Kou Shibasaki – Love & Ballad Selection

Shibasaki Kou compiles her best romantic ballads over her eight-year singing career with some of her latest ballads for Love&Ballad Collection. The first theme compilation by the actress/singer features ten of her biggest ballad hits, her latest single Honto Dayo (written by Oda Kazumasa), as well as the new songs mizu-umi ~ Mizu no Kotae and with you. It also includes Shibasaki’s covers of lego big morl’s Ray and Kokko’s Ningyo.

アルバム・ヴァージョンの「月のしずく」「かたちあるもの」含む新录音6曲入りセレクション・アルバムのリリースが决定！新曲「mizu-umi ～みずのこたえ～」「with you」、新たに「かたちあるもの」「月のしずく」も新录し、さらにはカヴァー曲「Ray」（lego big morl) 「人鱼」（NOKKO）も収录した、柴咲コウ初めてのセレクション・アルバム！

Track List
01.intro. ~予感~
02.ホントだよ
03.one’s heart
04.最愛/KOH+ (Long Ver.)
05.Interlude 1
06.かたち あるもの (Album Ver.)
07.ひと恋めぐり
08.Sweet Mom
09.Interlude 2
10.小さな部屋
11.影
12.月のしずく/RUI (Album Ver.)
13.遺.
14.百年後
15.Interlude 3
16.mizu-umi ~みずのこたえ~
17.with you
18.Ray
19.人魚
20.outro.

DOWNLOADS:
Step 1, Get the Latest Version of eMule at:
SourceForge.net: eMule

Step 2, Click the following links to Downloads:
柴咲コウ(Kou.Shibasaki).-.[Love.&.Ballad.Selection].专辑.(MP3).rar

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Can pop stars be forgiven practically any offense? That is a question on many lips after the revelation that singer Lee Hyo-lee’s latest album “h.logic” contains no fewer than six plagiarized songs. Lee admitted to the wrongdoing and vowed to refrain from promoting the album. Yet she appeared on a recent SBS program.

The producers say Lee was not directly responsible for the plagiarism, but the public sees things differently. They feel it is unseemly for Lee to make out that she is a victim herself, and that the producers of TV shows should not sweep the problem under the carpet.

Unlike other artists accused of plagiarism, who deny their wrongdoings to the end, Lee owned up. But the fact that half of an artist’s album consisted of songs that had been stolen from foreign artists leaves an indelible stain on Korean pop music as a whole. Lee in a statement issued by her management agency Mnet Media said she had “no reason to be suspicious” since she was given the songs by the agency. She claims her rookie songwriter, a person by the name of Bahnus, lied to her.

It was after all not the first time that Lee has been accused of plagiarism. And given that she had been promoting herself as a consummate professional while producing her latest album, these comments seem rather pathetic. In an earlier interview she claimed the album contains songs that were strictly screened from 1,000 songs submitted by a wide range of composers. “We even checked to see if any of those songs were similar to other tunes out there using the iPhone application ‘SoundHound’.” The comments have lost all credibility.

Accusations of plagiarism surfaced on the Internet shortly after the album was released in mid-April, but she continued to market the songs until the end of May on various TV and radio programs. Bahnus had apparently left Mnet Media on May 10 “taking all responsibility” for the accusations of plagiarism. That means Lee and Mnet Media had about 40 days to recognize the suspicions, making it difficult for Lee and Mnet Media to escape criticism that they fooled the public.

The larger problem is how frequent such are. Many if not most singers releasing new albums these days are accused of plagiarism. This is because singers have become cash cows rather than artists who are able to communicate with the public. Singers who present original songs about their own emotions are an endangered species, while a handful of composers contracted by powerful management companies dominate the tunes that top the charts. This increases the risk of plagiarism as each one of these composing machines churns out more than 50 songs a year.

Lee’s biggest mistake was in fact her failure to take charge of her songs and her album, contrary to what she has been saying in public. If a 13-year veteran of the entertainment industry and Korea’s reigning queen of pop is in such bad shape, things must be even worse for the younger singers who are being groomed by their agencies. Veteran rock guitarist and singer-songwriter Shin Jung-hyun said in a recent interview, “There is no real music on Korea’s pop music scene these days. There is only greed”. Gone are the days when singers made their own music and conquered the stage with powerful voices and honest pride.

Source: hancinema.net

News has come out of a concert tour to support the first album by super-aidoru group SMAP in two years. The double album “We are SMAP!” is due for release on July 21. It features collaborations with such artists as Daniel Powter, Rip Slyme and Love Psychedelico. The group have also collaborated with the Asahi Inryo beverage company to produce a new sports drink by the same name. The initial launch will see 10 millions bottles sold. A similar tie-up with Kirin Beverage in 2002 saw the sale of 8.4 million bottles of the “Drink! SMAP!” soft drink.

The “We are SMAP! Tour 2010″ will kick off on July 31 with two nights at Sapporo Dome, followed by four nights each at the Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan, Nagoya, and Kyocera (Osaka) domes, and finishes with five nights at Tokyo Dome.

Source: japan-zone

Superfly’s new song “Tamashii Revolution,” which is being used by NHK as its World Cup broadcast theme song, broke 300,000 downloads as of June 29, eleven days after its release.

“Tamashii Revolution” was released as a digital single on June 18 (the day before the Japan-Netherlands match), available through services such as chaku-uta full and iTunes. On iTunes, the song was #1 for eleven consecutive days, and it ranked #1 on the most recent weekly chart.

Despite its popularity, the song is not currently planned to have a CD release.

Source: tokyograph

Terri only had a towel covering her breasts on the cover of her new album, and wore a 5kg red-lipped hair accessory while balancing a tiny red sandal on her foot. Within ten minutes, she complained of a headache, and said “There’s so many challenges in becoming a singer! This is just too much! It’s very traumatizing for me!”

Actually, Terri has always loved the red-white sandal, and loves going to the nightmarket, contrary to many people’s belief that she refuses to wear anything that isn’t a brand name label. She loves to mix and match nightmarket finds with her brand name clothing to create a style entirely her own! In addition to having a sense of fashion, she is a multi-faceted artist and socialite on the outside, and warm and soft on the inside. Terri has always wanted to have a music career, and therefore has taken pains to show that she isn’t just a money-loaded socialite a la Paris Hilton. She will depend on herself and work hard to build up a rep worthy of Lady Gaga’s approval.

Nicknamed “Rebellious socialite”, in late June she passed the tests and challenges set by Golden Typhoon Records, and confirmed that she will be releasing “Unkept Secret” (TN: Not exact) in late July, an album set to challenge the Chinese music industry. Golden Typhoon Records has chosen to release her album in the heat of summer, and with her English name being “Terri Kwan”, they have decided to string an acronym “3K Queens” to associate her with their other artists, British singer Kylie Minogue and American Katy Perry. Golden Typhoon Records hopes that with this ultimate card, the three ladies will be able to have an explosive presence in the summer music market, and have also given Terri an unbelievable opportunity with such a prestigious lineup!

Yesterday, Terri worked on her MV from 8 am to 12 am, so Golden Typhoon’s workers ordered a specially designed red-lipped cake to match the one in her MV to celebrate her hard work. When she saw the cake, Terri exclaimed, “I totally forgot that my birthday is coming up!” Then she choked, “I was just about to ask the Director why he wouldn’t start filming yet, after making me wait so long, turns out they wanted to give me a big surprise!”

Source: nownews
Translation: casablanca– @ http://asianfanatics.net/

The popular duo Kobukuro will provide the theme song and insert songs for the TBS drama series “Dohyo Girl,” which stars fashion model Nozomi Sasaki (22) in a story about sumo wrestling.

All of the songs are being taken from Kobukuro’s cover album “ALL COVERS BEST” (on sale August 25). The theme song will be a version of Tetsuro Oda’s “Itsumademo Kawaranu Ai wo,” while the insert song will be different for each of the show’s 10 episodes, starting with Yumi Matsutoya’s “Sotsugyou Shashin.” The other songs that are planned to be used include Yutaka Ozaki’s “I LOVE YOU,” Shogo Hamada’s “Mou Hitotsu no Doyoubi,” and Derek and the Dominos’ “Layla.”

“Dohyo Girl” premieres on July 13.

Source: tokyograph

Jay Chou’s Superman might not be able to fly, but he sure saved the day for Cape No. 7 director Wei Te-Sheng. The star apparently loaned 40 million (NTD) to the director for his new movie Seediq Bale. Filming of the epic began last November and is not expected to complete until July. The film’s financial troubles has been widely reported as its budget has already ballooned to a whopping 600 million. Most recently, the production is said to be owing 2.6 million in car rentals.

Jay Chou reportedly made 550 million last year. His company JVR Music confirmed the rumor was indeed true, “Jay supports good movies, good directors. They needed money at the time, so Jay helped out, but we can’t disclose the actual amount.”

Seediq Bale producer Huang Chih-Ming responded, “Director Wei worked as the assistant director on the pre-production of Monga. We later collaborated on Secret. He thinks it’s very cool of director Wei to make Seediq Bale. He loaned us some money after knowing about our financial difficulties. It was paid back to him in April. We had a written acknowledgment. He only charged us $1 for interest, so we are very grateful for his help.”

Overview of Super “Charitable” Man
(All values in NTD)

1 million – President Chou donated to help a female dancer with getting a heart transplant.
13.2 million – Donated to the Sichuan Earthquake
12.8 million – Donated 2 million to the 88 flood initially and sponsored 300 children in the disaster area.
40 million – Loaned to Seediq Bale

Source: Cpop Access

Hard to believe, but popular actress Kyoko Fukada has not had top billing in a film since Mayumi Miyasaka’s “Tenshi”, which was released over 4 years ago. Today comes word that Fukada will be making her return to leading lady status the hard way in Renai Gikyoku: Watashi to Koi ni Ochite Kudasai (literally “Love Drama: Please Fall in Love with Me”), playing a role consisting of 3 distinct parts.

The film is an adaptation of playwright Shoji Kokami‘s hit stage play “Renai Gikyoku”, and Kokami himself will direct. Fukuda will play a popular television screenwriter named Mayumi Taniyama and actor Kippei Shiina will play a totally clueless TV producer named Mukai in his first purely comedic role. Taniyama is suffering from writer’s block, so when Mukai enthusiastically requests to work from one of her scripts, she asks him to fall in love with her first.

Fukada’s role is broken down three parts as the story bounces back and forth between fantasy and reality: the real-life screenwriter selfishly abusing a man for her own purposes, the lonely housewife in her script, and the gorgeous woman in the fictional housewife’s script.

The rest of the cast includes Takashi Tsukamoto, Masatoshi Nakamura, Misa Shimizu, Masahiko Nishimura, and Jun Inoue.

“Renai Gikyoku” will begin its gradual nation-wide release in Japan on September 25, 2010.

Source: nipponcinema

After two years and three months, YUI will be releasing her 5th original album “HOLIDAYS IN THE SUN” on July 14th this year. With her latest single “to Mother” only released on June 2nd, she was able to reach the top position of ORICON charts with five releases in a row, making it a record, which was last reached by Utada Hikaru 6 years ago making her the second ever in history. All five singles, who created this record, will re gathered on this new album, which is a first timer for a female singer-song-writer.

In accordance to the release of “HOLIDAYS IN THE SUN” YUI commented: “It’s really been a long time since the last album, and I am just a little nervous about it. (laughs) During these two years, towards all the people, who have supported me, all friends and relatives and more than anything the fans, who have been anticipating my activities – I am so full of gratitude. Thank you so much! This album has become a record with a great number of memories of mine. It’s something I am proud of. I’d be really happy if lots of people listened to it and am looking forward to your support.”

Source: musicjapanplus

Jay Chou continued to wow fans on the 3rd night of his concert at the Taipei Arena. Not only did he impress the audience with yet another performance, but more surprisingly, his rumored ex-girl friend Jolin Tsai was special guest of the night!

The Era 2010 World Tour marks the 4th tour in Jay Chou’s 10-year career. Its state-of-the-art visual effects and production is said to cost 100 million (NTD). However, the concert was criticized by fans for being too short and featuring too many singers from his company. Jay Chou was quick to react as he added 4 songs on the second night. JVR Music’s Lara, The Drifters, Cindy Yen and Gary Yang all took the stage. Unfortunately, The Drifters was noticeably the show’s washroom break when they performed.

After former J-Girls Jessie Chiang and Hebe attended the concert earlier, fans got a real surprise when Jolin Tsai appeared as the special guest on the final night. She ascended onto the stage while Jay Chou was singing “Give Me The Time of a Song” during the encore. Fans were shocked and excited as they screamed through the rumored ex-couple’s entire performance. Interestingly, Jay Chou previously said his special guest would be someone beyond everyone’s expectations. And yes, he has kept his word indeed.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Source: Cpop Access