Michiyo Heike

Amasugita Kajitsu posted this on his/her blog a few years ago.
Seeing Koharu graduate MM (what was that about) and MK disbanding I am kinda fed up with HP right now.. Kinda miss how it was.

"In 1997, a man named Teruda Mitsudo (a.k.a. Tsunku) and his buddies from the band Sharam Q held an audition. This audition was a search for a new female vocalist. In the final round of the audition, which was shown on Japanese television program ASAYAN, there were six people. Only one won.

Who would have known that the five losers would be more popular than the winner, Heike Michiyo?

What would happen if Michiyo turned out to be a bigger hit than the other five (now known as Morning Musume)? How many singles would she sell? What would her music style evolve to? Would she release photobooks? Would she have mostly 30-40 year old male wotas for fans, or mainly 15-25 year old women? Would she even be an idol? How many generations would Morning Musume get, and what would Hello!Project be, if it existed? All that, and more…

To begin, let’s address her music style. It is not at all like Hello!Project. Some of her music has more of a rock influence. The song “Daikirai,” which can be found on Pucchi Best 1, comes to mind. You can really tell during the pre-chorus and chorus. Michiyo’s voice sounds wonderful and powerful here, as always.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kyw18VPz9uE

Of course, Michiyo released pop-ish songs as well. “Kekkyoku Bye Bye Bye,” her 9th single, is an example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRn1rCpFXUc

How many of her singles would Heike sell? Well, I think that if she had turned out to be more popular than Morning Musume, today she could sell about 75,000 – 80,000 copies per single with the right promotion. During her “Golden Age,” she would probably have similar numbers to Morning Musume (anywhere from 600,000 to 1 million copies).

Outside of singles and albums, Michiyo could do four tours a year, like the Hello!Project artists do. (editors note: After leaving HP she went on two tours a year until she had her baby) Keep in mind, they’re being managed by the same people: Up-Front Agency and Tsunku.

As for photobooks, I don’t think she would release a ton, like Maki or Rika or Aya or Natsumi. I’d assume she’d have three by the end of this year, as she would be less of an idol, and more of just a musician. They probably wouldn’t be bikini photobooks either (or would have only a few bikini shots), but they would still be mature. I could see it similar to Honda Ruru’s “Cosmos” PB, which you can download here.

Why that style, you ask? I think it would go more with her overall style and the fact that she wouldn’t be an idol. Well, she would be an idol, but not 100% idol. Idols are more of an “everything,” acting, dancing, singing, modeling, being a fashion leader, the whole deal. I couldn’t see Michiyo doing all of that, just singing (and maybe a little acting). Another part of being an idol is having a really catchy personality, like Reina’s “Yankii” personality, Hitomi’s tomboy personality, and Kemeko’s Obasan personality. I don’t think Michiyo would create a personality for herself; she didn’t have one while she was still working.

What would Morning Musume be today?

Morning Musume wouldn’t be in a very happy situation, I hate to say. Assuming Tsunku was giving more promotion to Heike, he wouldn’t try as hard to promote them as he did in real life. They would sell their 50,000 copies of Ai no Tane, have a #1 single after that, and then be nearly forgotten. Due to lack of success, they would only get 3 generations. Each generation would bring two more people, and Magical Gocchin wouldn’t audition. The group would disband in 2004, their last album only selling 1,500 copies.

…How depressing. XD

On the flip side, Morning Musume could have done great as well! They could have been a huge success, just like they really did turn out to be. They could build up slowly, and on their seventh single (with Gocchin!) sell a million copies. There certainly could be eight generations of Musume idols today.

And Hello!Project as a whole? I don’t think Hello!Project as we know it would be established. Yes, Michiyo and Momusu would do things similar to H!P, but only because the same guy was managing them. There would be no Hello!Project kids, no Aya, no shuffle units. (Maybe shuffle units. But more unlikely than likely.)

So which situation would be more beneficial to us fans in the long run? If you’re a H!P kids fan, you probably like things the way they are. If you like Michiyo, then success to her all the way. As for me, I would be happy with either. BUT, I would perfer things the way they are now. I like Morning Musume more than any other artist out there, and I like the way things have happened. Plus, I still get to enjoy what music Heike Michiyo put out, regardless of how much (or how little) it was.



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1.

Radicalpatriot said,

February 13, 2008 at 8:47 pm

Herein lies the strength and staying power of Morning Musume: The group does not relay on a single star, or a small group of singers. It is a concept, a brilliant concept, and different girls carry this banner over time. But the excellence is always there. The Hello Project Winter 2008 Awards Show on Jan. 26-27 at Yokohama Arena was the most stunning pop music event ever. It is the end result of what has to be the most revolutionary idea ever in pop music, not only in Japan, but anywhere. Not only Morning Musume, but the surging junior units, Berryz Koko, C-ute; the incredible spinoffs like Bouno! It’s all nothing short of absolutely spectacular. Tsunku’s acts put everything else in the world to shame. He has done it; this is the best music companyh on earth — sound, motion, color, attitude, just greatness in the voices and on the legs of the super-awesome Morning Musume and Hello Project. May it reign forever on earth and in heaven beyond.

Yaguchi being a bit nostalgic

At Yaguchi's blog you can find a bunch of pictures from her celebration of New Years eve.
She celebrated it with a lot of old school girls; Nakazawa, Maeda, Iida, Natsumi, Ishikawa, Yoshizawa, Tsuji, Inaba Atsuko and none less than Aya Ishiguro!

She felt a bit nostalgic, and did some "photoshoots" of 1st gen musume, 2nd gen musume, original tanpopo and tanpopo+ishikawa.
Apparently she tried to re-create the cover for their debut single, but couldnt quite remember the pose. Their debut single was released almost 12 years ago!





Nice to see them all together :D

Translations of Yaguchi's blog can be found at hello-online.org

New "single" by Yaguchi and Yasuda

Mari Yaguchi and Kei Yasuda is going to release the song I wrote about some time ago: "kimi ni todoke".

According to Yaguchi's blog (translated by b.slade & kuno at hello-online) the song is gonna be released digitally through a download site called recochoku,

They performed the song together at a fan club event this summer, and it is that version which is gonna be released.

It would have been nice if they recorded it in a studio and released a two track single with a studio recording and a live verion. But at least it is gonna be "released".
A small step forward, maybe we will get to see more music aranged by Yasuda?

I did a sub for the live performance, available at hello-online :)

Working on the site

In addition to this blog i am working on updating my site: www.hpoldschool.com

It is a work in progress which is taking a lot of time.
It takes a long time for two reasons:
1 My interest in HP isn't as big as it was two years ago (and further back)
2 It takes time to collect up all the info!

My main interest within HP has always been music first. I never cared that much to as what the girls were up to on other activities, it was music and concerts that interest me!

But for my site i want to have abiography in addition to the discography. For many of the girls the info is scarce, making their bios short and incomplete. For others there is too much info and a long history.

Right now I have taken a pause from writing biographies and started scanning.
Oh the pain it is to scan magazines!
I have a 150 paged magazine consisting of pnly hp stuff, which means i have to scan all of it. On top of that the pages are too big for the printer. SO i ahve to scan each page twice and join them in photoshop.
TIme consuming yes.

Hopefully someone will provide their aid and translate the articles. That is my purpose of doing this!

Yuko Nakazawa - KARASU no nyoubou

Everyone knows Nakazawa, right?



She is one of the original five of Morning Musume, a 1st gen musume and for fours years the leader of the group. For 12 years she was the leader of Hello! Project.

Back in 1998, to everyones surprise, she was given the opportunity to release solo material while being a member of Morning Musume; both a solo artist and a group member at the same time. But she wouldn't make regular pop songs, she would release music in the genre called "enka".

Her first release is entitled "karasu no nyoubou" ("The Raven's Wife") and was released on, what was unique for Japan, 8 cm cd single. It was also released on cassette.

promo poster

Nakazawa's manager at the time said that if it hit the no 1 spot on Oricon he'd shave his head.
The single sold around 80.000 copies and hit first place. Someone had to shave his head..

The composer of the song is Horiuchi Takao and he has performed the song himself on occasion. The song was also used a sthe ending for the dorama "Hagure Keiji Junjoha" back in 2004.

This guy also covers the song, but I don't know anything about him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMoYd3j_Q00

Nakazawa would go on and release an enka album and two more enka singles, before
moving on to slower, ballady jpop music.
Her last release was the single "danna-sama" back in 2007.

New singles and enka album

I can't believe it, but I have actually gotten my hands on all singles by Miyoshi Chinatsu, BRAND NEW.
So now my Chinatsu collection is complete!

Chinatsu wasn' in H!P for a long time. A little over a year, if i remember correctly.
She released three singles and participated in concerts, before suddenly leaving. Between the time she released her third single and left, she went abroad to USA for a little while. I dont't know why, but I have a small article about it. I am hoping for someone to translate it one day.

From left to right is Unchain my heart - Love, yes I do - Anata no shirt to love song (Your shirt and a love song).
I hadn't heard the b-sides to these single before, which made it really interesting getting them. It was like I got three new old school songs, and listening to them were amazing!

Before getting the singles I read this at "yossha!" a long time ago, where the author of the site comments on these releases, and I must say i agree with him/her.

I also got my hands on an enka compilation album, in which Yuki Maeda is features. Her third single is featured on the album, but what makes this interesting is that she covers "anata to ikiru" by Teresa Teng.
The arrangements sound the same to me, and Maeda sings it like only she can. I am not gonna compare her to Teng, but this cover was quite nice listening to.



I had been looking for this for years, and when it showed up I had to grab it.
There is not even a picture of Maed aon the cover fo the cd. You have to look at the back to find it. Can you spot her?




Only thing missing in my Maeda collection now is a live album by Itsuki Hiroshi in which Maeda covers the song "hana".

Sayaka Ichii is back!

This is old news, but I kinda felt like putting a few words about it here too.


Sayaka Ichii graduated from Morning Musume in 2000, and shortly after re-emerged in the music scene as a part of the band CUBIC-CROSS. They released singles and an album, and in 2003 Sayaka released a solo single.
Then came the news about her pregnancy and she withdrew (with no hesiteijon it seems) from the music business and stayed away for five years.

Rumor alert: THe official reason for her graduation was that she wanted to study (heard that one before haven't we?, cough asuka cough), but in only six months she was back with more music.
I read somewhere that Sayaka was annyoed with both the heavy promotion and pushof Maki Goto and the adding of 4th gen members. Apparently Sayaka was supposed to be the second face of MM next to Natsumi Abe before Maki Goto became so extremely popular.
And with the 4th gen I think she might have been annoyed that she would be pushed even further to the back (or she just found them too immature and left the ship).

Now she is back, and for starters it looks like she is gonna be a tv-personality and actress.

I am hoping for some music in the future, it'd be nice.
Her song "4U -hitatsura-" (her only solo single to date) is a nice jpop song with a cute video. I doubt this is what she'd be doing now, but lets be a bit nostalgic for now :)




hello/online has translated the first posts of her blog, a video message and a longer (and really interesting) article at their site.