J-rock and J-pop fans are going to want to check out YouTube Music Weekend, happening right now at YouTube. Many performers are taking part, including Nulbarich, Vaundy, Awich, Punpee, Reol, and Ayumi Hamasaki; rock fans will have the chance to enjoy Galneryus, Hyde, Dir En Grey and more. And if you’d rather hear Aya Uchida, the voice actor for Kaban from Kemono Friends, they’ve got her, too.
When and Where to Watch
The event officially runs from 3 to 6 December. Some of the concerts, music videos, and performances went up early Sunday morning (Pacific Time), which suggests that some videos will stay up longer than the official end date (it’s already early Monday morning in Japan as I type these words.) Many of the videos at YouTube Music Weekend are also available internationally, which makes this an excellent opportunity for music lovers outside of Japan to experience some of the best that the Japan music scene has to offer.
To find all the performances, type #YouTubeMusicWeekend into the YouTube search bar. Dozens of acts and performances should pop up, representing a wide range of current Japanese musicians. It’s not all recent rock music, either. Yoshiki pulled a 1999 classical piano concerto for Emperor Akihito out of the archives.
Why Now?
This COVID-19 lockdown-friendly music event was organized by YouTube Japan. It is a follow-up to the YouTube MUSIC WEEK ‘Stay Home and Listen #With Me’ event that YouTube organized during the Golden Week holiday (29 April through 6 May). Normally, Golden Week is a crowded vacation time: every person in Japan feels the need to take the train or fly somewhere. The online event was designed to encourage people to stay at home and watch some music videos.
With the busy winter holidays upon us, worldwide officials are concerned about new waves of the coronavirus returning. Even if many people in Japan obviously went out to see a certain anime movie, there are still plenty of reasons to want to stay home. And that means opportunities for more events such as YouTube Music Weekend.