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MTV is a United States-based cable and satellite television channel owned by Viacom. Launched on August 1, 1981, it is the world’s leading media dedicated to music, and has expanded to dozens of countries worldwide, with TV and online media.

Arts 2012 December

Amiaya Killed J-Pop, Long Live Tokyo Pop

by Robert Michael Poole

At Thailand’s Big Mountain Music Festival in Khao Yai, a few hours north of Bangkok, thousands of locals perch on a hillside at the foot of the enormous Cow Stage. Amongst a lineup of just about every cool rock band in the country, a smattering of international acts are now turning SouthEast Asia’s biggest festival into the Glastonbury of the region. But while Thailand’s music scene is as vibrant as ever, these music fans are here to witness two girls’ attempt to revolutionize a fading cultural phenomenon with a new injection of style, panache and Japanese smarts.
Amiaya, 22 year-old twin models from Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, prance on stage like they’ve beamed in from another dimension. They are hear to pronounce that J-Pop is dead – long live Tokyo Pop!

Arts 2012 November

HyunA’s Got 4Minutes to Take the World

by Robert Michael Poole

Every so often, a vibrant new city emerges on the world scene, stepping out from its history to modernize with entrepreneurial optimism and financial clout. When that coincides with a cultural rebirth that sets it on the cutting-edge of the world’s trends, the city swirls in its own perfect storm. Think London’s Swinging Sixties, New York’s Yuppie Eighties or Bubble-era Tokyo. The rise of Seoul, capital of South Korea, has even led to a whole new flashy district south of Seoul’s Han River… Gangnam.