Friday 9 August 2019

How To Read A Tweet I Liked For Dummies

Or if you don't actually want to learn some Japanese haha

Hello, everyone, to one of those posts that I know I will waste a lot of time on which will trigger no memories for me in the future, but I feel I can refer someone to if anyone asks about my Twitter account and if they wonder why I keep liking Japanese tweets which no one understands besides me. So yeah, here we are.

In this post, if you are keen of learning even a little, I'll tell you how to identify certain Tweets made by artists, idols, staff and official Anime Twitter accounts and so on, so you can be informed the moment it appears and not have to wait two days for a translation. (I don't think it's this long now but still) I will cover how to identify and analyse the following:
  • Any Major Announcement Tweet
  • New Music Release Tweet
  • New Music Video Tweet
  • Song(s) Mentioned In Tweet
  • Songs Released on Streaming Services Tweet
  • Artist Debut Tweet
  • Other Tweets of Importance
  • Tweets Which Are Repeats and None of the Above
For sake of sanity, I will also provide recent examples via embeds here so you can see it for yourself and not just see me list Japanese phrases which you can't read anyways. Nothing beats learning from examples, yes? Also, we are NOT going to learn from Tweets which can translate itself into English ie. they posted it for international audience because then what's the point? (lol)

Let's start, shall we?




MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT TWEET
These generally refer to Tweets which talk about important announcements typically regarding the fate of the music artist, and normally start with the specific phrase ご報告 (gohoukoku), so they are really easy to find.
In this example above, note the above phrase once again (it may be in a sentence, or just alone to stand out so you guys will notice scrolling down your feed) and more importantly, the phrase 解散 (kaisan) which can only be nothing but sad news. (Yeah LILI LIMIT's one must be the most abrupt in terms of announcements, took me a while to see it)

Other examples of such Tweets include rescheduling or cancelling live events due to personal or weather reasons, but suffice it to say we won't be in Japan to see them so I won't discuss about them here.


However, I will draw your attention to a particular Tweet in which I will not pursue on the issue but I will talk about how to identify alternative Tweets that would otherwise be important. These can be disguised as normal Tweets but typically come with an image of text in which will be hard to translate on device but! Its easiest identifier will be addressing to the fans, normally in the phrase 皆様へ (minasama e) coupled with the phrase お知らせ (oshirase) (typically may or may not be together) and in most cases do not appear in normal text form in the Tweet itself, like referencing to other websites, for example. In the above Tweets, it was announced that one of the members went missing (why) and was then later found (and subsequently shelved for future performances), so these could be hard to identify since their presentation is less consistent in terms of phrasing. But yeah if there is an image of text I'll just do a retweet and comment since no one will understand besides those who can read.

Okay, sad things aside, we got good news to cover!


NEW MUSIC RELEASE TWEET
These generally refer to an artist releasing any music title, from singles, albums, compilations, digital singles (I will cover these too) etc and they are pretty easy to identify without reading in much, to be honest. They are identified by the phrase リリース決定 (ririsu kettei) or XXX 発売決定 (hatsubai kettei), but can vary because they will always talk about a specific release format. So, to save you the trouble, here are the mappings from English to Japanese:
(So in the above, replace XXX with the following)
That should do for starters. Others that aren't mentioned here probably are obvious enough to identify, eg. EP in the example below, or "Best Album" (lol) or SG (abbreviation for single) or... well you'll figure those out easily once you seen enough of them they are just shorthand for spelling them out in Japanese.

Other keywords to take note of are 連続 (renzoku, so consecutive release, typically for new songs leading up to an album) タイアップ (tai'appu, representing tie-in to Anime typically represented by アニメ or commercial indicated by CM), 主題歌 (shudaika)/テーマ曲 (teema kyoku, theme song tie-in) and ニューXXX (nyu XXX, prefix to a "new" release) because they will make the definition of whatever you read above very different, and also, to provide additional related information where necessary, so I think you should know of them.

(Man, I've only done two? This may take a while)


NEW MUSIC VIDEO TWEET
Besides the most obvious hint of a video or a link to a video shown in the Tweet itself (I mean, they can spam videos, those accounts), and also the words "MUSIC VIDEO" or "MV" appearing in the Tweet itself.... not that I have to teach you more otherwise because artists are getting eyeballs by using English in their Japanese tweets to cater to a larger (international) audience, but otherwise if you see the phrase ミュージックビデオ (myuujikku bideo) that is most definitely the kind of Tweet you are looking for.

I mean, how obvious can this get? You tell me.

These are however, not to be confused with teaser videos typically with the word ティザー (tizaa) as these, obviously, are not full song videos so if you listen to them and ruin your own experience this is how to prevent them haha well I guess that's just me


SONG MENTIONED IN TWEET
Not too often, I like some of those Tweets that remind me of the awesome songs I have heard of (or not), whether it is in the form of live performance or just a quick snippet. Sometimes, they are also the opening to giving some of the songs I have not given a particular artist but have once again given chance now. I'll provide an example below because this is really hard to coin on terms and phrases, so when you notice I like a tweet and it involves a video it's just a song recommendation from me so feel free to click and take a listen. No harm listening to new songs, am I right? The below Tweet is from a live event, specifically from "a flood of circle", singing a song from "Yoru no Honki Dance" with them on their collaboration within the event.


SONG RELEASED ON STREAMING SERVICES
To be straight to the point, I'm not talking about those we mentioned above of a new digital single or something; I'm talking about those which have been released and then are delayed to appear in streaming services, so how do you know what is coming out? I'm here to help, don't worry.

Also, if you don't recognise any of them it's fine, because I'll do a good deed by giving a retweet and explaining what is up, and where is it up on. Like seriously, they don't even write it detailed and sometimes just dump the consolidated link of links and then you have to see whether the service you subscribed to is in the list haha yeah #ModernSubscriptionProblems
In terms of keywords, the phrase サブスクリプションサービス (sabusukuripushon sabi-su) is mostly used with some phrases including サブスク配信 (sabusuku haishin) again, going for abbreviations, try to reduce their character count. The phrase 配信 (haishin, meaning transmission) should be a good indicator when that is not talking about a CD or Blu-Ray release, to be honest.
In the above example, cinema staff is announcing their indie catalogue being available on streaming services in which they aren't previously due to moving to a major label about 3 years since their debut release. The only other clue you will get is the phrase インディーズ which is the word "indies".

Artist Debut Tweet
This doesn't come as often, but since I've witnessed one myself, maybe I'll talk about it. You should know of me following people other than the ones you see in the official list here, and they are mostly future idols waiting to prosper. So yeah, when news drop that their wonderful voices get to be a singing voice on its own and not rely on Anime, I'd like to show them some publicity one way or another. In the example below, voice actress Kitou Akari has announced her solo artist debut under Anime music label Pony Canyon and will release her first single due October 2019.
If you do follow such people and are waiting for their debut, the phrase to take note of is アーティストデビュー (a-ttisuto debyu-, artist debut) which is typically an indicator of their peak of the careers in the industry lol


OTHER TWEETS
Oh boy, this is going to be a long one. I'll try to keep it short.

This will list as many recent Tweets that I can find which talk about some of the more relevant Tweets which are not categorised in the above, so we'll have to talk about it as we go. Ready?

  • REVEAL OF RELEASE DETAILS
I got to keep this separate from a music release mainly because that's the break, and then today's marketing in order to retain social media attention will reveal details one Tweet at a time. To make sure you don't miss anything, I typically like the Tweets of releases I know do half-a**ed announcements of new releases like this (literally a one-liner there) of this (just the release title?) and then give a couple more weeks and reveal the cover art like the ones below.

The phrases to note here are ジャケット写真 (jyaketto shashin, cover art) or ジャケ写 (jyakesha, cover art abbreviation) or アートワーク (aatowaaku, artwork) or 収録曲 (shuuryokukyoku, included songs) if you are interested in the track titles or composers/lyricists behind them in which I probably still have to translate for anyone to understand anyway so... I just listen to the songs haha been doing that for a decade and counting already. And if you are like me who like to pre-order stuff the word to note is 特典 (tokuten, special gift) because that's how I determine which online store to buy from so I get the best buck of my money since they are literally free gifts.


  • PREVIEWS
We have talked about revealing of music videos, now let's talk about those rather stingy ones. These Tweets typically only give like at most a minute preview of the whole song (to preserve intellectual property integrity and to hype up sales) (which doesn't work for me if you have noticed after all these years) but it's no harm to take a listen especially if you know about it. Anime or not, these typically come in segments or if it is from an album, like once every couple of days nearing release date. The words "PV" and 視聴動画 (shittei douga, preview video) should be the most obvious indicators for the songs you might be looking for, although I would argue that you will need to know the song title in Japanese in order to know what you are in for, and that might be quite an issue. Again, when I like a Tweet it's a song recommendation, so... sorry about this Tweet below I'm doing this for the Anime
  • LIVESTREAMS
Since artists and all do these often, I will catch them if I have the time or if I remember them. In terms of the video platform YouTube is likely without boundaries, and then there's LINE LIVE which depends on region restrictions (basically Japan vs the world) and then Niconico which is Japan's YouTube and is the bane of international streaming lol. Anyways, I have ways to watch all of them (DM me on Twitter if you want to know) but suffice it to say those livestreams would reveal new songs, maybe do a discussion or two, or heck just perform for an hour literally for free for the Internet. So yeah, the phrase to note is 生配信 (namahaishin, live streaming) and typically come with a link so you can subscribe or get notified when it starts. Once again, the platform you are on determines how it's notified, so be aware of that. I just click the link when they remind me again and I see it on my feed, like the one below.

  • SOUNDTRACKS
I'm keeping this brief since it only concerns Anime, but sometimes I like some of those Tweets as a reminder to myself to go listen to them if I have the time. The keyword to notice is オリジナル・サウンドトラック (orijinaru saundotorakku, original sountrack) or just サウンドトラック in itself so it should be easy to identify whether you should ignore that or not.


REPEATED TWEETS
Okay, this one is the hardest to identify, but this is advanced strats already and technically I will hardly post Tweets about stuff I have liked before to avoid confusion, but yeah, they do exist from time to time, and outside my Like feed it happens all the time, so I figured I should teach a few strings on this. Also, if you start following artists and read your feed every day, this will be of an issue. Let me explain why.

If you know of a new release already or have heard of the preview, there is technically no obligation to listen to them again, right? Well, companies today don't believe in that so they try to remind you and as if by clockwork, set up release schedule reminder Tweets which can be real irritating because it may come off as fresh news if read wrongly and waste precious Twitter feed reading time lol.

In the example above, it's a reminder Tweet that Amamiya Sora's single is released today, or when the Tweet is posted, so you know to go give a listen if you haven't already. You might already have known of the news, so the phrase 本日発売 (honjitsu hatsubai, release today) should help you identify whether that is still of importance if you have given it a listen. Another good example is below, where it's a reminder Tweet of a one week countdown to the physical (not the digital because that's already out) release of AyumiKurikaMaki's new mini-album. Their release schedule is weird, so it's wise to notice that they have announced a digital release nearly two weeks ago from this particular Tweet, so if you have listened to it before then this shouldn't shock you.
On the other hand, it still takes prior knowledge of the above, what you have and have not heard, and kind of taking down notes on when releases come out so to not be thrown off by repeated Tweets which would otherwise serve as a reminder instead of "delivering the latest news" as some of them stated in their profiles.


FURTHER EXAMPLES
I figured it's hard to identify all of them anyways, so here are a couple more examples with my analysis so you could see it for yourself how I read a Japanese Tweet so to know to Like them, basically.
In the above Tweet, if you haven't noticed the word "Music Video" you need to study more English than the Japanese (lol), but also in the Tweet is the announcement of digital release AND streaming media release, as noted by the phrases 配信リリース and 配信サービス as mentioned in the parts earlier. See, it's more than just one piece of news.

Ah, this one is a real common phenomenon. Artists and others like to retweet official news outlets announcing their announcements to show credibility and publicity, or even sometimes that's how exclusive interviews and announcements are communicated so it's easier to promote the artists themselves. In the Tweet above, the hard part is to realise this is the opposite of a disbandment from the phrase 再始動 (saishidou, restart of artist activity) and the band VELTPUNCH is performing one-man lives (meaning they perform alone, which sounds abnormal until you notice most artists do not have the budget to rent a location to do so unless you are under a major label) around the country once again after a sub 2-year hiatus. Not as important as a music release, but it's a symbol of artist activity. Also, news articles like to entice their audience with the mention of videos present in the article as noted by 動画あり (douga ari, video included) so to provide more than just a piece of news, which is typically also provided by the artist themselves. On closer inspection it's revealed that their limited edition song from the previous live tour has surfaced once again on YouTube for a week (why) so to hype up the live performances soon which of course, will include a performance of the song.

See? So many news in one Tweet, eh?




This is not an exhaustive list, but I should stop here for now. I do hope with these examples you would have learnt to read some of the Tweets I liked over time and in the future. You know, if not I may just retweet random stuff that you shouldn't be interested in, and hopefully just focus on the ones above that are related to music or maybe I would just retweet with a comment "Not something you should like" lol. Cya guys soon then, and hopefully by tomorrow I can keep up the holiday fever with posts from today up till next Monday. Don't worry, I have plenty to write it's just too much to do that's why I'm holding back haha bye
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