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Management Companies and Overseas Opportunities

At the start of their career, ONE OK ROCK were signed with Amuse Inc., spending fourteen years with them before creating their own management company in 2021, called 10969 Inc.

Outside of Japan, they are signed with Fueled by Ramen, having signed with them in 2016 and then released Ambitions in 2017. Ambitions not only represented the band's aim of conquering the overseas market but also signified the start of a new era for the band - one in which a wider range of opportunities had opened up for them.

The music video for Taking Off, a single from Ambitions

ONE OK ROCK have toured with numerous Western artists both before and after signing with Fueled by Ramen, including All Time Low for their Back to the Future Hearts US tour, Muse with their Will of the People tour, and 5 Seconds of Summer with their Sounds Live Feels Live tour.

ONE OK ROCK supporting Muse at the Madison Square Garden in New York City for their Will of the People tour in 2023

Alongside touring with Western artists, ONE OK ROCK have also performed at many festivals, including Vans Warped Tour (in both 2014 and 2019), Download Festival, Soundwave, and the Reading and Leeds Festivals.

ONE OK ROCK at Download Festival in 2016

#one ok rock #oor #10969 #festivals #Youtube

Game Music

Though many popular Japanese bands become popular after making an anime theme song, ONE OK ROCK have instead provided music to be used as themes for games, such as Clock Strikes being used in Yakuza Ishin.

Another such song is Vandalize, which was used for the game Sonic Frontiers and featured on the album Luxury Disease. There were three versions of the song released: one explicit, one clean, and one Japanese version.

Make It Out Alive was released for the mobile game Monster Hunter Now. ONE OK ROCK also released a behind the scenes video showing the filming process and showing the band playing the game and discussing it in front of the camera.

Another noteworthy mention is The Beginning, from JinseixBoku=, which was used as the theme song for the live action Rurouni Kenshin.

#one ok rock #oor #10969 #uni assignment #i kinda just needed an excuse to add these mvs #because look how cool they are #great songs too #i'm sure they said something about not wanting to be known for anime music only but i can't find where i read it #Youtube

Fan Interaction

Fan interaction has always been important for ONE OK ROCK, and this seems to be especially true for Taka, who often carries out livestreams to interact with fans during tours. Just before the start of the Latin America leg of the DETOX tour, Taka invited people who were attending the shows in Mexico to join his livestream and talk to him about the local area.

It has become something of a tradition for fans to make large banners and flags to either be given to the band or held up at the end of the concert, as Taka usually films the audience at the end of each show and then posts the video to Instagram. Sometimes the flags are simple and just have the country's flag and messages written on it from fans, and sometimes fans create their own banners and then invite other fans to add to it whilst queuing outside the venue.

From the band's Instagram page, taken at the Eventim Apollo for the Luxury Disease Europe tour

During some songs, a member of the audience will be invited up on stage to participate in a song. During the Luxury Disease show in London, a young boy was invited to sing Stand Out Fit In (and was met with very enthusiastic applause!). For the DETOX tour, it seems like Wherever You Are has been the song chosen for audience participation.

ONE OK ROCK also have an exclusive photo book called Primal Footmark, which is released yearly and allows subscribers to access a members-only content and get advance tickets to shows. It used to only be available to those with a Japanese shipping address, but an online version has been created for international fans.

#one ok rock #oor #10969 #primal footmark #uni assignment

Collaborations with Other Artists

ONE OK ROCK have frequently collaborated with other artists, both Japanese and international. Collaborating with a range of different artists has allowed the band to explore different genres and also opened themselves up to other fanbases that may not necessarily have listened to (or even been aware of) ONE OK ROCK.

Ambitions featured some collaborations with popular Western artists, such as: Avril Lavigne with Listen, Alex Gaskarth from All Time Low with Jaded, and 5 Seconds of Summer with Take what you want.

Though Eye of the Storm only had one collaboration (In the Stars, feat. Kiiara), Taka stated that this was album that helped him to learn about international pop and rock music. He is good friends with Ed Sheeran, with the latter helping to write Renegades (Luxury Disease), and credited Ed Sheeran for helping him to write music more suited to an international audience. ONE OK ROCK toured with Ed Sheeran during his Divide World Tour in Asia, with Ed Sheeran then joining the band for a special performance at the Yokohama Arena during their Eye of the Storm Japan tour.

As well as Western artists, ONE OK ROCK have several collaborations with other Japanese artists. On the Japanese version of Luxury Disease, Satoshi Fujihara from Official Hige Dandism featured on Gravity.

DETOX also featured a collaboration with Japanese metal band Paledusk and Japanese rapper Chico Carlito. Speaking to Rock Sound, Taka said that the collaboration was 'inevitable' and 'a good opportunity to help lift up the wider Japanese rock community'. He went on to say that "DAIDAI from the band has a really good producer sense. So I was thinking about a collaboration with him and how that would work so it is good for ONE OK ROCK and also good for him too [...] I felt like DAIDAI should produce the song too so that he could put more of his vibes on there. You get more Paledusk vibes on this song and it feels so much more exciting."

#one ok rock #oor #10969 #uni assignment #paledusk #chico carlito #satoshi fujihara #ed sheeran #Spotify

Expanding Outside of Japan

ONE OK ROCK have been vastly successful over the years, managing to sell out shows all over the world. Though K-Pop is immensely popular, J-Pop still lags behind in popularity, even in Japan. Despite this, however, ONE OK ROCK still managed to create a huge global fanbase.

In the band's interview with Rock Sound, Taka talked about what it was like to tour globally, and he explained that "we had our first ten years in Japan and then that whole new journey of new experiences took another ten years,". He also expressed how happy he was for ONE OK ROCK to have performed at Wembley Arena, describing it as 'legendary' and saying what a big moment it was for both the band and the fans.

On a more personal note, as someone who attended the Premonitions show at Wembley Arena as well as the Luxury Disease show at Eventim Apollo, it was clear how proud the band were to finally play a sold out show at Wembley Arena. In the space of a year, they'd gone from playing a venue with a capacity of around 3,300 people with no screen behind them for background graphics, to selling out a 12,500 capacity venue and having multiple background visuals to play during songs and sophisticated light shows. It was definitely a big moment for fans as well as for the band.

This video actually belongs to my friend and was the only way I was able to see the background videos - being 5'2 and buying standing tickets was not my brightest idea.

As they gained popularity with Western audiences, ONE OK ROCK started to release two versions of their albums - a Japanese version and an international version. In the case of Luxury Disease, the two different versions were marked with different coloured album covers.

The Japanese album cover is white, whereas the international version has a black album cover.

#one ok rock #oor #10969 #uni assignment #video #wembley arena #luxury disease #video belongs to my friend who i sincerely hope will never come across this blog #he got a great view of the whole show on account of being 6ft tall #i got a great view of the back of two guys' heads

Going Against Japanese Cultural Norms

ONE OK ROCK have often made songs that aim to be uplifting and motivational, but they have also been quite politically outspoken, especially with their more recent albums. Whilst DETOX is arguably the most politically themed album that the band have released, Luxury Disease and 35xxxv also had some politically charged songs, such as Renegades, Mad World, and One by One.

Japanese culture has often meant that politics aren't discussed publicly, but ONE OK ROCK seem to have no issue with going against this. When discussing DETOX with Rock Sound, Taka explained that he wanted people to talk about global politics more, especially in Japan. He went to say "if Japanese rock bands say something about the world's situation then that is actually a good education for Japanese young people too [...] People may have opposite opinions or agree with my opinions, but fans can have a conversation about the theme,".

Taka left Japan to move to Los Angeles and has said that he has a greater understanding of the global political scene now, as well as being confident enough in English to be able to write songs that reflect how he sees the world.

Delusion:all is a particularly notable example of ONE OK ROCK's political outspokenness. Right from the start, the music video features scenes of rioting and makes it perfectly clear that the song speaks out against social injustice and false promises made by politicians.

#one ok rock #oor #10969 #uni assignment #Spotify #Youtube #political #cultural

Eras of Music

In a sense, it feels like ONE OK ROCK have come full circle with their music with the release of DETOX, having explored different sounds and genres before coming back to a strong alternative rock sound.

Earlier albums, such as Zeitakubyo and Kanjo Effect, sound like a solid blend of alternative rock, punk, and emo, with the American influences mentioned in the previous post sounding more pronounced. Zeitakubyo was ONE OK ROCK's debut album and proved successful - it stayed in the Oricon weekly charts for 22 weeks and songs such as Yume Yume and Naihishinsho remain fan favourites even today. On Kanjo Effect, standout tracks include Living Dolls and 20 Years Old.

Yume Yume is one of my favourite songs from the early days of ONE OK ROCK, as I like how energetic and catchy it is.

One of the band's most popular albums is JINSEI KAKETE BOKU WA, also written as JinseixBoku=. The Beginning and Clock Strikes are both incredibly popular songs, with The Beginning being used as the theme song for the live action version of Rurouni Kenshin, and Clock Strikes being used for Like a Dragon: Ishin!. This album has a heavier sound than its predecessors, with a more post-hardcore feel to it, and this almost seems to be reflected in its album art - the dark, monochrome album cover is in contrast to the previous albums' brighter, more colourful covers.

The later albums have a much more pop-based feel to them, with Ambitions and Eye of the Storm being mainly pop albums. Both albums feature slower paced songs with softer vocals than previous albums. 35xxxv was the first album to have almost entirely English lyrics, with only the intro song (3xxxv5) containing Japanese lyrics. It was also the first album that was produced outside of Japan, as it was mainly recorded in the United States of America. Not all fans were happy with the band's new direction, with some comments online referring to them as 'One OK Pop' and complaining about the lack of rock elements that featured so heavily on past albums.

2022's Luxury Disease marked a change in the band's direction once again, with the album leaning back into the band's rock music origins. Despite not being as heavy as some fans were hoping for, the album was well-received and put ONE OK ROCK in good stead to release their latest album, DETOX.

DETOX feels like a welcome return to the band's alternative rock roots, especially with C.U.R.I.O.S.I.T.Y. and Party's Over. C.U.R.I.O.S.I.T.Y., in particular, featured Japanese metal band Paledusk and rapper Chico Carlito, and had mainly Japanese lyrics. DETOX features slower, more emotional songs such as This Can't Be Us and The Pilot </3 alongside energetic and powerful songs like NASTY and Puppets Can't Control You.

#one ok rock #oor #10960 #albums #uni assignment #Spotify

Inspirations and Influences

Despite mainly having experience in hip-hop, Toru decided that he wanted to create a rock band, with the band citing influences from American bands such as Good Charlotte, The Used, Foo Fighters, and Linkin Park. Like many Japanese artists, the band incorporated English lyrics into their songs alongside Japanese lyrics, with later albums being released almost entirely in English. As expected, the fluency of the English lyrics also improved with each new album as Taka, the main lyricist, gained confidence in his English skills.

Linked above: Zeitakubyo, an album that I think showcases ONE OK ROCK's early influences quite well.

ONE OK ROCK's earlier albums (such as Zeitakubyo, linked above) seem to highlight these American alternative rock influences more than their later works, with their sound evolving and becoming more distinctive as time went on.

In their interview with Rock Sound, Taka acknowledged that DETOX's 'Party's Over' had a sound that was reminiscent of the band's earlier work, stating "that one is like ONE OK ROCK's older sound, when we were doing concerts and making albums only in Japan. We did always like having that type of sound but we had kind of kept it to ourselves."

Linked above Party's Over, featured on the latest album, DETOX

#one ok rock #oor #10969 #party's over #zeitakubyo #uni assignment #spotify #party's over is one of my favourite songs #so obviously i had to include it

Band Members

ONE OK ROCK currently has four members, Takahiro (‘Taka’) Moriuchi (lead vocalist), Toru (‘Toru’) Yamashita (guitarist), Ryota (‘Ryota’) Kohama (bassist), and Tomoya (‘Tomoya’) Kanki (drummer). The original lineup also consisted of Yu (‘Tomo’) Koyanagi (drummer) and Alexander (‘Alex’) Reimon Onizawa (guitarist).

From left to right: Tomoya Kanki, Toru Yamashita, Takahiro Moriuchi, Alexander Reimon Onizawa, Ryota Kohama. I was unable to find any clear pictures with Yu Koyanagi.

Toru Yamashita

Toru (born in Osaka in 1988) is the leader of ONE OK ROCK, having asked Ryota, Alex, and Tomo to join him in starting a band. Ryota did not know how to play bass at the time, but he and Toru had both been in a hip-hop dance group called HEADS prior to starting ONE OK ROCK, so he agreed to learn how to play the bass guitar and join the new band. Alex and Tomo both attended the same school as Toru and could already play their respective instruments. Alex left the band in 2009 following his arrest for groping a female student on a train. The incident also led to the release of the band’s latest single ‘Around the World Shonen’ being delayed and the cancellation of their upcoming tour. Alex was not replaced, so Toru became the band’s only guitarist. In an interview with Rock Sound, Taka said that Toru had not played guitar prior to ONE OK ROCK.

Tomoya Kanki

Tomoya is the oldest of the group and was born in Hyogo in 1987. He joined the band in 2006 after Tomo decided to quit the band and focus on acting, though he had worked as a substitute drummer for ONE OK ROCK prior to Tomo’s departure. Tomoya was already in another band but agreed to leave them and join ONE OK ROCK and he became an official member in 2007. Taka credited him with being 'the key for this band from this start', as he was a 'genius drummer' and had attended music school (via an interview with Rock Sound). Even with these high words of praise, Tomoya in that same interview stated that he felt like he was 'the guy in the back trying to catch up with everyone else,' when it came to touring overseas.

Ryota Kohama

Ryota (born in Osaka in 1989) could not play bass when he was first invited by Toru to start a band, but took inspiration from Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers. He is known for often performing shirtless, showcasing his numerous tattoos. Ryota is also a keen photographer, often taking photos during live performances and bringing his camera on tour so that he can photograph the different cities that the band perform in.

Takahiro Moriuchi

Taka (born in Tokyo in 1988) already had some musical experience before joining ONE OK ROCK, having been a member of NEWS and Chivalry of Music prior to being asked by Toru to join him in ONE OK ROCK. His parents, Shinichi Mori and Masako Mori, were both enka singers. He has two younger brothers, Tomohiro and Hiroki, and Hiroki is the lead singer of another J-Rock band called My First Story. Toru asked Taka to join ONE OK ROCK after hearing him sing in his then-current band, Chivalry of Music, but Taka refused. Toru asked Taka to join the band several times before Taka eventually relented. He was listed as one of Kerrang!’s '50 Greatest Rockstars in the World' in 2017.

#one ok rock #oor #10969 #uni assignment #band members

Introduction to ONE OK ROCK

This is the first of a series of posts looking at the Japanese rock band ONE OK ROCK. These posts are being made as part of my university assignment and aim to look at the history of the band and how they can represent diversity within the genre of J-Pop.

ONE OK ROCK were formed in July of 2005 and currently consists of Takahiro Moriuchi (lead vocalist), Toru Yamashita (guitarist), Ryota Kohama (bassist), and Tomoya Kanki (drummer). The band formed in Tokyo and is immensely popular both in Japan and worldwide.

The band’s name was thought up by previous member Tomo and refers to the band’s early days of practicing at one o’clock in the morning, as this was when studio hire was cheapest, with ‘one o’clock’ morphing into ‘One OK Rock’. The name is usually stylized as ONE OK ROCK, though OOR is often used in online spaces, as well as (less often) 10969 ('wan-oh-ku-ro-ku').

Over the course of its twenty-year history, ONE OK ROCK has seen success after success. Having made a name for themselves in Japan, the band went on to perform in venues around the world, including a sold-out show at Wembley Arena in 2024. Despite starting as an emo/punk band, ONE OK ROCK have explored several different genres over the course of their career and have spent a considerable amount of time refining their own unique sound.

#one ok rock #oor #10969 #uni assignment #overview

PSA - uni work

Hello to any followers I have who are still active! This blog has been on hiatus for a while due to personal circumstances and because I started uni. It will probably remain on hiatus for a while longer as I've still got exams and stuff, but I do hope to work on it some more in the future! I've missed being part of the community and I got locked out of my OOR twt/X account and I was part of a really nice fan gc on that, so that's sad.

ANYWAY as I mentioned before, I'm in uni now, and one of my modules is a jpop module. One of our assignments is to make 10 social media posts, so I'm temporarily posting on here again to make those posts. I can't guarantee they'll be any good but I'm doing my best

#this definitely will not be my best work #which makes me sad because i had really high hopes for this #but unfortunately i'm still dealing with some pretty bad health issues alongside burnout #so at this point i'm just doing the best i can and accepting that it won't be perfect or up to the standard i want it to be #but still #maybe someone will enjoy reading it??

bl4cklabyrinth

Documentary Film -Zenshin- Pamphlet Translation: Interview with Kid’z

Disclaimer: Please do not retranslate my work into other languages, as my translation may not be accurate. I am no Japanese or English native.

Posted in honor of his 28th birthday.

Photo from MFS’ official Twitter

Keep reading

#my first story #maifasu #interview #jrock #happy birthday!

oneokgolf

My family’s from Shibuya. Although, I ended up moving. Actually, I ran away from home. My family structure is my father, my mother, me, my second brother, and my third brother. There are five of us. We all work in entertainment.

4.17. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAKA!

#takahiro moriuchi #taka #one ok rock #oor #taka moriuchi #10969 #jrock #happy birthday!