W+K Tokyo Turns Music into Motion for Spotify’s First Japanese Campaign

And now for something completely unrelated to the West’s pending cultural tribute to runaway consumerism.

Wieden+Kennedy New York has been handling Spotify’s U.S. advertising efforts since early last year, and this month also saw the release of the streaming brand’s first campaign in Japan to coincide with the service launching in September. W+K Tokyo created this series, which moves through your favorite genres and uses them to soundtrack tiny slice of life vignettes from everyday Japan.

First, industrial techno meets vegetables meet Big Knife. For the choppin’.

This one can only be called Punk Rock Parking Lot in homage to directors Heyn and Krulik.

A bit of the Tokyo hip-hop you crave.

Could have used subtitles on that one, but the press release tells us that Girl B was giving Girl A some relationship advice, so maybe the point was made?

Sadly, only one lonely white collar can be seen headbanging on this train. But it’s still more hardcore than anything directed by Wes Anderson.

The last entry doesn’t need an explanation, just three simple words: Boyz. II. Men.

One of our contacts called this campaign “condescending,” but we found it to be pretty fun. The idea is that Spotify has finally allowed these Japanese music fans to discover genres one might not associate with people in their positions … with the exception of the spot that saw one teen “[get] as punk as he dares by parking his car slightly askew.”

See, that’s kind of sad.

From the press release: “Each vignette encourages music fans to, ‘Discover new music you didn’t know you’d love’ and remind them how music can change the way we look at the world around us.”

Say what you will about Spotify destroying the music industry’s business model, but Discover is way better than we thought it would be. You have no idea how many great dark ambient albums came out this year, guys.