Word: bandness
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...time when Chinese-made products are seizing global markets, the 12 Girls Band has become the mainland's first pop-musical export. The Sino-Japanese balance of cultural trade used to be decidedly in Japan's favor. Although Chinese youth followed Japanese TV dramas and pop idols, the straitlaced mainland entertainment industry offered little in exchange. But today, the 12 Girls Band (which actually numbers 13, including one alternate) is ubiquitous in Japan. They star in commercials for chocolate and cell phones, comedians parody them on TV, and in what may be the most compelling proof of their fame, there...
...business concept, the 12 Girls Band is more audacious than its pleasantly conventional music. The group was the inspiration of Beijing-based rock producer Wang Xiaojing, who several years ago hit upon the idea of forming a band by picking the prettiest women from China's élite musical academies. "First and foremost," says Wang, who in 2001 auditioned 4,000 women on the way to choosing his lucky 13, "they had to be beautiful. Twelve beautiful girls standing on a stage is a spectacle in itself, even without any music...
...Despite its combination of beauty and talent, the band didn't prove a hit with Chinese audiences. Their luck changed only after Kazuma Tomoto, a Warner Music executive in Tokyo, saw a 12 Girls Band concert video and decided to import them to Japan. "I'd been thinking that Japan needed a new, energetic sound to jolt it out of its funk," says Tomoto. "The second I saw them, I knew they were going to be huge." His bosses weren't convinced, so Tomoto quit his job and started his own music label. It paid off: Tomoto's Platia Entertainment...
...Success hasn't translated into rock-star lifestyles for the band members. Their annual incomes are in the tens of thousands of dollars, according to producer Wang (who quickly adds that "most Chinese folk musicians make a lot less"). But self-advancement appears not to be a major priority. "When we're abroad, we try to think of ourselves not as individuals but as representatives of China," says Zhang, brimming with the winning patriotism of a socialist poster girl. The band's next stop: the U.S. Wang is hoping Americans will succumb to the group's siren charms when...
...good bet. Even for the musically skeptical, there's something mesmerizing about the band's graceful stage presence, their technical virtuosity-and most of all, their euphoric expressions as they play their instruments. "At the academy, I felt I was playing music from the past," says Zhang, who left home at age 11 to study at Beijing's Central Conservatory of Music. "But now I'm finally getting to express myself." To continue doing that, all she has to do is pluck that pipa-and keep smiling...