Girl groups come and go, leaving a haze of jumbled lyrics and rhythms at best. In my more upbeat moments, I like to think that the temporality and impermanence quality of girl groups is something worthy of being appreciated. The Japanese have a word for that.
Anyway, if we’re talking about early 2000s J-Pop girl groups, there is this little-known outfit whose name nevertheless I’ve never forgotten - Buzy. They were originally known as COLOR, and the group was formed by in June 1998 by four students of an Osaka dance school: Touyama Nao (當山奈央), Miyazato Mio (宮里真央), Niwa Mayumi (丹羽麻由美) and Kadota Komugi (門田こむぎ). They appeared on the MBS show God of Dance (ダンスの神さん) and caught the eyes of the famous Korean producer Kim Chang-hwan, whose previous customers included legendary singer Kim Gun-mo and Shin Seung-hun. Kim picked them up, and by next year COLOR had released their first single DOUBLE OR NOTHING.
In 2001, following COLOR’s second album LOVE EXECUTE, founding member Kadota Komugi left to attend Kansai University. But the group added three new members Iwanaga Sachiko (岩永幸子), Asama Yurisa (朝間ユリサ) and Takeda Yumi (竹田侑美). They also changed their name to Buzy, which stood for “Blend, Unique, Zipping, You just wait”.
The song I want to talk about is Venus Say・・・, which came from Buzy’s single Kujira (“Whale”) released in 2004. It just sounds like something came from that period of time, when a lot of idol groups were trying to play catch-up with Koda Kumi and Hamasaki Ayumia. Main vocalist Touyama Nao did her job well enough, but the lyrics are memorable here. The song was written by Porno Graffitti's guitarist Shindou Haruichi (新藤晴一) who also wrote several other songs for Buzy. It is about someone contemplating the finite nature of man versus the infinity of life and space, then encouraging themselves to go on by imagining how hard it was for the whale who came onto land to become the first land-bound mammal. It sounds like something Porno Graffitti would sing alright.
Love the music, thank you for highlighting them! I guess this for Fireminer but have you also checked out the short-lived girl group Earth? They were active around this time and they're known for their debut song, "Time After Time." I wouldn't mind seeing a write-up for them since they don't have their own entry on the blog.
ReplyDeleteFireminer here. Thank for the recommendation. This is the first time I hear about Earth. I really should look more into them before writing anything.
DeleteFireminer nice write-up! Back in 2001 morning musume tended to eclipse all the other female groups in terms of popularity even those like Buzy that were much cooler than them. So, it is also great to hear of other groups at that existed at the time.
ReplyDeleteThat was an interesting period since Morning Musume was able to break through the "idol ice age" and find mainstream popularity but besides them, there was kinda a void with popular girl groups since SPEED had disbanded/gone on extended hiatus. Then of course, AKB48 and their brethren completely kicked down the door and idol girl groups were back in the mainstream again.
DeleteIt was a frosty few years to be sure. During that time though, Tetsuro Komuro and his acolytes such as Tomomi Kahala and globe were filling some of that Japanese pop culture vacuum until Tsunku began the Morning Musume franchise.
DeleteTo echo Brian, it's good to hear other new groups that didn't quite make superstar status but had their own unique sound. Thanks for the writeup, Fireminer.
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