90s Gyaru Songs according to Avex Entertainment

 

From writing about the recent B'z single "Illumination"（イルミネーション）, the theme song for the currently running NHK morning serial drama "Omusubi"（おむすび）, I was wondering a little about the gyaru（ギャル）culture that's been depicted on the show.

I was in Japan at the time when the gyaru culture was blossoming on the streets of Tokyo and elsewhere, notably Shibuya. Mind you, I don't recall having any gyaru as students although one kid was wearing her marshmallow-y loose socks below her uniform. Nope, my experience with such young people was purely observational as I saw the ladies decked in all sorts of dyed hairdos and bizarre makeup.

Anyways, as I was watching one scene of "Omusubi" which took place at a karaoke box, one gyaru took the microphone and sang an old Ayumi Hamasaki（浜崎あゆみ）hit. And that got me thinking about what were the favourite J-Pop tunes among the gyaru elite way back then. Well, it's a bit biased, but there is the Avex Portal which has put up its own five favourites for the 1990s.

(1995) hitomi -- Candy Girl 

(1999) Ayumi Hamasaki -- Boys & Girls

(1995) globe -- Feel Like Dance

(1995) trf -- Crazy Gonna Crazy

(1995) H Jungle with t -- WOW WAR TONIGHT

I don't know whether there are any former or current gyaru reading this, but considering the source website, the choices are indeed slanted rather heavily toward Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）, so if there are any other non-TK songs that can be recommended as gyaru favourites, please let me know.

hitomi -- Let's Play Winter

After a terrifying encounter with winter in November in which folks here were wondering whether they would be getting a new Ice Age well into 2020, this past December and into January has been unseasonably warm. In fact, it's been so warm and snowless that I'm sure that some of us wondering if winter has been cancelled. Environment Canada for our area is now predicting that it will be a milder winter than usual, and certainly today, with the high temperature closer to 10 degrees, I can agree with the prediction. And not too many citizens here are complaining since Xmas and New Year's are now past...let us all slide into spring without it getting too cold. Maybe the only people suffering right now are ski resort operators.

Getting onto things, getting into a technically seasonal frame of mind, allow me to introduce "Let's Play Winter" by hitomi. This is one of those revelatory articles on the blog where I had assumed that a singer's first big hit was the debut single...I'm of course talking about "Candy Girl", actually her 3rd single with the video showing how long her legs were.

However, "Let's Play Winter" was the song that started hitomi's career. Released in November 1994, it was written and composed by Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）, the artist who was often associated with the singer for the first number of years of her career. Immediately, that sense of natsukashii hit me like a dip into a January pond as I was listening to the song. I'd just been in Japan for a few weeks when this was released and the Komuro-ness of "Let's Play Winter" along with the arrangement that sounds like a modern winter J-pop tune brought those early days back into focus. I especially like that twangy guitar.

Not surprisingly, the song was used as the ending theme song for an NTV program titled "Action! Snow Board"（アクション! SNOW BOARD）. Couldn't find any footage of it but I assume that it was simply a variety show on the wonders of the sport. However, hitomi's debut didn't make any mark on Oricon although the album it was recorded on, "Go To The Top" from September 1995 peaked at No. 3, and of course, there were even sunnier times ahead of her.

hitomi -- Sexy

I have a thing for hitomi’s 90s singles, especially the trilogy released prior to her second album, “by myself”, from September 1996. One of them is “Sexy”, which was released in February of the same year.

As usual, “Sexy” was produced by Tetsuya Komuro (小室哲哉), but I find it quite different from what he was doing in parallel with Namie Amuro (安室奈美恵) or Tomomi Kahala (華原朋美). Sure, hitomi has always been kind of an underdog if compared with the other two, but probably because of that, and also of the girl’s own input (if she had any), her material has been a little bit more experimental at times (“CANDY GIRL” is pure pop bliss, though). In the case of “Sexy”, I like the funky approach and the weird, almost over the top production provided by TK that distinguishes it from his usual Techno sound. Even hitomi is acceptable here, showcasing a lot of her personality. And she was probably the sexiest girl in the “TK family”, so this song totally suits her.

“Sexy” reached #9 on the Oricon charts, selling around 314,000 copies. Lyrics were written by hitomi herself, while music and arrangement were composed by Tetsuya Komuro.

hitomi -- LOVE 2000

I was living in Japan for a good smattering of Olympics coverage and also the World Cup with Japan and South Korea as hosts in 2002. For the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, I was just waking up one Sunday morning when I turned on the TV and had the good luck to see the ending of the Women's Marathon when Japanese runner Naoko "Q-chan" Takahashi（高橋尚子）crossed the finish line to get the Gold medal.

It was later found out that Takahashi got psyched up during training while listening to "LOVE 2000" by hitomi, and so not surprisingly, that certainly helped boost sales of the singer-songwriter's 17th single from June 2000.

hitomi had already been around for some years since arriving under the Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）umbrella, and at the time, I hadn't really thought of her as being the strongest singer around. However, with "LOVE 2000", there was that good fit between her vocals and the uplifting song.

I think one reason is that she and her lyrics seemed more comfortable with Masato Kamata's（鎌田雅人）melody as if she had crafted the music herself. My image of hitomi has always been as that of a rock-loving biker type, and whether or not that's actually true, "LOVE 2000" has become the tune that I will always recognize for. It did become one of her bigger hits by reaching No. 5 on Oricon and ending up as the 78th-ranked single of the year. The song was also her first invitation to the Kohaku Utagassen that year with her only other appearance a couple of years later for "Samurai Drive".

As far as I know, "LOVE 2000" wasn't an Olympics theme song in any official capacity but considering that it may have helped Q-chan get that Gold for Japan, I'll be happy to bestow honourary status in Labels.

hitomi -- Candy Girl

Looking back at those mid-90s, I came to the realization that everyone was popping out of the Tetsuya Komuro （小室哲哉）family woodwork. Let's see....there was trf, globe, Tomomi Kahala for starters. And there was also hitomi (Hitomi Furuya/古屋仁美 on the official documents).

As Marcos V. remarked on his article for her 7th single, "by myself", the Kanagawa Prefecture native didn't exactly have the most talented set of vocal cords, but she did make up for that with that much-needed trait for success: PRESENTATION! I was watching "Countdown TV" early Sunday morning on TBS when I saw the video for her single "Candy Girl" (just an excerpt above). It made an impression....for one thing, the legs which had me remembering the old Chisato Moritaka（森高千里） days. That video, which also got onto heavy rotation via the commercials plugging the single, had me thinking that this was a pretty darn big debut for hitomi, only to later find out that this was actually her 3rd release after a couple of middling ones.

The video and the catchy refrain helped "Candy Girl" (composed by Komuro and written by hitomi) to go as high as No. 15 on Oricon. And even though it didn't crack the Top 10, it had a long life on the charts and ended up becoming hitomi's most successful hit after its release in April 1995 (good golly, almost 20 years ago). It was also a part of her debut album, "Go To The Top" from September of that year which peaked at No. 3.

hitomi -- by myself

“by myself” is a song by hitomi, a model turned singer that was quite popular in the 90s. It was the last single released prior to her second album “by myself” in 1996.

The song is a beautiful ballad with some very nice orchestra playing in the background (love the flutes). The only flaw, for me, is the absence of an instrumental break with this orchestra (we can hear it better at the end of the song, but it fades very soon), but, other than that, is a great piece of work from Tetsuya Komuro (小室哲哉). hitomi’s voice is not my everyday cup of tea, but at the same time is typical hitomi, so I kinda learned how to appreciate it properly with time.

As for the video, it really transmits this lonely and melancholic feel of staying “by yourself”. It’s a very simple video as most of the time hitomi is just walking thought Tokyo while singing the song. But, although simple, it’s a very good way of portraying the loneliness in a big city. I don’t know how the lyrics are connected with that, though.

Here’s a live version of the song performed in 1999 (Ed. : Unfortunately, the live version has been taken down, so here is the album version instead.)

http://music.163.com/#/song?id=22749659

Oh, and I find “by myself” way better than “CAN YOU CELEBRATE?”, the monster hit ballad released by Namie Amuro (安室奈美恵) in 1997. I’m just saying that because Komuro was responsible for both tracks, and in “by myself” he really showed some inspiration for composing and arranging a ballad.

“by myself” was hitomi’s seventh single. It was released in August 1996 and reached #7 on the weekly Oricon charts, selling around 291,000 copies (source: generasia). The song was later included in the “by myself” album, released one month later in September 1996. The music and arrangement were made by Tetsuya Komuro, while the lyrics were written by hitomi herself.

A funny personal story about this song is that I happened to find a second hand 8cm single of “by myself” here in Brazil. It was really cheap and made me very happy. I listen to it very often, and I must confess that I love the style of the 8cm singles. Here’s some photos of my own copy of the “by myself” single.