#rainbow 7

[koinodancesite]

“Osaka Koi No Uta”

Release date: April 27, 2005

Oricon Weekly placement: 2nd

B-side: “Nature Is Good!”

Members: Ai Takahashi, Asami Konno, Eri Kamei, Hitomi Yoshizawa, Mokoto Ogawa, Mari Yaguchi, Miki Fujimoto, Reina Tanaka, Rika Ishikawa, Risa Niigaki, Sayumi Michishige

Morning Musume’s experiments have included different approaches to voice and delivery in addition to tackling other styles of pop music. The jazz-influenced yelps of “Mr. Moonlight ~Ai No Big Band~” or the dramatic sigh of “As for One Day” immediately come to mind as examples of the singers toying with their voices. "Osaka Koi No Uta” takes it another level by incorporating the Kansai dialect to its lyric writing -- the American equivalent of writing lyrics with, say, a New Yorker accent in mind.

Tsunku is from the Osaka prefecture, the area of Japan that serves as the representative home to the hypothetical person from the Kansai region, or Western Japan. And the producer talks and acts the part with a demeanor that’s very outgoing and comical yet unafraid to hit back with a snappy remark; that bluntness tends to give Kansai people a rep as rough and hot-headed to the eyes of an outsider.

The Morning Musume line-up for “Osaka Koi No Uta,” however, only includes one member from the Kansai area. Ai Takahashi is from the Fukui prefecture, and if the reference in “Joshi Kashimashi Monagatari” is to be believed, she’s known in the group to let her home dialect slip. The rest of them can only act the part. Hitomi Yoshizawa (from Saitama, a prefecture in the Kanto region, or Eastern Japan) in particular compensates her lack of familiarity with her tomboy attitude when she recites the intro script: “itsumo zutto ishoyattakara, kizukahenkatta,” she sighs a line full of Kaisai-specific suffixes.

“Even if everyone tried to speak in a Kaisai dialect in daily conversation, the intonation definitely won’t be the same, but if you sang along with the melody, you won’t really make a mistake,” pointed out Rika Ishikawa (from Kanagawa in the Kanto region). “So this song made me feel like, ‘hey, I can speak in the dialect a little.’”

Ishikawa’s comments are true: none of the singers in “Osaka Koi No Uta” stumble with the lyrics or stick out like foreigners doing an awkward impression. Yet the melody scrubbing away that intonation removes a majority of what defines Kansai speak. Even if you don’t understand Japanese, I think you can hear the difference in the way people talk according to which region by hearing for that intonation and cadence.

Other than Yoshizawa’s intro script, it’s difficult to grasp the song’s incorporation of a region-specific talk unless one reads the lyrics. Conveying a Kansai personality matters, too, in the relationship talk of “Osaka Koi No Uta.” Admitting loss hits more devastating and reminiscences of kisses sound unexpectedly sincere when they come from the voice of a tough-skinned woman.

But thankfully, “Osaka Koi No Uta” works strong as a general pop song enough for the failure in the experiment to ultimately be a minor issue. The R&B production sets a great backdrop for the song’s melodrama with its squiggly electro beat and speedy breakbeats. The chorus responds to the heart-racing tension with a dramatic breakdown, the singers audibly falling to their knees faced with an imminent break-up. Morning Musume might not succeed in making Kansai R&B, but they still deliver compelling heartbreak pop.

[6]

[mrmoonlightcovers]

This is my version of "HOW DO YOU LIKE JAPAN? ~Nihon wa Donna Kanji Dekka?~" by Morning Musume モーニング娘。 『HOW DO YOU LIKE JAPAN?～日本はどんな感じでっか?～』

This video has not any commercial purpose and it's only for entertainment. All rights are for UP-FRONT PROMOTION.

[comic-voice-over2]

Hidden ‘16 sketch of Tania, Tifani and Vivani confronting their arch-nemesis Kureros, and his right-hand man, Reaper.

[osana-is-choking]

What if Osana's bento wasn't even poisoned w/ emetic... She's just a REALLY bad cook :/

Osana was probably in the cooking club at some point, but after several… ‘incidents’… she was kicked from the club. But she wants back in.

[koinodancesite]

Rainbow 7

We got through all of the singles from the Morning Musume’s seventh album, Rainbow 7. The group continues to seem unsure of what it wants to be or where it wants to go next here. I do find them embracing that lack of direction to somewhat admirable results, though, as far as the album as a whole goes. Here’s what we covered:

“The Man Power!!” [4]

“Osaka Koi No Uta” [5]

“Iroppoi Jirettai” [5]

“Chokkan 2 ~Nogashita Sakana Wa Ookizo!” [5]

[koinodancesite]

“Iroppoi Jirettai”

Release date: July 27, 2005

Oricon Weekly placement: 4th

B-side: “Ai To Taiyo Ni Tsutsumarete”

Members: Ai Takahashi, Asami Konno, Eri Kamei, Hitomi Yoshizawa, Koharu Kusumi, Mokoto Ogawa, Miki Fujimoto, Reina Tanaka, Risa Niigaki, Sayumi Michishige

The past singles from what would become Morning Musume’s seventh album, Rainbow 7, suggested that perhaps Tsunku wanted to somehow freshen up the group. The producer messed around with bizarre sounds and put them in equally odd arrangements; he had the idols sing in a region-specific dialect as if they were local idols. But while those two releases only hinted at his interest for something different, “Iroppoi Jirettai” makes that itch much more obvious as the idols tackle a whole new dance genre: flamenco.

“Iroppoi Jirettai” places Morning Musume under a different light by introducing a new rhythm to the group’s music. That said, it also doesn’t feel entirely like an outlier in their catalog. They had already played a cultural tourist in “Koi No Dance Site” and done a similar deep dive into a genre with “Mr. Moonlight ~Ai No Big Band~.” A flamboyant horn riff isn’t a new thing either, albeit found in different musical contexts: the pumped-up riff in “Koko Ni Iruze” from a couple albums back can be considered a distant sibling.

Morning Musume’s interaction with flamenco, though, remains relatively modest, the hollering heard in the intro notwithstanding. The group dips slightly more into the passionate side of the dance genre in its lustful chorus: “Sexy cupid/ So frustrating, just kiss me more,” they sing, and the music does a lot of the heavy lifting to convey that heat of desire. But while flamenco partially guides the song, providing it a unique emotional color, “Irropoi Jirettai” doesn’t feel entirely bound by it. There’s a sense that the group could hit on similar points using another musical idiom that they previously explored.

Morning Musume’s experiment with flamenco results in more of a novelty record than a genuine creative progression in retrospect, but the sheer fact that the group tried out flamenco at all leaves at least a rich footnote in their catalog. The adventurous curiosities hold as much worth as the conventional successes, especially when “conventional” seems like the route that they will take for the next run of singles. An oddity and the unexpected like “Iroppoi Jirettai” are the very examples why it’s worth following Morning Musume every step of the way even if it only amounts to a quick gander.

[5]

[koinodancesite]

“Chokkan 2 ~Nogashita Sakana Wa Ookizo!~”

Release date: Nov. 9, 2005

Oricon Weekly placement: 4th

B-side: “Koi Wa Hassou Do the Hustle!”

Members: Ai Takahashi, Asami Konno, Eri Kamei, Hitomi Yoshizawa, Koharu Kusumi, Mokoto Ogawa, Miki Fujimoto, Reina Tanaka, Risa Niigaki, Sayumi Michishige

Intuition becomes a keyword to the message behind “Chokkan 2 ~Nogashita Sakana Wa Ookizo!~” (“Intuition 2 ~The Fish You Let Go Is Huge!~”) but also the record’s actual backstory. The song was originally planned as the B-side of the equally hustle-and-bustle synth-funk “Koi Wa Hassou Do the Hustle!” as the main single, but Tsunku changed his mind and swapped the two last minute. The idols even finished making a music video for it (which you can watch here), only to get back to work and film another. That best explains why the finished product is edited together with concert footage.

Only Tsunku would know what inspired him to go with “Chokkan 2” rather than “Koi Wa Hassou,” though the former does have a hook that immediately gets ingrained to the listener’s memory. The silly ad lib of “soda!” (that’s right!) gets repeated partly to affirm the group’s advice about trusting your instinct when it comes to love, but the matsuri-like chanting works more to rile up a crowd in a live setting -- an experience the music video works well as proof.

While the foundations of the original “Chokkan” from those hooks as well as the high-energy Eurobeat-esque music remains intact, Tsunku rewrote a more coherent message in the lyrics. He discards some of the nonsensical parts in the first version -- “Love and dessert/ they occupy different places” -- for something with more logic while retaining his taste for the absurd: “Time is money/ I don’t have to tell you, right,” they remind of a cheesy yet true slogan to speak on how hesitation only wastes precious time.

The new lyrics for “Chokkan 2” overall reads like a personal code; a more confident scripture on how to act when you find love or when it’s no longer in your hands. Some advice featured in the chorus is easier said than done -- “instead of pushing and pulling/ you can just go on and be straightforward,” the idols sing as if they never felt nervous in their lives -- but the cheerful feel of the song leaves no room for doubt. Those incessant “soda! Mattaku sonotori!” (that’s right, exactly!) ad libs further convince and almost forces you via groupthink to take the message whole without questioning it.

“Chokkan 2” invests a lot of energy to distract from any thoughts that would cloud its message of just going with your gut. They have no one backing them up beside their own cheers of ad libs, and the rebuttals against any counterarguments are rather cliche responses: “the fish you let go is delicious/ there’s no way there’s going to be a next time,” they sing about potential regret. Like many Morning Musume singles that speak on love lost, “Chokkan 2” works as much time and energy you’re willing to put in to take its message to heart.

[5]

[koinodancesite]

“The Man Power!!!”

Release date: Jan. 19, 2005

Oricon Weekly placement: 4th

B-side: “Love & Peace! Hero Ga Yattekita”

Members: Ai Takahashi, Asami Konno, Eri Kamei, Hitomi Yoshizawa, Kaori Iida, Mokoto Ogawa, Mari Yaguchi, Miki Fujimoto, Reina Tanaka, Rika Ishikawa, Risa Niigaki, Sayumi Michishige

The reference points for the past dozen or so singles were easy to recognize. While the hooks and lyrics may have been outlandish, obvious stylistic callbacks to disco, R&B or rock helped make Tsunku’s wild ideas more accessible. Finding the root of inspiration for “The Man Power!!!” meanwhile proves challenging, and its obnoxiousness reminds me of “Koi No Dance Site” in that its sound and sensibility don’t seem to come from anywhere else besides the idiosyncratic universe of Morning Musume.

The music alone is a bizarre collection of clunky noises. The stripped-down beat lays out screeching synths, sound-effect samples, and chopped-up drum kits more like collage work than a piece of grooving synth-pop. Though, the music won’t initially seem as abrasive and alien with the group’s voice crowding every inch of the production. If the singers aren’t grunting their lines as if to force their voices to the forefront, the back vocals supporting the chorus push themselves in front of the mix.

Out of every weird bits here, Tsunku seems the most proud to put that odd chorus down on record. The group return to its titular refrain constantly, enough to get a feel that the song is essentially built around it. The verses provide a home for smaller out-there ideas, such as that deepened “mysterious” ad lib or the insert of “homo sapien.” (I wouldn’t be surprised if “The Man Power!!!” is the only J-pop song to ever include the word.) But the song focuses most of its real estate to the chorus.

A lot of elements both in the production and song fight for second place in terms of attention, and all that competition makes the message a tertiary part. Granted, “The Man Power!!!” doesn’t provide the most unique insight even by Morning Musume standards: the marvel of human capabilities may be a new subject, though they’ve dedicated plenty of songs to spread self-love and pride before. But the issue is less redundancy than it is a lack of focus. The song provides so much for your senses at the surface that the actual words become the least concern.

Many things point to the conclusion that “The Man Power!!!” isn’t supposed to be taken too seriously; the “man” being a reference to the primitive man for one. Yet Morning Musume’s silly songs still feel coherent in form when it succeeds: take the aforementioned “Koi No Dance Site” that balanced Web 1.0 jargon, an orientalist beat and Mari Yaguchi screaming “sexy beam!!!” into a solid R&B single. “The Man Power!!!” clumps a lot of odd yet intriguing ideas without much of a clear goal besides taking the chorus out for a spin.

[4]