Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Clothing with English Words

I often see Japanese people wearing clothing - usually it's a T or something light - with words in English that don't make a lot of sense or that make you want to go "Hmmm". On this particular day back in April, I was walking past a MacDonald's were the counter was literally 10 feet away from the sidewalk and happened to catch sight of this jacket. I didn't know it at the time but Hysteric Glamour is a J-rock band. The phrase below the band name is the title of one of their albums, and perhaps one of their songs.

I only had my trusty little keitai at the time and I pretended to weigh my menu options as I surreptitiously snapped a few photos of the attire. I wondered if she knew what she was wearing. Was that blatant self-promotion? And if so, did it work? Did guys actually ask her for number? Too many questions but I didn't know if they would be welcome.

A few weeks later, I showed this photo to one of my Nihonjin tomodachi and she told me about Hysteric Glamour and about the etching on the back of the jacket. She wasn't into the band, so she couldn't say for sure if it was just the album title or the title of one of their singles. But at least I found out that it wasn't blatant self-promotion - not the kind that I thought it was. And I guess that sort of marketing does work because I, for one, am curious about the band and the song. What are the lyrics like? Who listens to that stuff? Is it inspirational to anybody out there? I guess to most foreigners, seeing the back of the jacket might make you do that double take.

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