Out of the cobwebbed corners of my memories, another song has managed to be unwebbed. And this one comes from thirty years ago when I first started living in Ichikawa for my second go-round at English teaching. I got reunited with the song just by a chance re-encounter on YouTube and then I checked to see if the commercial that it was associated with was available on the platform.
Sure enough, it was. I used to see this ad all the time on television featuring these female dancers in their leotards going all out in the choreography while this singer was vocalizing away. Of course, being a typical Japanese commercial, it took me the entire commercial to find out what it was selling, and it was Takefuji's（武富士）high-interest consumer loan business. Of course, dynamic dancing and consumer loans are a natural fit for each other.😕
I learned that this song was titled "Synchronized Love" by singer-songwriter Joe Rinoie（ジョー・リノイエ）and it was his second single released in February 1995. I have heard of Rinoie here and there but this is the first time that he's coming onto KKP so I bid him welcome. In the age of the Komuro Steamroller, Rinoie's brand of dance pop and R&B shown through "Synchronized Love" would probably have been warmly welcomed although there isn't any sign of it hitting the Oricon charts.
I read that "Synchronized Love" was also included as part of the "Dance Dance Revolution" craze back then. My friend, who was a big fan of all of the game platforms including PlayStation, brought over his own portable DDR set and played around with it when he stayed over at my place for a week. He asked me whether I'd like to give it a shot but I said that I really didn't want to give my downstairs neighbour an unexpected skylight in his ceiling.
I think I remember seeing this CM!!, but I thought the song was created for the CM, I did not know that Joe Rinoie released this song back in 1995!
ReplyDeleteThere were at least two variations on the commercial, both with dancing leotard-wearing women. Didn't know that this was actually released as a single either.
DeleteI definitely only knew this song through Dance Dance Revolution for the longest time (which, at least in-game, is a remix with a slightly faster tempo. Soon after I discovered he was also involved in techno-pop outfit ROmantic Mode, probably most well-known for their theme to Kidou Shinseiki Gundam X. I really liked their songs too, kind of a moodier Two-Mix.
ReplyDeleteHello, karobit. DDR was quite the craze in Japan way back when. Whenever I entered any game centre, there would be at least a couple of the booths there with very enthusiastic players dancing all over the place.
DeleteI read about ROmantic Mode when I found out about Rinoie. I'll have to check the band out as well.