Does anybody else like denpa?
For the unaware:
http://pastebin.com/S6748H4K
Yes I am a big fan of denpa. M3 is tomorrow, there should be a new album from ちぃむｄｍｐ☆ 『ちょこっと電波』 and a new album from ななひら called 『MagiQute!!』.
PS: I might be responding to my own thread. I was going to make a denpa thread and link to the pastebin source with minimal wording just like that. But I can't remember.
I could be talking to myself and I don't even know orz
I'll leave a unique reminder in case it happens again so I can identify myself:
eroge buffalo spoonshop peanuts
PS denpa fans - what is your favorite anime and song?
Me
Song: MOSAIC.WAV - The Anthem of Online
Series: Kyouran Kazoku Nikki
Another fan here. I'm completely addicted to it, I wish more people were aware of it!
As for M3, Nanahira and Team Dmp's releases are the most awaited but there are many more releases!
Just look at this Japanese guy: (link removed)
Whoa. Here's his buylist, I'm using it to get my denpa dose (link removed)
As for my favorite song, I change it every time a new album is out, but lately I can't stop listening to Lv.99☆しゅーくりーむ※H・E・R・O！！ from ave;new project's latest album.
P.D.: I can't post links for some reason?
Let me see if at least I can post a link to M3 stuff.
What exactly is "denpa"? How would one describe it?
>>6
First paragraph of the Pastebin explains it quite well.
If someone asked me, I'd say it's upbeat, high tempo Japanese pop music with cute singers. The audio equivalent of injecting Pixy Stix.
denpa is crazy music with nonsensical lyrics. "denpa" literally means radio waves, stemming from the idea that radio waves can brainwash people and make them do strange things (Like a radio controlled car). The origin of denpa music (akihabara) is the electronics district in Tokyo (and is now the anime district). So it's implied that there are more denpa waves in akihabara than anywhere else. The cuter side of denpa is the influence of the anime boom from videogames in Akihabara.
Also otaku in Akihabara are said to be some of the most delusional 'denpa' otaku, so everything ties up quite nicely. I don't have anywhere to put it but I wrote an article in my spare time about denpa-kei culture and it's origins and effect on other mediums, plus its 'dark history'.
>>8
Nice. Could you link to it?
I might populate my abandoned blog with a few entries first and then post it. It's saved as a draft entry in Windows Live Writer but I also wanted to write a part 2 detailing artists and profiles but I'm not sure how to approach it yet.
Sounds interessting, I don't really know much about the origin(s) of denpa. The pastebin-article points out a few thinks but I think it mentions a lot of "newer" artists, songs and animes. If I had to give an example I would mention KOTOKO or Momoi Haruko/Halko because they have/had some interessting denpa songs and are (in my opinion) more popular.
At first I didn't know much about denpa, the first contact was with the music from KOTOKO and Momoi Haruko/Halko and later, I came across a song called "True my heart!" (from ave;new feat. Saori Sakura). I then notied MOSAIC.WAV and thought you call this kind of music "akiba pop" until someone pointed out that you call it denpa. For quite a while I thought there aren't much denpa "artists" out there until I read DenpaNoSekai's blog. It is (in my opinion) a good way and base of information.
I really like denpa, it's is difficult to decide who is the best artist or what would be the best song. For many years I've been a big fan of U, I think I would say her songs are my favourites.
Besides, for the people waiting for [ちぃむdmp☆] ちょこっと電波♪ , have a look at http://bunbunmaru.com/wakaba/general/res/37608.html#40996 .
>I would mention KOTOKO or Momoi Haruko/Halko
While you are right, KOTOKO has very few songs and most of her works aren't representative of denpa, except for Short Circuit series and whatnot. Momoi Haruko's solo works aren't very representative either, her denpa works are mostly as UNDER17.
I agree they're popular though and they'd be nice to add to the pastebin but I don't know who is maintaining it. But in contrast, artists like U, MOSAIC.WAV and whatnot are completely dedicated to it.
>>15
This, I would be interested.
Some well-organized info on artists and albums would be nice too. Not necessarily huge reviews and biographies, just, "This is a band, these are their releases."
There's now a #denpa channel on irc.rizon.net for anyone who wants to discuss denpa.
This isn't the paper I was talking about but well organized info on some artists is here:
Oh, it's all...hyper.
We've seen a big influx of new denpa uploads lately in the typical places, so a big thanks to everyone who uploaded and shared; hopefully this will keep us ticking over until comiket or whenever the next batch of denpa is released.
>>19
Huzzah! Also the creator of http://denpa.uni.me/ has "wikified" the site. Not a fan of the new layout, but hopefully it'll get people to contribute (there's way too much to choose from in the MediaFire folder).
>>13
Halko's solo works are a bit of a borderline case. She sings straight pop like "がんばれ…それは、I Love You" and "始発にのって", and puts them on the same album (even the same single) as "ですぱれーしょん☆です!" and "☆自演乙☆ソング". Granted, the latter was commissioned by that lovable cosplay otaku kickboxer 長島☆自演乙☆雄一郎 as his entrance music, but even the title of her straight break-up song "へんじがない、ただのしつれんのようだ。" and the eponymous album (which also included a new version of "愛のメディスン" from her Nurse Witch Komugi-chan days) is an homage to a line from the Dragon Quest series. She also sang a duet with らっぷびと glorifying moe culture and the act of proudly standing up for the things you like. And then there's the impressive "WONDER MOMO-i", which was released quite early in her solo career. Also, as you can see from her blog and Twitter, she is still very much immersed in the otaku subculture.
My favourite non-Halko Denpa song is probably "ネガティブゼロ・パラダイス" by 有栖川みや美 (a seiyuu also voicing one of the game's heroines), the opening theme of the adult game Nega0 (whose producers have kindly put up downloads of both the opening movie and at least the short version of the song at http://www.eternal-will.jp/negazero/download/index.html).
I have an unrelated question, though: Do you pirate all your Denpa music, or try to express your appreciation by buying the CDs and tracks or at least merch? I try to do the latter as much as I can afford (though having to buy Japanese iTunes cards through the likes of J-List is a bit of a pain), but in cases where I can't find a paid digital download nor a physical source that will ship to me, I have no qualms about pirating.
Addendum: Halko has also been singing Denpa songs (or at least songs about otaku culture) before her UNDER17 days. She was singing about buying anime goods and going to Comiket as early as 1996, way before MOSAIC.WAV and even Funta, on her short album "電脳少女バーチャリアンコ".
>>21
What are you implying with that question?
>>23
Not much, just hoping to maybe find a way of financially supporting artists that I have not seen/thought of before.
>>21,24
I pirate because buying things from Japan is a huge pain. I really like having physical products, but I'm not willing to jump through hoops when my money is doing more to support shipping companies than the actual artist or label.
Maybe we could all band together and write some friendly emails saying we're big fans and would appreciate it if they could make some effort to expand to other countries somehow? Perhaps I'm crazy, but it seems to me that Japan has a very "Japan-only!" attitude about its content. Visual novel players might know what I'm talking about.
>>25
I have to agree about the Japan-only attitude. http://www.cdjapan.co.jp is the cheapest place in terms of shipping I've been able to find, but they tend to not have Amazon.co.jp-style savings on many titles, and their catalogue is much more limited than Amazon as well. Their loyalty points scheme is pretty cool, though.
Until a few years ago, Amazon also had standard air mail shipping options for international orders, but then for some reason they went "EMS is the One True Shipping" and now you cannot order anything from them without paying a minimum of ¥2800 in shipping (might have gone up since I last checked). That's usually more than the retail price of a new album, so I almost only ever order 5 or more CDs at a time from them when I cannot find used CDs on offer from some Amazon Marketplace seller who will ship abroad (they do exist, and most still offer air mail shipping, bless them).
Amazon also carries some game soundtracks and the like that are inexplicably categorized as software. They won't ship anything from that category to foreign addresses at all. (If you truly desperately want Japanese software from Amazon, you have to go through a company like DankeDanke.com that provides a forwarding address inside Japan, but charges a hefty fee as well.)
Japanese iTunes is probably the cheapest way to shop for music, but unless you have a credit card registered to a Japanese billing address, the cards have to be bought from some online profiteer like J-List, who will charge you US$51.50 for a code you can get for <$38 inside Japan. Still, at least they offer the option to email you a scan of the card, so that shipping no longer becomes an additional expense. But then you get your Japanese iTunes account and have to discover that a lot of songs, especially denpa music and anime soundtracks, still come with FairPlay DRM despite Apple's claim to have finally made its entire music store catalogue DRM-free in February of this year.
Sadly, I don't think your suggestion to petition the artists would do a whole lot of good. Record labels tend to have a vested interest in controlling which market gets which content, so artists often do not get much leeway in their contracts.
Also, being a fellow visual novel player I sympathize on the difficulties of getting Japanese PC games shipped abroad. DankeDanke.com helped me order many Japanese games (including a few adult products) from both Amazon and Getchu, but it certainly wasn't cheap. Worse, in almost all cases I had to pick up and pay for the customs duties not at my local post office (I'm based in Germany, might be different for Americans people in other countries), but at the nearest customs office, which in my case took one hour to get to by car from my home. It was always a little nerve-wracking and embarrassing to see the customs official give me weird looks for not wanting to open the package and inspect the contents right there before paying the 20% import tax plus handling fees.
lol capitalism.
I pirate because I don't work.
Who cares. If you like the music but don't have spare money, pirate it. There's no need to explain yourself.
Also, I'm not good at Japanese so I'm kind of out.
Is anyone here knowledgeable about the whole denpa-kei movement? I just know that it was kind of a big thing in the '90's.
Where did the term come from? Was it different before? What's the whole theme/background behind that word "denpa"? What does it imply? I'm very interested.
I read that KING-SHOW was considered old denpa because of the themes they touched in their songs.
Also that denpa VNs/literature is all about crazy/out of your mind stuff. When does a song give you denpa vibes?
>>32
AFAIK, I've always thought the original word to mean radio, or radiowaves. Keitai Den*w*a means cell phone. But I I don't know how the word Denpa made the jump from being a radio to being a music genre of hyperactive electronic music with anime loli voices.
>the original word to mean radio, or radiowaves
Literally, yes. But I think the usage here comes from dokudenpa.
>doku-denpa // Literally, "poisonous electromagnetic waves."
>The term originated by a lunatic who caused the notorious Fukagawa Toori-ma Jiken (Fukagawa Street Murders) in 1981. The assailant, Kawamata Gunji, was high on illegal substances and started slashing innocent bystanders in broad daylight. Two housewives and two toddlers were killed, with many more seriously injured. Pleading insanity in court, he described that denpas (electromagnetic waves) told him to start killing people. Motion was rejected and he currently serves life without parole.
>By early 1990s, the term "electromagnetic waves" began to appear here and there among sub-cultural literature and music. Several sub-cultural elites began to coin the term "denpa-kei" to decribe people who acted strangely as if being subject to hypnosis and/or being controlled by electromagnetic waves (much like radio waves are used for remote-controlled toys).
In harsher words, crazy people.
Denpa songs are supposed to be weird (creepy for some) songs catered to, and/or made by, and/or about these kind of people, and how they're so weirdly addictive that you get "poisoned by the radiowaves". Also the term it's not used exclusively in music but also in literary works like NHK ni Youkoso, Chaos;Head, SubaHibi or Shizuku.
>music genre of hyperactive electronic music with anime loli voices
That sounds stereotypical. Some denpa songs aren't necessarily like that. A common example is 夏はマシンガン/冬もマシンガン.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRUZq_iAuvg
or
http://nicoviewer.net/nm3370897
But more than being cute or not, I think the real point is to be over-the-top and weird, musically and/or lyrically. Anyway Japanese posters might be more informed about it, it was a big thing in 2ch.
>>32
You may find this article interesting:
http://altairandvega.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/denpa-bigaku-riron-the-rise-of-the-radio-aesthetic-in-
japanese-subculture-in-the-21st-century/
>>33,34
Most truotaku are crazy fucks, that's why the moe styled denpa got so popular, especially in Akiba where idols, who are otaku themselves, are the shit.
Also, DENPA was mentioned here years ago!
>>25
I can testify. I live in an undeveloped country and buying international stuff from here is even worse. The shipping is expensive and some shit gets delayed, or even stolen, in the national post service.
I bought some CDs from last M3 through a proxy, and the price was much higher than shippings to USA or Europe for several reasons, and it's been a month and I'm still waiting for the stuff while everyone else already has them. I don't think I'll be doing this again.
oh my god
this is awesome
There was a good article on Innocent Key's site written by yohine I think about makes a denpa song, but their site seems to be down now
>>38 Hi onichomp! Long time no see!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ocKvn-lN0E