Yeah, well maybe my uses of the words artistic and superficial are somewhat confusing. Or wrong, I dunno lol. But I agree with the general gist of your post, GR.

I don't know. Whenever I watch them live they freak me the hell out. I seriously think they are evil.

[quote="Jomei"][quote="omnistry"]I hate them. I hate every Hello! Project group. I hate every Johnny's Entertainment group. I wish their kingdoms were taken down .[/quote]

lolwut there's a japanese artist omnistry doesn't wank to?[/quote]

I know. Shocking, isn't it ?

Realize that I'm not a fan of Perfume when I say that they're a thousand times better than most of the pop you drool all over, or were last time you mentioned a Japanese pop band on this board.

[quote="GoldenRhino"]To sheer, on vocoders/autotune: I'm not saying these people are gifted singers at all. I could really care less what their non-produced singing voices sound like. Likewise, I don't care if Manabe or Shin can't sing - they make the sounds that I enjoy.
Sure sure, Perfume is a SINGING group. But it's pop music. They could be really convincing robots for all I care. I'll say that Perfume best exemplifies a blend of cute, catchy, joyous, energetic, and thumpin'. I don't have much of that in my music library, so sign me up. Some people don't view that as a niche that needs filling. I do.

"I'm merely after the superficial enjoyment of catchy pop hooks and techno beats."

Pretty much - though I dunno if I would call it superficial. Enjoyment is enjoyment. Sure enjoying a rich ice cream sundae is a little different than munching on a bag of Swedish Fish, but...as long as I'm enjoying what I'm eating/listening to...I'm set. I don't think I need the all the music I listen to to be deep, complex, challenging, varied, serious, and lyrically engaging. It's just how I be.[/quote]

Fair enough. What you said before kind of made me . I can't blame anyone for simply liking something. Hell, the more things you can enjoy, regardless of somewhat arbitrary merits, the luckier you are.

[quote="sheerheartattack"]The more things you can enjoy, regardless of somewhat arbitrary merits, the luckier you are.[/quote]

I dispute that. I suspect that people with refined taste might enjoy what they [i]do like[/i] even [i]more intensely[/i] than people who like a wider variety of things.

Case in point (and to get Mare to agree with me): Person A might like all kinds of shit beers like Bud Light, Beer Thirty, Natty Ice, etc. But person M(arekenshin) gets so much enjoyment out of a craft beer like Westvleteren that it makes up for the multitudes of beers he doesn't particularly like.

Curse you and your solid example.

Technically, no one is going to like Keystone Light as much as Mare likes Westvleteren.

Then again, as long as there's something you can pursue to make you happy, I suppose you're lucky.

I like some stuff by Perfume but when I listen to them I get this sick, depressed sort of feeling like I'm not listening to real music. I think I need to have some level of respect for an artist to enjoy their work.
And am I the only one who doesn't think these girls are very good looking?

related:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kBK9fknD1A
Same crap.

I can see someone really liking these girls if they were into pop with techno backing tracks. I actually find them as a pretty damn good metaphor for japanese pop in that with the auto-tune it gives their singing a robotic feel. I can respect them from that perspective and think they could have a place in the musical world outside of the pop-idol scene.

but could someone please fucking feed them a cheeseburger or something? cute faces but jeez they look like a strong breeze could snap them in half.

Dream Fighter is awesome.

Anyone ever see the American Dad episode where they play a Perfume song?

[quote="h2orowe"]Anyone ever see the American Dad episode where they play a Perfume song?[/quote]

...uhh...link? I'm dubious.

edit: wow. okay. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQsbWPOFWO0

WOW. I'm listening to some jams right here. I didn't really like a lot of their earlier works but I knew they had some cool tracks like Dream Fighter... I was watching that video again and I'm glad I checked the related videos. A lot of newer songs I haven't heard are up, and a lot of them are damn fine music videos. Spending All My Time in particular is fantastic, it reminds me of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 a bit with some of the sounds, you can hear the noise I'm thinking of in the chorus with headphones.

Spending All My Time
[url]http://youtu.be/RWuCmjpvXmE[/url]

Voice
[url]http://youtu.be/9_ifx-Dmv9g[/url]

I love the dance sequences with the cutout wall approaching, especially the second time they do it because they pop into position almost right on the beat it arrives at them. I wonder how many takes it took to get that just right?

Glitter
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZg356pwfdI&feature=share&list=ALHTd1VmZQRNplkAows9al7jDfpaQkQ0Kr[/url]

Gorgeous song.

Natural Beauty Basic
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edyARJq9sgM&feature=share&list=ALHTd1VmZQRNplkAows9al7jDfpaQkQ0Kr[/url]

Another great video, dat swagger.

Spring of Life and Spice are pretty good too. I'm not biting at everything though, Nee is kind of annoying, though I do like the high-heeled tapdance spots. They very well may be robots. Fake It isn't my bag, too club jammy without a very good hook. Laser Beam sounds a bit empty and doesn't do much but flash and twinkle and do that same kind of electronic vocal scatting that was in Nee. I haven't heard everything yet, I wonder what else they have?