Single Review: f5ve - Underground

Japan and girl groups. An interesting chapter in the history of Japanese music, which is shaping the present, but leaving the future of it wider than Koda Kumi’s legs over a bottle of wine.

Girls groups other than AK-47 and NA-2 are actually a hot commodity in Japanese music at the moment, after many years of somewhat being sidelined in favour of boy bands—largely in part due to [REDACTED] & Associates spamming the market with them, then EXILE with their 174 members and all of their splinter groups flooding the scene.

Girls groups have always had a presence throughout Japanese music and have MASSIVELY shaped the industry, but they’ve never managed to have the same level of commercial success and longevity that the boy bands have had. And even with AR-10 and NP-24A, whilst the success of these groups has been and continues to be huge, it’s been with a whole system unto itself which is far from usual and cycles of members. This is what makes Perfume such an anomaly, because they’ve outlasted nearly every girl group who was around when they debuted, with a pretty standard set up and the exact same members. This is why it pisses me off that their music and style aren’t evolving at the rate at which they should, but that’s a whole other post.

The point here is that girl groups other than AW50 in Japanese music have not managed to enjoy sustained success and relevance to the same degree as boy bands across every genre. There are peaks when they’re huge and valleys when they stop selling. And when the hallyu began, all of the girl group peaks in Japan were for Korean girl groups, which had a direct influence on the type of Japanese girl groups we started to see—adopting similar styles, aesthetic and sounds which are very typical of K-pop. This has resulted in countless debates online and some making statements that J-pop is now K-pop. I’m not getting involved. But the cool thing about ALL O’ DIS, regardless of people’s angles and takes, is that girl groups in Japanese music are having a peak moment again. And one of the groups who is hoping to ride this wave is f5ve.

f5ve - Underground | Three Six Zero Recordings

f5ve is a new girl group which consists of members from LDH girl groups Happiness and iScream. The way LDH treats its girl groups is an absolute mess. They create groups. Then take those groups to make a larger group. Then disband that group, to then make another group with selected members from the larger group. EXHIBIT A. f5ve. I don’t know what it is with Japanese management agencies and record labels when it comes to girl groups, between how LDH does E-Girls ‘n’ dem and how Avex did Faky. But that’s a whole other post, which also ties in with why girl groups don’t enjoy success comparable to that of boy bands. They are poorly managed.

But f5ve is an interesting case, because it’s a joint venture between LDH Japan and international management and entertainment company Three Six Zero. And the group is executive produced and co-creative directed by American music producer BloodPop®—who some may know from his earlier work with Grimes, back when he went by Blood Diamonds (that name absolutely had to go). But more will probably know him from his infamous work on Lady Gaga’s sixth studio album, Chromatica.

Now, Chromatica is an important album to cite here. I will explain how. Stay with me. Because BloodPop® is absolutely the reason why we ended up with Blackpink on a song like “Sour Candy”. You could just tell that he was tapped into the K-pop and J-pop scene, which is really cool. And Chromatica felt more like the type of album he wanted to do for the Korean or Japanese girl group he wasn’t able to work with, so Gaga just ended up with a lot of those songs. So, for him to now have a girl group that he is producing for, he’s able to fully indulge and realise what I feel is a vision he has had for himself for a while. It’s also worth noting that BloodPop® has also been in the studio with Kaze Fujii and A.G. Cook. And much like A.G. Cook—who can be found in the liner notes of Fujii and Hikaru Utada releases—BloodPop® has now found himself in the liner notes of Japanese music releases too. Everything is connected. Because “Underground” sounds exactly like the type of song I would expect from A.G. Cook and the PC Music crew. I actually thought the PC Music posse was behind this song when I first heard it. And PC Music having some form of presence in the J-pop music scene makes a lot of sense. Well. It would if we saw a sonic shift which went back to the early 80s and 90s, which f5ve’s “Underground” does. And we’ll circle back to this. But let’s get back to the BloodPop® of it all for a minute, and why Chromatica has found itself dragged into this review.

A big problem with BloodPop® for me has always been that he’s quite selfish in terms of the songs he gives people, which is fair and the name of the game. It’s what producers do. Push their sound onto others. Sometimes it’s necessary to shake shit up for an artist, especially when the producer’s sound is so different to that of the artist—as was the case when BloodPop first worked with Grimes. And sometimes it just feels so right that there’s nothing to discuss—Britney Spears, The Neptunes and “I’m a Slave 4 U”. But it can cause problems when the artist gets lost in this, as was the case with Lady Gaga on Chromatica. Chromatica was not a Lady Gaga album. It was a BloodPop® album which Lady Gaga sang on. And with f5ve I feel like we might be in for a similar thing. “Underground” is a great song. But going off of “Firetruck” and “Lettuce”, there didn’t seem to be any consideration of how f5ve should sound or be presented in a way which separated them from everybody else. BloodPop® was just high on his ‘I’M PRODUCING A JAPANESE GIRL GROUP’ juice, but then gave them two songs back-to-back which sounded like that of any other girl group. They coulda been Aespa songs, Flo songs or Boys World songs. But a corner has been turned with “Underground”, because it feels like something f5ve can truly own and call theirs. And it also sounds like it’s clearly pulling from a Japanese sound, which is SO refreshing in the midst of a bunch of Japanese girl groups who are either stuck in that sickly sweet idol sound or are just sounding and looking like K-pop girl groups. “Underground” is a pretty much a parapara song, but it will get filed under hyperpop and I do get why. Because whilst it has the tempo of a parapara song, it doesn’t have all of the sonic characteristics of one.

Something about the coverage of hyperpop which I’ve always found interesting—but unsurprising—is how there is so little mention of the influence of Japanese music. Because to me, so much of hyperpop sounds like every other J-pop song which was releasing in the 90s and early 2000s and whatever Kyary Pamyu Pamyu was putting out.

HENNYWAY.

f5ve - Underground | Three Six Zero Recordings

Japanese music is a fascinating thing to me. Because whilst it does experience shifts and trends the way western music does, it’s rarely to the extent that the sound of Japanese music as a whole shifts to a trend—which I think could be reflective of Japanese society in general. There’s an aversion to shifting to a new thing rapidly and there’s comfort in familiarity. Yet, there is simultaneously this reluctance to circle back to something which once was popular and familiar. We’ve never seen a Eurobeat or a true city pop revival happen in Japanese music. J-R&B had its one big moment and it’s not had another. And I say all this to say that f5ve doing a parapara song is amazing to me and something I’d like to see stick and have a ripple effect which sees Eurobeat and parapara back on the charts. But it absolutely won’t. Thelma Aoyama even tried to bring it back with “Sekai no Chuushin ~We Are the World~”. Then again, there was no expansion upon this sound or aesthetic from Aoyama herself. So it would and it’d be great if f5ve really latched onto this Eurobeat / parapara sound and pushed it aggressively, and if BloodPop® could find ways to bend, shift and fuse it with other genres. THIS is the key for f5ve. And I think it’s why a lot of Japanese girl groups have come and gone. They’ve not been able to truly find an angle and commit to it. Or the angle they had became ‘outdated’. And I’ll once again mention Perfume as an example. A big part of why they are still around and still successful, is because they have an angle, they’re consistent with it and—for better or worse—their sound is singular. The unfortunate thing that f5ve and Perfume share is that one man a driving force behind their music, which is a problem. But at least f5ve’s music includes co-production and co-writing from others. Shout-outs to Emyli for writing “Underground”.

And I’ll also say that the specific men behind both groups isn’t an inherently bad thing. In fact, they might be [turns and looks into the camera] the best thing. Nakata Yasutaka not bothering with trends and giving Perfume songs which were not J-pop by genre and were just really great sounding songs played a huge part in what made their music connect with people. And Yasutaka’s production style is also what made him revered as a producer by those in the hyperpop scene. And BloodPop® being an RGB (255, 255, 255) weeb as a creative force behind f5ve, creates this weird, and possibly problematic dynamic, where you have a white guy putting forth his take on what he thinks a Japanese girl group sound like in 2024. But I also find this potentially cool. Because maybe it’s gonna take somebody from the outside to shake things up in J-pop. I feel a lot of the folk who have been in the Japanese music business for a while have lost sight of a whole lot of things, which is why so many legacy acts feel stuck and unable to connect with today’s audiences. And also why the Japanese music scene doesn’t feel as vibrant as it once did. And this is what made me sit up when I heard “Underground”. It felt vibrant, familiar and also a little disruptive. And there are probably folk in Japan who feel similarly about Megan Thee Stallion’s “Mamushi”. It’s a clash of cultures with Japan at the heart of it, packaged in a way which feels fresh.

f5ve - Underground | Three Six Zero Recordings

With “Firetruck”, there was no vision. With “Lettuce”, I saw the vision, but wasn’t a fan of it, because it was just so K-pop and I didn’t feel there was enough of an angle other than that. But with “Underground”, I see a vision, which is the right look for f5ve. And I’m into it. They’re putting the J back into J-pop. And LDH and BloodPop® should really tap into this. But between LDH’s track record with any group that’s not part of EXILE Tribe and BloodPop® doing what he finds cool instead of what works best for the acts he’s producing for, I have low expectations that “Underground” will lead the group down the path that it should. But I will reserve just a slither of hope. Because “Underground” is just that good and lays such a clear foundation for f5ve.