SURVIVE
By Sean Newman
English VO1A
Professor Felizon Vidad
May 10th, 2005

A huge remote camera lifts up into the air. What had once seemed to be the ceiling opens outward like the wings of some enormous black bird, revealing even more cameras that pan the audience, lights flashing at shutter speed. A flurry of handkerchiefs embossed with the band logo rain down on vicious fans.

It’s October 15th, 2003. I’m young and anxious like most boys tend to be at the age of sixteen, and I need an outlet for all my pent up energy after school. So I’m at the House of Blues in Los Angeles for my first rock concert. Striking a chord in my heart, the flowing riffs and robust voice would find its way under my skin, sink its talons deep and never let go.

The crowd changes into something wild, loud and strangely beautiful…then the curtain rises in a swift motion that makes everyone, including me, go absolutely ballistic. My head begins to move of its own accord; I clap frantically, pointing at the Les Paul being hit with lightening solos I was seeing for the first time in my life. I was shaking my fists, devil horns hailing. I was non-stop jumping up and down moving with the masses and uniting in rhythm and mind. Inhibitions are lost to chaos with a beat; I’m not bumping into my brothers and sisters, but melding with them. The smooth as peanut butter riffs that at times become as sharp as glass and as hard as steel intertwined tightly to the unique sweet yip of the vocal, so cool yet so crushing, spur the spectators into a frothy whirlwind of energy that feeds back to the source, growing with every chant until it becomes more real and emotional than the world itself.

The vocalist is giving all, as is apparent not only in voice but in the way he milks the crowd. He runs about the stage with relentless energy, stopping only to get a mouth-full of water before spewing it upon ecstatic girls. The lead guitarist makes it all look so easy with his euphoric grin, winking at the cuties then his face contorting and eyes closing for soulful solos.

The concert ends, and after copious applause and “shout-outs” the band exits. I realized I’m covered in sweat, my neck aching from overzealous movements. A couple of teenagers who had greeted the band with indifference pass by. The faces are slack with shock and awe.

Bee’z: A Japanese rock band spelled ‘B’ apostrophe ‘z’. Tak Matsumoto: world-class guitarist. Koshi Inaba: unmatchable energy and insane vocals. Who’s the backup? Anyone who can keep up with a band that’s sold more albums internationally than Aerosmith. This, my friends, is rock.

The B’z are definitely one of the biggest names in the world of rock, but until I turn ed sixteen, like most Americans, I had no idea they existed. I had to get into Japan before I could get into the B’z.

Around the age of eleven, I was first introduced to Japanese music through animation. Up until quite recently, pop artists have dominated the music for Japanese cartoons. Although the Japanese heavy metal boom had begun about the time I was born in 1985, I wouldn’t see anything like it until much later in America. This was because the few animations that used heavy music, like “Slam Dunk”, the Japanese animation based on a comic about basketball, were not copyrighted in the US. Given American tastes they didn’t look like promising investments.

My first venture into the Japanese music scene was by mere chance. I picked up a magazine called GAME FAN, and it happened to have a J-pop (Japanese pops) review section where I spotted Ayumi Hamasaki, ex-model and arguably the most famous idol singer Japan has ever produced. I bought one of her albums, “LOVEppears”. I really enjoyed her sound, but she definitely fostered my stereotype that all Japanese music was about the techno beats, engineered sounds and keyboards.

That illusion was shattered when I met my Japanese girlfriend at fifteen. Soon I was listening to pop rock, and, believe it or not, reggae. Other Japanese friends throughout my younger years would continue to educate me on the diversity of Japanese music. By the age of eighteen I had gained a thorough understanding of Japanese music, and had begun to piece together just who the B’z are, what they had been and who came before them.

It was bands like The Beatles who started the international rock craze that hit Japan hard in the 1960’s spurring flurries of Japanese cover bands and the like. By the late 1960’s psychedelic rock emerged as the first form of rock Japanese started making non-cover bands for. This is when the emergence of western influenced rock with vocals in the Japanese language came about.

Rock music began to filter into the mainstream music scene in Japan by the 70’s with bands like CAROL. Formed in 1973, they had a short but prosperous career that ended in ‘75. They dressed in what was known at the time as the ‘Roxy (i.e. ‘rock-sy’) fashion’, all leather, hair slicked with grease like the traditional ‘rebel’. “They were like the Hells Angels,” says Katsuyuki of VIRGIN magazine Japan, “riding on bikes and looking rough.” It was like a throw back to the days of Elvis-an image of the by-gone days where rock was a crime. CAROL and artists like them paved the way for others with their rock and roll spirit.

The 80’s gave birth to what would become known as J-Rock or Japanese rock. The Southern All Stars, who released their first album in 1981, were the first to get rich off J-rock and have had long lasting success. Next BOØWY came to fame in ‘85 soon to be followed by X Japan.

While The Southern All Stars and BOØWY were more conservative and closer to pop rock, X Japan was the first to really take speed metal and alternative rock into the popular realm of music. The group was radical, and dressed as such. They gave birth to mainstream visual kei, the Japanese equivalent of the hair band. In the tradition of Kiss, they dressed in dark, feminine attire with radical hairstyles. Bands like this had been around since the early 80s in underground music circles, but they were still too radical for any record label to risk hiring them. The producer of the band ended up having to sell the family business in order to get the money to form his own record label to put out the band. The gamble was a good one, and the band produced its first hit, “Orgasm”, in 1986. X Japan was looked upon then in much the way Marilyn Manson was regarded when he first came to fame: Popular, but bizarre and at the dregs of mainstream, radical and almost repulsive-that can be an allure.

By 1987, rock group BOØWY had legions of fans. They shocked these fans when announcing their dissolution after five years of success. Their final two-day concert scheduled for April 5th and 6th of 1988 was sold out in 10 minutes, all 95,000 tickets.

This is where the history of B’z truly begins. With BOØWY gone from the music scene, Japan’s music industry hit an all time low in sales. B’z came out with their first single and their first self-titled album that year-both were terrible flops. The guitar work was all above average, but most of the lyrics were mediocre. Worst of all, Koshi’s voice was had yet to develop the “…unusually High toned yet husky voice and ability to transition smoothly and beautifully from a shout to a whisper” (B’z Research Society 96) he would become known for. The following year their second album, “Off The Lock”, was much better. However, it received very little attention.

The band decided to take advantage of an innovation in the Japanese music industry: the ‘mini album’. The mini album lasted usually around 25 minutes and was much more affordable than a full-length album. Their first mini-album debuted at number 15 on the Japanese music chart Oricon. This album managed to ride the chart for an incredible 163 weeks, rising as high as number 12. It also is the best selling title in Japanese history of albums that never made it to the top ten at 1,182,000-an honorable record for the underdog.

Four months after their third full length album “Break Through” in 1990, the B’z started an incredible record streak of number one debut singles on Oricon with “Taiyou no Komachi Angel”. Today their record has 34 consecutive hit debuts with this year’s single “Ai no Bakudan”.

In 1998 B’z released its greatest hits album “Pleasure”. Selling over 5 million discs it gained the title of the best-selling Japanese CD of all time. If you combine that with a second collective album of songs hand-picked by Tak and Koshi released soon thereafter titled “Treasure” they had a sales total of over 10 million copies.

1999 was a standout year for the B’z. The band received “Artist of the Year” at the esteemed Japan Gold Disc Awards as well as “World’s Best-Selling Asian Recording-Artist” at the World Music Awards. Also in 1999, B’z guitarist Tak Matsumoto was selected by world-famous guitar manufacturer Gibson to become a Gibson Signature artist. This is a rare honor, given only to guitarists who have truly established themselves. At the time only four other artists had been given such an honor: Blues extraordinaire B.B. King, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, Aerosmith’s Joe Perry and Kiss’ Ace Frehley. Today, Tak has five different signature Gibson guitars.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) B’z sold 86 million units by 2003. Currently they rank 5th with the all-time worldwide best selling artists-The Beatles 1st, Garth Brooks 2nd, Led Zeppelin 3rd and Elvis Presley 4th. Fans are guessing this will be the year they overtake Elvis as the 4th worldwide best selling artist.

Tak says in his 1999 hit solo single “THE CHANGING” “I want to change, I’m not different, I’m not original enough…there is no ‘latest technique’”. This is the philosophy that has kept B’z on top for seventeen years running in a land where fads go in and out at the blink of an eye. When B’z first came out in the late eighties, techno and dance music was gaining a lot of popularity. The band chose dance rock to fit the phase. In ‘91 they switched to pop rock with their fourth album “IN THE LIFE”. The following year they had a more simple rock feel with the album “RUN”. Then after a break in ‘93 they made a radical comeback with a two-disc album “The 7th Blues”-nothing but the blues. From ‘95 and onward, B’z has been hard rock that gets harder with every year. The latest album is yet another change in music style. A unique fusion of metal and the up beat-at times light and at times dark…the listener cannot be sure what’s more prevalent.

On April 23, 2005 the latest B’z album “THE CIRCLE” debuted at number one on the United World Chart for global album sales, beating a host of artists well known internationally including 50 Cent, Green Day and Jennifer Lopez to name a few. It seems the only reason for B’z being unknown to the average American is the language barrier. Overseas fans have been saying for years that if the band’s vocalist, Koshi had a better command of the English language they could sneak into the American rock scene. Japanese artists like Utada Hikaru have found ways into the US market, so why is it so hard for B’z? The answer is that Utada sings like an American even when she’s singing in Japanese- Koshi’s voice doesn’t ‘translate’ well into English. Another problem is that although he has written songs in English before, and his latest full-English song “Brighter Day” was notably good, you just can’t compare the lyrics to that of his Japanese songs. The mentality is completely different, and Koshi writes with more beauty and finesse in his native tongue.

Compare the first verse of “Brighter Day”:
Orange is the sky the sun’s going down
I feel like running away from here
Gentle is the wind cooling the town
There is no other place to go

With the translated first verse for “Gekkou” (Moonlight):
Your side profile as you fall asleep
I watch with burning desire
The beating of this heart seems to not understand
Coming out of the room dyed in blue light

The latter sparks a more vivid picture with more of an impact.

For an American to truly feel what makes B’z such a big deal, they need to be either content with simply the melody without a care for the content of the lyrics, or they have to be somewhat fluent in Japanese. After seeing the B’z live, I decided to get fluent. Their performance compelled me to.

Despite the low popularity outside of Asia, B’z have received acclaim from Aerosmith, whom they performed live with at the 2002 World Cup. They also have worked with the famed European guitarist Steve Vai on a song called “Asian Sky” for one of his albums. Steve Vai in turn did some mixing for Tak’s 2002 solo album “Hana”. Though originally only released in Japan, Vai re-released it on an international label making it available for the first time in the US without having to import it.

Despite all those impressive awards and figures, it isn’t just their talent that made me the fan of the B’z that I am today. It’s their charisma and devotion to music. To this day I haven’t seen a band match what I saw on Wednesday October 15th of 2003. I think back to that night-I was so alive. They’ll be back, I thought, and I’ll be waiting.

(Anonymous) B’z LIVE-ON- 1988-2003. Osaka, Nishi-me Hohorie (Japan): J-ROCK MAGAZINE, INC.,
B. 2003. <http://www.msopr.com/B%27z.htm> (18 Apr. 2005)
B’z. 2002. The Ballads ~Love & B’z~. Japan: VERMILLION RECORDS
B’z. 2005. THE CIRCLE. Japan: VERMILLION RECORDS
B’z Research Society. 1999. Inaba Koushi Big Story. Tokyo Buntokyou-me Mejirodai (Japan): HS·SH
B’z Vermillion. 2005. <bz-vermillion.com> (18 Apr. 2005)
GLOBAL ALBUM CHART. 2005. <http://www.mediatraffic.de/albums-week16-2005.htm> (18 Apr. 2005)
Henshubu. “Tettei Kouryaku Manual” Nikkei Entertainment! No.22 (1999)
Katsuyuki Oka (KOOL CAT). “ROCK’N’ROLL LEGEND” Virgin Megastore Music Magazine (VIRGIN) Issue 28 (2003)
Keen on B’z. <http://keen_on_all.tripod.com> (18 Apr. 2005)
Music of Japan- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2005. <http://en.wikipedia.org> (7 May 2005)
ORICON. 2005 ORICON-STYLE.com (7 May 2005)
Tak Matsumoto. 1999. THE CHANGING. Japan: ROOMS RECORDS, INC.

May 10, 2005 |All translations by Sean Newman