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Artist News
Japanese rock band Vamps discuss the challenges of making it abroad
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 30 October 2014
At last week’s Tokyo International Music Market, the Japan Night organisation held a previously reported press conference announcing plans for a series of concerts around the world showcasing Japanese music. Then rock bands Vamps, [Alexandros] and Sakanaction played a showcase in Tokyo to mark the occasion.
The previous day, CMU Editor Andy Malt caught up with Vamps, asking frontman Hyde what the challenges are for Japanese artists trying to make it overseas.
“Not many Japanese artists are famous abroad at the moment”, he said. “A big part of that is that there’s no real predecessor to pave the way. No Japanese artists that have been really famous internationally yet, so it’s really hard to get the support and the budget to get out there. It is really difficult, but little by little things are changing”.
As for how Japanese artists can use streaming and other digital services (which are largely unavailable in Japan) to build their profile, guitarist KAZ added: “Streaming is mainstream abroad. And I think those platforms could be a good tool to help us jump from Japan to other foreign countries, and to give people a chance to find out more about Japanese music in general. So I think they are important in that regard. And as this new era evolves, perhaps music should evolve with it”.
Read our full interview with Vamps here, and for more on Japan’s digital music market and where it is heading, sign up to receive the next edition of the CMU Digest Report.
