Thursday, January 6, 2022

My thoughts on BiSH - Kouhaku, the group, the disbandment

Happy New Year to all KKP collaborators and readers!

My fellow collaborators have shared their takes about this year's edition of Kouhaku Utagassen, along with other music writers I follow. From the opinions I could collect, it was unanimous that BiSH's performance was the most underwhelming. After an exchange of comments, J-Canuck has challenged me to expand on this matter.


I have been a BiSH fan since their 2017 song "My landscape." My boyfriend had introduced me to underground and alternative idols, however you want to call them; the types of groups that do not sound "traditional." While BiS was the precursor of that category, BiSH has been its most representative group, in my opinion. Launching Junnosuke Watanabe's WACK agency, they emerged from the ashes of BiS and turned the controversial group into a marketable formula that, as we have all seen, culminated in a Kouhaku invitation.

I am very familiar with WACK and idols in general, so it is obvious to me that BiSH's success is not derived from skill. I vividly remember watching one of their live performances around the "My landscape" period, on a boat in the middle of Osaka. The girls were struggling to maintain clear notes, even the most skilled singers of the group such as Cent Chihiro Chittii. Therefore, as I watched the Kouhaku performance, my thoughts were "this is a really good BiSH performance, they have come very far." I listened to it separately from the other performances, so it makes sense that within the Kouhaku context, people were expecting something else.

So, why were they invited? There are obvious answers. One is that they are disbanding, something that was announced only mere days before the Kouhaku performance. 2022 will be their last full year of activity. Other personal theory of mine is the close contact between WACK and AKB48 this year through longtime member Yuki Kashiwagi. Groups managed by Yasushi Akimoto have been a Kouhaku staple for years, so who knows if the connections may have played a part. But essentially, BiSH had become very popular, as well as the solo careers of members Aina the End and Ayuni D (under PEDRO).

Whatever the reason, I believe their invitation for Kouhaku was mainly symbolic, as many are. It was a way to certify WACK as a mainstream Japanese music force. It was a redemption of sorts for BiS, the first one, who never even hit Budokan (I believe a BiSH Budokan live might be in the plans for this year). And it was a way to show BiSH to people who had never seen them, whatever the reaction.


As for the choice of "Promise the Star," I think it was pretty obvious as it is BiSH's most representative song ("Orchestra" being a close second as it influenced heaps of idol songs). Words by JxSxK (Junnosuke Watanabe) and composition by Kenta Matsukuma, the creative brains behind most of WACK, it is the quintessential sound of its idol groups.

Some of you may have read my post concerning BiS' disbandment, the second one. This time, I am not feeling so passionate. I was actually expecting BiSH to disband ever since the solo careers started flying off. However, it was touching to see them climb to Kouhaku, and the impending end of a group that helped me discover a different section of the Japanese music and idols I loved and will continue to love.

7 comments:

  1. Joana, thanks for the background info. Even though it's not the music I like, I greatly appreciate your angle of view. I pretty much use Kouhaku to discover Japanese music every year so I guess I shouldn't complain 😅

    Larry

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    1. Hi, Larry!

      Thank you for the comment! I very much enjoyed your write-up about Kouhaku. It would be no fun if we all liked the same things, and I wouldn't get to challenge my own point of view. Cheers and Happy New Year!

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  2. Happy New Year, Joana, and thanks very much for putting up your article on BiSH. I hadn't known about the connection between AKB48 and WACK, so this was quite the revelation because my assumption was that there had been some antagonism between BiSH and some of the other aidoru groups. At the same time, though, there was a part of me that felt that there were members within AKB48 and other similar groups who enjoyed BiSH's music.

    Actually, I've just listened to the original recording of "Promise The Star" on YouTube and I like that version much better.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY_nE2GuNf8) I may have to take another look at their performance on the Kohaku.

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    1. Hi, J-Canuck! Happy New Year!

      Thanks for challenging me to write about it. It was a surprise to me when I started seeing AKB48's Kashiwagi collaborating with WACK. The first iteration of BiS usually made fun of idol tropes and stories related to AKB, such as Minami Minegishi's bald hair incident.

      The current landscape is very different and there is no animosity whatsoever but they were pretty much in separate worlds until now. And you're right, many members of AKB48 and similar groups are BiSH fans.

      I also like the recording better. As I mentioned, BiSH's live performing skills are not very polished as they'd rather focus on impact. By the way, one of BiSH's main influences are 90's punk/rock bands such as THE YELLOW MONKEY, which can be seen in other of BiSH's representative songs "Spark."

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    2. My impression is that BiSH isn't quite as sharply anti-aidoru as its predecessor and I'm happy to hear that there is mutual admiration among the members of this group and the others.

      I did watch and listen to the brief clip of "Promise The Star" on the Kohaku via the NHK YouTube channel. Yeah, the vocals were rough although I still appreciate the melody. It almost sounds like they were trying a little too hard to sing out the lyrics.

      Thanks for reminding me of The Yellow Monkey. I don't think they have any entry on the blog so far. I will have to rectify that in the next few weeks.

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    3. Oh, by the way, I should let you know. I don't know whether you can see the number of hits that your article gets. You've won today's count by far since you currently have 73 hits which is about three times the average count in the first day of publishing. :)

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    4. That's cool, thanks for letting me know! I don't really check these stats, lol.

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