The Singles Jukebox

Daniel gets us to check in with Japanese boy-band rap…

[Video]
[6.33]

Taylor Alatorre: The tug-of-war between masculine and feminine energies, so central to boy band pop, is especially audible here; probably it’s the language barrier freeing up my other senses to notice. There’s kitsch, but it’s tastefully applied: epic war drums corralled into tidy triplet forms, “hey girl” repeated four times in a soothingly uniform cadence. Like the archetypal bad boy cleaning up his act before a fancy date, the effort doesn’t go unappreciated. They really just wanted to make a good impression, after all.
[7]

Katherine St. Asaph: Pop-rap that never makes it far past “genial,” but it did make me update my list of rappable-over Mario tracks to include the Super Mario RPG factory theme.
[6]

Ian Mathers: I’m a little confused, because although there are plenty of adjectives that seem like they could apply, nobody here seemed particularly “wavy.”
[6]

Dave Moore: I’m almost always useless talking about boybands, which I’m sure says something about me and my particular biases and blindspots that I haven’t bothered to examine deeply enough. This song is close to overcoming my prejudice by way of Atlanta bass, but it doesn’t get the formula quite right, and also hasn’t figured out how to work in something like those jazzy “My Boo” chords to take it over the top.
[5]

Jel Bugle: You see, when I hear entirely sensible dance music, it does nothing for me. Songs like this with lots of different voices, coming and going, just sound more fun. 
[8]

Nortey Dowuona: Can’t front, ’twas fun. JP the Wavy’s verse was forgettable though.
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