By the time I got into Japan in late 1994, TK Rave Factory, aka trf, had already become a known commodity within J-Pop and had been in business since 1992. Still considering that I entered the country during their heyday and seemingly got barraged every few months with another chart-topper by the dance-&-music unit, I couldn't help but feel that the title of their 10th single, "Overnight Sensation - Toki wa Anata ni Yudaneru" (The Times Are Devoted to You) was somewhat reflective of their success. It just felt like in my eyes and ears that these guys popped up within a short period of time to take over the industry and spearhead the Komuro Boom (Namie, Tomomi and globe were also on their way).
"Overnight Sensation", yet another Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）creation, came out in March 1995 (just a month after their last hit single "Masquerade"), and unlike the first trf hit I'd heard, "Boy Meets Girl". this one was channeling good ol' disco. And the lyrics described the decadence and trials of painting the town red in one's 20s....as one of my friends terrifyingly put it, the teenage years with a fully-fledged credit card, apartment and job.Yup, I can completely relate to those days when I hear the lyrics "Any way you want, any time you need. Everybody shakes, everybody dance"...and for a good part of my 20s, I only had one of those three things.
trf had their dance moves for their hits but for some reason, I always remembered the choreography behind "Overnight Sensation" best, perhaps because it just seemed so reminiscent of the old disco dance floor that I saw on TV. Mind you, I wouldn't have dared try them out at home. Still, the group still made it all too inviting to grab a handful of friends and head over downtown.....better yet, grab trf and head over downtown.
However, in that official music video, I just found it a bit odd to see them dance in what looked like Clark Kent's farm in Smallville. I half-expected the transplanted Kryptonian to sweep YU-KI, KOO and the rest back off to Japan with a friendly warning about trespassing.
"Overnight Sensation" added to trf's legacy with another million-seller. It was also their 4th of 5 No. 1 hits that got them to the Kohaku Utagassen, along with it becoming the 27th-ranked single of the year. The unit's 5th studio album, "dAnce to positive" also included the song as one of its tracks. The album came out in the same month as the single and also hit No. 1, becoming the 2nd-most successful release of the year, hitting the 2 million mark in sales. It even won Best Album honours at the Japan Record Awards. Yup, I ended up getting my own copy as well.
Getting back to the original group, the song was also the campaign tune for a Honda product. I'm not sure about the overnight part, but trf was definitely a sensation.
Hi, J-Canuck.
ReplyDeleteI've never been a big fan of trf, which is strange if we count my taste for dance music. From the Komuro family, they were one of my least favourites, and I genrally like almost all of them. I don't really know why, but they never made my mind...
About Overnight Sensation, it's one of the two songs that I truly like from them (the other being "EZ DO DANCE"), and I think the classic disco vibe is responsible for that. It was done in a very good way by Komuro-san and, like you said, we can hear the decadence in it. As for the TGS version, the arrangement is very fidedigne to the girls overall sound. Even if I'm a TGS fan, I still prefer the original in this case.
On a side note, Avex really like to make covers of their old artists. Recently, new aidoru group Prizmmy☆ covered trf's "EZ DO DANCE" in a very nice way. Unfortunately, nowadays I prefer to watch a new group singing "EZ DO DANCE", because YU-KI is not capable of reaching some notes anymore.