]
🌞: The biggest problem in the 2010s was the failure to create success stories out of the artists at the time.
[On-screen text: The Merits and Demerits of the music industry in the 2010s]
🌞: Even though there were people who didn’t sell well, they were doing cool things. Yet people who did sell well were doing uncool things, and that was the vibe [of the industry] for 15 years. I think that was tough. If we didn’t lose those 15 years, people like Hoshino Gen who did that song during COVID… If we talk about why he was the person.. As a person, he’s pretty cool, and making music. On top of that, he successfully delivered the music he wanted to the masses. There were 10 people after him that went to America, went to KR… It gets me sad and frustrated.. But that’s why we gotta work hard.
LEO (Ali): There’s one thing I want to bring up… When I went to Taiwan for this big music festival, like Fuji Rock… They were interviewing this politician, he’s also a musician – a heavy metalist. Working as a politician! So it’s really down to if we don’t have money, the industry can’t go on if it’s not making money. I think that’s why SKY-HI’s also challenging himself with a lot of things.
🌞: Very much so.. When I was in my teens I didn’t feel a lot of the stress and kept going, but I knew if I kept it up I'd die. When I was 30 I thought, “I can’t live like this.” It was either I die, or I change the world. I really thought there wasn’t any other option besides these two. I really want to change the society.
ALL: Let’s keep working towards that! 🔥💪
🌞: Right? Let’s do our best together 💪 And that’s all for Apartment B~ No?
ALL: 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Hope you enjoyed!
Please note I translate these for free and I'm not a professional, so they may not be 100% accurate.
Retranslations or sharing of the summaries is fine! For retranslations, please notify me beforehand and credit once posted!
Translations do take time to complete, so if you like my translations you can consider tipping me on Ko-Fi!
