Kyary Pamyu Pamyu releases a music video for “Kuru Kuru Harajuku”...a whole year after the song was first released

So, Pussy Pam has released a music video for her single “Kuru Kuru Harajuku”, a whole year after the song originally released. Maybe she forgot that she did not put out a video for this song. Or maybe she finally had enough money to get one made. Either way, it’s pretty cool that she bothered.

More effort when the song was first released would have been nice. But in this age of songs being rediscovered years after their initial releases thanks to random TikTok trends, YouTube algorithms and attention spans being the length of a PinkPantheress song — it’s never too late to put out a video to a song. And quite honestly, I think a phased approach to single releases now is the move. And it’s great to see another Japanese pop act mess around with release formats and timings. It’s something we’re seeing happen more and more in Japanese music between YouTube, streaming and physical singles releases phasing out. With singles being digital, there is now no need to have music videos shot in advance for when the physical singles are pressed so that it can be included on the limited edition variant. So this allows production timelines for videos to be way more relaxed, which gives artists and record labels the freedom to release them whenever. We’ve seen a lot of changes to releases in the age of streaming, many of which I do not like at all. But music videos coming after the single release and it slowly becoming a trend in Japan is one that I actually do like.

HENNYWAY.

Back to Pussy Pam and this “Kuru Kuru Harajuku” music video.

I’m not a fan of this song, but it is catchy and the music video is pretty damn cool. It’s great to see Pussy Pam can still deliver videos which are creative and quirky. And I’m not sure whether it was intentional or not, given the ‘Harajuku’ of it all, but this video reminded me a bit of the video for “Harajuku Iyahoi” — with there being multiple Kyary’s and her face appearing on screens.

Something which surprised the hell out of me was discovering that the dancing in this video was choreographed by Randy Xtravaganza from the House of Xtravaganza, because I cannot see a lick of vouging. Not even a little bit. “Kuru Kuru Harajuku” does have a full dance routine which has some vogue elements to it. So it’s likely that his credit in the video is for that and not what we see in the video. Or maybe it’s both. Because even though it looks like Kyary isn’t really doing anything choreographed, it is probably still choreographed. It’s a shame we didn’t see anything of the routine in the video though. Because I do think it would given the choreo a second shot at trying to catch on and become a dance trend on TikTok.

Oh well. It’s still a cool video. A very dusty song. But now with a cool video.

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💿 Single reviews: Fashion Monster | Crazy Party Night ~Pumpkin no Gyakushuu~ | Oedoedo | Focus Focus

💿 Album reviews: Nanda Collection | Pika Pika Fantajin | Japamyu | Candy Racer

📀 Special Edition: A makeshift Kyary album - Super Pamicom