Crystal's partnership with shopping arcade company Crysta so far has involved her doing shoots for them seasonally. So depending on what time of year you walk through their underground shopping arcade in Nagahoribashi you might see pictures of Crystal plastered around featuring her smiling in front of cherry blossoms, snow, autumn leaves or blinded by a lens flare. In addition to this innovative marketing campaign, Crystal performed a one off gig in their mall back in February. However, Crysta only put the video of the gig up within the first week of April and it's also unlisted on YouTube. Performing in a shopping mall is what artists do when they are first starting out and their life is a struggle. This girl is 10 years plus deep into a career and she's STILL on this shit?! Crystal will be busking at Tokyo station next.
It's nice that Crystal has some form of deal / partnership thing going on. But if she wants to sell copies of an album and have hit singles, she needs to partner with somebody bigger than a company who will throw a few pictures of her in some underground shopping mall in Osaka. This girl needs a BIG collaboration. She needs that UNIQLO exposure Meisa Kuroki was getting. The Adidas originals exposure that Pussy Pamyu was getting. The H&M exposure that Mademoiselle Yulia is currently getting. She needs a song of hers to feature in a J-drama which features a big leading star. She needs the obvious things, all of which we could all reel a list of. But the chances of it happening now for her are as slim as Ayu's chances of selling a milli. It's tragic that the best a girl can get is with a company who reached out to her purely because her name is the same as their company name, minus the L.
Album reviews: All yours | Color change! | Flash | Spin the music | Vivid
It's nice that Crystal has some form of deal / partnership thing going on. But if she wants to sell copies of an album and have hit singles, she needs to partner with somebody bigger than a company who will throw a few pictures of her in some underground shopping mall in Osaka. This girl needs a BIG collaboration. She needs that UNIQLO exposure Meisa Kuroki was getting. The Adidas originals exposure that Pussy Pamyu was getting. The H&M exposure that Mademoiselle Yulia is currently getting. She needs a song of hers to feature in a J-drama which features a big leading star. She needs the obvious things, all of which we could all reel a list of. But the chances of it happening now for her are as slim as Ayu's chances of selling a milli. It's tragic that the best a girl can get is with a company who reached out to her purely because her name is the same as their company name, minus the L.
Album reviews: All yours | Color change! | Flash | Spin the music | Vivid
:(
ReplyDeleteI don know what's going on with her, but I've been very dissatisfied lately. Her U.S endeavors have been lackluster as of right now. Also, what's been going on with her vocals? This is the second performance I've seen where she dodges all the high notes and then hits that iffy B5, which is usually right within her comfortable singing range. Maybe her voice is maturing with age, but she needs to figure that shit out.
ReplyDeleteThat video has just over a hundred views and it's almost been a month. That's gotta hoit!
ReplyDeleteHere I am clicking all over your blog, lol. I will ask here, if you ever see this comment on this old blog post: Why don't you do reviews of boy groups anymore? I've noticed you tend to stick to female singers lately.
ReplyDeleteCrystal, Crystal, Crystal. At least this crowd is alive...
ReplyDeleteThis is my main problem with Crystal. She has successful best friends (Beni and BoA), yet Crystal is doing stuff like this? No one will remember that performance 10 minutes later. I love her, I really do, but... At least the move to Universal is a lot better than when she was at Sony. :/
This album, along with "Call me Miss..." is still a 10/10, even today.
ReplyDeleteWhile I can definitely agree with the fact that Crystal's attempted debut in the U.S. has been a grand disappointment and lackluster, I have to disagree with the claims of diminished vocal capacity. I didn't see any note dodging, and the only time she didn't sing was when she let the backtrack do it for her to either dance or hype up the crowd. Lord knows the girl had to be hot and winded from singing a quarter of her album back to back with choreography, which has shown all types of improvement from the way she was several years ago when all she could muster was a two-step and an arm swing. Also, you could tell she was working because she had a long lock of her hair pasted to her face with perspiration for about two songs. Despite all of the moving, she did hit quite a few high notes through "Delicious na Kinyoubi" and "Forever".
ReplyDeleteWhile I continue to support her in her endeavors of making it big, I am a realist at the same time. Her career isn't looking too promising when it comes to international and local megastar status, at the moment, so she might just have to be content with being the underground mall, birthday parties, club venues, and charity event wig snatching songstress for hire. If she can't roll with the big wigs in the industry, she may as well be the queen of the wannabes and almost famous musician. We can say a lot of things about Crystal, but we can't say that she doesn't stay on her grind. It isn't that she is busy doing nothing, it is just that what keeps her busy amounts to very little. I still love and support her though.
She didn't hit the G#5 at the end of Forever, which is understandable because it is a really high note and hard to belt out, but that high falsetto note she hit at the end of Forever was rough. I'm no vocal expert, but I haven't been feeling her vocals lately. It may not be so much her vocal ability diminishing, but the scaled back vocal arrangements. I just want her to lace a track again the way she did on All Yours. I want her to bring back the intricate harmonies of I WANNA BE or the killer bridges of tracks like Escalator that have me hitting the rewind button, I want her to ad lib like she did on Midnight Highway. I just want her to let people know that she can sing, because songs like Busy Do Nothing and Dum Ditty Dum don't showcase that.
ReplyDelete"It isn't that she is busy doing nothing, it is just that what keeps her busy amounts to very little" Isn't that the sad, hard truth.
Bahahahahahahahahahajahajahahaha!
ReplyDeleteNew music from Crystal Kay! That director though... he is in it! I love "rule your world" thus far. As J would say, it better have weave thrashing and some sort of p***y popping, especially for this type of song. CK went way out of her comfort zone. I'm happy about that. :)
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/QsJOfhe6Nu0
Y'all want some good news!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsJOfhe6Nu0
ReplyDeleteSo I ain't even mad at this! There is a bonafide banger coming!
Where/how do you find these hidden/unlisted gems?! Thank you! I was really expecting 12 people but it's more like 50!! And it's not Yokohama her home town! She's always on the grind, it's admirable, and one day it will pay off in some form or another!! Can't wait for "Rule your world," sounds good.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand her strategy at all. She has been at his for 10 years. She needs to go all out or nothing. She can't keep testing the waters. Even in Japan she is not that successful, but she tries harder. She will need to try just as hard here and get a better publicist. I don't see here going to any radio stations or trying to get a spotlight on mtv, something. I love her but this is disappointing.
ReplyDelete