Utada Hikaru
By Ashley Morris, Special Contributor

A face familiar to the Asian community hopes to emerge on the US music scene. JPop superstar, Utada Hikaru, released her long-awaited US debut album, Exodus, on October 5, 2004. Having already sold over 17 million copies of her previous albums in Japan, her fans wonder how her music will fare here.

Don’t expect anything like her Japanese releases, (First Love, Distance and Deep River, respectively) when you pick up Exodus. Her Japanese albums can be best described as pop with a touch of hip-hop. However, Utada (she dropped Hikaru for her US debut) made it clear that her style here will be different from what Japanese fans have heard. “In Japan, I felt like I couldn’t sound too crazy,” she told the Baltimore Sun, “…Japan is too closed up. You can’t be too experimental there.”

Utada’s English debut has been anticipated for a long time; even before she signed with Island Def Jam Music Group in 2002. Despite this though, this wasn’t the first album that she released here. Under the stage name, “Cubic U”, Utada released an album called Precious for an independent label in New York in 1997, but it wasn’t until she debuted in Japan in 1998 with the single, “Automatic”, that her career really took off. Her first Japanese album launched her to superstar status in Japan. This often gives her label of “Japan’s Britney Spears”. However, she dislikes this comparison.

But now she’s competing directly with Spears for record sales. With appearances on CNN’s, “The Biz”, a short MTV segment, and various articles in newspapers and magazines, she’s definitely trying to hit the big time in the US. Exodus debuted at #160 on the Billboard Top 200 Charts, while the track “Devil Inside” holds spots in Billboard.com’s Top 10 for Heat Seekers (new and developing artists), Hot Dance Music/Club Play, Hot Dance Singles Sales, and Dance Radio Air Play for the week of October 15th.

Already, Utada has topped other Asian musicians that have released albums here. Her flawless English (a result of her growing up in New York City) helps bridge the cultural gap between Japan and America. Tofu Records, a small label based in California, has released albums by Japan’s L’arc en Ciel, TM Revolution and Nami Tamaki, among a few others, all successes in their native country. However, these albums while good in their own right, are the same as the Japanese releases, they just have translated CD booklets. Tofu Records promotes to a small part of the population who already listens to JPop and wants the CDs at a cheaper price rather than importing them. Utada’s decision not to have her albums released this way reflects her desire to be embraced by the general public.

Utada certainly has the potential to achieve a strong presence in the US music scene. It remains to be seen whether or not the American public will latch onto her the way the Japanese public has. For now, Utada is living in New York City, on leave from Columbia University, promoting her career. So who knows, maybe you’ve walked past her on the street and not even realized it. With Exodus in stores and “Devil Inside” climbing the dance charts, maybe we’ll see an Asian figure hit the US mainstream. And maybe when she walks down a New York City street again, you’ll know without a doubt who she is.