Kyary Pamyu Pamyu releases her oontz oontz jam "Dodonpa"

Kyary has released yet another song from her 5th studio album Candy Racer prior to its October 20 release. By the time this album comes out there'll barely be anything left to listen to. I literally say this every time a new J-Pop album is about to drop in the wake of digital singles. But that's because it is always the case. Only 4 songs on this damn thing will be 100% new, as a snippet of "DE.BA.YA.SHI. 2021" has hit the Internet already.

HENNYWAY.

As was the case with "Jumping Up", this is another song which sees Nakata giving Kyary some good shit.

I don't know what the fuck this song even is, but I dig it. I like when Nakata is kooky as fuck, and this shit is certified kooky. It sounds like a Capsule song circa Player and World of Fantasy. But it also reminds me a lot of the song "Mi" from Nanda Collection, which is probabaly the one song on the album that I've played (and still play) the most off of that album.

Something about this song which will probabaly get overlooked, but is pretty fucking huge given Japan and their lack of embracing YouTube and anything digital, is that Kyary is allowing free use of "Dodonpa" in YouTube videos. Content creators will be able to use the song without fear of their video being claimed or copyright struck. There are guidelines which need to be adhered to, and they're pretty fair. Also, videos which make good use of the music will be featured on a playlist on Kyary's official YouTube channel.

Kyary's team have also stopped that Avex foolishness with her YouTube video, and have allowed them to be embedded on websites.

Props to Kyary and her team for doing this. We need more Japanese artists forcing hands to shift record labels' approaches to how their music is shared and used online. It's going to be artists such as Kyary who came up in the age of social media and YouTube who will help move the needle on the Japanese music industry embracing the online. One thing I will give Kyary, is that her label had her full music videos on YouTube back when everybody else was uploading nothing but 30 short versions. The virality of the "PONPONPON" music video is how she became so well known outside of Japan in the first place.

Kyary is now a legitimate business woman, and a smarter person than I think many give her credit. And off the back of the YouTube usage for "Dodonpa", I'm genuinely interested to see what decisions she makes for her music now that she has her own record label; because she clearly has a vision of something beyond JUST releasing music as she and everybody else always has.

💿 Pamyu Pamyu album reviews: Japamyu | Pikapika Fantajin | Nanda Collection
📀 Pamyu Pamyu Special edition: Super Pamicom