YAPONESIA

[takeru]

Re: YAPONESIA: 120 Years of Yaponesia ~ ↑Ƌ8

A History of Yaponesia
Chapter 3
'Banana Chips'​

By NSC 18, Yaponesia's eastern conquest had gained a few small islands stretching out into the eastern ocean, and the nation was formally renamed from the Yaponesian Empire to the Yaponesian Archipelago. Yaponesian navigators at this point had made contact all the way as far as the western points of Norigin, where some cultural exchanges had been made with nations such as Ugaly, Reym-L-Dneurb and Tír an Abhainn (such as the import and subsequent popularity of fruits found growing on islands of the archipelago). Having established the circularity of the Natian globe by reaching the northern continent from the other side, the Yaponesian cartographers handed over their research to the advanced authorities in Reym-L-Dneurb (who would later discover a continent west of Norigin and east of Chiara which the Yaponesian conquest had sailed straight past.)

In NSC 25, the Emperor Wam Pire was succeeded by Emperor Takeru Matsuo, whose power was also diminished at this point so as to serve as only a ceremonial figurehead for Yaponesia, though he held an international role as moderator within the NBU. Politics in Yaponesia from this point were headed by an elected party, with elections held whenever a change in the Yaponesian political situation was evident. The incumbent and at first popular 'Ready to Go' party (who were also responsible for NSC National Finals) continued to govern Yaponesia until NSC 42, though their popularity and success had decreased by then following a slump in the 30s. In NSC 43, The Yaponesian government failed to represent itself to the NBU and was formally sanctioned for the first time in Yaponesian history. At the same time, a catastrophic natural disaster struck Natia and affected the entire world, causing the loss of important historical data and the necessary evacuation and moving of entire populations.

 

[takeru]

Re: YAPONESIA: NSC 113

NSC 113

Babylon Circus - Marions-nous au Soleil (Let's marry in the sun)
Yay, a successful comeback! I sent this song because I heard Babylon Circus on the in-flight radio on my way to Japan at the time this edition was happening (they're a good source for international music those radios; I discovered Wise Guys from NSC 88 in the same way).

Babylon Circus are a French... ska and reggae band?! I guess it kinda works (Luki says this song is 'circus' genre though). The song 'Marions-nous au Soleil' is from their 2009 'La Belle Étoile' and features Karina Zeviani, who was a member of Nouvelle Vague (who have also entered NSC several times, not sure if those entries were with this singer tho). It's a sweet boy-girl duet about running away and getting married, awwww!

 

[takeru]

Re: YAPONESIA: NSC 114

NSC 114

Here's a neat cover of our entry by 'Odessa Mama Orquesta Klezmer'​

Klezmer Conservatory Band - Adesa Mame (Odessa Mama)
The video for our NSC 114 entry has been deleted ;_; But fear not, I have the mp3, I'll reupload it someday! September 2014 was my final month of the year I spent in Odessa, Ukraine. So I had to commemorate it somehow as a farewell . And what better than a traditional klezmer song... sung in Yiddish... by a band from Boston..! Well, Odessa does have a significant Jewish population you know.

Actually the funny story about this entry is that I was on the verge of sending this Ukrainian summer clubhit (Makhno Project - Odessa Mama), when I spotted this traditional song of the same title in the related videos, and decided I preferred it. My what could've been different if I'd sent Makhno project instead (Maybe I still will... someday...)

 

[takeru]

Re: YAPONESIA: NSC 115

NSC 115

Benefit - Sex Sells
One of my more random entries (and proud!). Benefit are in fact a London-based British group, but they released their song in Lebanon in 2002 and it made chart success in Russia and Ukraine (where I heard it first). Wtf, ikr?

But listen to their lyrics, and the song, despite sounding like an early-noughties B-side, is actually kinda sophisticated; an ironic anthem against capitalism and the patriarchy? This song had potential; it was a shame I forgot to vote, this could've been one of my more random entries to make it to the final Sorry Lucy and Judy, let down by the British once again

 

[Paper7]

Re: YAPONESIA: 120 Years of Yaponesia ~ ↑Ƌ8

Sex Sells! Great entry, loved it!

 

[Yoni]

Re: YAPONESIA: 120 Years of Yaponesia ~ ↑Ƌ8

Sex sells

 

[takeru]

Re: YAPONESIA: 120 Years of Yaponesia ~ ↑Ƌ8

A History of Yaponesia
Chapter 4
'The Return'​

In retaliation to the 'Ready to Go' party's failings, NSC 44 saw the election of the 'Yaponasia Our Sound' party, whose focus was on promoting traditional Yapo culture and values within the nation. Ritual, religion and spirituality was re-indoctrinated into the nation's identity, with the promotion of a faith in 'Asiavision', a religion perhaps based on the traditional 'Eurovision' faith popular elsewhere in Natia. This party saw some high points of popularity, particularly around Yaponesia's founding anniversary in NSC 56. However, the party's reign came to a scandalous end in NSC 59 when the 'Our Sound' faith was exposed as a cult and a scam, following years of unpopularity and no success, and recent evidence of capitalist corruption to sponsor them (which later found unexpected popularity in a region of Rumia). During this period, former Yaponesians were seen to move away and find successful careers in other up-and-coming nations instead.

NSC 60 brought about the election of the 'Don't Look Back' party, who, despite their name, based their policy on re-introducing policies set up by the former 'Ready to Go' party, although at first without the inclusion of a democratic vote. While initially unpopular, the 'Don't Look Back' party changed their policies to re-introduce the democratic vote in NSC 66, winning two elections following successful 'Sambonanza' campaigns. It was during this period that Yaponesian ambassadors from this party made proper efforts to promote international relations by setting up embassies for nations from all over Natia, to great public acclaim. Yaponesia had prominently established itself in international politics; could it be translated into success elsewhere, such as the Nation Song Contest?

 

[takeru]

Re: YAPONESIA: NSC 116

NSC 116

Monkey Majik - Alive
Monkey Majik are a well-established Canadian-Japanese "hybrid band" in the Japanese music scene, so called because they contain both Canadian and Japanese members, sing in both English and Japanese, and play in a style which is a hybrid of both Eastern and Western musical influences. They formed in 2000, named after the famous Japanese TV theme Monkey Magic (also a former Yaponesian entry, as well as a Halitosian youtube channel.)

Monkey Majik also represented Japan in FSC ages ago with Monster, and would go on to represent Paper & INK with the older song Picture Perfect. The Yaponesian NSC 116 entry 'Alive' is a recent 2013 song from Monkey Majik, a simple happy poprock song about feeling alive and feeling alive and feeling alive (repeat).

 

[takeru]

Re: YAPONESIA: NSC 117

NSC 117

Wang Rong Rollin - Xiǎo Jī Xiǎo Jī (Chick Chick)
Oh look, it's that famous chicken song which blew up for approximately a day at some point last year. Well whatever, confirmation was during that one day and I still think this song is superfun so cluck off.

Rollin Wang (王蓉 - Wang Rong) is a Chinese pop singer whose Chinese chicken song made international news at the end of 2014! If the Koreans can do it with Gangnam Style, and the Japanese with Babymetal then sure, the Chinese deserve their chance at the spotlight for wacky 'n' weird international success! And so, there you have 'Chick Chick'. You can guess what the lyrics mean. Although, no, I have no idea what CHUA $*@#% (or whatever those lyrics say) means.....

 

[takeru]

Re: YAPONESIA: NSC 118

NSC 118

Poncho featuring Chano - Una Buena Decisión (A Good Decision)
As we approached NSC 118, I suddenly realised that in 109 entries, Yaponesia had never sent something from South America or Africa to main NSC. And so it was that I dedicated myself for these upcoming two editions to exploring the music scenes from these two important southern continents on Youtube.

Poncho was an artist I was already familiar with (I sent another song to a FiC once), and so it was exploring their repertoire that I found this quirky electro/rockish song. Poncho is from Argentina, and the song features vocals from Chano, from the band Tan Biónica. Do you think this entry was a good decision? Feel free to post comments on any entries below, and three more will appear tomorrow!

 

[takeru]

Re: YAPONESIA: 120 Years of Yaponesia ~ ↑Ƌ8

A History of Yaponesia
Chapter 5
'Delightful Time of Love?'​

The years in the early 70s were a golden period for Yaponesia, and the nation's international presence had boosted significantly, with tourism on the up and the rise of a new optimistic and forward-thinking generation. Policy was implemented to promote political transparency in Yaponesia, and in NSC 72 the 'Innovation' party was elected with the promise of revolutionising the Yaponesian system. Education was a key first focus of this party's policy, with a lot of government spending invested into free higher education for all Yaponesian students.

Unfortunately, the 'Innovation' party's success story did not last long, as the decisions made on government spending saw cuts made in other important areas, such as the entertainment industry. Yaponesian culture became renowned for its focus on academia and career, which, while beneficial for the country's financial growth, had a negative impact on its culture and identity. The regular elections saw the political climate become a two-way race between the 'Innovation' party and its rival 'RLFirst' (Real Life first, whatever that means) party, who first came to power around NSC 76. They were the dominant party in the 80s, also considered responsible for the Yaponesian Depression during this period. Following the first protests and riots in Yaponesia since the 40s, the party were sanctioned in NSC 84, temporarily replaced by the short-lived but bizarre 'Nameko' party, but revived again by NSC 88 with renewed policy and the promise of change.

 

[takeru]

Re: YAPONESIA: NSC 119

NSC 119

Erick Manana and Jenny Fuhr - Marary fa Tsara (Bad but Good)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dkJpmIHqEw
After the previous edition's South American effort, we flew across the world to Africa, as promised. Specifically, this simple folk duet from Madagascar, a collaborative performance between Malagasy Erick Manana on guitar and German Jenny Fuhr on violin, singing in the Malagasy language.

I had previously explored Malagasy music for the NSC World Cup Tournament in 2010, but this piece was something fresh and different from a lot of the other music popular in Africa. Of course, Madagascar itself is not a country necessarily typically representative of the entire continent, so I anticipate trying out a different entry from a different area of the continent again sometime!

 

[takeru]

Re: YAPONESIA: NSC 120

NSC 120

Tomoyasu Hotei - Russian Roulette
After a 110s decade with more qualifications to the final than any decade before, Yaponesia was very satisfied. A small (at first accidental) tradition we've had is to send a slightly older song every 20 editions (some of them big hits). For NSC 120, we decided to keep up this tradition and go classic Yapostyle with a Japanese song from not-so-distant 2002.

Tomoyasu Hotei (布袋 寅泰), known as HOTEI, is a celebrated veteran in the Japanese music scene, with a career spanning more than thirty years. These days, he is based in London, but is still producing music. 'Russian Roulette' is a song about courage and being unafraid to take risks.

 

[takeru]

Re: YAPONESIA: NSC 121

NSC 121

Lila von Grau - Moy Malenkiy Orkestr (My Little Orchestra)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO3aa8tQHYA
During this period I had my final exams for university coming up, so I decided to try to inspire myself by sending something related to the Russian language (this one) and Linguistics (the next one). It didn't really work. (lol)

Anyway, turns out Lila von Grau isn't actually Russian (I think I read somewhere she was German? You can guess from the name anyway). But I think this is an old Russian pop song/folk song anyway, and it just so happens that her version is the one uploaded on youtube. idk I haven't invested too much research into this song

 

[takeru]

Re: YAPONESIA: 120 Years of Yaponesia ~ ↑Ƌ8

A History of Yaponesia
Chapter 6
'The Journey Continues'​

Despite promise of positive change, one of the first actions of the newly re-elected 'RLFirst' party was to threaten to pull out of the NBU, and the early 90s were a dangerous time for Yaponesia, facing international sanctions in NSC 90, 91, and 92, on the verge of indeed withdrawing in 93. Fortunately, in the wake of these threats, the 'Innovation' party was able to regain support in time for NSC 94, and represented new hope for the nation with the introduction of new policies in the late 90s, as well as reverting to the most popular policies from their previous tenure in the 70s. Worldwide anniversary celebrations were also celebrated in Yaponesia and across Natia for NSC 99 and 100, marking the end of the first century of this world and its associated contest.

However, in NSC 101, following the shocking assassinations of leading figures in the 'Innovation' party, corruption in the Yaponesian political system was exposed, and a popular rebel tyrant managed to gain power, briefly blocking all Yaponesian communication with the outside world, despite the best efforts from humanitarian aid in Cherniya. The tyrant was swiftly arrested for international war crimes but the Yaponesian nation was shaken, and the period saw civil unrest between pro- and anti-government groups as well as threats from terrorism, and the communication channels remained limited. With the governmental system destroyed, emperor Takeru chose to step back in as emergency figurehead for the nation. This was an important time as Yaponesia was due to celebrate its 100 year anniversary. Takeru encouraged the nation to re-unite for traditional Yaponesian celebrations which lasted for three years to great acclaim, culminating in the emperor himself composing a memorial anthem for the final year, which concluded the festivities and brought Yaponesia back to normal reality.

 

[takeru]

Re: YAPONESIA: NSC 122

NSC 122

Sivu - Better Man Than He
As established in the previous post, NSC 121 and NSC 122 were supposed to help inspire me for my exams. Fine, my 121 entry was in Russian; obvious connection there to exams on the Russian language. But linguistics? Well, it's cheating a bit, but this song's video does a mighty neat job of displaying the mechanics of the vocal tract (from within an MRI scanner), so close enough.

Tenuous links to academia aside, 'Better Man Than He' is also a lovely gentle indie song by English singer-songwriter Sivu (a.k.a. James Page). In fact, the word 'sivu' is the Finnish for 'page' (omg now I get it!) 'Better Man Than He' has undertones of discovering yet questioning the nature of faith. Sivu himself is an agnostic.

 

[takeru]

Re: YAPONESIA: NSC 123

NSC 123

Daishi Dance featuring Yoshida Brothers - Renovation
It's pure renovation! (Fun fact for pattern-fans, I sent a Japanese song called 'Innovation' the edition before I started university, and then sent a Japanese song called 'Renovation' the edition I finished. Hooray for new chapters!) Keen observers will note that, since a year had passed since NSC 110, it was time to give a forgotten artist a second chance again. I opted for NSC 95's Daishi Dance (who were featured with mucc), partly because I feel I probably should've sent Renovation over Arcadia back then. Oh well, that's what second chances are for!

Joining Japanese DJ Daishi Dance (鈴木大士 Daishi Suzuki) are the brothers of the Yoshida Kyoudai (吉田兄弟), Ryoichiro and Kenichi, who play the traditional Japanese string instrument, the shamisen. Their music is a fusion of the traditional rapid and percussive Tsugaru-jamisen style and western influences. Both acts are from Hokkaido and both often collaborate with other artists, ultimately finding each other to collaborate over 'Renovation', an instrumental piece combining the shamisen with trance.

 

[takeru]

Re: YAPONESIA: NSC 124

NSC 124

Swim Deep - To My Brother
This song is not dedicated to my brother tbh.
Around this period I was looking around for new bands I didn't know who were playing at the Festival Internacional de Benicàssim, as I was going to the festival later that month (it was great ). Several of the Spanish bands did catch my eye (and I went to see them perform, will probably send them at some point!)

But in the end, English band Swim Deep were my choice after shortlisting my favourite discoveries. In fact, they were the first act we saw of the whole festival! 'To My Brother' is a synth-led indiepop track, with a killer finish. And it sounded great live too!
Just three more songs to go until I'm up to date (finally!) And then I'll also be able to reveal our NSC 128 entry...

 

[takeru]

Re: YAPONESIA: 120 Years of Yaponesia ~ ↑Ƌ8

A History of Yaponesia
Chapter 6
'Brand New Day'​

A century of independence celebrated, NSC 108 marked a new era for Yaponesia; the nation had a lot to repair. A coalition was formed between the remaining parties in an attempt to reconcile past differences. Yaponesian infrastructure after the anniversary was shakey, and there were popular attempts at revolution, including one by rebels so popular in NSC 111 that Yaponesia was forced to withdraw from international politics in NSC 112, followed by one final rebel uprising in NSC 114, which was sanctioned in NSC 115. Nevertheless, the nation found its feet by reconciling some policies and the new united coalition represented renewed Yaponesian governance in the capital. This period in the 110s eventually saw Yaponesia settle back to its old form from the 70s, though to better public acclaim.

For the 120s, the coalition agreed to disband in order for the Yaponesian public to elect a single party. The newly named 'Renovation' party was re-elected in NSC 123 with new policies to relax the established laws on education and working hours. New focus was given to the once popular and now reviving Nation Song Contest, and international relations were once again rekindled Natiawide. Since then, Yaponesia has re-stabilised, and is looking forward to a bright and involved future in the world of Natia.

 

[takeru]

Re: YAPONESIA: NSC 125

NSC 125

Music Go Music - Light of Love
So summertime freedom was well underway by NSC 125 and I was keen to get back involved with NSC after the last few years of decreased activity. This edition was a memorable one because I recapped it, and also enjoyed it live on holiday with other NSCers!

Music Go Music is an American pop rock band with three members, who are also members of the indie band 'Bodies of Water'. Their sound has been compared to ELO and ABBA. 'Light of Love' is a particularly ABBAish throwback with a retro synth sound combined with a rock'n'roll drive; bringing the 1970s to the 2010s!