Influence of 12 Girls Band

The Twelve Girls Band takes 1500 years of Chinese musical tradition and makes it contemporary. By fusing traditional instruments with modern harmonies and vibrant performances, they create a sound that crosses all cultural barriers, bringing unique tonal colors not only to their own compositions, but western standards as well. Each member is conservatory trained and a veteran of top orchestras, including the China Academy of Music, the Chinese National Orchestra and the Central Conservatory of Music. All members are multi-instrumentalists, and perform with classic instruments such as the gu zheng (ancient zither with movable bridges and 16-25 strings) pipa (four-stringed lute with pear shaped body) yang qin (Chinese hammered dulcimer with a near-square soundboard), ehru (two stringed Chinese fiddle) and dizi (bamboo flute) along with other traditional instruments. Their influences range far and wide, weaving jazz and pop styles into classical Chinese music. The group's appeal is equally as broad, with children, teens, adults and even grandparents filling arenas to see the Twelve Girls Bandperform. The group presents a strong new voice for global music culture. That voice has been heard loud and clear, as Twelve Girls Band emerges as the most successful act on the international stage. In Japan alone, the band's debut album remained at the top of the charts for 30 weeks and sold more than 2 million copies. A Japanese DVD of the Twelve Girls Band live in concert sold over 200,000 copies and has been telecast around the world. This year they were named "International Artist of the Year" at the 2004 Japan Golden Disc Award ceremonies. Past recipients of this honorary award include Madonna, Celine Dion and Mariah Carey. The band's origin help explain this remarkable success. To begin with, twelve is an important figure in Chinese numerology. There are twelve months in a year, twelve "jinchai" (or golden hairpins, representing womanhood) in ancient Chinese mythology. When producer Xiaojing Wang - known as the father of Chinese rock music - had the idea for an all female ensemble, he knew it had to have twelve members. For inspiration, The Twelve Girls Band turned to the art of Yue Fang, the female ensembles that played in the royal courts of the Tang Dynasty, centuries ago. By playing modern arrangements on classical instruments,Twelve Girls Band crafted something unique in world music. Considering the global success of crossover artists like Enya, The Buena Vista Social Club and Riverdance, there's every reason to expect the exhilarating style of the Twelve Girls Band to strike a similar chord in North America. With Eastern Energy, the Twelve Girls Band rises to a new level of artistry. Like their debut cd, the new album features the compositions of Chinese composer/arranger Jianfeng Liang. In addition to his originals, the cd also contains covers of Coldplay's Grammy Award winning "Clocks" as well as Enya's "Only Time" and "Reel Around The Sun" from the international theatrical smash hit, Riverdance. The Twelve Girls Band is set to launch their promotional tour of North America in the summer of 2004, coinciding with the release of Eastern Energy on August 17th. For those who believe in the power of music to bring people on this planet closer together, Twelve Girls Band will be a driving force from one of the world's oldest cultures. Their beautiful music will extend a hand acros

http://www.shopemi.com/bio.asp?artist_id=3359

the comments of 12 Girls Band

According to Chen Nan( China Daily), " Young singers , old songs. Traditional music given a modern makeover."Folk music group, Twelve Girls Band, is the first all-female ensemble combining traditionalChinese instruments with a mixed repertoire of Chinese and Western music. 


http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2011-10/17/content_13915858.htm




From Kim Hardiman, "Twelve Girls Band is the latest musical phenomenon from the People's Republic of China. It is an ensemble of twelve beautiful young women, all graduates from elite music academies and veterans of top orchestras in China. They take 1500 years of Chinese music tradition and make it contemporary. By playing modern arrangements on traditional Chinese instruments, they have created something entirely unique in world music. Having sold millions of records across Asia, Twelve Girls Band emerges as the most successful act on the international stage. The band's debut album in Japan remained at the top of the charts for 30 weeks. Their live concert there sold out 32 arenas in 10 minutes. Their U.S. debut "Eastern Energy" was released on August 17, 2004, coinciding with their first ever U.S. tour (August 10 to September 4, 2004). On this promotional tour, they performed seven concerts (Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Chicago, Atlanta and Honolulu) and were greeted by American audiences with strong enthusiasm. "Eastern Energy" was ranked #62 on the Billboard Top 200 chart during the first week, marking the highest ranking debut of an Asian artist in the history of the Billboard Top 200. It was also #1 on the World Music chart and #7 on the Internet Sales chart."


http://kimeslkitchen.blogspot.com.au/2007/05/welcome-to-kims-esl-kitchen.html




From Creeeeepy indeed, "I am not an expert but 12 Gs sounds about the same as most China Top 40 songs over the last 5 years. What makes these girls really special, is their original white attire. I bet the highest expense on their tour is bleach."


http://www.thestandingroom.com/blog/2004/08/discover_the_mo.html

Early development in China

The period for 12 Girls Band's early development in China was from 2001 to the beginning of 2003. Compare with the laster development in Japanese market,  the events were much less that there were just three events was organised during that period. These three events were "Meili" which was held in Beijing Century Theatre on October 5,2002, " New Years Gala" of China Central TV and "Qiji" which was hold in the theatre of Beijing Exhibition Center. Early development of this band was not very popular. The band just remained in Beijing. Then, in 2003, this band was signed to Japanese company and developed in Japan.

Three musical elements

 According to 12 Girls Band's discography, music of 12 Girls Band consists of three different musical elements in order to suit musical composition, musical theme and marketing strategies. 

 First element are mainly originally created featured with albums, for example, Meili Concert’, ‘Joshi Juni Gakubou - Beautiful Energy’, ‘Kikou - Shining Energy’, ‘Eastern Energy’, ‘Tonkou - Romantic Energy’, ‘Romantic Energy’, and ‘Shanghai’. 

                                                           "Eastern Energy"

Another element is that music works base on cover of Japanese popular music of the 1970s to 1990s, for example, the album of "The Best of covers."

                                                   The cover of this album

   

 Last element is that music works base on cover of Western classic and popular music, for instance,  the albums of " Merry Christmas to You,"  "White Christmas" and "12 girls of Christmas."

                         Christmas Eve (12 Girls Of Christmas)

Japan-----an important step in 12 girls band career

In July 2003,Beautiful Energy,the first album of 12 girls band in Japan,reached the top of the J-pop chart.They won Japan Gold Disc Award in 2004.This means the 12 girls band reached a high level of their own position in music industry and new pop folk music.


Japan,a country that provides many chances to 12 girls band in their development career and each of these chances is very important for 12 girls band.Japanese people started to love Chinese new style traditional - pop music and this makes 12 girls band become very popular in Asia starts with Japan.I could say that Japan means more things for 12 girls band than China in some aspects even China is where the 12 girls born.


But in the deep analysis,actually this happened based on some reasons that why 12 girls band is so popular in Japan more than in any other country so far.I think the most important reason is that Japanese people are creative and they usually accept the creative things very quickly as the music style of 12 girls band is a new creative mix Chinese folk music with pop elements played by Chinese traditional instruments called "new folk".


Another reason i think is because many records of 12 girls band are composed with some main melody of Japanese famous traditional songs of music pieces,when Japanese people listen to these records,they feel more closer to the music spirits that presented by 12 girls band.


12 girls band become famous and popular in these days are mostly started from Japan and spread from Japan,even now the record label that 12 girls signed with is Japanese record label.

12 girls band Albums & Contribution

Studio albums (original works)

 Meili Yinyuehui(CD, 2001 - limited Press) - Original Debut CD

   Joshi Juni Gakubou - Beautiful Energy(CD and DVD, 2003) - first Japanese album

   Kikou - Shining Energy(CD and DVD, 2004) - second Japanese album

   Eastern Energy(CD and DVD, 2004) - first USA album

   Tonkou - Romantic Energy(CD and DVD, 2005)

   Romantic Energy(CD and DVD, 2005) - published in the US

   Shanghai (2007)

Studio albums (tributes and covers)

   Red Hot Classics (CD, DVD and VCD, 2004)

   Tribute to Wang Luobin (CD and DVD, 2004)

   Merry Christmas To You(2005) - Christmas album published in Japan

   The Best of Covers (2005) - Covers of mostly Japanese songs

   White Christmas (CD and DVD, 2005)

   Twelve Girls of Christmas(2005) - Christmas album published in the US

Studio albums (compilations)

   Freedom (Greatest Hits) (2 CDs, 2004)( its origin is An Ottoman Classical Composition composed by Santuri Ethem Efendi. The name of the piece is şehnaz longa)

   The Best of 12 Girls Band (2006) - Korean version available

Live albums

   Kiseki/Miracle Live (CD, DVD and VCD, 2003)

   Twelve Girls Band Live at Budokan Japan 2004 (DVD, 2004)

   Journey to Silk Road (VCD, 2005)

Most of these CDs were released in different versions for in the USA, China, Hong Kong and Macau, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Korea. Please see the official individual album page for information on how the tracklist differs.

12 girls band in America

12 girls band are not only very popular in China and other Asian countries,but also very popular in some oversea countries,such as in North America,12 girls band held the tour live performance in many main cities in North America,like San Francisco,New York,Washington,Las Vegas,Los Angeles,Boston,Vancouver,Toronto,Atlantic,and etc.12 girls band are playing a new music style in a new way with their own new features in the new places where are not the area with Chinese traditional music,12 girls band spread the Chinese pop folk music with their Chinese traditional instruments to let the American people know Chinese traditional music more and more,people there also start to look into the Chinese folk music from a different way through 12 girls band music style,in the past,the old original Chinese traditional music always make people think of the old China in thousands of years ago with the Chinese ancient culture,but now,people start to feel Chinese traditional music could also be dressed up with the latest fashion on the stage not only by their clothes style but also by their music style,12 girls band are leading the stream of breaking the old Chinese traditional music rules and build up a new Chinese pop folk music with mixing the traditional elements and pop or rock elements to bring a new musical feeling to their audience in North America through their performance.

More information,please visit:
http://www.sanfranciscochinatown.com/events/music/12girlsband.html