Exile Tops At MTV Awards

R&B group Exile was the top winner at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan, which took place May 22 at the Yoyogi National Gym in Tokyo.

Exile garnered three awards for best video, best album and Asia icon, making it the third year in a row that the group received three awards.

Best male video went to Shota Shimizu and best female video to veteran diva Namie Amuro, who won the same prize last year.
Lady Gaga won best dance video for “Poker Face,” but all the other non-Japanese winners were Korean, and there were quite a few.

The defunct TVXQ won best group video for “Share the World,” and their compatriots Big Bang accounted for three awards, best new artist, best pop video and best collaboration, which was between Japanese group W-inds and Big Bang leader G-Dragon.

However, the more important development in the Big Bang story is that the Korean group has become the first boy band from any country, Japan included, to be invited to one of Japan’s major summer rock festivals.

Big Bang will take the main stages at Osaka and Tokyo during Summer Sonic in August, a development that has received a great deal of publicity in South Korea.

As reported earlier in Pollstar, tickets haven’t been moving as fast as they did in the past for Japan’s summer rock festivals and Summer Sonic, at least, has tried to add more J-pop acts to the lineup to attract a different audience.

Apparently, they’re after the K-pop audience as well.

In the 10-year-plus history of Summer Sonic only two Korean artists have been invited, and both were rock bands.