SixTONES – Leading the charge for Johnny’s to join the digital age

 

If you haven’t seen the above music video or heard the news, you are late. Much like this post, being honest. I have my reasons, and it’s mostly that I was super behind on Johnny’s Jr content where seemingly out of no where Johnny’s announces that SixTONES got the coveted position of being the Japanese artist for the “YouTube Artist Promotion” which is no small feat. They’re joining the ranks of DUA LIPA, Camila Cabello, Shawn Mendes and more. Being honest, I wasn’t tracking this at all, but I had assumed that either an Avex artist (my picks: Daichi Miura, lol or INTERSECTION), or LDH (Fantastics, or The Rampage from EXILE TRIBE) would snap this opportunity up.

The band was in just as much shock as we the fans were, which you can see here.

 

The genuine awe and disbelief is visible. Nearly every single one of them is giddy beyond belief at the idea of just being nominated, let alone selected. Even though I was late to watching, I ended up freaking out right along with them! It was absolutely shocking that they, a junior group got selected out of everyone on YouTube at the moment. There is just so much competition within Japan, but they pulled through!

SixTONES absolutely deserved this though. From the variety of work on their YouTube videos, to all the work they do on and off stage; they absolutely deserve it. All their hard work cumulates in the final product.

 

I’m a little shocked that they supposedly filmed the MV in one day, and learned the day only the day before filming. That is a lot to demand of an un-debuted unit in such a short amount of time. Takizawa Hideki must know what he’s really doing considering he is the current producer for Johnny’s and the main creative force behind this concept and MV.

Artistically, I’m behind him all the way. The boys are well styled (thank god they ditched the faux fur days), their moves are sharp, and the MV is completely on point. My only disagreement is the timing; I genuinely believe that someone is beefing up the idea of them shooting everything in such a short amount of time. I also partly buy the idea of them doing it so quickly. That’s the magic of show business I suppose.

In addition to being the first official music video of Johnny’s Jr channel, it’s also part of their campaign slogan “The New Generation of Digitally Unleashed Johnny’s”, complete with giant billboards and banners in Shiodome, Shinagawa, and Harajuku stations. This was limited run through October 29th to November 4th, so unfortunately I did not see them live.

This is the image they were showing at the station.

Being honest though, as a fan of SixTONES I’m absolutely thrilled for them. They got such an amazing opportunity and have been doing as much as they can to run with it. It really shows that the newer groups aren’t afraid to rise to the challenge and in many ways, surpass their seniors with the accessibility in this digital age. I’m really hoping that Takizawa continues to push not only their rising talent, but existing talent in this direction as well.

Only time will tell for this group, where they’ll end up but I’m secretly crossing my fingers that it leads to a debut in the following months.

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