All posts tagged: JRockRevolution.com

Jrock and Rock Band

Published by Ali Watson

[Graphic by the JrockRevolution.com graphics team] March 2010. Harmonix invited JrockRevolution.com to submit opinion on what Japanese rock bands would be a good addition to the popular video game Rock Band. Rather than gather information from staff, we asked fans what bands they’d like to see. In a two part process, we polled fans to discover the top ten bands of who they wanted to see in the video game to generate this list: 1. the GazettE 2. Dir en grey 3. X JAPAN 4. MIYAVI 5. GACKT 6. An Café 7. D’espairsRay 8. Nightmare 9. L’Arc~en~Ciel 10. Versailles ~Philharmonic Quintent~ For article information, please check out the following links: Initial article and Final poll results After our results were submitted back to Harmonix, we, as well as other fans, were hopeful that one or more of our top ten selections would make it to the game. Ah, but that was just the beginning…

SXSW 2010

Published by Ali Watson

[Graphic by the JRR.com Graphics team] March 2010 South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual entertainment industry convention. Considered to be the most influential and important convention for the music industry, I submitted a panel idea about Japanese rock music internationally for consideration. In 2010, there were over 2200 panels in for consideration with only 300 able to make the cut for the final lineup. Due to the uniqueness of our idea and the fact that, to my knowledge, no other panel had ever been presented on the Japanese music industry at SXSW, we were hopeful. To our delight, we were accepted. The original panel host was not able to attend and I presented the panel with Makoto Kawabata of Acid Mothers Temple and Keith Cahoon of Hotwire K.K. in Tokyo, Japan. Our panel gave some history of the Japanese music industry in Japan as well as how the relatively underground movement of imported rock and other genres have fared around the world in recent years. Both Mr. Cahoon and Mr. Kawabata provided invaluable insights …

GLAY returns to the U.S.

Published by Ali Watson

August 2008. What does it take to make a legend? For this band: passion, dedication and a dash of good luck. Over their twenty year career, GLAY has risen from their humble beginnings in high school to sold out shows, festivals, and an increasingly large international fanbase. To say GLAY has had it easy suggests that every high school band can rise to the same heights. Some can—if they have what GLAY has had in spades from the very beginning. Music was something all of GLAY had in common. Each member had played in different bands and enjoyed listening to different styles of music before the four members became one entity, performing music full of passion. Despite every obstacle, GLAY has persevered, dedicating themselves to their music and their dreams. In 1993, it was Yoshiki of X JAPAN who signed them to his new label: Extasy Records. When their first single, “RAIN,” made an impact, the climb to the top seemed inevitable. “BEAT OUT!,” their second album, became their first #1 hit and marked a …

VAMPS 2009

Published by Ali Watson

In 2009, I’d only been working with JrockRevolution.com for months. A partnership for promoting the VAMPS 2009 tour was in process and flier designs were needed. Among a number of other web and print designs requested and submitted, ultimately, no fliers were printed. These are among the designs for the original club flier. Page 1, however, is based on an existing flier already made. Some modifications were made for clarity and information.