Aya Matsuura -- The Bigaku （The 美学）

Another Ayaya video from my memories. There was one point in the early 2000s when Aya Matsuura（松浦亜弥）was all over the airwaves, and this video for "The Bigaku" (The Aesthetics) is one of the most vivid of the singer. It got plenty of air play on the local video channels.

"The Bigaku" was Matsuura's 7th single from September 2002. Being under the Hello! Project banner at the time, the song was naturally written and composed by Tsunku（つんく）. There is much about the song that reminds me of Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca" but the video had Ayaya looking like she raided Chisato Moritaka's（森高千里）old wardrobe and with that definite article in the title, I also wondered whether there was a bit of a tribute to Moritaka's style a decade prior.

However, the music for "The Bigaku" is definitely going more for the spicy Latin rather than the techno-aidoru. Plus that choreography for the song looks like it would work very well for the core muscles. The song went all the way up to No. 2.

As for a direct cover of "Livin' La Vida Loca", you can take a look at Hiromi Go's（郷ひろみ）version from a few years earlier.