I don't consider myself a tried-and-true expert on the aidoru career of Mizue Takada（高田みづえ）but just from listening to her earlier material in the late 1970s, I've gotten the impression that at least melodically, she was getting some fairly galloping material to tackle.
Takada's debut single from March 1977 is the fondly remembered "Garasuzaka"（硝子坂）which provided some romantic sturm und drang thanks to lyricist Takemi Shima（島武実）, composer Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）and arranger Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）. Well, her sophomore effort, "Dakedo..." (However...) from later in July continues some of the handwringing in love with Shima, Uzaki and Makaino helping out again to form out a fairly rollicking song. In fact, the overall rhythm reminds me of some of the drama from Hiromi Ohta's（太田裕美）"Saraba Siberia Tetsudo" (さらばシベリア鉄道）which wouldn't come out until a few years later in 1980.
"Dakedo..." was another Top 10 hit for the emerging 17-year-old singer as it hit No. 6. It finished the year as the 52nd-ranked single.
Listening to Mizue Takada’s voice, I feel as if she is an Enka singer masquerading as an Aidoru. I enjoy listening to her『原宿メモリー』, 『私はピアノ』&『硝子坂』but her voice as an Aidoru isn't what comes to my mind, or at least her style is a big contrast to the Aidorus of today.
ReplyDeleteHello, Brian. I think there was a major sea change in how an aidoru looked and sang going from the 70s into the 80s. It's almost as if a battleship made a 180-degree turn on a dime. When I first noticed Momoe Yamaguchi and Mizue Takada, I never would have thought them as aidoru because I first heard the term as applied to Seiko Matsuda and Naoko Kawai.
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