Arnel Pineda: Journey’s Asian X-factor

Kukul Khan, YouTube Review

In this era when an African-American can be the president of the most powerful country in the world, having an Asian to front a legendary band that prided itself for almost three decades as an all-American band can never be a bad idea.

Home to four billion people and has the world’s fastest growing economy, Asia can no longer be ignored—even in the music scene.

Journey’s choice of Arnel Pineda as its new front man has sparked interest not only in his home country, the Philippines, but also in other parts of Asia. His cyber-age Cinderella story of rise to international stardom has captivated the imagination of countless Asian artists, who like him until two years ago, have been playing in bars doing covers of western songs and a few original compositions.

Though Journey’s music is already popular in some parts of Asia, the reinvigoration of the band led by Pineda offers an opportunity for Journey to penetrate the rest of the region and get to its fold millions of new and young (and moneyed) Asian fans.