Morning Musume -- Koi no Dance Site（恋のダンスサイト）

Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）struck it rich with "Love Machine"（LOVEマシーン）right at the end of the century. So what do they do for an encore?

Well, they follow it up with some more DISCO! Their 8th single, released in January 2000, was "Koi no Dance Site" (Dance Site of Love), and I have just realized that this is the first time that I have ever seen the official music video for the song in its entirety (saw it within the last 10 minutes)! All these years, I've been seeing bits and pieces of it on the telly via the various music shows. The video itself is following the same pattern as the one for "Love Machine": background CG, group choreography, quick-cut close-up shots of each of the Musume...good way to keep tabs on everyone.

A few years ago, Marcos V. wrote an article about the band Dschinghis Khan and how it inspired a couple of J-Pop songs, "Koi no Dance Site" being one of them. Before I found out about this information, I'd always been reminded of the music of Boney M whenever I saw and heard "Koi no Dance Site". And since Boney M was a product of the mirror ball 1970s, I think Morning Musume and writer/composer/Svengali Tsunku（つんく）along with arranger Dance☆Man really hit upon the special formula with this disco thing.

"Koi no Dance Site" became the group's second-highest selling single and their second million-seller as it peaked at No. 2 on Oricon. It actually got stopped by a tsunami...Southern All Stars' "Tsunami"...so it didn't hit the top spot. But it was one of the yearly Top 10 in 2000 by placing at No. 7. The song was also a track on Morning Musume's 3rd album "3rd: Love Paradise"（3rd -LOVEパラダイス-）which also has the aforementioned "Love Machine". That album also hit No. 2 on the weeklies and became the 24th-ranked album of the year.

Time truly flies by fast. Morning Musume actually celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.