Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Rie Miyazawa -- NO TITLIST


As I said in Rie Miyazawa's(宮沢りえ)only other entry on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" (to date), the IT girl of the time didn't exactly inspire with her vocals. But she was poppy and sprightly enough to pull it off. However, there was that one time she appeared on the 1990 Kohaku Utagassen to sing a cover of David Bowie's "Game" from a bathtub which had my jaw dropping to the floor...and not in any good way. My relatives and I simply looked at each other and wondered whose bright idea it was for Miyazawa to assault the work of Ziggy Stardust like that. And then we asked each other to pass the mikan.


Y'know...it would have been somewhat better if the NHK producers for the Kohaku had simply asked Miyazawa to perform her 2nd single from February 1990, "NO TITLIST" (which still gets a few chuckles from me whenever I read it). At least, hearing the IT girl sing that one would have been more bearable.

Created by the same duo, Tetsuya Komuro and Masumi Kawamura(小室哲哉・川村真澄), behind her hit first single "Dream Rush" which had come out half a year before, "NO TITLIST" has a melody that seems to evoke a call to action or at least a call to recognize the new current generation of the 1990s as one that shouldn't need a title. Everyone is their own person...no need for that generational identifier. I'm not sure if her anthem was heeded by the sociologists but with Komuro being Komuro, I could hear a bit of Misato Watanabe(渡辺美里)and even the future TRF in the music.


"NO TITLIST" hit the top of the charts and finished 1990 as the 45th-ranked single. It was also a track in Miyazawa's 3rd album, "Game", and was even used as the theme song for one of her teen dramas "Itsumo Dareka ni Koishiteiru"(いつも誰かに恋してるッ...Always In Love With Someone).


Aw, heck. Let's finish this off with another round of Rie-chan commercials!

3 comments:

  1. It's great you have featured this song by Rie Miyazawa. Truly an epic and catchy tune, for me this song adds some sense of urgency and "go to the action" tone.

    I have listened to the first album by Rie (Mu) and i have to say that a couple of songs from it finished on my Ipod. It is an album with most of the songs with a strong eurobeat/techno feel, mixed up with the idol persona of Rie. Listen to "Gokigen na Heart" and "Shooting Star", by example.

    Saludos desde España!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good to hear from you again, Mineko P.
      It's been a while since I've listened to "Mu" so I'll have to give it another go. Would "Mu" be your favourite album by Rie?

      Delete
  2. Hi dude!!

    Yes, MU is my favourite album by her. I think although Rie's vocals are thin as paper, the production and arrangements of the songs are superb! (Tetsuya Komuro produced "Dream rush" and another tune from the album...).
    I listened to Chepop too, but I disliked it, with a very "experimental" and boring sound.

    Keep the good work on the blog :)!!!

    Edu.




    ReplyDelete

Feel free to provide any comments (pro or con). Just be civil about it.