#marm I'm sorry but this has been rattling in my head since the first kozue as an alt signer thing you made

[pinkandgreenarepurpleandyellow]

Music Industry Baki au

Inspired by @blackporls and the brilliant art they've posted of Kozue if she was a singer. (warning, this is way too fucking long)

Baki:

- Recently high-rising super star. He came out of presumed obscurity about two years ago but as it turns out, was known internationally in small locations damn near everywhere. No one had really bothered to spread word outside of the areas he performed in, so everyone thought he was a nobody until his first showing at the Tokyo Music Stadium. One of his unofficial stage names is 'Demon's Child' but he much prefers 'King of the Ring' that someone suggested after finding out his martial arts history.

- Dances and sings. He will occasionally do some of the editing and has played fragments of unwritten songs on borrowed basses and guitars, but he can't actually play enough to consider himself an instrumental expert.

- The dancing is insanely dynamic and borrows heavily from martial arts, breakdancing, and hip-hop. Baki isn't nearly as strong in this universe, but he's got several ranks from marital arts such as karate, kung fu, and aiki and competes casually in things like MMA.

- Makes tutorials for easier and harder versions of his dances so normal people can also try the routines out.

- His music is based on traditional Japanese music but also heavily sinks into metal and rock at varying levels. Has one or two more 'pop'-ish type songs, but only if they're featuring someone else.

- Will occasionally team up with other stars to make a co-op song and then he does his best to bring their culture and music ideas into balance with his stuff. It sounds absolutely magical.

- Jokingly requested that instead of clothing, people throw fruit at him during the debut of a specific song. He tried to catch all of it while working the moves into his dance routine. It became such a big hit that this is now what he does every time. Most of his sets have the song playing 3 or 4 times to spread the wave of food out. The fruit is given out to crew members, staff, and donated to local charities and food banks.

- Known for being insanely sweet off-stage. It's very funny to see him in the back eye makeup, with the piercings, wearing extremely punk clothing and having just screamed for 4 hours get super-excited about a fan's bunny-patterened clothing.

- Surprisingly few super awful photos of him. He looks silly and ridiculous in almost every picture that's not an official photo shoot (and there he looks extremely delinquent) but it's always dumb candids of him tripping because Kozue held his hand or making faces at a cat that's sitting on his leg or running after his umbrella. The candids are twice as funny if he's still in his official punksona outfits.

Kozue:

- Did her first ever face reveal last year. Previously she'd managed to hide behind special effects and makeup and props even during live performances. A large part of her fanbase was vocally supportive of this decision when she first announced her desire to remain private for at least part of her career.

- Her style goes all over the place, from psychedelic rock to traditional metal stuff to the occasional absurdity song. A few of them are done in a semi classical-pop style and her work in those is breathtaking.

- Started at 14 with just casual songs being released on places like Soundcloud. Her first big album with cover art (self-designed) and music videos and the like was released two days after her 16th birthday. That same album cemented her stage name of Countess Bloodtide.

- Very dramatic wardrobe. Some of it she buys thrifted, some of it is lent by friends, and some things she's made herself.

- She often goes for very cliché and intentionally cheesy vibes in her more horror/gore-based videos and album art. Most of her favorite elements to use are from the 70s and 80s.

- She plays piano, drums, and dabbles in electro swing. Her dance routines don't require a lot of physical ability but they are very energetic and rely on quick timing.

- Jokingly started a tradition of making the final song in her albums a q&a session where she'd play ragtime piano (accompanied with digital sounds) and answer fan questions in song form. This became so popular that she now does it for every album.

- At one point was given the feedback that she should be more modest and appropriate in her music. Her next song was called " Traditional Choices" and had a background beat of her swearing mixed into the rest of the instrument.

- Very supportive of fan engagement stuff and is almost always willing to chat with people and answer questions as long as they're respectful.

Hanayama:

- Manager of the performance industry.

- Helped Baki set up when he first started performing at 13. Considers him a bro for life.

- Listens to music performed by his clients at almost all points of the day when not in meetings or resting. It helps him give feedback and market different artists.

- Complex relationship with Kozue. She's got a very bold style and Hanayama is somewhat more traditional about that kind of stuff at first. On the other hand, she designs a lot of her own shit so he doesn't need to and she's very sweet to everyone who doesn't piss her off. Over time the two have come to a snarky friendship. Since then Hanayama's also learned to be a little more progressive in his idea about gender roles for things like this.

- Always well-dressed. Catch him at any time of day and he's wearing some of the best-known brands in the world, impeccably styled and perfectly neat.

- Technically still runs the underworld but no one is stepping out of line at this point, so he's focused more on being a manager. The underground connections help him set up some of the more complex performance spaces.

- Big fan of jazz and classical music. Really hates any song that starts with sirens or shooting sounds.

- Occasionally sings when he has feee time or is around people he likes and trusts. His voice flows very smoothly and even though his singing is soft, it resonates very well. The performances are pretty rare but very treasured by those who hear them.

Katsumi:

- New hit name of the past year or so. He's rising straight to the top and currently shows no signs of slowing in popularity growth.

- Good singer and dancer. Can play electric guitar and does a lot of editing for vocal stuff. He's known for being very specific in feedback so a lot of editors like him.

- He does a weird mix of rock with pop and metal simultaneously streaming in. It works weirdly well with a lot of deep instruments but a very cheerful tempo and energetic lyrics.

- Non-stop collabs with Suedo and Katou. They have been unofficially dubbed 'The Shinshinkai Trio' after fans found out all three of them learn karate at the same place and have since childhood. They roll with it.

- He also works a bit with Retsu and Baki. His last two songs have featured Scottish sensation Doyle and many fans noticed the instant chemistry between the two.

- Katsumi's songs that aren't with someone else are very unique. The most famous ones are a rock-pop song about victory and a nearly entirely traditional song (save for the electric guitar) about the ideas of strength and the pressure to succeed. Many of his fans say that one is their all-time favorite.

- Very flirty and cheerful with his fans. He remembers a disturbing amount of people and after every concert does his best to reply to any mentions of him on social media (esp ones with fan photos/comments).

- His movements on and offstage speak to his experience in karate and capoeira. He posts a lot about how manage workouts and is always happy to answer questions for less-experienced gym rats and karate students.

Suedo:

- Precussion and electronic music. He's willing to do backup vocals and help choreograph routines, but almost never will actually dance onstage.

- Dances constantly offstage though and is always happy to do a routine with fans. When pressed, he'll admit he gets a bit of stage-fright during the shows and makes jokes about it.

- If he's not collabing with Katsumi and/or Katou, he's probably doing sound editing work or choreography for the other performers. At this point there are maybe 2 artists internationally he hasn't worked with yet in some capacity or another.

- Has yet to perform alongisde Baki but they're pretty good friends away from the spotlight. Suedo's teaching him how to play video games.

- He's a very intense person to work with, but always super cheerful and supportive. Will remember strengths and weaknesses of his coworkers and adjust the workflow accordingly.

- Was jokingly gifted a badge labelling him as the resident tall person who grabs shit that he gets to flaunt whenever people piss him off.

- Solid voice. He'll never be a pure singer but he's got the basics and meshes well with a lead like Katsumi.

- No majorly active social media except a YouTube channel that's his drum and edm covers of requested songs. Will occasionally also sing if he really likes the song or if enough people request it. His own songs will also appear there; he usually does very hip-hop type stuff.

- He owns like sixty different sets of drumsticks at all times and they're almost always mismatched whenever he performs. They are frequently thrown out into the audience at in-person shows.

Katou:

- Mostly sticks to guitar and other string instruments or dance but is willing to play piano/be wildcard instrument if pushed.

- Not a very big name outside of his work in the Shinshinkai Squad but performs a lot at tons of different small locations and has a very dedicated underground following. He's stated he doesn't really want to be worldwide famous as long as he can keep performing like this and having a good time.

- Very intense dancer. If he can get someone else to take over the song for a while, his routines get increasingly complex and can even include weapons or aerial stunts. Otherwise it's a terrifying mix of street dancing stuff like hiphop and very traditional ballroom/tango type of dances adjusted to work solo.

- Remarkably latent ability to pick up the basics of instruments within a few hours. He won't sound all that great without rehearsing but it means the trio can feature things like an accordion, bagpipes, a French horn, and (on one very memorable occasion) a theremin with only a few weeks to three months worth of advance practice.

- Geeks out over dance routines that are very complex/dynamic. He has an entire YouTube channel where people can request a breakdown of various performances and their routines.

- Comes off a bit hostile to strangers but most people realize pretty quickly he's just naturally a bit more sarcastic than average. Lots of his fans appreciate the lack of needless formality and his willingness to do things like piano duels and dance-offs during his solo shows.

- Has gotten featured in albums with Hanada, Retsu, Kosho, Sikorsky, and Kozue before. His ability to switch between instruments and genres gives him a pretty wide range of people to easily work with.

- Very dramatic onstage outfits but a quick look at his social media feeds shows he's mostly in hoodies sweatpants and tank tops whenever he's in casual mode. Won't be caught dead in a plain outfit in public though.

Kosho:

- Sort of a dark horse in the mainstream music world and an absolute underground legend. He makes very dark-sounding things that might still have bits of pop or edm and it's very well put together.

- His favorite song that's similar to his style is Discord.

- The voice of a literal siren. He can play piano very well and do some solid work on a viola but almost all of his performance goes into the voice and the wardrobe/makeup.

- Very dramatic movement and facial expressions. There's a haunting atmosphere around him that's enhanced by lights and special effects, but he's done even more mesmerizing things with no lighting or sound equipment beyond amplification.

- Notoriously good at dodging paparazzis and overexcited fans outside of agreed meeting places. He's a very private person.

- He often does small mini-concerts in charity centers for causes he's passionate about or in hospitals where Kureha works. The price these sorts of locations usually have to pay is whatever it takes to cover the wages of the crew and someone had better buy Kosho a weirdly fancy artisanal latte and possibly a bagel. No further payment necessary.

- Known for improvising a lot of stuff onstage. Usually has the decency to warn the crew if the odds of him doing so are high. They forgive him because he's willing to clean up damage/not complain if they can't always make it look super great since they don't know when and how he's going off script.

- His favorite thing to do in international collaborative songs is to have him and the other singer performing in their native languages. Done right, it adds a beautiful underscoring and there's a borderline cult aspect of the fanbase dedicated to figuring out translations and the relation of the two parts.

Doyle:

- Leader of a non-existing band named the Angry Scottz. The band dissolved back when he was 19 but all of them remained friends and play together in lots of unofficial concerts.

- Hella good at guitar, drums, bagpipes, and singing both lead and backup. Can do a few decent dances, but usually isn't asked to participate in a routine on the grounds that he has two left feet (even if they are very agile left feet) at anything that's not a traditional dance with a repetitive order and step.

- Mostly does metal music but has been known to go into classical now and then.

- He likes to design album art based on a combination of fashion and emotion. The covers might not always be super professional but they have a spark of life in them that seems to never fade.

- Very famous in Scotland, some parts of Ireland and Wales, five pubs in England, and has a growing following in Slavic countries. Recent work with Katsumi and Retsu has introduced him to diehard Japanese and Chinese music fans who all appreciate the nutcase who's willing to set his guitar on fire now and then.

- Will set the guitar on fire and have a tech on standby with an extinguisher for the instant the song ends. That same guitar has suffered this trick for almost six years now, but it's treated with love and care and all the possible fire-proofing varnish Doyle can afford.

- Has stopped concerts in the middle to take audience requests for songs/variations in performance. At one point stopped the concert to first loudly thank the sound booth engineer and then to ask an audience member if he could borrow their lighter. After finishing the smoke break, he dedicated the next five minutes to an improvised half-song set to guitar on the theme of why smoking is bad and honestly he's not sure why he hasn't quit yet but no one in the audience should start just because he's a bad example before finally resuming the planned set list.

- Wears lots of spikes and studs onstage. Whenever he can, he'll also go out in kilts, combat boots, eyeliner, and some hideous shirt that clashes with the rest of the outfit but somehow works. He's too lazy to get an actual costumer person beyond sometimes shouting 'How's this?' at anyone he's working with at the time (and then promptly disregarding their advice anyways).

Retsu:

- Started off with very traditional Chinese music, accompanied by martial art-inspired routines and a deep voice.

- After being pushed to expand from just China, he had to work with Katsumi for his international debut. Their first song was an instant hit with Japanese audiences, who loved the combination of their voices and energies.

- Since then Retsu tries to keep at least one traditional element when collaborating with someone, but also inviting them to bring something from their culture and seeing how this works out.

- Worked with Doyle for the first time on a dare. The initial voicemail he left for his friends at home contained roughly eighty percent insults about the Scot. Two days later their styles clashed onstage in a beautiful show that ended with Retsu being carried offstage by a throng of fans. The two frequently work together and almost all of Retsu's albums contain at least one song that Doyle is there for, whether it's as a rival lead voice or as a minor instrument.

- Quickly gained international fame after it was revealed that he's extremely multilingual. The fanbase tripled overnight and most of his meetings with fans have him speaking six or seven languages.

- Hires Suedo to do sound editing and Hanayma for wardrobe design and stage management whenever the other men have availability. Retsu knows how to concede that there are certain areas of this business he knows nothing about, and they go along with his stubbornness better than a stranger would.

- Released an entire album dedicated to Chinese martial arts and its rich history. It was a surprisingly big hit outside of China, with many fans stating that it felt like a bit more personal side of Retsu was revealed in the song. It was also the first album in which he played several variations of the violin, a big surprise to many fans (including long-time ones) as he had rarely played any instruments in the songs before.

- Very occasionally will do insane feats like run across water and sing. It's only done on very short distances but the crowd goes nuts every single time.

Sikorsky:

- R-pop and Russian hip-hop type of music. With a basically decent voice and a good range of instrument, man's got a questionable following.

- No one knows how he became famous, least of all him. He's only left Russia recently, but even there he had mostly underground fame. Eventaully it's revealed a lot of videos of him slav-squatting and piping out music to the accompaniment of cats was a big push in his going viral.

- He plays a lot of stuff on accordion and guitar.

- Usually in his album there's at least one song that's a cover of a traditional Russian song, but he doesn't do any patriotic/propaganda music.

- Political satire songs ftw. The rest of his stuff centers around fighting, violence, or very confusing 'but is it art?' type of ideas.

- Has a terrifying amount of bans from certain performance spaces and fellow musicians. Once got into a fight onstage with Jack, and had to be restrained by their deck crew manager Nomura. When asked, Nomura revealed that it was "like carrying a very angry sack of potatoes and raccoons".

- Almost never dances, but had one very famous live performance that featured his cover of "Rasputin" by Boney M and had him doing a traditional cossack dance. The video of said concert caused the album to go platinum for three solid weeks.

- He can't speak languages beyond Russian and English but constantly working with Japanese musicians means he can understand a lot of it. Sometimes he'll make unofficial behind-the-scene videos where the camera eavesdrops on whoever he's working with and he translates the stupid things they're saying.

Group shit/Misc:

- Katusmi released an acoustic song for his 1-year anniversary of the debut. It's him with a guitar singing about his parents and how he loves them.

- Kozue and Baki have a whole album together that's the rough equivalent of baby metal songs about romance and combat. They're a very supportive couple and have been known to trade makeup and dance moves. Kozue admitted that the main reason they went with a baby metal aesthetic was because that was Baki's thing at the time; She'd wanted something more creepy looking and sounding but it was meant to be at least somewhat romantic of an album.

- Hanayama has formally stated he's no longer sure he's allowed to call himself a manager given how much of his career is spent sound editing, giving feedback on so many designer aspects, and having no official company that he's employed with/to.

- At one point, Doyle teams up with Kosho, Sikorsky, and Katou and they release an entire album titled 'Four International Idiots'. The songs are all done with each of them playing an instrument (bagpipes, mandolin, accordion, and trombone respectively for the opening song) and singing in a different language. Initial reviews by friends and family sum up the album as 'something that was written while snorting potatoes' to which Sikorsky released a statement saying that Russians already have potato-based alcohol and all four of them were drunk during recording (done on their own in a semi-abandoned studio with absolutely no editing) so it's not that much of a stretch.

- Katou is notorious for having a disturbing amount of stuff in his duffle bag at all times. Needs to prove a point about the French horn? It's in the bag. Suedo wants to embarrass Katsumi at a press conference with a kazoo? In the bag. Kozue needs spare makeup? Bag. Baki wants to hide somewhere from embarrassment after tripping on thin air? You guessed it, fucking bag.

- Kozue and Kosho released an album together that co-marketed a custom makeup palette based on their looks and songs. The proceeds went to eco-friendly charities and helped raise awareness about biodegradable glitter and the toxicity of bad makeup to the environment.

- After the names 'Shinshinkai Trio' and 'Shinshinkai Squad' went viral as a hashtag, Suedo Katsumi and Katou made their next group album about martial arts and fighting. The cover shows all three of them in karate gis striking their favorite moves. They also have matching jackets with 'Shinshinkai Squad' on the back in bold letters.

- Retsu and Katou are the only two who actually speak Chinese. They found this out when during a group panel Retsu grumbled out 'That American asshole won't shut up about accents in a second language' and Katou muttered back 'tell me about it'.

- Jack is a stunts person and can do dance routines, but doesn't perform beyond that. He and Baki have started doing more work together and their newest release worked with several substance abuse charities. Many of Baki's fans find Jack to be a little intimidating but very polite to strangers and chill around excitement.

- Kureha goes to every single one of Kosho's shows that he can. The few times he couldn't, at least half of their mutual friends would send him videos and recording of his brother absolutely killing it onstage.

-Baki's most recent album features a different artist/group of artists in each song and the cover was showing who had collaborated with whom at some point or another. It looks like a very tangled up web in the vague shape of a demon's face.