Morning Musume
Morning Musume '26, formerly and commonly known as Morning Musume, is a Japanese girl group associated with Up-Front Promotion. The group was produced by singer-songwriter and record producer Tsunku, who composed the majority of their songs until 2014. Since their formation, the group has seen changes in their membership, with the current members of the group consisting of Sakura Oda, Miki Nonaka, Maria Makino, Homare Okamura, Mei Yamazaki, Rio Sakurai, Haruka Inoue, and Ako Yumigeta.
After the release of their indies single, "Ai no Tane", in 1997, Morning Musume made their official debut in 1998 with the single "Morning Coffee." Their highest-selling single, "Love Machine", was the first single to reach no. 1 on the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart and sold over 1 million copies upon release. In 2012, the group held the second highest overall single sales of a female group on the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart, with the Oricon record of most top-ten singles, having 64 of them.
Morning Musume is credited with the revival of the idol industry in Japan in the late 1990s. Morning Musume has been the flagship group of the musical collective Hello! Project, becoming the basis of other groups under the collective, such as Country Musume, Coconuts Musume, and Ice Creamusume. In addition, Morning Musume has spun off with multiple successful sub-units, such as Tanpopo, Petit Moni, Mini-Moni, Morning Musume Sakuragumi, Morning Musume Otomegumi, Morning Musume Tanjō 10nen Kinentai, Ecomoni, and Dream Morning Musume.
History
1997–1998: Formation and beginnings
Japanese producer Tsunku started the group in 1997 through an audition for a female rock vocalist for his band Sharam Q. The audition was held on the Japanese TV show Asayan. The winner was Michiyo Heike, later to become a soloist under what would eventually become known as Hello! Project. Tsunku decided to form a girl group consisting of five of the runners-up: Natsumi Abe, Yuko Nakazawa, Kaori Iida, Asuka Fukuda, and Aya Ishiguro. They were issued a challenge to sell 50,000 copies of their demo single, "Ai no Tane", with just five days of promotion events. They managed the feat in four promotion days in a very grassroots manner, and Tsunku began his mission to create the most famous all-girl group in Japan.In early 1998, the girls were ready with their first official single, "Morning Coffee". The success of this single brought them three new members known as the second generation: Kei Yasuda, Mari Yaguchi, and Sayaka Ichii, bringing the total member count to eight. The second single, "Summer Night Town", was the first single of the new lineup—a mature pop tune about unsuccessfully attempting to hide one's true feelings. Their third single, "Daite Hold on Me!", continued in the same vein musically as Summer Night Town, and managed to hit number one on the charts. Leader Nakazawa also started her solo career.
"First Time" was released in July 1998, featuring the singles "Ai no Tane", "Morning Coffee" and "Summer Night Town".
That year, Tsunku also formed Tanpopo, the first subgroup of Morning Musume, with Kaori Iida, Aya Ishiguro, and Mari Yaguchi. Tanpopo touted slower, more mature songs.
When "Morning Coffee" was released, however, Morning Musume's label Zetima went by a different name, One Up Music and Up-Front Group ). However, in April 1998, one month before the release of "Summer Night Town", One Up Music ended its distribution deal with Warner, and was rebranded as Zetima when it merged with Y.J. Sounds. Distribution rights would be given to Sony Music Japan's sub label Epic Records for "Summer Night Town", "First Time", and all of Zetima's subsequent releases.
1999: Commercial success with "Love Machine" and the 3rd Generation
The group released its fourth single "Memory Seishun no Hikari" in early 1999, reaching number two on Oricon, second to Glay's "Winter, Again" which had first week sales of 955,780 copies.The song features rap passages by L The Headtoucha and intense vocal harmonization by the group's members. This was Asuka Fukuda's last single with Morning Musume; Asuka claimed that she was leaving in order to focus on her studies, only to drop out of school soon after.
"Manatsu no Kōsen" was released in May and went to number three on the charts. Their sixth single, "Furusato", was released in July.
Second Morning was released in July 1999, and contained the singles "Daite Hold on Me!", "Memory Seishun no Hikari", "Manatsu no Kōsen", and "Furusato". "Daite Hold on Me!" and "Manatsu no Kōsen" were remixed.
Tsunku held auditions for the third generation of Morning Musume, and Maki Goto was added. Goto was 13, the youngest member of Morning Musume at the time. The group's seventh single, "Love Machine", sold 1,760,000 copies, making it a major hit; it is still their highest-selling single as of 2012. It was Maki Goto's first single and Aya Ishiguro's last.
Goto was paired with Kei Yasuda and Sayaka Ichii to form the subgroup Petitmoni. Petitmoni's first single, "Chokotto Love", sold over 1,123,610 copies.
2000: Koi no Dance Site, continued commercial success and the 4th Generation
"Koi no Dance Site" was released in early 2000, reaching number two and selling over a million copies—400,000 away from reaching "Love Machine"'s success. The single had the highest 1st week sales than any other Morning Musume's singles, an enormous amount of 600,860 copies. Even with this large number, the single did not reach number one because Southern All Stars's biggest hit single, Tsunami, which sold total of 2.93 million copies, was released at the same date as Koi no Dance Site. Aya Ishiguro left the group before the single was released in order to marry Shinya, drummer of visual kei rock band Luna Sea, leaving the group with seven members.The second event of 2000 was the creation of "shuffle units", in which all members of Tsunku's then 16-member family, Hello! Project, were shuffled around to form three one-time groups: Akagumi 4, Kiiro 5, and Aoiro 7. The idea was to battle for the highest single sales. This was achieved by Akagumi 4 which boasted Maki Goto as the lead vocals.
In March, their third studio album, 3rd: Love Paradise was released. Despite having "Love Machine" and "Koi no Dance Site" on its track list, it did not manage to claim the number one spot, but did sell more than 800,000 copies, making it Morning Musume's highest-selling studio album to date.
This year also brought a new generation search. The fourth generation consisted of Rika Ishikawa, Hitomi Yoshizawa, Nozomi Tsuji, and Ai Kago, lending a completely different feel to the group by adding the 12-year-old duo of Tsuji and Kago. After their debut single, "Happy Summer Wedding", Sayaka Ichii left to pursue her own music career. She became the vocalist of Japanese group Cubic Cross and later married fellow member Naoki Yoshizawa.
With Ishiguro and Ichii gone, both Tanpopo and Petitmoni revised their lineups—Hitomi Yoshizawa joined Petitmoni, and Ai Kago and Rika Ishikawa were added to Tanpopo. Meanwhile, Mari Yaguchi had started performing informally with Ai Kago and Nozomi Tsuji in concerts as Mini Moni, a group tailored towards younger audiences with all the members being less than 150 cm tall. Mika Todd of Coconuts Musume was later added into the group and Tsunku made them official. Their debut single, "Minimoni Jankenpyon!", was a number one hit on the Oricon.
As an idol group, they were extremely successful, drawing comparisons to the popularity of former girl idol group Speed. "I Wish" and "Renai Revolution 21" continued the trend of happy pop songs becoming staple hits for the group. Morning Musume also began their tradition of performing in musicals each year, breaking new ground as idols with their musical Love Century: Yume wa Minakerya Hajimaranai.
2001: "The Peace" and the 5th Generation
In April 2001, group leader Yuko Nakazawa left to focus on her solo career making Kaori Iida and Kei Yasuda Morning Musume's co-leaders. During this time, Rika Ishikawa was "lent" out to the rather inactive group, Country Musume. She did not officially join, but participated as a feature singers in number of their singles.By July 2001 the string of number one hits had yet to be broken with the release of the single "The Peace!". The Peace! features a distinctive call and response chants, with Rika Ishikawa as the center focus.
British newspaper The Guardian described the promotional video echoed the song's "strangeness" by placing the group in the middle of what appeared to be a gigantic public bathroom, displaying the girls dancing amongst the urinals and posing for photographs in the stalls; supposedly as a response to hidden camera footage of the members that had recently surfaced, filmed from a toilet in their production offices.
At the end of January 2001, the best selling Hello! Project album to date was released: Best! Morning Musume 1. It sold 2,259,510 copies. It featured 15 tracks, the only original song being "Say Yeah! -Motto Miracle Night-".
At the end of 2001, four new members joined the group as the fifth generation through the audition "Love Audition 21:" Ai Takahashi, Asami Konno, Makoto Ogawa, and Risa Niigaki, bringing the roster to 13 girls. Their first single "Mr. Moonlight: Ai no Big Band", featured fourth generation member Hitomi Yoshizawa as the central focus and main vocalist of the song.
2002 : Maki Goto's departure and massive re-structuring of the sub-units
In February, "Sōda! We're Alive", another hit, was released. It featured many different styles combined into one song, centered on Mari Yaguchi.In July 2002, "Do It! Now" was released. This single finally broke the line of number one hits and came in at number three—a surprising fact to many, considering it was Maki Goto's last single.
Morning Musume's fourth studio album, 4th Ikimasshoi! was released in March 2002 after a two-year wait. It is the first studio album from the group to reach number one on Oricon. It featured the singles "Renai Revolution 21", "The Peace!", "Mr. Moonlight: Ai no Big Band", and "Sōda! We're Alive".
Late 2002 was marked by the graduation of Maki Goto and a mass re-shuffle of the sub-units. Tsunku removed Kaori Iida, Mari Yaguchi, and Ai Kago from Tanpopo, adding in Asami Konno, Risa Niigaki, and Ayumi Shibata of Melon Kinenbi to join Rika Ishikawa. Tanpopo only released one single with this lineup before the group was put on an indefinite hiatus status. Makoto Ogawa and Ayaka Kimura of Coconuts Musume joined Hitomi Yoshizawa in Petitmoni to replace Kei Yasuda and Maki Goto, but the group did not even release a single, only performing in concerts. Their song "Wow Wow Wow" was later released on the Hello! Project's compilation CD Petit Best 4. In Mini Moni, Mari Yaguchi was replaced by Ai Takahashi and the new lineup went on to put out several singles and a second album until member Mika Todd left in May 2004, adding Mini Moni to the list of "indefinite hiatus" subgroups.
In October "Koko ni Iruzee!" was released, a fast-paced, feel-good song about making the most of life and music's ability to unite the world. It was number one on Oricon.