meta - Johnny's & Associates - Taguchi Got Hot - A rudimentary analysis of KAT-TUN's MSte2012 Perf.
Title: Taguchi Got Hot Or: A rudimentary analysis of KAT-TUN’s Music Station Super Live 2012 Performance.
Author: virdant
Length: 4821 words,
Notes: It's 4821 words of maybe 1/8 of my opinions that I've had for years, finally expressed because KAT-TUN's MSte2012 Performance frankly kinda terrifies me.
Taguchi Got Hot
Or: A rudimentary analysis of KAT-TUN’s Music Station Super Live 2012 Performance.
I will preface this by saying that I don’t know a single damn thing about marketing except for what common sense dictates. As it turns out, common sense, a keen sense of observation, and years of watching boybands not being sucked into the boyband craze has left me with a fondness for analysis. Some people who were around since my DBSK days probably remember my more music-based analysis on Love in the Ice (and I stand by my words in that meta, it’s a good song that gets ruined by Jaejoong’s inability to sing his climactic note).
Today, on Christmas (my Christmas, it’s probably passed in most of the world), I bring to you “Taguchi Got Hot”, also known as “A rudimentary analysis of KAT-TUN’s Music Station Super Live 2012 Performance”. The performance in question can be located on Chinese Streaming Sites such as “yinyuetai.com” here.
For those too lazy to click on the link I question, I will attempt to helpfully provide context to each of my comments. For those who have it open, I will provide time-stamps. For those who actually know the lyrics to Fumetsu no Scrum, good for you, I don’t speak Japanese, and so I’m going by kanji only, because I do read and write Chinese.
Background
Or: What is Fumetsu no Scrum, and why was this the catalyst for Taguchi’s transformation?
We’ll start with the background of Fumetsu no Scrum, as stated on Wikipedia. Once again, for those who are too lazy to click links, “"Fumetsu no Scrum" is the nineteenth single by Japanese boy band KAT-TUN. The song "Fumetsu no Scrum" is the theme song for MBS/TBS’s drama. “Dragon Seinendan” stars Yasuda Shota, who is a member of Kanjani 8, and is Yasuda’s first solo serial drama. … With lyrics like “Chase your dreams with your buddies!”, “Fumetsu no Scrum” is a song describing the bond that exists among friends. … it has been said that the choreography to the song was created by member Taguchi Junnosuke.” For those who can’t sit through Wikipedia’s frankly horrendously writing (somebody should go fix that opening paragraph, I’m almost ashamed to have writing that bad in my LJ), here’s a tl;dr: Fumetsu no Scrum is the theme song for a drama. The lyrics describe the bond that exists among friends with lyrics like, “Chase your dreams with your buddies!” Also, Taguchi Junnosuke did the choreography.
Taguchi’s been getting a bit of attention for his choreography, because while J&A boys have dabbled in lyric writing and song writing and all sorts of creative attempts, there hasn’t really been a choreographer. This makes sense, because J&A dances tend to be designed with a set of very distinctive hand movements for people to dance along with. I know that it’s the twirls and hip thrusts that tend to attract more attention (as well as the backflips), but a good look at all hits show some very simple hand motions that people can follow along with. In part, this provides a sense of community and a “bond” between the performer and the audience. This sort of choreography is ridiculously common in Asia, where people often emulate choreography. It’s less common in western boybands.
To follow with this thought, J&A choreography is actually extremely detrimental to the good dancer. J&A choreography needs to be simple enough for an entire stadium full of fangirls to follow along. It needs to be easy to remember-those concerts go for quite a while, and there’s a lot of choreo to remember-and not too strenuous to perform. Hand-motions and twirls, followed by a good hip thrust (to remind everybody that they’re men), fit the bill quite well.
So it stands to reason that Taguchi’s never gotten much attention for his dancing. J&A isn’t a fan of the “dance break” that’s fairly common in Kpop groups with a great dancer (SM Ent. groups in particular were known for this for a while), and KAT-TUN has a reputation for being “individual” dancers. Taguchi’s skill-set doesn’t quite fit into his agency, nor does it fit into his group. Perhaps in a group where dancing in sync with each other was a lauded trait as opposed to one’s worst nightmare, Taguchi would have gotten a bit more attention (or perhaps not, you never know, Taguchi might have been regulated to the same role he had in KAT-TUN). In a group where everybody competed for the spotlight by being more and more outrageous, Taguchi ended up settling into the image of a fun jokester who was good at puns-memorable, but not “attractive” in the marketable sense. The idealized boyfriend tends to be “cool” and “kind”, and “able to make a pun” usually isn’t a priority.
Therefore, from a pure marketing standpoint, there was never a need to promote Taguchi. People who were interested in a funny quirky man would like him, and while he was tall, looked damn fine in a suit, had a voice that could rival Kame’s on a good day, and was the best damn dancer in KAT-TUN, other people were far easier to market. Like, for example, Kame, who had heaps of charisma and could somehow convince hordes of fangirls that no, he was not a bad singer, he just had a cold. That’s the only reason he was consistently pitchy and unable to sing his notes without cracking or warbling or choking. It probably didn’t help that Taguchi had a very similar vocal timbre to Kame-a sharp tone that very distinctly clashed with Kame’s. It also probably didn’t help that Kame had fantastic hair. Actually, that was probably because Kame was being promoted, and Taguchi wasn’t.
So Taguchi was regulated to a background role in KAT-TUN. He got a few supporting drama roles, brilliantly performed his solo performance ever concert tour, and had a few lovely duets with Ueda or Koki or Nakamaru on the second verse of each song (the first verse, of course, belonged to Kame and/or Akanishi). Since he didn’t have a particularly strong voice, he rarely had singing roles, and, combined with a myriad of reasons, was never marketed strongly.
One would have thought that with Jin Leaving KAT-TUN, Taguchi would have gained more prominence along with the rest of his bandmates. And to a certain extent, he did. With only five members instead of six, he occasionally stood in the center of the formation instead of being regulated to the sides. However, he was still a good half-head taller than the others, so he tended to be regulated to the back or the side. Ah, the curse of being tall. Yet as Nakamaru and Koki got more and more camera time, Taguchi remained quite left out. This is particularly important to note, and a large part of this is because Nakamaru, Ueda, and Koki all adequately “passed” for Akanishi. A lot of their post-Akanishi music felt quite a bit like they were either trying to fill in gaps where Akanishi previously would have sang, or completely reinvent their sound because they wanted to dissociate themselves completely from their old image. Taguchi’s vocal timbre, as previously stated, is closer to Kamenashi’s than Akanishi’s, and this ended up being to his detriment when it came to filling in the Gap that Akanishi left.
Enter Fumetsu no Scrum. Fumetsu no Scrum comes at an ideal time point for Taguchi. They’ve started to reach a good understanding of their vocal abilities; Nakamaru is a perfectly decent lead singer, Ueda still sounds gorgeous, Koki can sing in addition to rapping, and Kame still sounds like he’s dying every time he has to belt out a high note, but he has fantastic hair, so IT’S OKAY. As for Taguchi? Taguchi is damn fine at harmonizing, and can also hold his own if he has to belt out a verse of his own-and it’s time for them to start evolving more. (Remember that to be popular, you have to constantly be evolving. Everybody wants to be part of what’s “hip and new”, and so you have to be constantly evolving just enough for people to retain interest, without changing too much to be too different.) Fumetsu no Scrum is upbeat enough that it would be a dance-track that Taguchi could choreograph to and it came at a good time. It’s not completely clear if Taguchi was already in talks regarding his stage play with Higashiyama before he was allowed to choreograph for Fumetsu no Scrum, or if his choreography was what led to allowing him to work with Higashiyama, but if it’s the former, then he was likely allowed to do it so he would be more popular when it came time to promote his stage play.
Let us, however, assume the latter for the duration of this analysis.
This analysis will focus less on the actual choreography and more on why the Music Station Super Live 2012 Performance by KAT-TUN surprised me (in a very pleasant fashion), and what I expected to see, given previous marketing of KAT-TUN. I will be drawing, in addition to this performance, briefly on the Break the Records 2009 (BtR2009) concert (as it’s my favorite 6-nin concert, to use fandom slang), and Chain 2012 (Chain2012) concert. Ultimately, however, the focus is on the Music Station Super Live 2012 Performance, henceforth to be referred as “MSte2012”.
MSte2012 Performance
Or: What the hell, Taguchi actually gets camera time now.
The Mste2012 performance starts with a group shot that zooms in and then shifts to two side shots (Right (0:10) and Left side (0:12)). At the moment, this is perfectly normal. A group shot to start is pretty common (establishes for people who haven’t been watching the show who the performer is). The side shots, likewise, are pretty expected. Nakamaru looks into the camera when it’s next to him, and Ueda is too busy attempting to dance to look in to the camera. Focusing on either of these members is pretty normal, as both of them have become major vocal players post-Akanishi. What is actually surprising is that when the song begins with Taguchi and Koki singing the first verse (0:17), the camera actually focuses on Taguchi. This is fairly unprecedented.
We can take BtR 2009 briefly as a look at how Taguchi was marketed when Akanishi was still in the band. The answer is, essentially, not at all. Looking at the Don’t U Ever Stop performance in BtR2009, we can see the camera zooms in on Taguchi a total of 6 times. Note that his first closeup, where he walks up with Koki to sing their shared line, it focuses on Koki first. The majority of these close-ups last for about one second. This is a 3 minute song, and Taguchi has about maybe 10 seconds of solo camera time. For those who aren’t willing to do a calculation, that means that Taguchi gets about 5% of the camera time. This is a fairly generous estimate, as I would really say that Taguchi got about 6 seconds of solo camera time, which brings him down to about 3.3%. A brief look at One Drop (BtR2009) puts Taguchi at about 6 seconds in what is, again, a song that is approximately 3 minutes long. While 2 is a fairly low sample-size, and you can most certainly go around trying to prove me wrong, we can safely conclude that Taguchi (alone), during the 6-member KAT-TUN era, had approximately 5% of the camera time.
Obviously, with Akanishi leaving and the band reinventing themselves, this is drastically changed. We can look at BIRTH from Chain2011, where Taguchi had 10 solo close-ups (I did count a group-shot where the stage screens showed Taguchi only as one of the close-ups) for a total of approximately 21 seconds. Note, of course, that when he’s singing at the same time as Kame, the camera doesn’t focus on him but instead focuses on Kame. This is not that surprising, considering Kame is the front person of the band. Also note that at about 2 minutes into the song, when he’s harmonizing with Koki, once again, the camera doesn’t focus on him. They do cut to a group shot in the middle of Kame singing, which is almost the same as giving Taguchi a solo shot, when it comes to marketing (I didn’t count it though). This is essentially a 4 minute song, which puts Taguchi to holding about 9% of the camera time. It is important to note that Taguchi actually gets shots that last for longer than a second now.
So from previous experience, it’s almost unprecedented for Taguchi to be focused on. Yet we can see, in MSte2012, the first focus on Taguchi lasts for three full seconds (0:17-0:20). This is actually a long time, given that most Solo-Taguchi cuts in DUES and BIRTH were about 1 second long. Actually, most Solo-Taguchi cuts in DUES were about 0.7 seconds long, but y’know, we’ll round up this time.
As the song progresses, it’s important to note that the Nakamaru-Ueda duet right after the Taguchi-Koki duet (0:24), actually does not instantly switch to a Nakamaru or Ueda focus, but instead remains at a group-shot. This is not exactly the most important thing to notice, but it is interesting because it’s a distinct contrast to how Taguchi was immediately focused on. Usually, Taguchi is the person who gets group-shots, and Nakamaru or Ueda get the camera close-ups. This can be argued, however, in favor of focusing on Kame, who stands in the center for that bit of (fairly easy) choreography. It is important to continue to market your front-man.
And in order to do that, of course, Kamenashi gets about 6 minutes of solo time (0:33-0:39).
I want to briefly interject that Kamenashi is one of the best at holding camera attention that I’ve seen. It’s not just his fabulous hair, he’s simply good at manipulating the camera.
We can justify the close-up of Taguchi (0:40) that then zooms out to a group-shot (0:44) by explaining that Taguchi was merely in the center of the choreography. However, it is very important to note that Taguchi is very rarely in the center of the choreography because he is TALL. Also, he doesn’t usually get to stand in the center even when they’re forming a trapezoid because Nakamaru or Ueda or Koki usually are being promoted more. Of course, since Taguchi did his choreography himself, he could have done this on purpose. Subtle, Taguchi, very subtle.
Close up on Kamenashi again, while he attempts to hit his high note and does so, but in a thin, reedy voice. (0:45-0:47). Not that surprising, because it’s pretty normal to zoom in on the person attempting to hit a high note or singing a long drawn-out note (note Star Rider from Chain2011, where the camera focuses on Ueda as he sings long notes, or Rescue in BtR where the camera focuses on Akanishi when he sings “I don’t want to cry alone”.)
For the majority of the chorus, the camera backs away for group shots before it goes to focus on Nakamaru (0:52-0:54 and 0:55-0:57). Nakamaru really shifted to become one of the lead vocalists after Akanishi left, so this is pretty normal. Also stands to reason to focus on one of the leads during the chorus, and Nakamaru’s voice pretty strongly dominates the chorus these days when it comes to KAT-TUN music. Also, Nakamaru is in the center of the trapezoid formation. Gotta focus on the person standing in the middle.
The chorus formation shifts to a V-shape (really, there are more shapes than V, trapezoid, and a straight line, and I’m glad that at least Taguchi seems to be aware of this since we start to see other shapes as the rest of the song progresses). It’s interesting to note that the camera briefly focuses on Taguchi during this time (0:59), though he is the person singing. The camera then focuses on each person for about 1.5 seconds each as they stand in their V formation, but it’s odd that Kamenashi gets pretty much no camera time, but Taguchi gets to have his face in the frame when they sing the higher, falsetto part (1:15). Normally, you would expect to have the front-person get a defining frame like that-when the pitch goes up, that usually indicates a climax of some sort-which is why I am perpetually surprised by this close-up. It wasn’t particularly important, and was merely a part of the chorus, so it’s not that surprising, but it’s still odd that they end the close-ups on Taguchi, and Kamenashi didn’t really get one for the second half of the chorus. Remember, Kamenashi is the front-man of the group, he’s supposed to get the most camera time and generally take shameless advantage of the fact that the camera man loves his hair.
The camera zooms back, and so it’s a group-shot for the beginning of the second verse (1:17) which Kamenashi and Ueda sings. No close up for this part except on Nakamaru, in the center (1:24), while Koki sings. I would feel bad for Koki except he gets about an entire minute worth of camera time when he raps, so I don’t feel bad at all. Focusing on Nakamaru is pretty reasonable, given that he’s in the center-the camera was slowly zooming in, then cuts to a separate feed of zoomed-in Nakamaru, and then zooms back to focus on the really nifty choreo that Taguchi did (1:28-1:30). It’s interesting to note that the camera moves to the left to catch Taguchi’s slide forward (1:31). Taguchi never really did too much to interact with the camera previously (Kamenashi is too much of a camera hog)-it’s like he’s been ordered to interact with the camera now.
I don’t think that the zooming back to focus on the group choreo is that weird. It really is a nifty piece of choreography-hands on each other’s shoulder’s, etc. It’s probably one of my favorite parts of the Fumetsu no Scrum choreography, and it does make sense to give it attention (even though Ueda isn’t even attempting to look like he’s trying to put forth effort).
The next time worth noting is at about 1:40, where the camera focuses on Nakamaru and Taguchi walking for a good 10 seconds. This, actually, is not that interesting considering that all everybody is doing is walking, and so obviously you focus on the person singing. Kame got his like, 6 seconds of fame, and then Nakamaru and Taguchi, two cuts, and then Ueda, and Koki. Taguchi goes and shoves his face in a camera for another 2 seconds (1:58-2:00). Again, odd for Taguchi to do that, given that he’s been pretty much regulated to the sides. People can say what they want about “spontaneity”, but everybody knows that which camera you look into when and who looks where is carefully choreographed. And I don’t believe that Kamenashi wasn’t whoring it up to the camera. Keep in mind, as well, that previously something as simple as “Kamenashi waving at the crowd” could cut a Taguchi-close up (BtR2009, One Drop performance).
Koki then gets pretty much 15 seconds of camera time while he walks and raps, which makes sense, again, because all the others are doing is sauntering at a leisurely pace to the main stage. Taguchi duets with Ueda (2:13) about something like not being alone forever, and proves, again, why Taguchi was not picked to fill in the vocal gap left by Akanishi. It’s a perfectly passable attempt at a high note-if you consider Kamenashi’s typical attempts “passable”. Ueda sounds gorgeous, but he’s also singing the harmony, so focusing on Taguchi is fairly reasonable. At the same time, this is Taguchi, who has never previously been marketed quite this hard at the general audience.
Taguchi’s last close-up comes at 2:47, a solo line (so it’s not surprising that he have a close up, but he’s had plenty of solo lines where it’s a group shot), and then the song ends with a group shot.
This puts Taguchi, in the MSte2012 performance, at about 19 seconds of camera time. In the 3 minute song, that brings him up to an amazing 11%. It’s a new record!
But of course, this still doesn’t even bring him close to Kame, who’s sitting at about fifty-million seconds of solo camera time. Let’s talk, beyond looking at just solo shots, then.
Let’s talk about Ueda’s solo time in this performance. Ueda gets the camera focused on him for approximately 10 seconds, which is about 5%. Sound familiar?
Koki has his rap, which skews the data a bit, but we can look at Nakamaru, who has about 16 seconds of solo camera time, or 9%. For being one of the main singers of the band, the fact that he’s being focused on less does suggest that the focus is shifting way from Nakamaru and Ueda in this performance and instead going to Taguchi.
Let’s also talk a bit about group-shots in this performance. As Taguchi is (constantly) being publically acknowledged for his choreography in Fumetsu no Scrum, group-shots that show choreography is, indirectly, an acknowledgement of Taguchi. The many group-shots (often at the expense of Ueda or Nakamaru), can be, if you are desperate, inferred as promoting Taguchi.
In the end, MSte2012 Fumetsu no Scrum shows an actual shift in focus-away from Nakamaru and Ueda, who have previously stepped it up post-Akanishi’s leaving-and onto Taguchi
Analysis
Or: Why focus on Taguchi?
However, I do want to briefly discuss why this shift in marketing and promoting Taguchi is occurring. One part is likely due to the fact that Taguchi has his stageplay with Higashiyama, and so by focusing on Taguchi, you draw attention to him. By focusing on the choreography, you draw attention to his dancing abilities. Both of these promote the stage play-because it, apparently, involves no words and only a lot of dancing.
But why did he get the stage play and the choreography to begin with? To talk about this, we need to go back to how things become popular. People don’t want to be interested in what everybody else is interested in. That’s why we have “hipsters”. When marketing, you always want to be just slightly ahead of the interest curve. You want to, essentially, study what the hipsters like, and then bring it to the mainstream-and once that’s done, you find the next thing that the hipsters liked and bring that mainstream.
Being uninvolved in fandom, I can’t cite any growing shift towards interest in Taguchi, but Taguchi’s always been a bit of a cult favorite. Before Akanishi left, pretty much everybody except for Kamenashi and Akanishi was a bit of a cult favorite… but they’ve all gone mainstream in some way. Ueda has had Mouse Peace for a while, so Ueda’s musical and artistic vision is a bit of a done thing. Nakamaru has had beatboxing for a while, and he’s now very solidly established as a good singer. Koki, likewise, has had raps for years, and after Akanishi left, was acknowledged as a perfectly acceptable singer. Kamenashi, of course, always has his “acting”.
Therefore, in order for KAT-TUN to gain a new focal point to evolve more interest to remain “hip and trendy”, they would need to adjust their image or essentially do something drastic that took into account progressing underground interests. This is where Taguchi comes in.
Kpop is slowly overtaking the world (through youtube), because of their (relatively) strong dancing skills and ability to dance in-sync. I’m sure that if KAT-TUN ever danced in-sync, their long-term fans would die of a heart-attack, so that route was out, for KAT-TUN. Also, Arashi had been doing that for years. That left showing strong dancing skills, but given Ueda’s ability to put absolutely 0 effort into the group choreography, I don’t think any producer would think about giving them complex choreography.
But Taguchi, on the other hand, was untapped potential, and you wouldn’t even need to change anything. He’s under acknowledged, has yet to have a dance break that wasn’t because everybody else in the band got a dance break, and has constantly been pushed to the side. Subtle actions-moving him to the center of choreography-to build unconscious intereset in him, and then acknowledgement of his choreography essentially creates an entirely new focal point for the general public (and fans) to go: “Ah, KAT-TUN is so cool!”
It probably started in Chain-era, where we started to see more dancing from Taguchi. Finale, from Chain 2012, for example, is Taguchi gaining acknowledgement for his dancing. He actually stands in the center for Star Rider for about 1 second during the group dance break. And now, Fumetsu no Scrum.
So what would happen now?
If I were marketing KAT-TUN, I would push Taguchi’s dancing, hard. A solo dance break in a song, where he does something: not tap dancing, something that actually fits KAT-TUN’s more “Bad Boy” image.
After that has been pushed? Continue promoting Taguchi, in subtle fashion, by giving him more singing parts, and actively acknowledging his harmonizing to showcase him as a singer.
Find him a lead in a drama.
End result? Taguchi can sing, dance, act, and looks damn fine in a suit. And then it’s time to go back to Kamenashi, and his fantastic hair.
Conclusions
Or: I’ve written about 4000 words, let’s wrap it up.
It’s not so much Taguchi Got Hot as Taguchi is being focused on as a means for more sales. Given more time, it would be worth looking at the amount of time and focus Taguchi got starting from the formation of KAT-TUN (or just from their debut), up until now. I can safely tell you that the Taguchi-focus PV of Real Face has a surprisingly large amount of Kamenashi and Akanishi though. I can also tell you that while I love WIND live in BtR2009, he has both Tanaka Koki and Akanishi Jin in his performance. But who knows, perhaps my memory of old concerts is hazy, and Taguchi actually had plenty of time.
Ultimately, the conclusion is that Taguchi is evolving now-not only in terms of getting more attention, but also in terms of his image… and whether or not it’s his choice, his agency (if they know anything at all), will milk it for all its worth.
Will this help KAT-TUN get sales? Possibly. The best marketing is the subtle type that people don’t even realize is happening.
I suppose only time will tell if I’m correct or not. And if I’m right, well, I told you so.
A Different Angle
Or: Ri, your analysis is all wrong, you shouldn’t be looking at solo close-ups, you should be looking at everything!
1. I’m not going to look at everything, I actually have a life. Analysis of this sort is my hobby, and I haven’t done it in a while because I’ve been far too busy with something called grad school. This is only done because I’m on break and no longer am spending about 10 hours a week grading lab reports that are still more interesting than the majority of fanfiction on the net. This is only being written up because I felt like actually putting it into words for once.
2. I just spent hours counting seconds of solo camera time on my fingers for a three minute song while wriggling my mouse so I could keep an eye on the timestamp because I’m watching these videos on yinyuetai.com. If you want to argue with me, go do your own analysis with your DVDs or HQ files and then come to me. Or collect the data for me, and we’ll analyze it together.
3. Shouldn’t all of you be too busy squeezing about EXO to give a damn about KAT-TUN?
But, if you want to have a reasonable discussion (with a difference of opinion, that’s fine), we can talk. In fact, if you want to hear my opinion on pre-Akanishi KAT-TUN and how they were promoted, and post-Akanishi KAT-TUN, I could talk for hours, because while BtR is my favorite pre-Akanishi concert, it also is absolutely disgusting how heavily Kamenashi and Akanishi were promoted. Leave a comment, if you want. Or whine at Rei, and she’ll let me know that you disagree and then I’ll laugh at you.
Tl;dr:
I think a lot about marketing and how people are being promoted and decisions on why and how to promote members and boybands. Taguchi is being promoted, not-very-subtly, through decisions on who and what to film. He’s become popular enough through his work that people are interested in seeing him, and as a result he’s getting more camera time. Or, KAT-TUN’s producer has decided that it’s time for them to evolve by promoting Taguchi. Who knows, really.
Merry Christmas.
Author: virdant
Length: 4821 words,
Notes: It's 4821 words of maybe 1/8 of my opinions that I've had for years, finally expressed because KAT-TUN's MSte2012 Performance frankly kinda terrifies me.
Taguchi Got Hot
Or: A rudimentary analysis of KAT-TUN’s Music Station Super Live 2012 Performance.
I will preface this by saying that I don’t know a single damn thing about marketing except for what common sense dictates. As it turns out, common sense, a keen sense of observation, and years of watching boybands not being sucked into the boyband craze has left me with a fondness for analysis. Some people who were around since my DBSK days probably remember my more music-based analysis on Love in the Ice (and I stand by my words in that meta, it’s a good song that gets ruined by Jaejoong’s inability to sing his climactic note).
Today, on Christmas (my Christmas, it’s probably passed in most of the world), I bring to you “Taguchi Got Hot”, also known as “A rudimentary analysis of KAT-TUN’s Music Station Super Live 2012 Performance”. The performance in question can be located on Chinese Streaming Sites such as “yinyuetai.com” here.
For those too lazy to click on the link I question, I will attempt to helpfully provide context to each of my comments. For those who have it open, I will provide time-stamps. For those who actually know the lyrics to Fumetsu no Scrum, good for you, I don’t speak Japanese, and so I’m going by kanji only, because I do read and write Chinese.
Background
Or: What is Fumetsu no Scrum, and why was this the catalyst for Taguchi’s transformation?
We’ll start with the background of Fumetsu no Scrum, as stated on Wikipedia. Once again, for those who are too lazy to click links, “"Fumetsu no Scrum" is the nineteenth single by Japanese boy band KAT-TUN. The song "Fumetsu no Scrum" is the theme song for MBS/TBS’s drama. “Dragon Seinendan” stars Yasuda Shota, who is a member of Kanjani 8, and is Yasuda’s first solo serial drama. … With lyrics like “Chase your dreams with your buddies!”, “Fumetsu no Scrum” is a song describing the bond that exists among friends. … it has been said that the choreography to the song was created by member Taguchi Junnosuke.” For those who can’t sit through Wikipedia’s frankly horrendously writing (somebody should go fix that opening paragraph, I’m almost ashamed to have writing that bad in my LJ), here’s a tl;dr: Fumetsu no Scrum is the theme song for a drama. The lyrics describe the bond that exists among friends with lyrics like, “Chase your dreams with your buddies!” Also, Taguchi Junnosuke did the choreography.
Taguchi’s been getting a bit of attention for his choreography, because while J&A boys have dabbled in lyric writing and song writing and all sorts of creative attempts, there hasn’t really been a choreographer. This makes sense, because J&A dances tend to be designed with a set of very distinctive hand movements for people to dance along with. I know that it’s the twirls and hip thrusts that tend to attract more attention (as well as the backflips), but a good look at all hits show some very simple hand motions that people can follow along with. In part, this provides a sense of community and a “bond” between the performer and the audience. This sort of choreography is ridiculously common in Asia, where people often emulate choreography. It’s less common in western boybands.
To follow with this thought, J&A choreography is actually extremely detrimental to the good dancer. J&A choreography needs to be simple enough for an entire stadium full of fangirls to follow along. It needs to be easy to remember-those concerts go for quite a while, and there’s a lot of choreo to remember-and not too strenuous to perform. Hand-motions and twirls, followed by a good hip thrust (to remind everybody that they’re men), fit the bill quite well.
So it stands to reason that Taguchi’s never gotten much attention for his dancing. J&A isn’t a fan of the “dance break” that’s fairly common in Kpop groups with a great dancer (SM Ent. groups in particular were known for this for a while), and KAT-TUN has a reputation for being “individual” dancers. Taguchi’s skill-set doesn’t quite fit into his agency, nor does it fit into his group. Perhaps in a group where dancing in sync with each other was a lauded trait as opposed to one’s worst nightmare, Taguchi would have gotten a bit more attention (or perhaps not, you never know, Taguchi might have been regulated to the same role he had in KAT-TUN). In a group where everybody competed for the spotlight by being more and more outrageous, Taguchi ended up settling into the image of a fun jokester who was good at puns-memorable, but not “attractive” in the marketable sense. The idealized boyfriend tends to be “cool” and “kind”, and “able to make a pun” usually isn’t a priority.
Therefore, from a pure marketing standpoint, there was never a need to promote Taguchi. People who were interested in a funny quirky man would like him, and while he was tall, looked damn fine in a suit, had a voice that could rival Kame’s on a good day, and was the best damn dancer in KAT-TUN, other people were far easier to market. Like, for example, Kame, who had heaps of charisma and could somehow convince hordes of fangirls that no, he was not a bad singer, he just had a cold. That’s the only reason he was consistently pitchy and unable to sing his notes without cracking or warbling or choking. It probably didn’t help that Taguchi had a very similar vocal timbre to Kame-a sharp tone that very distinctly clashed with Kame’s. It also probably didn’t help that Kame had fantastic hair. Actually, that was probably because Kame was being promoted, and Taguchi wasn’t.
So Taguchi was regulated to a background role in KAT-TUN. He got a few supporting drama roles, brilliantly performed his solo performance ever concert tour, and had a few lovely duets with Ueda or Koki or Nakamaru on the second verse of each song (the first verse, of course, belonged to Kame and/or Akanishi). Since he didn’t have a particularly strong voice, he rarely had singing roles, and, combined with a myriad of reasons, was never marketed strongly.
One would have thought that with Jin Leaving KAT-TUN, Taguchi would have gained more prominence along with the rest of his bandmates. And to a certain extent, he did. With only five members instead of six, he occasionally stood in the center of the formation instead of being regulated to the sides. However, he was still a good half-head taller than the others, so he tended to be regulated to the back or the side. Ah, the curse of being tall. Yet as Nakamaru and Koki got more and more camera time, Taguchi remained quite left out. This is particularly important to note, and a large part of this is because Nakamaru, Ueda, and Koki all adequately “passed” for Akanishi. A lot of their post-Akanishi music felt quite a bit like they were either trying to fill in gaps where Akanishi previously would have sang, or completely reinvent their sound because they wanted to dissociate themselves completely from their old image. Taguchi’s vocal timbre, as previously stated, is closer to Kamenashi’s than Akanishi’s, and this ended up being to his detriment when it came to filling in the Gap that Akanishi left.
Enter Fumetsu no Scrum. Fumetsu no Scrum comes at an ideal time point for Taguchi. They’ve started to reach a good understanding of their vocal abilities; Nakamaru is a perfectly decent lead singer, Ueda still sounds gorgeous, Koki can sing in addition to rapping, and Kame still sounds like he’s dying every time he has to belt out a high note, but he has fantastic hair, so IT’S OKAY. As for Taguchi? Taguchi is damn fine at harmonizing, and can also hold his own if he has to belt out a verse of his own-and it’s time for them to start evolving more. (Remember that to be popular, you have to constantly be evolving. Everybody wants to be part of what’s “hip and new”, and so you have to be constantly evolving just enough for people to retain interest, without changing too much to be too different.) Fumetsu no Scrum is upbeat enough that it would be a dance-track that Taguchi could choreograph to and it came at a good time. It’s not completely clear if Taguchi was already in talks regarding his stage play with Higashiyama before he was allowed to choreograph for Fumetsu no Scrum, or if his choreography was what led to allowing him to work with Higashiyama, but if it’s the former, then he was likely allowed to do it so he would be more popular when it came time to promote his stage play.
Let us, however, assume the latter for the duration of this analysis.
This analysis will focus less on the actual choreography and more on why the Music Station Super Live 2012 Performance by KAT-TUN surprised me (in a very pleasant fashion), and what I expected to see, given previous marketing of KAT-TUN. I will be drawing, in addition to this performance, briefly on the Break the Records 2009 (BtR2009) concert (as it’s my favorite 6-nin concert, to use fandom slang), and Chain 2012 (Chain2012) concert. Ultimately, however, the focus is on the Music Station Super Live 2012 Performance, henceforth to be referred as “MSte2012”.
MSte2012 Performance
Or: What the hell, Taguchi actually gets camera time now.
The Mste2012 performance starts with a group shot that zooms in and then shifts to two side shots (Right (0:10) and Left side (0:12)). At the moment, this is perfectly normal. A group shot to start is pretty common (establishes for people who haven’t been watching the show who the performer is). The side shots, likewise, are pretty expected. Nakamaru looks into the camera when it’s next to him, and Ueda is too busy attempting to dance to look in to the camera. Focusing on either of these members is pretty normal, as both of them have become major vocal players post-Akanishi. What is actually surprising is that when the song begins with Taguchi and Koki singing the first verse (0:17), the camera actually focuses on Taguchi. This is fairly unprecedented.
We can take BtR 2009 briefly as a look at how Taguchi was marketed when Akanishi was still in the band. The answer is, essentially, not at all. Looking at the Don’t U Ever Stop performance in BtR2009, we can see the camera zooms in on Taguchi a total of 6 times. Note that his first closeup, where he walks up with Koki to sing their shared line, it focuses on Koki first. The majority of these close-ups last for about one second. This is a 3 minute song, and Taguchi has about maybe 10 seconds of solo camera time. For those who aren’t willing to do a calculation, that means that Taguchi gets about 5% of the camera time. This is a fairly generous estimate, as I would really say that Taguchi got about 6 seconds of solo camera time, which brings him down to about 3.3%. A brief look at One Drop (BtR2009) puts Taguchi at about 6 seconds in what is, again, a song that is approximately 3 minutes long. While 2 is a fairly low sample-size, and you can most certainly go around trying to prove me wrong, we can safely conclude that Taguchi (alone), during the 6-member KAT-TUN era, had approximately 5% of the camera time.
Obviously, with Akanishi leaving and the band reinventing themselves, this is drastically changed. We can look at BIRTH from Chain2011, where Taguchi had 10 solo close-ups (I did count a group-shot where the stage screens showed Taguchi only as one of the close-ups) for a total of approximately 21 seconds. Note, of course, that when he’s singing at the same time as Kame, the camera doesn’t focus on him but instead focuses on Kame. This is not that surprising, considering Kame is the front person of the band. Also note that at about 2 minutes into the song, when he’s harmonizing with Koki, once again, the camera doesn’t focus on him. They do cut to a group shot in the middle of Kame singing, which is almost the same as giving Taguchi a solo shot, when it comes to marketing (I didn’t count it though). This is essentially a 4 minute song, which puts Taguchi to holding about 9% of the camera time. It is important to note that Taguchi actually gets shots that last for longer than a second now.
So from previous experience, it’s almost unprecedented for Taguchi to be focused on. Yet we can see, in MSte2012, the first focus on Taguchi lasts for three full seconds (0:17-0:20). This is actually a long time, given that most Solo-Taguchi cuts in DUES and BIRTH were about 1 second long. Actually, most Solo-Taguchi cuts in DUES were about 0.7 seconds long, but y’know, we’ll round up this time.
As the song progresses, it’s important to note that the Nakamaru-Ueda duet right after the Taguchi-Koki duet (0:24), actually does not instantly switch to a Nakamaru or Ueda focus, but instead remains at a group-shot. This is not exactly the most important thing to notice, but it is interesting because it’s a distinct contrast to how Taguchi was immediately focused on. Usually, Taguchi is the person who gets group-shots, and Nakamaru or Ueda get the camera close-ups. This can be argued, however, in favor of focusing on Kame, who stands in the center for that bit of (fairly easy) choreography. It is important to continue to market your front-man.
And in order to do that, of course, Kamenashi gets about 6 minutes of solo time (0:33-0:39).
I want to briefly interject that Kamenashi is one of the best at holding camera attention that I’ve seen. It’s not just his fabulous hair, he’s simply good at manipulating the camera.
We can justify the close-up of Taguchi (0:40) that then zooms out to a group-shot (0:44) by explaining that Taguchi was merely in the center of the choreography. However, it is very important to note that Taguchi is very rarely in the center of the choreography because he is TALL. Also, he doesn’t usually get to stand in the center even when they’re forming a trapezoid because Nakamaru or Ueda or Koki usually are being promoted more. Of course, since Taguchi did his choreography himself, he could have done this on purpose. Subtle, Taguchi, very subtle.
Close up on Kamenashi again, while he attempts to hit his high note and does so, but in a thin, reedy voice. (0:45-0:47). Not that surprising, because it’s pretty normal to zoom in on the person attempting to hit a high note or singing a long drawn-out note (note Star Rider from Chain2011, where the camera focuses on Ueda as he sings long notes, or Rescue in BtR where the camera focuses on Akanishi when he sings “I don’t want to cry alone”.)
For the majority of the chorus, the camera backs away for group shots before it goes to focus on Nakamaru (0:52-0:54 and 0:55-0:57). Nakamaru really shifted to become one of the lead vocalists after Akanishi left, so this is pretty normal. Also stands to reason to focus on one of the leads during the chorus, and Nakamaru’s voice pretty strongly dominates the chorus these days when it comes to KAT-TUN music. Also, Nakamaru is in the center of the trapezoid formation. Gotta focus on the person standing in the middle.
The chorus formation shifts to a V-shape (really, there are more shapes than V, trapezoid, and a straight line, and I’m glad that at least Taguchi seems to be aware of this since we start to see other shapes as the rest of the song progresses). It’s interesting to note that the camera briefly focuses on Taguchi during this time (0:59), though he is the person singing. The camera then focuses on each person for about 1.5 seconds each as they stand in their V formation, but it’s odd that Kamenashi gets pretty much no camera time, but Taguchi gets to have his face in the frame when they sing the higher, falsetto part (1:15). Normally, you would expect to have the front-person get a defining frame like that-when the pitch goes up, that usually indicates a climax of some sort-which is why I am perpetually surprised by this close-up. It wasn’t particularly important, and was merely a part of the chorus, so it’s not that surprising, but it’s still odd that they end the close-ups on Taguchi, and Kamenashi didn’t really get one for the second half of the chorus. Remember, Kamenashi is the front-man of the group, he’s supposed to get the most camera time and generally take shameless advantage of the fact that the camera man loves his hair.
The camera zooms back, and so it’s a group-shot for the beginning of the second verse (1:17) which Kamenashi and Ueda sings. No close up for this part except on Nakamaru, in the center (1:24), while Koki sings. I would feel bad for Koki except he gets about an entire minute worth of camera time when he raps, so I don’t feel bad at all. Focusing on Nakamaru is pretty reasonable, given that he’s in the center-the camera was slowly zooming in, then cuts to a separate feed of zoomed-in Nakamaru, and then zooms back to focus on the really nifty choreo that Taguchi did (1:28-1:30). It’s interesting to note that the camera moves to the left to catch Taguchi’s slide forward (1:31). Taguchi never really did too much to interact with the camera previously (Kamenashi is too much of a camera hog)-it’s like he’s been ordered to interact with the camera now.
I don’t think that the zooming back to focus on the group choreo is that weird. It really is a nifty piece of choreography-hands on each other’s shoulder’s, etc. It’s probably one of my favorite parts of the Fumetsu no Scrum choreography, and it does make sense to give it attention (even though Ueda isn’t even attempting to look like he’s trying to put forth effort).
The next time worth noting is at about 1:40, where the camera focuses on Nakamaru and Taguchi walking for a good 10 seconds. This, actually, is not that interesting considering that all everybody is doing is walking, and so obviously you focus on the person singing. Kame got his like, 6 seconds of fame, and then Nakamaru and Taguchi, two cuts, and then Ueda, and Koki. Taguchi goes and shoves his face in a camera for another 2 seconds (1:58-2:00). Again, odd for Taguchi to do that, given that he’s been pretty much regulated to the sides. People can say what they want about “spontaneity”, but everybody knows that which camera you look into when and who looks where is carefully choreographed. And I don’t believe that Kamenashi wasn’t whoring it up to the camera. Keep in mind, as well, that previously something as simple as “Kamenashi waving at the crowd” could cut a Taguchi-close up (BtR2009, One Drop performance).
Koki then gets pretty much 15 seconds of camera time while he walks and raps, which makes sense, again, because all the others are doing is sauntering at a leisurely pace to the main stage. Taguchi duets with Ueda (2:13) about something like not being alone forever, and proves, again, why Taguchi was not picked to fill in the vocal gap left by Akanishi. It’s a perfectly passable attempt at a high note-if you consider Kamenashi’s typical attempts “passable”. Ueda sounds gorgeous, but he’s also singing the harmony, so focusing on Taguchi is fairly reasonable. At the same time, this is Taguchi, who has never previously been marketed quite this hard at the general audience.
Taguchi’s last close-up comes at 2:47, a solo line (so it’s not surprising that he have a close up, but he’s had plenty of solo lines where it’s a group shot), and then the song ends with a group shot.
This puts Taguchi, in the MSte2012 performance, at about 19 seconds of camera time. In the 3 minute song, that brings him up to an amazing 11%. It’s a new record!
But of course, this still doesn’t even bring him close to Kame, who’s sitting at about fifty-million seconds of solo camera time. Let’s talk, beyond looking at just solo shots, then.
Let’s talk about Ueda’s solo time in this performance. Ueda gets the camera focused on him for approximately 10 seconds, which is about 5%. Sound familiar?
Koki has his rap, which skews the data a bit, but we can look at Nakamaru, who has about 16 seconds of solo camera time, or 9%. For being one of the main singers of the band, the fact that he’s being focused on less does suggest that the focus is shifting way from Nakamaru and Ueda in this performance and instead going to Taguchi.
Let’s also talk a bit about group-shots in this performance. As Taguchi is (constantly) being publically acknowledged for his choreography in Fumetsu no Scrum, group-shots that show choreography is, indirectly, an acknowledgement of Taguchi. The many group-shots (often at the expense of Ueda or Nakamaru), can be, if you are desperate, inferred as promoting Taguchi.
In the end, MSte2012 Fumetsu no Scrum shows an actual shift in focus-away from Nakamaru and Ueda, who have previously stepped it up post-Akanishi’s leaving-and onto Taguchi
Analysis
Or: Why focus on Taguchi?
However, I do want to briefly discuss why this shift in marketing and promoting Taguchi is occurring. One part is likely due to the fact that Taguchi has his stageplay with Higashiyama, and so by focusing on Taguchi, you draw attention to him. By focusing on the choreography, you draw attention to his dancing abilities. Both of these promote the stage play-because it, apparently, involves no words and only a lot of dancing.
But why did he get the stage play and the choreography to begin with? To talk about this, we need to go back to how things become popular. People don’t want to be interested in what everybody else is interested in. That’s why we have “hipsters”. When marketing, you always want to be just slightly ahead of the interest curve. You want to, essentially, study what the hipsters like, and then bring it to the mainstream-and once that’s done, you find the next thing that the hipsters liked and bring that mainstream.
Being uninvolved in fandom, I can’t cite any growing shift towards interest in Taguchi, but Taguchi’s always been a bit of a cult favorite. Before Akanishi left, pretty much everybody except for Kamenashi and Akanishi was a bit of a cult favorite… but they’ve all gone mainstream in some way. Ueda has had Mouse Peace for a while, so Ueda’s musical and artistic vision is a bit of a done thing. Nakamaru has had beatboxing for a while, and he’s now very solidly established as a good singer. Koki, likewise, has had raps for years, and after Akanishi left, was acknowledged as a perfectly acceptable singer. Kamenashi, of course, always has his “acting”.
Therefore, in order for KAT-TUN to gain a new focal point to evolve more interest to remain “hip and trendy”, they would need to adjust their image or essentially do something drastic that took into account progressing underground interests. This is where Taguchi comes in.
Kpop is slowly overtaking the world (through youtube), because of their (relatively) strong dancing skills and ability to dance in-sync. I’m sure that if KAT-TUN ever danced in-sync, their long-term fans would die of a heart-attack, so that route was out, for KAT-TUN. Also, Arashi had been doing that for years. That left showing strong dancing skills, but given Ueda’s ability to put absolutely 0 effort into the group choreography, I don’t think any producer would think about giving them complex choreography.
But Taguchi, on the other hand, was untapped potential, and you wouldn’t even need to change anything. He’s under acknowledged, has yet to have a dance break that wasn’t because everybody else in the band got a dance break, and has constantly been pushed to the side. Subtle actions-moving him to the center of choreography-to build unconscious intereset in him, and then acknowledgement of his choreography essentially creates an entirely new focal point for the general public (and fans) to go: “Ah, KAT-TUN is so cool!”
It probably started in Chain-era, where we started to see more dancing from Taguchi. Finale, from Chain 2012, for example, is Taguchi gaining acknowledgement for his dancing. He actually stands in the center for Star Rider for about 1 second during the group dance break. And now, Fumetsu no Scrum.
So what would happen now?
If I were marketing KAT-TUN, I would push Taguchi’s dancing, hard. A solo dance break in a song, where he does something: not tap dancing, something that actually fits KAT-TUN’s more “Bad Boy” image.
After that has been pushed? Continue promoting Taguchi, in subtle fashion, by giving him more singing parts, and actively acknowledging his harmonizing to showcase him as a singer.
Find him a lead in a drama.
End result? Taguchi can sing, dance, act, and looks damn fine in a suit. And then it’s time to go back to Kamenashi, and his fantastic hair.
Conclusions
Or: I’ve written about 4000 words, let’s wrap it up.
It’s not so much Taguchi Got Hot as Taguchi is being focused on as a means for more sales. Given more time, it would be worth looking at the amount of time and focus Taguchi got starting from the formation of KAT-TUN (or just from their debut), up until now. I can safely tell you that the Taguchi-focus PV of Real Face has a surprisingly large amount of Kamenashi and Akanishi though. I can also tell you that while I love WIND live in BtR2009, he has both Tanaka Koki and Akanishi Jin in his performance. But who knows, perhaps my memory of old concerts is hazy, and Taguchi actually had plenty of time.
Ultimately, the conclusion is that Taguchi is evolving now-not only in terms of getting more attention, but also in terms of his image… and whether or not it’s his choice, his agency (if they know anything at all), will milk it for all its worth.
Will this help KAT-TUN get sales? Possibly. The best marketing is the subtle type that people don’t even realize is happening.
I suppose only time will tell if I’m correct or not. And if I’m right, well, I told you so.
A Different Angle
Or: Ri, your analysis is all wrong, you shouldn’t be looking at solo close-ups, you should be looking at everything!
1. I’m not going to look at everything, I actually have a life. Analysis of this sort is my hobby, and I haven’t done it in a while because I’ve been far too busy with something called grad school. This is only done because I’m on break and no longer am spending about 10 hours a week grading lab reports that are still more interesting than the majority of fanfiction on the net. This is only being written up because I felt like actually putting it into words for once.
2. I just spent hours counting seconds of solo camera time on my fingers for a three minute song while wriggling my mouse so I could keep an eye on the timestamp because I’m watching these videos on yinyuetai.com. If you want to argue with me, go do your own analysis with your DVDs or HQ files and then come to me. Or collect the data for me, and we’ll analyze it together.
3. Shouldn’t all of you be too busy squeezing about EXO to give a damn about KAT-TUN?
But, if you want to have a reasonable discussion (with a difference of opinion, that’s fine), we can talk. In fact, if you want to hear my opinion on pre-Akanishi KAT-TUN and how they were promoted, and post-Akanishi KAT-TUN, I could talk for hours, because while BtR is my favorite pre-Akanishi concert, it also is absolutely disgusting how heavily Kamenashi and Akanishi were promoted. Leave a comment, if you want. Or whine at Rei, and she’ll let me know that you disagree and then I’ll laugh at you.
Tl;dr:
I think a lot about marketing and how people are being promoted and decisions on why and how to promote members and boybands. Taguchi is being promoted, not-very-subtly, through decisions on who and what to film. He’s become popular enough through his work that people are interested in seeing him, and as a result he’s getting more camera time. Or, KAT-TUN’s producer has decided that it’s time for them to evolve by promoting Taguchi. Who knows, really.
Merry Christmas.