620 replies to this topic

[azumakazumanja]

Ruth, wherever you are, thank you so much! :wink: m(_ _)m

I love Takayo's new album. Especially the first and last song...so "chill" and heavenly :c16: :c16:

It may be a stupid question, but does she play all the guitar (acoustic and electric) in her songs?

[fictionlove]

yeppp
she plays the acoustic geetar
dont know if she played all the guitar parts
but im pretty positive that she played the guitar for most of the songs
i mean after all
she wrote them haha

[4n01]

Hmmm... still no brave soul to start the 2007 thread, huh?

I think one of the members who's been here for a good long time ought to be the one to have the honors.

Let's see... tonight was a good night to play all of their hits again, so I did that... and spent a little time wondering why Miyu's been quieter than Takayo or Maiko when it comes to blogging. Do you think she's a little shy to do that? I hope not.

Also wondering just how many ZONE fans are around on the www. I've seen a couple of other forums, but they don't feel right like this one does. This one feels more like home.

Wondering too, about many ZONE facts that I haven't learned yet. Like, did Sony Japan give them a good contract for everything that the girls gave us? Were they treated fairly, compared to how Sony BMG treats their artists? Why did MARIA and Miyu stay with Sony, and why did Takayo go with an independent label for her solo career instead?

On another note, I still am not sure how many ZONE songs were written by ZONE members, and how many were written by another person or people... I'd like to know that, too. I also looked back towards the beginning of Takayo's blog thread, and when it was being translated for us, one of the things she mentions is that since she left the band and started school, she's learned how important it was to have friends. Was she maybe the lonesome member of ZONE when she was with the band?

I can think of more, I'm sure... but those are a few of the things that I wonder about whenever I'm here...

Two more things:

1. I'm thinking of starting a ZONE fan site, but a different kind of site. The way it would work, is that it would just be a place for people like us to each have one page that would be a personal message to ZONE's members. Like writing them fan mail, only online. Then visitors could look through everybody's pages and see how much the band is still loved. If anybody's interested in this, let me know. Hopefully, someday the girls will see it... and know how much they've given to us.

2. The Phillips DVP-5140 is one ROCKING DVD player!!! It's really cheap, and you can program it so that it plays those imported DVD's anywhere, without having to convert them to another format!!!

More Tomorrow...

:c16: :c16: :c16: :c16: :c16:

PS. If you're interested in the website idea, please send me a note about it instead of replying in this thread. That way it won't get in the way of the other ZONE topics we'd like to discuss.

[weilee]

totally agree with u!
so anyone who already "senpai" in this secret base?
hellooooo~

i just know that TAKAYO didn't go with Sony. :unsure
didn't realized it before...

as far as i know, ZONE never wrote songs.
but in some songs, they did the lyrics.
(correct me, if i'm wrong. :unsure )

i like ur idea about ur fansite.
(i really really bad when it comes with writing a message or mail. hehe )
but i think, other than messages,
u should add some history or information or kind of FAQ about ZONE.
(yeah... it's kind of introduction. hehe.)
it's only suggestion.

[Live4Ai]

i'll do the brave work since no one want to....

so where were we?

now it's new year in japan and kinda cold in where girls live, so things maybe start going in spring. miyu said she is going to open her Blog, so we have to just wait.

in japan, artist don't get pay as much as here in US or in other asian countries, so that's why many high school girl or boy artist choose go to school then continue their singing or whatever carrer. like Takayo Mizuho and Tomoka all went to school.
i think SONY just a record company and they should know how to treat their stars, and keep them happy.
MARIA and Miyu stay with RUNTIME, who born and rise them, and RUNTIME have contract with SONY. work with SONY is not MARIA or Miyu or ZONE's choice.

when Takayo left ZONE she left Runtime as well, and now she don't have a agent, so she can only be solo artist, and most the big record companies like SONY don't deal with solo artist.

many ZONE songs were writen and composed by Machida Norihiko (secret base...etc), but after ZONE disband he left Runtime as well. now just doing mostly nothing and did not sign with anyone. and here is his Blog
http://blog.livedoor.jp/secretbase_inc

i think Takayo means hard to make real friend in school because she's star, she miss other girls and feel lonely.

fan site it's good, we can send links to Runtime.

[NuClearSounds]

I wanted to post this a while back but I got lazy. Since this is a general thread, I think its a appropriate now. So one night, I think back in November I decided to indulge myself by watching clips of Maiko. Could it be the smile, I dunno. It was just something in the way she holds that bass. Anywho ... I was watching her solo version of Akashi and did anyone notice on the walls behind her are pictures in frames form the other PVs. I thought that was kind of cool because the complete Akashi PV is so interactive you really can't focus on just one thing.

Ok that was my rant. I miss her old hair though :unsure

[fictionlove]

Miyu wrote the lyrics for Egao Biyori
and yea that was it, haha

[Live4Ai]

I wanted to post this a while back but I got lazy. Since this is a general thread, I think its a appropriate now. So one night, I think back in November I decided to indulge myself by watching clips of Maiko. Could it be the smile, I dunno. It was just something in the way she holds that bass. Anywho ... I was watching her solo version of Akashi and did anyone notice on the walls behind her are pictures in frames form the other PVs. I thought that was kind of cool because the complete Akashi PV is so interactive you really can't focus on just one thing.

Ok that was my rant. I miss her old hair though :unsure

i only know that some pictures are girls single shoot in 夢ノカケラ, and the front picture is from 大爆発 NO.1. you know what are the rest?

[4n01]

i'll do the brave work since no one want to....

so where were we?

now it's new year in japan and kinda cold in where girls live, so things maybe start going in spring. miyu said she is going to open her Blog, so we have to just wait.

in japan, artist don't get pay as much as here in US or in other asian countries, so that's why many high school girl or boy artist choose go to school then continue their singing or whatever carrer. like Takayo Mizuho and Tomoka all went to school.
i think SONY just a record company and they should know how to treat their stars, and keep them happy.
MARIA and Miyu stay with RUNTIME, who born and rise them, and RUNTIME have contract with SONY. work with SONY is not MARIA or Miyu or ZONE's choice.

when Takayo left ZONE she left Runtime as well, and now she don't have a agent, so she can only be solo artist, and most the big record companies like SONY don't deal with solo artist.

many ZONE songs were writen and composed by Machida Norihiko (secret base...etc), but after ZONE disband he left Runtime as well. now just doing mostly nothing and did not sign with anyone. and here is his Blog
http://blog.livedoor.jp/secretbase_inc

i think Takayo means hard to make real friend in school because she's star, she miss other girls and feel lonely.

fan site it's good, we can send links to Runtime.

live4zone, you are a blessing! Thank you so much for all of the information, AND for beink kind enough to begin the new thread!

I'm sorry to find that Machida Norihiko is not actively writing at the moment. So many great songs... it's almost like he was part of the band... people don't always give songwriters the credit they deserve. Maybe someone can translate the blog for us someday... thanks for the link!

I like your thoughts about Takayo. They're happier thoughts than mine, and I would like to think that she does miss her band mates. Do you think they talk once in a while? I hope they're all still good friends.

I'm still not sure how to feel about Sony, now that I understand a little more about how they do business. I'm mixed up about that. I've seen a lot of artists get spoiled by too much success, so maybe it's good that Sony Japan was a little stingy. At the same time, I think that the members of ZONE deserve to be well taken care of, considering all they've given us. If it was any other band, I wouldn't care so much, but ZONE are a national treasure, and I feel they always need to be treated a little more special. I understand that this is a business, but I wonder sometimes if Sony didn't try to get ZONE to be an international act because they only sang in Japanese... which is silly, because when I heard their songs, I didn't know any Japanese at all, and you know what? IT DOESN'T MATTER! The songs are as beautiful as the girls themselves, and the fact that they have fans all over the world tells me that the music has that special magic that hardly ever happens in pop music ANYWHERE. You just have to feel it. And love the feeling. I wonder if Sony ever understood just how special the band was?

On a final note... webspace is coming... so be ready. It takes about three days.

:c16: :c16: :c16: :c16: :c16:

[Live4Ai]

how much do you think will cost you to promote a japanese girl band that only sing japanese songs in US or Canada. and how many people will dig it?

but in asia like Korea, taiwan or hongkong ZONE has a lot of fans. this just a language area thing.

and i'm sure Takayo still good friends with other girls.

[4n01]

how much do you think will cost you to promote a japanese girl band that only sing japanese songs in US or Canada. and how many people will dig it?

That's a good answer... and the truth is, I don't know...

Of course I wasn't thinking that they should have spent millions on advertising. Since the videos and albums were already produced, all I was thinking was that they could have put the videos on MTV or VH1 once in a while, which costs them nothing... and made the CD's available for sale in case there was an interest. As a matter of fact, they still could do that much, if they wanted to, at very little expense to them.

How many people would dig it? That's a good question. I'd like to find that out myself.

Maybe a lot, maybe not many... maybe we'd all be surprised... The only reason I bring it up, is that I don't think many of the other bands around are special at all. I don't like 99% of the popular artists, and I sure don't like what they play on the radio over here at all, either. But ZONE is different. Very rare, and very lovable. We're hungry for that over here. At least, I know that I was...

[kamegoo]

hey guys happy new year!!..

[4n01]

hey guys happy new year!!..

And a big HAPPY NEW YEAR to you, too! May it bring you everything your heart desires!

PS. We have webspace to play with, folks! Just a placeholder there for now, but if people would like to contribute to it we can really build it into something... we'll have to be really careful about using unauthorized pics and stuff if we're going to send the link to Runtime when it's finished... so for now maybe just good thoughts and good wishes from us.

www.zonefan.com

[weilee]

We have webspace to play with, folks! Just a placeholder there for now, but if people would like to contribute to it we can really build it into something... we'll have to be really careful about using unauthorized pics and stuff if we're going to send the link to Runtime when it's finished... so for now maybe just good thoughts and good wishes from us.

www.zonefan.com

nice, 4n01!
so... what kind of "something" that we wanna build in this site?

[Live4Ai]

maybe pictures and bios, song lyrics...

and play music on the back ground.

[Oc_89]

how much do you think will cost you to promote a japanese girl band that only sing japanese songs in US or Canada. and how many people will dig it?

That's a good answer... and the truth is, I don't know...

Of course I wasn't thinking that they should have spent millions on advertising. Since the videos and albums were already produced, all I was thinking was that they could have put the videos on MTV or VH1 once in a while, which costs them nothing... and made the CD's available for sale in case there was an interest. As a matter of fact, they still could do that much, if they wanted to, at very little expense to them.

How many people would dig it? That's a good question. I'd like to find that out myself.

Maybe a lot, maybe not many... maybe we'd all be surprised... The only reason I bring it up, is that I don't think many of the other bands around are special at all. I don't like 99% of the popular artists, and I sure don't like what they play on the radio over here at all, either. But ZONE is different. Very rare, and very lovable. We're hungry for that over here. At least, I know that I was...

Is there any japanese band/artist who made huge success in the USA?

I always thought that because of cultural differences itd quite hard to listen to ZONE or any japanese artist on regular TV or radio. Thats why i love the internet...haha

I remember my transition from western music to japanese music was fullfilled with hesitation and prejudice..
its sometimes hard to understand the japanese way of making entertainment from the western point of view...

[weilee]

Is there any japanese band/artist who made huge success in the USA?

I always thought that because of cultural differences itd quite hard to listen to ZONE or any japanese artist on regular TV or radio. Thats why i love the internet...haha

I remember my transition from western music to japanese music was fullfilled with hesitation and prejudice..
its sometimes hard to understand the japanese way of making entertainment from the western point of view...

don't know for sure. :unsure
i only know L'Arc~en~Ciel made huge success when they do their live in USA.
:unsure :unsure

[Tiny]

how much do you think will cost you to promote a japanese girl band that only sing japanese songs in US or Canada. and how many people will dig it?

That's a good answer... and the truth is, I don't know...

Of course I wasn't thinking that they should have spent millions on advertising. Since the videos and albums were already produced, all I was thinking was that they could have put the videos on MTV or VH1 once in a while, which costs them nothing... and made the CD's available for sale in case there was an interest. As a matter of fact, they still could do that much, if they wanted to, at very little expense to them.

How many people would dig it? That's a good question. I'd like to find that out myself.

Maybe a lot, maybe not many... maybe we'd all be surprised... The only reason I bring it up, is that I don't think many of the other bands around are special at all. I don't like 99% of the popular artists, and I sure don't like what they play on the radio over here at all, either. But ZONE is different. Very rare, and very lovable. We're hungry for that over here. At least, I know that I was...

Is there any japanese band/artist who made huge success in the USA?

I always thought that because of cultural differences itd quite hard to listen to ZONE or any japanese artist on regular TV or radio. Thats why i love the internet...haha

I remember my transition from western music to japanese music was fullfilled with hesitation and prejudice..
its sometimes hard to understand the japanese way of making entertainment from the western point of view...

Fear definitely plays a role when one is making a transition from something "familiar" to something "different."

...

In this case...

...music is the "familiar..."

...and...

...music is the "different."

...

Fear is a reason why we are human.

...

(I sound weird today.

...

I don't like it.)

...

(Did I start this thread?)

[4n01]

Is there any japanese band/artist who made huge success in the USA?

I always thought that because of cultural differences itd quite hard to listen to ZONE or any japanese artist on regular TV or radio. Thats why i love the internet...haha

I remember my transition from western music to japanese music was fullfilled with hesitation and prejudice..
its sometimes hard to understand the japanese way of making entertainment from the western point of view...

The only Japanese artist/musician to have a relatively high profile in the US so far, seems to have been Yoko Ono... and let's face it, that probably would never have happened if she wouldn't have married John Lennon. But really, it's not about being a big hit, and it certainly isn't about being Japanese. It's simply about great pop music being given a chance to be heard.

A few weeks after I got hooked on ZONE, I thought that maybe the whole pop scene was really happening in Japan... there certainly wasn't much going on over here. So I spent a couple nights checking out Morning Misume, Gackt, BoA, and quite a few other artists to see if maybe I was just getting fascinated with what has been termed "J-Pop". As it turns out, that wasn't the case at all. It would take quite a bit of adjustment for me to get into J-Pop in general... because, to these ears, most of what I listened to didn't sound that different from today's American pop, which I'm not too crazy about.

It wasn't like that with ZONE, though. With ZONE, I liked them instantly, and I knew that I was witnessing an event. As a result, I wanted to (and still do want to) understand the Japanese language, and learn about the culture and traditions. Because I want to really understand their music. Like I've said before, there's something very different about ZONE. Is it that they're just that good? Yes... I do believe that.

Can they be a big hit in the US? Probably not. What they could be, is more of an "underground" band with a loyal and faithful following. Actually, it seems that they already are... but their DVD's... the easiest way to learn to love the band... were never released here. Those beautiful videos will never be seen by many people who live outside of "Region 2", and that's a shame.

The only reason I brought this up in the first place, is because it seemed like a bad decision on Sony's part, to not even try different markets, because you never know what is going go over well, and what isn't.

[fictionlove]

yea you right brothaaaaa
they could be one of those underground bands that people listen to
it'd be kinda hard for them to make it like HUGE in the US
mainly because of the language
i began to love zone because of the music and the arrangement
i was like, "DANG thats hot."
and Miyu's voice.
i swear
i was like a fish and i got suckered into that hook.
i was caught fo lyfeeee