I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
Man, those were quite the hey days for Hello! Project（ハロー!プロジェクト）, the huge Tsunku-created female aidoru umbrella under which resided the mightyMorning Musume（モーニング娘。）. And entering the 21st century from the 1990s, other groups and solo acts germinated such as singer Miki Fujimoto（藤本美貴）and the relatively recent OCHA NORMA.
I also recollect there being a few groups under Hello! Project that also had the name Musume. Except for a relatively few exceptions, I didn't dig too deeply into these other groups, but one group's name has stayed with me, Country Musume（カントリー娘。）. Unfortunately, the one reason for that is due to a tragedy that befell them. Country Musume was to have debuted as a trio: Rinne Toda（戸田鈴音）, Azusa Kobayashi（小林梓）, and Hiromi Yanagihara（柳原尋美）. However, just before the release of their debut single (which had already been recorded) in July 1999, Yanagihara was killed in an auto accident with Kobayashi departing the group after its release.
Toda stayed on as a solo act representing Country Musume and as such, she released the group's 2nd single"Yukigeshiki"(Snowscape) in November 1999. It stood out for the fact that not only did Tsunku（つんく♂）compose the song but Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）provided the lyrics. Heavy with the country music vibe, the Sapporo-born Toda sings about how frustrated she's been getting with the endless amounts of snow around her but making the best of a seasonally frustrating time by getting together with the boyfriend and hitting the slopes with a snowboard. That's right...take a negative and turn it into a positive!
What I hadn't known about Country Musume is that the group underwent a lot of personnel changes (but then again, Morning Musume was no stranger to that either) including the entry of some Morning Musume members with that Hokkaido lineage, continuing until 2009. Then in 2014, the group returned but experienced a name change going from Country Musume to Country Girls after which they continued for about another five years before calling it a day in 2019.
At the beginning of this year, "Uta Con"（うたコン）had the Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）gang to perform their 2022 hit "Swing Swing Paradise" which hearkened back to some of their jazzier tunes from years back, and so I posted the song onto KKP. Well, this year's edition of the premier Hello Projectaidoru group, Morning Musume '23, showed up on the program a couple of weeks ago to display part of their latest single as we approach the end of this year.
"Suggoi FEVER!"(Fantastic Fever!)is part of Morning Musume's 73rd single"Suggoi FEVER!/Wake-up Call~Mezameru Toki~/Neverending Shine"（すっごいFEVER!/Wake-up Call〜目覚めるとき〜/Neverending Shine）, released late last month. Hello Project Svengali, Tsunku（つんく）, had written and composed the song before the pandemic erupted in 2020 according to the relevant J-Wiki article. At the time, it had been titled "Fever Whenever Joutou"（Fever Whenever 上等...Fever Whenever Top Class） but Tsunku ultimately thought that the title was a little too unwieldy so he went with "Suggoi FEVER!" when he heard songwriter Ken Matsubara's（松原憲）repeated growly "Suggoi!" throughout the song. Personally, depending on my mood, I can take the "Suggoi!" or leave it. But the main thing is that the group is channeling its disco side once more which is absolutely fine with me.
The song seems to be describing the paint-the-town-red escapades of a couple of kids in love. I've never had that sort of experience but I'm fairly confident that others can relate. "Suggoi FEVER!" managed to hit No. 2 on Oricon.
I did catch 2023's first real episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）last night and although enka fans were probably not too happy since there was only one enka performance, I was fairly satisfied because Yoshitaka Minami（南佳孝）performed on the show for the first time with his classic "Slow na Boogie ni Shite Kure"（スローなブギにしてくれ）. And then, we even got a couple of covers of some City Pop tunes: "Kanashimi ga Tomaranai" (悲しみがとまらない）by Yu Sakai（さかいゆう）and a revamped Little Glee Monster, and "Sparkle" by Sakai.. The hosts didn't even have to explain what City Pop was all about; they just said it and it was assumed that everyone now knows what's up with that.
But I gotta say "Wow!". Morning Musume '22（モーニング娘。'22）appeared on the show, too, and I heard that it's been 25 years since the aidoru group first got formed from a motley group of runners-up on a Sunday night TV Tokyo talent show. For the current fans of Morning Musume, forgive me for putting up that thumbnail shot of the group's first BEST compilation but my link with them has really just revolved around those first few generations in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In fact, from what I saw of the current group last night on "Uta Con" and what I've read on J-Wiki, it looks like there have been some major lineup changes.
However, that's neither here nor there. Early last month in December, I wrote about the disco "Dai Jinsei Never Been Better!"（大・人生 Never Been Better!）by Morning Musume '22 which was released in June 2022. One commenter also gave the recommendation of "Swing Swing Paradise" which came out just before Xmas last year.
Coincidentally enough, that was the song that the group performed on "Uta Con" which reminded me of the comment. Of course, Hello Project maestro Tsunku（つんく）took care of words and music for this single which begins life as something quite ambient before things go haywire. I did think back to Morning Musume's 13th single (yup, way back considering that "Swing Swing Paradise" is the 72nd single) "Mr. Moonlight-Ai no Big Band"（愛のビッグ・バンド）with the jazz and all that. But "Swing Swing Paradise" also contains its share of rockabilly and synthpop; quite the potpourri. It hit No. 1 on Oricon and went Gold. One other accolade that has been given in accordance with this song is that Morning Musume is now the first girls' group in Oricon history to have a No. 1 single in each of four decades: the 1990s, the 2000s, the 2010s and the 2020s.
I've always seen the group Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）as the big return of female aidoru to Japanese popular music after a good chunk of the 1990s was left bereft of the teenybopper set. Coming into view from the latter part of that decade, my generation's Morning Musume had members including Yuko Nakazawa（中澤裕子）, Maki Goto（後藤真希）and Kaori Iida（飯田圭織）with hits like "Love Machine"(LOVEマシーン）and "The Peace"（ザ☆ピ～ス！）. Plus, there was their television heyday with all of those shows they hosted like above.
Of course, since those early days, there have been other Hello Project acts and individual singers who've come in and they've been joined by Yasushi Akimoto's（秋元康）fleet of aidoru groups including AKB48. However, Morning Musume has continued to stay the course and now there is the current team known as Morning Musume '22. I haven't bothered to count how many members there are and I have no idea who any of the ladies are.
But I've got to say that I've been enjoying "Dai Jinsei Never Been Better!" (Big Life Never Been Better) which is officially part of the group's 71st single from June 2022 under the big title of "Chu Chu Chu Bokura no Mirai （Chu Chu Chu 僕らの未来...Our Future）/Dai Jinsei Never Been Better!". For one thing, it's got some of that disco funk that I've loved in some of Morning Musume's songs including the two that I mentioned back in the first paragraph. The horns are so good and tight that I thought they came over from a Sing Like Talking concert. And once again, Hello Project's guru Tsunku（つんく）was once again behind words and music. The single went Gold, hitting No. 2 on Oricon.
OK...this is going to be a slightly off-kilter Reminiscings of Youth chapter this week since I'll be talking about something in the year 1999 when I was well into my 30s. Still, I can say that this is a ROY article if I just substitute "youth" with "youngishness" (yeah, I realize that this isn't a real word...it's been given a really angry red underline).
But first, let's go with some background for me and this song. Irving Berlin, one of the masters within the Great American Songbook of jazz songs and show tunes, created "Let's Face the Music and Dance" for the 1936 musical "Follow the Fleet" with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It's a song that I had heard from time to time since I was a kid although at the time, I hadn't known the title or its background, although usually it was through the famous scene above of Astaire and Rogers dancing to it that I kept hearing it.
When I look back upon it, I realize that I had been struck by the fact that it was an unusual jazz number with the key changes making it sound romantic, elegant and ominous at the same time. With the lyrics of "There may be trouble ahead, But while there's moonlight, And music and love and romance, Let's face the music and dance" in that first verse along with the succeeding verses, Berlin may have been hinting at the war to come but still asking listeners to not forget about hope and each other's company in a happier spirit.
While reading up on the song via Wikipedia, I discovered that Nat King Cole had done his cover of "Let's Face the Music and Dance" in 1964 with arrangement by Billy May. Compared to the original's feeling of being sadly resigned to a potentially dark future while savoring the moments before then, Cole's take is a joyful ring-a-ding-ding swing through Las Vegas, including a playful organ that seems to have been hauled out from Yankee Stadium. His version was apparently an inspirational one, getting other future singers to do their covers of the Berlin classic.
And that brings me to the present...well, actually 23 years ago. I was walking through the long mall underneath the Shinkansen tracks in Sukibayashi which is located midway between Ginza and Hibiya in Tokyo. There was a very long branch of HMV taking up a good chunk of the mall and when I came across the jazz section, I heard this familiar tune on the speakers which happened to be a new version of "Let's Face the Music and Dance".
Back around the end of the century, I did have my jazz-fixated age so I was more than happy to enter HMV Jazz and find out who was behind this classy, mellow and really romantic version of the song; nothing ominous. It was much longer than any other take and it also had a very pleasant bossa nova kick in there. Fortunately for me, it just so happened that jazz pianist and singer Diana Krall had released her latest album, "When I Look in Your Eyes" from June 1999.
Before that fateful encounter at HMV, I had never heard of Krall, so it was wonderful to hear that she's a fellow Canadian of my generation, being born in Nanaimo, British Columbia. One of the things that was another winner for her along with the amazing arrangement was indeed her voice. It smoked pleasantly like the rising wisps of a Cuban cigar and there was even a swagger in there and on her face which was strangely reminiscent of Elvis...so how ironic that she would end up marrying another Elvis.
It won't be a surprise for you to read that I bought "When I Look in Your Eyes" lickety-split, and it's good to know that it did end up with some pedigree since it was nominated for a Grammy for Best Album of the Year, and won the awards for Best Jazz Vocal and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical in early 2000. Since then, I've bought a few more Krall albums (including her Christmas one) and I even got to go to her concert in Bunkamura in Shibuya a few years later. It was just after that she'd gotten married to Mr. Costello and I thought it ran a tad short but becoming a fan, I think that any length of concert would seem short.
I'm sure that Ms. Krall has been to Japan quite a few times since my time in seeing her, and the above displays her 2019 tour in the country. As a coda for this story, her "Let's Face the Music and Dance" remains my favourite version of the song.
So, which three songs were in the Top 10 of Oricon in June 1999?
As I've said before in a number of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" articles, I've never really paid so much attention to the lyrics of a song on either side of the Pacific even for the hits. But thanks to the blog over the past 8, nearly 9 years, at the very least, I'm now much more aware of who the big-name lyricists are in the Japanese pop realm. And in point of fact, the 5 names that will be listed below are now very familiar ones to me.
I figured that since I have put up the list for most successful composers recently, the specialists who have put pen to paper to create those messages in song should also be noted. Now, the list for lyricists (as of December 2015) is even older than the one for the composers which was of January 2018. I tried looking for something more recent but I guess Oricon gives out their lists like the government sends out its census requests...once every five years, perhaps. However, considering who these people are and from what I know of their past and current works, I gather that there hasn't been too much that has changed in the rankings in the last half-decade (although of course, especially in Akimoto's case, the number of units sold has ballooned since 2015). The J-Wiki article for 3rd-ranked Takashi Matsumoto provided the information which originally came from "Oricon Music".
1. Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）100.2 million units 2. Yu Aku（阿久悠） 68.3 million 3. Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）49.8 million 4. Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉） 42.3 million 5. Tsunku（つんく♂） 37.8 million
You may notice that Komuro is also listed in the composers' category. Aku was someone who had once been at the top as a creator of all of those chestnut kayo but even without looking up the figures, I kinda figured that it was only going to be a matter of time before the prolific Akimoto with his alphabet aidoru groups such as AKB48 was going to the new leading lyricist. Matsumoto has been around forever, and Komuro and Tsunku had their heydays with the Komuro Boom in the 1990s and all of those Hello Project groups going into the 2000s respectively.
In the composers' article, I caught a break when the Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）article in J-Wiki readily provided each composer's most successful single, too. I wasn't so lucky this time with the lyricists so I had to go further afield.
Yes, I know I was a little shocked by that revelation but I checked out this list of Akimoto's most successful singles at this site, and apparently comedy duo Tunnels（とんねるず）took the top spot as an Akimoto-penned song with 1.4 million units sold.
Ahhh...living in Tokyo. Well, actually to be perfectly accurate, I was living in the satellite city Ichikawa in Chiba Prefecture (which is only 20 minutes away by the Tozai Line to downtown Tokyo). As with any residential situation, one has got to weigh the good with the bad. Lots of things to do versus higher prices or commuting hell versus many interesting neighbourhoods with their own distinctive character.
Certainly, I'm not the first and I won't be the last to wonder about city living especially in one of the biggest vibrant metropolises on Earth (really gotta extend the subway hours, though). The aidoru group ℃-ute has also mused about the trials and tribulations of this very topic through their 23rd single "Tokai no Hitorigurashi" (Living Alone In The City).
Released in November 2013 as this rapid-fire funky disco number by Hello Project guru Tsunku（つんく）, the ℃-ute ladies wonder nonchalantly about how to handle the changes brought about by a move from the countryside to the big city and then maybe even overseas, probably to get away from hectoring parents and then even the boredom of urban Japanese life. Considering that pad that they're dancing in within the video and all of that fashion, I don't think Airi Suzuki（鈴木愛理）and the bunch are hurting too badly.
"Tokai no Hitorigurashi" hit No. 3 on Oricon, and it was also placed in ℃-ute's 8th original album"℃maj9" which came out in December 2015. It hit No. 8. Right now, though, former member Suzuki is getting a fair bit of attention from a duet with another Suzuki.
Veteran comedian and tarentoKen Shimura（志村けん）passed away earlier today at the age of 70 due to pneumonia brought on by COVID-19. I had heard that he contracted the coronavirus as the first Japanese celebrity to announce it several days ago, and when I did, I feared the worst due to his age and the fact that whenever I saw him on TV in interviews, he almost always had a cigarette in his hand. And tragically, the worst came to pass.
Shimura has already gotten some attention on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" through his work with the comedy group The Drifters（ザ・ドリフターズ）. As a kid, I got to know him through videotapes of The Drifters' long-running Saturday-night variety show "Hachi-ji da yo! Zen'in Shuugo"（8時だヨ！全員集合）. He had replaced member Chu Arai（荒井注）and although I don't remember Arai's temperament and comic skills with the group, I'm pretty sure that he didn't quite match Shimura's level of lunacy that probably often had the TBS switchboard lighting up with complaint calls about some of the naughty bits that characterized the segments introduced by him and his group partner Cha Kato（加藤茶）, although their famous "Hige Dance" sketch above wasn't one of them.
Shimura's ballerina with swan head probably was, though. I mentioned this before in a past article but I saw him as Japan's Jerry Lewis and maybe even Jim Carrey, years before Jim Carrey was Jim Carrey. As for some of his comedy, one of my students who belonged to that English conversation circle that I had taught for a decade remarked rather tersely that she considered The Drifters to be offensive and never allowed her children to watch "Hachi-ji da yo!" because of him and Kato.
However in recent years after The Drifters had their heyday, Shimura's most famous character was Bakatono-sama（バカ殿様）, a hedonistic and moronic feudal lord who simply wanted to have fun for the rest of his days, usually at the expense of his long-suffering court. Not surprisingly, Shimura brought some of his bawdiness to his character and the situations around him.
Being in variety for decades, Shimura would also do his fair share in music although he was never a recording artist per se. However, from time to time, he did release songs but almost always in collaboration with another celebrity. One such tune was "Ginza Atari de Gin! Gin! Gin!" which I think may translate as "Shine Shine Shine in Ginza".
Released in December 2001 as a maxi-single duet with longtime buddy, singer-actress Naoko Ken（研ナオコ）who often showed up with him in various skits, "Ginza Atari de Gin! Gin! Gin!" is a crazy Mood Kayo with some Boney M. disco about a corporate newbie played by Shimura and supervisor Ken possibly falling for each other. Written and composed by Hello Project head honcho Tsunku（つんく♂）, even the footage above is styled like a Morning Musume music video. Officially, the duo name was Ken♀♂ Ken（けん♀♂けん）.
Going over the announcements on the various Japanese TV channels about his passing, there have been stunned and very grief-stricken reactions among the other tarento. I can't even imagine how this is striking folks in Japan right now since I believe that they are only starting to enter the beginnings of their own rising COVID-19 wave.
At the time of his death, Shimura was hosting two regular programs. One was a late-night program and the other was the Saturday-night NTV series "Tensai! Shimura Dobutsu-en"（天才！志村どうぶつ園...Genius! Shimura's Zoo）, a variety show based on animals. According to a sports journalism website, part of the program scheduled for Saturday April 4th will be adjusted although it's not currently known what will become of the show going forward.
My condolences go out to his family and his many fans. I will finish this article with one of his many favourite catchphrases: "AIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!"
Missed it by a day but March 3rd was Dolls' Day or Girls' Day in Japan with its greatest representation being the traditional doll set that is presented in people's homes. I think the above video by "Learn Japanese with Japanese Pod 101.com" will answer any questions and there is also the article on Wikipedia. I don't know how very important the festival is but I remember being invited by one of my students to visit her home to witness her family's doll set while having tea and snacks. I've also heard that supposedly the set is not to be left out too long at the risk of damaging a daughter's chances at matrimony.
Last night on NHK's"Uta Kon"（うたコン）, the theme was a mixed one between a Beatles medley and spring songs, and among the latter, there was a return of an old Hello Project tune that I hadn't heard in years. That would be "Mini-Moni. Hina Matsuri!"(Mini-Moni. Doll Festival!) by Hello Project/Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）sub-unit Mini-Moni.
Now, it's been a long time since I've even had to juggle the various Hello Project groupings so at first, there was some confusion between Mini-Moni and Petitmoni（プッチモニ）. After looking up the latter on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I realized that Petitmoni was the trio consisting of then-Morning Musume members Kei Yasuda（保田圭）, Maki Goto（後藤真希）and Sayaka Ichii（市井紗耶香）whose biggest hit was the really happy-go-lucky "Chokkoto Love"（ちょこっとLOVE）.
Mini-Moni was well-named since the initial four members had heights that were 150 cm or lower. They were Ai Kago（加護亜依）, Nozomi Tsuji（辻希美）, Mari Yaguchi（矢口真里）with the final addition being Mika Todd（ミカ・トッド）from Coconuts Musume（ココナッツ娘。）, and apparently being especially so cute and short, their contributions were more for the kiddie set, including "Mini-Moni. Hina Matsuri!".
Their 3rd single from January 2002 was appropriately adorable with a bit of an old-style doo-wop touch, although I was never all that crazy about Tsunku's（つんく）back chorus. Of course, Tsunku was the one behind words and music. Going Gold, it peaked at No. 2 on Oricon and sold a little over 325,000 copies. "Hina Matsuri!" was also included on Mini-Moni's debut album"Mini-Moni. Song Daihyakka Ikkan"（ミニモニ。ソング大百科1巻...Mini-Moni. Song Encyclopedia Vol. 1）which was released in June 2002. It also went Gold, peaked at No. 4 and sold about 187,000 copies.
I've sometimes wondered what happened to Mika since her days with Hello Project. Well, the Hawaiian native is currently living back in the Aloha State, and according to her J-Wiki profile, she's singing jazz. However, I found this 2012 video from her own YouTube channel with her singing a cover of "Dark Side".
Well, it's been a bit of a banner day for me today. As has occasionally been the case now and then, another mystery in my music tapestry was solved earlier. To explain, I decided to pull out a few of those ancient Canadian Tire audio tapes that were worth merely a few pennies from my dusty old cabinet.
Playing one on Jaws, my ravenous tape recorder, I was lucky enough that it wasn't too hungry today and didn't end up chewing up the tape. The tape is at least 30 years old and one of the songs that I had taped from the radio when I was in university was this really techno dance remix which I thought and still think is very cool, but I couldn't identify the title or the artist behind it. Well, I think the title was pretty easy to figure out since the basso profundo DJ kept yelling out "NEW YORK, NEW YORK, NEW YORK!". Now, remember this was in the pre-Internet days so it wasn't too easy to make efforts to track stuff like this down back then.
However, now that we're in 2019, all I had to do was punch in the thrice-yelled city and a few more lyrics into the search engine to realize that the song was indeed titled "New York" and it was by Micro Chip League from 1987. Mystery solved!
From one end of the music spectrum to the other...in tribute to my above discovery, I thought about getting up some sort of New York-based kayo. Perhaps I could have gone techno but I just found this very enka/Mood Kayo tune by Yutaka Yamakawa（山川豊）titled "New York Monogatari" (New York Story), his 29th single, released in January 2007.
The notable thing about "New York Monogatari" is that it was written and composed by Tsunku（つんく♂）, the lead singer for the 1990s rock band Sharam-Q（シャ乱Q）and the godfather for the whole Hello! Projectaidoru enterprise from the late 1990s onwards. However, listening to this song, I realized that the man did provide his fair share of tenderhearted ballads, albeit in a different genre, when he was in Sharam-Q, so to come up with an enka ballad was probably not too difficult for him.
And Tsunku did a pretty remarkable job, too. The song not only utilizes a bit of rock guitar but also that piercing trumpet that I've often associated with an old-fashioned Mood Kayo. The lyrics by Tsunku sound as if they were perfect for a Humphrey Bogart-type trying to drown his blues in drink as he remembers back to a past torrid love affair in The Big Apple.
As I mentioned on the BEST article for Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）, the peak time of my interest in the Hello Project group was between 1999-2001 starting with their mammoth hit, "Love Machine"(LOVEマシーン）. Before that 7th single, I knew about the Asuka Fukuda（福田明日香）years of Morning Musume when they started out with the original 5 members soon to expand to 8 with the addition of the 3 2nd-generation members.
However, when I think about the big heyday going into the 21st century, there is that figurative haze surrounding those first 6 singles and their videos...perhaps something like the sepia tones that fill ancient photographs. So when I have seen any of those early entries such as "Morning Coffee", it's usually interesting for observing how the group was trying to take those baby steps into grabbing for some sort of representative identity and sound.
Of course, that also includes "Memory ~ Seishun no Hikari" (The Light of Youth), Morning Musume's 4th single from February 1999. Honestly speaking, tonight was the first time that I actually saw the video from beginning to end, although it showed up often on the ranking shows when I was living in Japan. From remembering those early MM days, I felt that the group was going for that sultry R&B...perhaps even hip-hop...sound, and the official video for "Seishun no Hikari" is one of the common images that I had of Yuko Nakazawa（中澤裕子）and company: nighttime settings, party dresses, sighing voices and strutting dances.
Tsunku（つんく）was the writer and composer of "Seishun no Hikari", and when I compare all 6 singles from the early days, this particular single is the one that I like the least due to the fact that I don't think the harmony in the refrain worked all that well among the members. It's too bad, too, since Natsumi Abe（安倍なつみ）and Asuka Fukuda were the singers here and this was the final single for Fukuda after she had decided to leave the group.
"Seishun no Hikari" managed to reach No. 2 on Oricon and sold a little over 400,000 copies. It is also included on MM's 2nd album"Second Morning"（セカンドモーニング）which came out in July 1999 and peaked at No. 3 on the album charts.
One other track from "Second Morning" that was also one of the accompanying numbers on the "Seishun no Hikari" single was "Never Forget" which has become the graduation song for any of the members leaving the flock, starting with Fukuda herself. In fact, she was the main vocalist on the original recorded version.
Not a dry eye in the concert hall, I take it. I never went to a Morning Musume concert but I remember when the first leader Nakazawa graduated from the group a few years later. There was a rather huge TV special for the event with all of the members giving a tribute in song to her. Of course, copious amounts of tears were shed, and I believe that "Never Forget" was sung there, too.
Well, how about that? Almost 20 years after leaving Morning Musume, Fukuda has begun a solo career under the name of asuka and released a mini-album in March called "sing" which includes a cover version of "Never Forget". Back in 2010, she became part of a vocal group called PEACE$TONE that is still continuing, and for about a year (2017-2018), she was part of Morning Musume 20th, the alumni group consisting of the original members.
The warmer weather may be a bit slow in coming to my neck of the woods but that doesn't mean I can't bring in some sunniness to "Kayo Kyoku Plus".
For today, there is no one better than Ayaya, aka Aya Matsuura（松浦亜弥）, and no song better than her "Momoiro Kataomoi" (Peach-Coloured Unrequited Love). This was her 5th single from February 2002, and the one thing I remember about it is that day-glo video set in a peach cannery that looks like it was built in the same town where H.R. Pufnstuf (Google it!) lived.
Being a member of Hello Project at the time, Tsunku（つんく♂）was of course the one behind words and music for "Momoiro Kataomoi", about as bouncy as an aidoru tune that I've ever heard. The song's title might be hinting at something sad but I certainly can't tell from the music and the video. Not surprisingly, it has become one of Ayaya's trademark tunes with J-Wiki stating that it was her breakthrough song. It did get as high as No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies. It was also included in her second album"T・W・O" from January 2003 which peaked also at No. 2.
With that twangy arrangement, I think the song would also have been ideal for Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）.
Marcos V. was the first contributor on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" to talk about the unique aidoru group Taiyou to Ciscomoon（太陽とシスコムーン）through his article on their 2nd single "Gatamekira"（ガタメキラ）. Though I remember seeing and hearing the group while I was living in Ichikawa, I had to be reminded that this was another one of Tsunku's（つんく）creations and therefore under the Hello Project umbrella at the time. As Marcos hinted, Taiyou to Ciscomoon seemed to be the elder sexier sisters for Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）.
Their first single was "Tsuki to Taiyou" (Moon & Sun), released in April 1999. Watching the sultry video above, it was interesting taking to heart Marcos' remark about the members of the group having a more mature image than their Morning Musume sorority. The somewhat insouciant expressions on their faces sent the message that they were gonna leave the Musume to play and fight over the last of the apple pie at home while they were going to party hearty at an expensive disco somewhere in Tokyo.
Marcos' other interesting observation was Taiyou to Ciscomoon taking over the wheel of what could have been Morning Musume's direction into more mature and funky stuff instead of their turn toward the happier disco material. There were instances of this sexier material in the earlier MM songs and I could only imagine what MM could have done if Taiyo to Ciscomoon hadn't been formed.
Tsunku wrote and composed "Tsuki to Taiyou" which got as high as No. 4 on Oricon. It was also recorded onto the group's debut album"Taiyo & Ciscomoon 1" from October 1999. This effort peaked at No. 3.
On a recent episode of "Banana Zero Music"（バナナ♪ゼロミュージック）, there was a reunion with the current incarnation of Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）and a few members of the original group from the late 1990s. Nothing ages me more than realizing that the kids of some of the first members such as Yuko Nakazawa（中澤裕子）and Kaori Iida（飯田圭織）will not be too too far away from being of recruitment age into a future MM team.😲
Anyways, here is Morning Musume's 5th single all the way from the 20th-century date of May 12th 1999, "Manatsu no Kousen" (Midsummer Ray of Light). I remember the music video when it first came on TV and apparently the ladies were filming out in Saipan.
When I was watching that episode of "Banana Zero Music", either the announcer or Hello Project Svengali, Tsunku (つんく...who wrote and composed the song), mentioned that in the first era of Morning Musume's history from 1997 to the first half of 1999, sales of their singles were steadily dropping with each release, which I'm sure was alarming to all concerned. Still, "Manatsu no Kousen" didn't do too badly, selling over 200,000 copies and hitting No. 3 on Oricon. Plus, the song included on the group's 2nd album"Second Morning"（セカンドモーニング）, released in July 1999. It also hit No. 3 on the charts.
And there is something rather quaint about seeing the first and second generations of Morning Musume back then, although for the first time it was without Asuka Fukuda（福田明日香）who left MM beforehand, thus starting the tradition of the revolving door of entry and graduation for the group. Listening to this single for the first time in a long while was quite good. Vocals weren't that great but Tsunku's melody and Shin Kouno's（河野伸）arrangement made the song fun, and there is something about it that even sounded old-fashioned, perhaps as far as back as the 1970s or 1960s.
Well, at this rate, Morning Musume will be joining other pop cultural legends such as Gundam and "Star Trek" in terms of attracting multi-generational fans. As for me, I will be shopping tomorrow for my bottle of Grecian Formula 21.
Last week, I was watching the popular Fuji-TV program "HONMADEKKA!?TV"（ホンマでっか!?TV）when it went into a certain segment with the excerpt from a popular song. The variety shows all like to do that...borrow snippets from kayo kyoku or J-Pop or even anime soundtracks to add as appropriate introductory music. Well, the snippet in "HONMADEKKA!?TV" was introducing a segment where the hosts and guests had to make a decision between two choices, so the song went as follows:
Sexy na no? Cute na no? Docchi ga suki na no?（セクシーなの？キュートなの？どっちが好きなの？...Which do you prefer, sexy or cute?）
If you could name that tune with that lyric, then congratulations. It is indeed Aya Matsuura's（松浦亜弥）"Nee?" (Hey?),her 9th single from March 2003. That lyric alone can pretty much represent the former Hello Projectaidoru, and it's one of the lines that I know her by.
What is notable about "Nee?" is how much it sounded like a DeVol-produced 60s American sitcom theme song or background music for a game show from the same nation and time period. And that is because although Tsunku（つんく）was the fellow behind the lyrics and music of "Nee?", the arranger was Yasuharu Ogura（小西康陽）, one-half of Shibuya-kei band Pizzicato Five. Also what helps out is that Ayaya delivery.
It's all bubbly fun as Ayaya does her cute stumbling around the stage and in the music video while she sings about how she tries to get her boyfriend to pay more attention to her. Coincidentally, I saw an article in The Toronto Star today about how relationships have often hit the rocks because one of the two is simply too drawn to the smartphone. In "Nee?" though, it's done in a much more lighthearted vein.
"Nee?" reached No. 3 on the charts and was also used for a Tessera shampoo commercial. After all, do you want your hair cute or sexy?
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.
I remember the first time I saw Maki Goto（後藤真希）on TV. It was either just before or after she was officially brought in as the sole 3rd-generation member of Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）back at the end of the century. She kinda wobbled in on those high-heel shoes like a newborn fawn, all arms and legs. It was quite the contrast with the 1st-generation member who had left, the more pixie-ish Asuka Fukuda（福田明日香）. Because of the timing of her arrival, I will always see her as the one face for MM's monster hit "Love Machine" although I am well aware that it was a group effort.
A couple of years later after being with the main group, it was decided that she would start her own parallel solo career. And so Goto started off with a song that had a pretty in-your-face title "Ai no Bakayarou" (Fool of Love). Yeah, the way I translated it right now doesn't make it sound too threatening, does it (for those who know their Japanese)? Well, the way I know bakayarou, I would have to choose from a few profanities, including one which also starts with the letter F. So, we'll just go with fool and just imagine it as being supercharged in meaning.
Getting back to the main topic "Ai no Bakayarou" made quite the splash when it was released in March 2001 due to Goto herself, the title perhaps and the lyrics by Tsunku (つんく) which were perhaps seen as being a bit racy for a 15-year-old to handle. Mind you, Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）had done much the same thing back in the early 1970s with some of her songs when she was about the same age as Goto. Not that the words rated the label "NSFW" or "Explicit" by any stretch of the imagination but I guess the folks in Japan thought that a teenage aidoru from Hello Project expressing rage and despair about a romance gone wrong was a bit of a leap in maturity.
I guess another comparison to Yamaguchi would be in order since Goto was raging away in a way that reminded me of the Aki and Uzaki-fueled hits for the legendary 70s aidoru when she sang about some angry and embittered women.
"Ai no Bakayarou" got a lot of airplay as I remember since I kept seeing Goto dancing about in that hall of mirrors in the video almost daily. I hadn't been paying too much attention to the lyrics at the time but whatever the lyrics were like, she sang them sweetly if forcefully. Finally reading them, I realized that Goto's heroine was alternately cursing her ex while at the same time missing him. There was some pretty interesting imagery in the video as well with that desert, the image of the innocent Goto of the past in her regular clothes compared to the Goto in that exotic regalia of the present...maybe representing someone in mourning. And perhaps there was something about the hall of mirrors possibly reflecting the various aspects of her. But before I lose all of us in fake psychoanalysis, I have to say that desert reminds me an awful lot of the same environment used for Cyndi Lauper's"True Colors" video...it was out on rental, maybe?
Tsunku composed the music which also provided a departure from the usual Morning Musume mode along with the lyrics. At the time, I was accustomed to a bit of old-timey 70s disco with the MM, but with "Ai no Bakayarou", there was more 80s synthpop in there although I don't think I could really compare it with anything by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark.
"Ai no Bakayarou" hit No. 1 right from the get-go (eventually ranked at No. 37 on the yearly charts), and apparently it is still the only single by a solo artist from Hello Project to reach the top spot. Furthermore, Goto became the youngest solo female singer at 15.5 years to hit No. 1 since 80s aidoru Marina Watanabe（渡辺満里奈）reached that mark at nearly 16 years of age back in 1986. According to J-Wiki, that record still stands.
Incidentally, the youngest singer to hit No. 1 is Osamu Minagawa（皆川おさむ）for "Kuroneko no Tango"（黒猫のタンゴ）all the way back in 1970. He was only 6 years and 9 months old.
Another Ayaya video from my memories. There was one point in the early 2000s when Aya Matsuura（松浦亜弥）was all over the airwaves, and this video for "The Bigaku" (The Aesthetics) is one of the most vivid of the singer. It got plenty of air play on the local video channels.
"The Bigaku" was Matsuura's 7th single from September 2002. Being under the Hello! Project banner at the time, the song was naturally written and composed by Tsunku（つんく）. There is much about the song that reminds me of Ricky Martin's"Livin' La Vida Loca" but the video had Ayaya looking like she raided Chisato Moritaka's（森高千里）old wardrobe and with that definite article in the title, I also wondered whether there was a bit of a tribute to Moritaka's style a decade prior.
However, the music for "The Bigaku" is definitely going more for the spicy Latin rather than the techno-aidoru. Plus that choreography for the song looks like it would work very well for the core muscles. The song went all the way up to No. 2.
As for a direct cover of "Livin' La Vida Loca", you can take a look at Hiromi Go's（郷ひろみ）version from a few years earlier.
Going back to the early years of the Morning Musume (モーニング娘。) discography, I see (good heavens...only 7 members back then?!). Well, I've considered their 6th single, "Furusato"(Home) from July 1999, despite the release month, the Mother's Day song for MM due to the ladies' mothers (with their faces hidden) showing up in the video which was apparently filmed in the rolling hills of Biei, Hokkaido. It's about as heartwarming a song as I've heard from MM which back then seemed to go into all of the nighttime intrigue.
I hadn't heard "Furusato" in the longest time so when I listened to it again today, I realized that Tsunku (つんく) had created a pretty decent song for Natsumi Abe（安倍なつみ）who was singing lead here. Apparently, according to J-Wiki's article on "Furusato", when Tsunku was asked why Abe was at the fore this time, he simply replied "Even if Paul McCartney sang by himself, it would still be a Beatles song". Well, I could be curmudgeonly and rebut with a mention of Wings and all of his solo work, but OK, I think I got the idea here. Plus, I kinda wonder how Abe herself reacted when she was compared to McCartney, even superficially.
For me, it's the chorus work by the rest of the Musume and the languid melody that won me over although any comparisons between the vocal abilities of Abe and McCartney will always remain superficial...with the help of goodly amounts of beer. My apologies to the Abe fans.
"Furusato" sold a little over 170,000 copies as it peaked at No. 5 on Oricon. It was the softest-selling single of the 6 singles that had been released by Morning Musume up to that point, and I saw the ballad as being the swan song for those early years, two singles after the departure of first-generation member Asuka Fukuda（福田明日香）. A couple of months later, the group would enter a new era of spectacle with their disco hit "Love Machine"（LOVEマシーン）and the addition of adorably gawky Maki Goto（後藤真希）. It was also included on Morning Musume's 2nd album"Second Morning" (セカンドモーニング) which was also released in July 1999 and peaked at No. 3.
"Furusato" would not be forgotten by the later generations. Ai Takahashi（高橋愛）would do her cover of the song.
And Koharu Kusumi（久住小春）performed it at her graduation concert. By this point, I had already lost my interest in Morning Musume although I remember Kusumi being selected as the ace by Tsunku.
But of course, why not finish up with Miku Hatsune（初音ミク）?
I thought it was about time that Ayaya finally got one of her own up on the blog (although she has appeared on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" once before with her cover of "Watarasebashi") so here it is. And besides, for a while, she was the IT girl for Hello Project for her gosh-darned spritely perkiness.
Although Aya Matsuura（松浦亜弥）never auditioned for Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）, she did try out and got into the Hello Project. She debuted in 2001 but the song here is "Yeah! Meccha Holiday" (Yeah! Super Holiday), her 6th single from May 2002. Ayaya has basically seared herself in my memory with her singing this particular title and the lyric "suNge, suNge, suNge, suNge..." which can, depending on my mood, be cheerful or darn annoying. But with that original music video above, the song is just so bright and sunny that summer is the only season which can be imagined for it.
Plus, there is that dancing which has probably inspired many a singer at karaoke. Being a Hello Project member, "Yeah! Meccha Holiday" was written and composed by Tsunku（つんく）. It peaked at No. 2 on Oricon and got her 2nd invitation to NHK's Kohaku Utagassenthat year.
Rino Sashihara（指原莉乃）of AKB48 did a cover of "Yeah! Meccha Holiday" for her debut single as a solo singer "Soredemo Suki Da yo"（それでも好きだよ...I Love You In Spite Of It）in May 2012. There seems to have been quite the gimmick surrounding this release since there were four versions from Type A to Type D. Sashihara's take on the Ayaya song is on the Type C CD.
However, the person I know the best when it comes to the various cover versions of "Yeah! Meccha Holiday" isn't technically a singer but a transsexual tarento by the name of Ai Haruna（はるな愛）. She basically made her way onto everyday terebi by giving her own high-energy take on the song, and she also shows up with Sashihara in the video above.
