Berryz Kobo (Berryz工房, Berryz Kobo? Literally ‘Berryz Workshop’. Sometimes romanized as Berryz Koubou or Berryz Kōbō) is a J-pop group within Hello! Project. The original eight members are originally from Hello! Project Kids and often are back-up dancers for W (Double You)’s music videos. Prior to the band’s formation, some members worked with members of Morning Musume in such side projects as Aa! and ZYX, and in the Mini Moni movie Okashina Daibouken.
They were first announced at a Hello! Project Club Event on January 14, 2004. Hello! Project promoted the band by releasing three singles within a month of each other, starting in March of 2004 with “Anata Nashi de wa Ikite Yukenai”. Their first album, 1st Cho Berryz, followed the trilogy of debut singles in July 2004.
In February 2007, Berryz Kobo made news headlines after it was announced that the group would be holding a concert at Saitama Super Arena on April 1. Not only did the tickets for the two performances sell out (a total of 20,000 seats) almost two months before the premiere, but this event also marked an historical record in that the band officially became the first to perform in the arena, whose members average age did not exceed 14 years (thereby dethroning Morning Musume, whose average was 16.3). This makes them the youngest girl group in Japan.
Ai Otsuka (大塚 愛, Ōtsuka Ai?, born September 9, 1982) is a female Japanese pop singer-songwriter and pianist from Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. She is best-known for her 2003/2004 hit Sakuranbo, which stayed in the Top 200 Oricon Weekly Singles Chart for 101 weeks. Ai Otsuka is signed to record label Avex Trax, one of the biggest record labels in Japan and one of the largest independent record labels in the world, which also manages other high-profile artists like Ayumi Hamasaki, Kumi Koda, Sweetbox, BoA, Namie Amuro, Ami Suzuki, Hitomi Shimatani, and Every Little Thing. She is qualified to teach kindergarten, and has said she will become a kindergarten teacher if her singing career collapses.
Her first single, 2003’s “Momo no hanabira”, was only a minor hit, peaking at #24 on the Oricon singles top 100, but stayed on the charts for 21 weeks.
Her next single, “Sakuranbo”, released December of 2003 would become the 12th best selling single of 2004. Gradually climbing the charts to top 5, the single stayed on the chart for 101 weeks (almost two years), and a special “encore press” version was commissioned, which peaked at #4.
In early March, 2004 Otsuka released her last single before her first album. “Amaenbo” was used in a television advertisement for Sato Healthcare’s cold relief tablets Stona Rhini S (ストナリニS, sutona rini S?). “Amaenbo” was unable to reach #1 on the Oricon Charts and ended up at #6 while at the same time “Sakuranbo” was #5. This was the first time in Japanese music history a female artist was able to have two singles in the top ten in the same week, until 2005 Kumi Koda was able to beat Ai with three singles within the same week.
By end of March 2004, her first album “Love Punch” was released, which debuted at #3 on the Oricon charts and sold 190,265 copies in its first week. She continued to release singles and gradually built a diverse and devoted following.
Frankly, i found it hard to believe that he is not of mixed parentage. He doesn’t look like the typical Japanese guy at all or maybe I haven’t met a fair share to judge, eh? He is just taller, tanner, has a lumberjack jaw….hmm. Oh well, I love his music and i have written about Ken Hirai prior to this before :) Here are some of his music videos, they’re very catchy:
Song title: Pop Star
Song: Life is another story
Song: Aika
This one reminds me a lot of Utada Hikaru’s Final Distance MV.
Awaken is an underground rock band / indies music project based in Belgium, Europe. They released two official albums and numerous demo tapes and web-only singles since their early days in 1988. Not related to the modern Belgian scene at all (dEUS, Eté 67, Girls in Hawaii), Awaken gained interest from Vietnamese people since the release of a Vietnamese song and legend, “Chú Mèo Ngủ Quên”, and in Japan with the virtual EP “別府NIGHTS”. Recently, a cover of a Vietnamese children song “Rửa Mặt Như Mèo” has been recorded and has been heard on Vietnamese internet, though not officially released. Since 2005, Awaken is part of the team of the indies Japanese label It’s Oh! Music based in Miyazaki city.
Flavor of Life and Keep Tryin’ are my favorite songs. Please let me know what your favorite Utada Hikaru songs are and I will post them up in the coming weeks.
Luna Sea is a Japanese rock band. It was formed in 1989 by Ryuichi Kawamura, Yasuhiro “Sugizo” Sugihara, Shinobu “Inoran” Inoue, Jun “J” Onose and Shinya Yamada, a lineup that remained consistent until the band’s breakup in 2000. They released seven studio albums and several singles and VHS/DVD releases throughout the 90s. Luna Sea recently announced that they will reunite for a concert in December 2007.
Discovered by the late Hideto Matsumoto (then lead guitarist of X Japan), Luna Sea were signed by X Japan co-founder Yoshiki Hayashi to his independent label Extasy Records, on which they released their self-titled debut album in 1991. Originally a visual kei band, they held the “Luna Sea First Year Anniversary One Man - Kurofuku Restricted” concert, which earned them the label “Kurofuku Kei” which was later applied to other bands. Kurofuku (黒服) means black suit or mourning clothing.
By 1995 the group’s popularity had reached the point at which it would headline the Tokyo Dome, Japan’s largest indoor live venue. Five years later, the stadium would also host the band’s farewell concerts. Having already been on a year-long hiatus between releases of the albums Shine and Lunacy, Luna Sea decided to disband after two more performances on December 26 and 27, 2000.
Since then, the members have either pursued solo careers (like Ryuichi and J), new bands (like Inoran with Fake?) or collaborations with other musicians (such as the short-lived The Flare by Sugizo and Lazy Knack vocalist Yuna). Shinya mostly retired from the music industry after marrying Aya Ishiguro of the pop girl group Morning Musume. More recently, Inoran has left Fake? and reunited with Ryuichi to form Tourbillon in 2005, while Sugizo has joined the supergroup Skin in 2007, which also features pop/rock artists Gackt and Miyavi, as well as Yoshiki.
On August 27, 2007 Luna Sea announced on its official website that the group will reunite for concert at the Tokyo Dome on December 24, 2007, titled “God Bless You ~One Night Dejavu~”.
Toshi Kubota (KUBOTA Toshinobu, 久保田利伸) is a Japanese singer who is originally from Shizuoka, Japan. Toshi is a pioneer of soul music in Japan. His music styles have varied over the years, from pop-oriented sounds through to reggae and soul.
Toshi has managed to sustain a lengthy recording career. He has released a total of ten Japanese albums, three English albums, and four compilation albums since his debut.
Toshi made his Japanese debut in 1986 with the album, Shake It Paradise. His popularity peaked with his award-winning 1990 release, “Bonga Wanga.” Toshi’s albums have consistently sold over a million copies each in Japan. His biggest hit single came in 1996 in a duet with Naomi Campbell entitled “La La La Love song”. The single was used as a theme song of a television drama “Long Vacation” and sold two million copies in Japan.
Toshi made his English debut in 1995 with the album “Sunshine, Moonlight” and followed up with 2000’s “Nothing But Your Love.” His latest release is 2006’s “For Real?”.
Porno Graffitti (ポルノグラフィティ, Poruno Gurafiti), also known as Porno (ポルノ, Poruno) is a Japanese male rock band from Innoshima. The band got their name from the album Pornograffitti by the band Extreme. They currently record under Sony Music Entertainment Japan Records (also known as SME Records) label.
The origin of this band is a band called “No score” that was formed by Haruichi Shindo with his cousin in high school. After Haruichi made the band, he asked Akihito Okano and Masami Shiratama (Tama) to join his band. As the band name says, all of them could not read a score for the first time. When they started the band activity, Haruichi was the vocalist, but they found out that Akihito could sing better than him, so Haruichi gave the vocalist position to Akihito, and he got the guitarist position. This is the foundation of Porno Graffitti.
They came out with the song Apollo in 1999. Two single CDs Saudade and Agehachō both sold over a million copies in Japan. They are also well known for the song Melissa, used as the opening theme of the anime series Fullmetal Alchemist, in 2003. They also created the song Hitori no Yoru, used as the opening theme of the anime series GTO, back in 2000 and Winding Road, used as the ending theme of the anime series Ayakashi Ayashi, in 2006. A cover of their 2000 single Music Hour was featured in a stage of the Nintendo DS rhythm game Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2.
Chihiro Onitsuka (鬼束ちひろ, Onitsuka Chihiro?, born October 30, 1980 in Nango, Miyazaki) is a female Japanese popular music singer-songwriter and pianist.
Onitsuka debuted with her single Shine in early 2000 and has captured many people with her vocals. She can reach incredibly high and low tones, giving her a wide array of options for singing, from fast-paced guitar melodies to melancholy piano pieces.
Her parents encouraged Onitsuka to listen to Western music and by the time she was ten, she wrote her first poems, receiving praise from her parents, friends and teachers, who called them ‘earnest efforts’. Secretly, however, she knew that just writing ‘earnestly’ wasn’t enough. From that time onward, she tried to write every day, and by the time she was in junior high school, she began to gain more confidence.
Having been influenced by Alanis Morissette in junior high school days, it was the encounter with Jewel’s music and presence during the high school years that strongly impelled Onitsuka to become a singer-songwriter. With some 70 original compositions and several other auditions under her belt, Onitsuka entered the 1998 Virgin Tokyo Artists Audition, going on to winning Grand Prize. Then only 17, Onitsuka started her career as a professional and moved to Tokyo in spring 1999 after graduating from high school.
February 2000 saw the release of Onitsuka’s debut single “Shine.” The following single “Gekkou” was selected the theme song to a TV drama series, gaining nationwide attention to this new artist. While “Gekkou” remained a long-term best-seller, the up-tempo single “Cage” was released in November 2000, followed by the fourth single “Memai/Edge” in February 2001 which was Onitsuka’s first love song. The highly anticipated debut album Insomnia was then released in March 2001, immediately topping the Original Confidence album sales charts in the first week of release.
In early September 2003, Onitsuka recorded her October single “Ii Hi Tabidachi, Nishi e,” a cover of a 1978 song, to be used as the theme for Japan Railway’s “Discover the West” campaign. She recorded this song right before she took a hiatus to have throat surgery.[1]
In early 2004, Toshiba EMI released a Singles Box against the wishes of Onitsuka. This caused so much anguish for her that she left Toshiba and signed on as an artist under Universal Music, and given a lot more freedom in her work. She released one single, “Sodatsu Zassou (育つ雑草)”, which was a major change from her folk-pop style into rock. Prior to the release, she held a concert in which she performed the song and a Nirvana cover. Contrary to popular belief, she did not announce a hiatus at this time; no hiatus was announced and the subsequent lack of release from her had been a great mystery to her fans, who eagerly anticipated the next release and hoped that one would indeed be forthcoming. Later on, she admitted that the reason for her departure from the music scene was because of mental fatigue caused by the series of new releases and tight schedules.
Onitsuka started her full come-back to the music industry in 2007, with a live performance on March 17 at AP BANG! Tokyo Kankyo Kaigi, Studio Coast, Tokyo and has announced plans to release a come-back album and do concert touring. Her first release is the single titled “Everyhome”, which was released on May 30. It reached #9 on the Oricon weekly charts.
It is interesting to note that even though Onitsuka is on a different label now, Toshiba EMI has still been releasing her music in the forms of DVDs and singles collections. The singles collection does not even have a photo of Chihiro as the cover, and instead a drawing replaces her. It is most likely that they will stop soon as there are no more new songs or footage that they own.
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