Dent Radio: Searching for Tokyo's soul ... and its best food
Four women from DENT with cute smiles.Take four girls who like music, love food and can't help talking about both, add the Internet and what do you get? Dent -- an online radio show and magazine that is becoming the go-to online space for Tokyo's young, outgoing crowd.
How the project started
“The way I got into it is I’ve always been interested in broadcasting and I just thought ‘nobody is going to do it for me so why not just start a podcast for myself,’” says 22-year-old Jayda B, the founder of the show, which airs online every Friday evening.
“The concept originally started from (looking at) everything independent coming out of Atlanta, which is my hometown, and Tokyo, since we are here now,” she adds.
The project involves a radio show that is uploaded onto the Internet weekly and a blog that the four-person team regularly updates. But the primary focus is on the music.
“I think that the show is important when it comes to entertainment and media in Tokyo. It’s such a large city, but when it comes to getting coverage, even on mainstream artists -- no matter independent artists -- it’s very difficult,” Daisha Hunter, 29, a contributor to the project, says.
Out on the streets
“DENT Radio offers a place for people to say what they have done here, what they saw and who they are as artists,” Hunter adds.
“The problem is really here on the Japanese side: you are either signed to a label or you aren’t. But we are here, and we are out on the streets and we’ll come and meet you whether you are a big celebrity or not,” she explains.
As well as featuring music and interviews on the show, there are also sections devoted to teaching Japanese as well as a roundup of the most popular topics of conversation from within the hosts’ Twitter streams.
“Whatever comes across my feed, that takes my interest I’ll talk about. Even though I do it with somebody else, we never clash on topics,” according to Eboni Staton, 31, who handles this part of the show with Chiharu Omotegawa.
Utilizing Twitter
The group is serious about using Twitter for both research and promotion. They have sent out more than 65,000 tweets between them.
“We decided to use our Twitter names (on the show and blog) as it’s easy to promote via that site,” Jayda B says.
Away from the show, the blog is also worth a look, particularly the post “Lookin’ Ass #tellemwhyyoumad” by Staton.
One of the most entertaining pieces written from Japan last year, this post tackles the subject of Japanese women having difficulty with their identities when they date black men.
Not an easy subject to write about, but Staton tackles the issue in a manner that is both amusing and to the point. As she concludes: “A fake ass orange-bronze tan, poom poom shorts and butt panties will never EVER make you a Black girl.” Ouch.
The essay sets the tone for the blog: as well as discussing music, it takes on issues relevant to foreign women living in Japan.
Rather than the usual complaints that one reads on this style of blog, the content is focused on good venues at which to party, tunes that get people dancing and the opinions of a group of women who are clearly self confident.
Loving Japanese food
There is also a snack blog for those interested in an alternative look at Japanese foods, named #fatnessfirst, and curated by Daisha Hunter.
“Well, #fatnessfirst is something that started when I was growing up. I was a picky child with food but I loved snacks,” according to Hunter.
“From high school and through college, me and my friends just loved food. Even if we were eating a meal, we would be thinking about what we were going to eat next. And pretty much anytime I talk about food, or anyone around me does. It ended up that I would say ‘fatness first,’” she says.
“And with Twitter, I started adding the hashtag #fatnessfirst and my friends thought it was funny and started doing the same. And being in Japan, where everyone takes pictures of their food, is great and so I started doing the same thing and adding the hashtag," she adds.
"Now it’s turned into a bit of a trending topic and even has its own photo albums. I hope people take care of their health, but I just love eating."
The future of DENT Radio
The blog and radio show are still relatively young, having been launched in the latter half of last year. However, the work that the women have put into their project makes it worth watching, as a space on the Internet with a huge potential to have an influence on the Tokyo nightlife scene this year.
“How do I say this in a nice way? I find it really difficult to find good music in Tokyo, but we are all about trying to do that, and show the world that it isn’t all about AKB48 or the whack rappers you see on the TV,” Jayda B says. “Some people do have soul here. There’s good music here and we want to show that,” she adds.
DENT Radio is available for download at http://dentradio.podomatic.com/.
