 It's Featured Idol Friday time and this month we bring to you one of the recent favorites at A-To-J, The World Standard! The World Standard (Also known as Wa-suta or わーすた) is an idol group that is part of the iDOL Street collective that also includes groups like Cheeky Parade and GEM. The group was announced on March 29, 2015 with the stated goal of spreading the love of "kawaii" culture to the world using social media and social networking. This means that they are very active on their social media and have are very interesting in breaking into the world market. How are they doing this you ask? Well, for starters each of the members are currently learning a different foreign language (English, French, etc.) to widen their ability to speak to their fans. They also have made one other very important move; they've subtitled their MVs in English with really good translation free of the "google translate"-ness that plagues many other artists who attempt to go this route. Whether this spreads to other iDOL Street groups we will have to wait and see, but I think it's fair to say that subtitling MVs and certain promotional videos is becoming something of the standard in the idol world now. Also an ability for members to speak freely to in their fan’s native languages is always a plus.  The World Standard (2015)
The group is made up of Sakamoto Hazuki (Pastel Yellow), Hirokawa Nanase (Pastel Green), Matsuda Miri (Pastel Purple), Kodama Ririka (Pastel Blue), and Mishina Ruka (Pastel Pink). Ririka and Hazuki were previously members of the unit "Hanarichu", and Ririka was also part of "SAPPORO Snow Loveits". Miri and Hazaki shared time in "OSAKA Daizy7", and Ruka was in "NAGOYA Chubu". Going along with the iDOL Street regional units, Nanase was previously in "FUKUOKA Hakata Minion" and she is also the leader of the group. Nanase and Ruka make up much of the main vocals in the group. This is shown by the fact that in many of the early performance of the group the other members didn't have mics of their own and served mainly as back dancers. This of course has since changed but the bulk of the solos still go to Nanase and Ruka. They had their debut performance on April 29th at the iDOL Street Carnival 2015 ~GOLDEN PARADE!!!!!~ concert and began their Showroom web show the next month titled "Wa-suta no Kawaii Room (わーすたのKawaii☆Room)". Music releases were a little slower in coming, but they released their first single "Inu Neko. Seishu Massakari" via Music Card in October of 2015. The video shows off their cool style, cute sound, and cat ears! Check it out below. The World Standard - Inu Neko Seishu Massakari MV Regarding music, it should be pointed out that they are produced by Manaka Suzuki who also writes most of their music. Manaka Suzuki is a very prolific songwriter/producer who is probably best known for her work with Tomomi Itano, HKT48, and NMB48. Besides 48G she also writes for other iDOL Steet groups, Cheeky Parade, SUPER GIRLS, and GEM. Due to their name and their concept of worldwide recognition, their style is described as having a "world music feel" this means that many different music genres are often mixed together. Pop, country, electronic, disco, and other sounds come together to make up The World Standard's unique sound. This isn't quite present in their singles, but can be seen more in their album tracks. Activities-wise, The World Standard held their first one-man live on February 28, 2016 titled "The World Standard at Shibuya Club Quattro". On their one year anniversary they had their second solo live title "Wa-suta Land 1".  "The World Standard" Album Promotion I mentioned album tracks earlier, well The World Standard released their self-titled album on May 4, 2016 and this release is noteworthy in that it was released in 110 countries! Truly a milestone for any Japanese group, even more so for a relatively new idol group. The album also displays the varied sound that I mentioned earlier and will be reviewed in its entirety in due course. Marking this major album release is the MV for "Ultra Mirakurukuru Final Ultimate Choco Beam". This is the definitive Wa-suta song. There is just so much ridiculousness in it that I don't even know where to begin. It has video game motifs and references, lots of funny visual RPG references, nonsensical lyrics that are still catchy, and cute outfits designed by KOKOkim. The title itself is a mouthful too, but that adds to its charm. Did I also mention that their outfits prominently feature their Twitter user names? Because they do! Musically it's all over the place, but I'll let you judge for yourself as the video can be found below. The World Standard - Ultra Mirakurukuru Final Ultimate Choco Beam MV If all this weren't enough, they recently had their first overseas live in Shanghai this past June at the @Jam in Shanghai 2016 event. In other live activities it was also announced that they would be embarking on their first live house tour this fall. They also recently announced their first single (as of yet untitled) to be released on September 28th.  From Our Interview! Lastly, did we mention that A-To-J Connections recently were lucky enough to interview them? Well we were and that interview will be live very soon at the time of this writing! It will be available in both text (English, Japanese, and Spanish) as well as a video subtitled in English. Be sure to keep an eye out for it! Also be sure to check out The World Standard and get in on what is going to be one of the biggest idol groups of this generation!
Catch you all next month for Featured Idol Friday! -Manuel The World Standard is:
For More On The World Standard: Website: http://wa-suta.world/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/tws_staff Sakamoto Hazuki Twitter: https://twitter.com/tws_hazuki Hirokawa Nanase Twitter: https://twitter.com/tws_nanase Matsuda Miri Twitter: https://twitter.com/tws_miri Kodama Ririka Twitter: https://twitter.com/tws_ririka Mishina Ruka Twitter: https://twitter.com/tws_ruka Blog: http://lineblog.me/theworldstandard/
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