What if songwriter extraordinaire Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）hadn't helped create girls' groups such as Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）in the 1980s and AKB48 in the 21st century but instead made a boys' group a la the teams in the Johnny's Entertainment world?
Well, wonder no longer. I'm not sure whether Akimoto actually did create the group Musukko Club（息っ子クラブ）but on its Wikipedia page, it's been described as "...a short-lived male spin-off idol group of Onyanko Club". So, instead of cute girl-next-door types conglomerating, it was a group of 7 strapping young lads that was officially formed in early 1986 with their first of two singles coming out later in September.
"Boku-tachi no Season" (Our Season) is this strange mix of Art of Noise sound effect and a 50s-ish rockabilly melody a la Checkers. As it is, it doesn't sound too bad for an 80s aidoru tune and the guys certainly don't slum through the song. Akimoto was indeed in charge of lyrics with Masakazu Togo（東郷昌和）taking care of the music.
I don't know how "Boku-tachi no Season" did on the charts but the season for Musukko Club didn't even last a year. The Johnny's groups such as Hikaru Kenji（光GENJI）were at the top of the heap and a good chunk of the television viewers at the time were male fans looking for girl aidoru and aidoru groups so things were probably tough for Musukko Club from the get-go and they never got that popularity. So the breakup was official at their last concert at the Budokan in February 1987.
Some interesting trivia that I picked up on the J-Wiki page for Musukko Club was that apparently future actor Yuji Oda（織田裕二）and future Unicorn vocalist and producer Tamio Okuda（奥田民生）had actually auditioned for the group with the former passing but deciding to drop out at the last minute.
Whoa - I ran across this a few weeks ago; a web page where someone posted a bunch of Aki-P's "dark" groups (that didn't quite make it). Outside the Checkers the 80's guy groups don't do it for me (single artists fare much better). YMMV. However, from that same site I "uncovered" ねずみっ子クラブ ねずみ算がわかりません. And while they pretty much peg the creep-o-meter the song is great; if only Onyanko Club had had it. Any thoughts what he might do for the Olympics ....?
ReplyDeleteHi, T-cat.
DeleteYeah, I think the 70s and 80s were filled with groups that never quite made it...which makes it all the more interesting when I discover them somehow on YouTube. :) Actually, I found this other page in Japanese describing some of the B-grade aidoru groups from the 1970s: http://www001.upp.so-net.ne.jp/kindan-hm/fever.html
I'll have to check out Nezumikko Club as well. As for Akimoto and the Olympics, I'm not sure. However, there are probably a whole bunch of us who have our wish list as to who would perform at the Opening Ceremonies. Personally if they are still up to it, I would love to see YMO or Tatsuro Yamashita.:)
YMO might be tough to get ....... maybe settle for Imokin Trio :) I'd like to see the production done by whomever does Perfume; those look to be some impressive large-scale spectacles. Thanks for the link to "B-graders"; I'm currently trying to parse all the sub-groups that came out of the All-Nighters ... everyone goes into the Aidoru-ontology.
ReplyDeleteAlas, the guys at YMO aren't exactly spring chickens anymore, and I know that Sakamoto had that bout of cancer a few years ago. But we can still dream. :) I think Perfume has a better chance of showing up at the ceremonies, and they are also well known outside of Japan. We'll definitely need some digital mapping!
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