Tokyo Reborn: Dark Superstar

Chapter 194 The Third Album

The third album of the Beasts Band is not only Akina Nakamori's retirement album, but also the last album in the trilogy of the original Beasts Band's albums.

The album is titled "Ainu People".

If the first album "Kill, Miracle, Heart" was a trial and the beginning of their brilliance, the second album "PLANET" began to shine with the light of the Beast Band.

Now that they have released their third album "Ainu", the Beast Band, which has already successfully become one of the top bands in Asia, is determined to conquer the entire Japanese music scene.

Become famous - reach the top - become a god

The first two steps of the Beast Band have been achieved. Now, whether they can leave a "Beast Band era" in the Japanese music scene depends on this album.

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In order to ensure the quality of the album's arrangement, Bunta Takakura specially sought out the burning music producer Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Last year, Ryuichi Sakamoto released a trio studio album "1996", which was supported by BURNING.

Now that One piece Entertainment has inherited the power of Burning Production, it makes sense for Ryuichi Sakamoto to repay the favor by serving One piece Entertainment's mainstay band, Beasts.

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The artists belonging to the BURNING system include actors, singers, hosts, comedians, idol stars, photo actresses, models, and even countless entertainment journalists and sports stars.

In addition, there are some celebrities who do not belong to BURNING's agencies, but have business cooperation relationships with BURNING and also belong to the "BURNING system".

Good Morning Family, Ryoko Yonekura, Naoko Iijima, Haruka Igawa, Aya Ueto, Aoi Miyazaki, Saori Takizawa. Avex singers Kumi Koda, Ai Otsuka, Ami Suzuki. All of them have business partnerships with the Burning Group.

Killing off Suho Ikuo's family would be a huge profit.

Lin Zhiling is now a senior specialist of One Piece Entertainment and a senior operations consultant of Burning Production. He controls the power of BURNING and enjoys the gold coins generated by this operation.

One Piece Entertainment's power skyrocketed and it became one of the four top agencies, comparable to Johnny's Office, Stardust Communications, and Hori Productions Co., Ltd.

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In order to ensure the quality of the album arrangement, Bunta Takakura and Ryuichi Sakamoto actually talked for a long time before this, and this point had to be communicated well in advance.

There are too many examples of singers and music producers breaking up because of disagreements over album production.

Besides, the memories of the previous life were too distant, and Takakura Bunta only remembered the general lyrics and melody of many songs. If he was really asked to reproduce them perfectly, he really couldn't do it.

Ryuichi Sakamoto also made specific production plans for each song in the album.

Bunta Takakura specially booked a luxurious recording studio in Ebisu for Ryuichi Sakamoto on a long-term basis. He also contacted the musicians and recording engineers, who are well-known experts in the industry, and all other hardware is of first-class standard.

I wouldn’t say this treatment and configuration is the best in the industry, but it’s definitely top-notch.

In addition, most of the songs in the new album are sung by Akina Nakamori, and a creative discussion meeting is held every morning. This level of cooperation from superstar artists is unprecedented in the industry.

Even Ryuichi Sakamoto himself lamented that he had never fought such a rich battle in his life.

However, what excites him more is not the hardware and treatment, but the fact that Bunta Takakura has ten excellent songs in his new album.

The first song is "Ainu People"

This is the new song sung by Bunta Takakura at the NHK Red and White Songs Festival, and as usual, it will be included in the new album in the second year. This song has become popular all over the country because of Bunta Takakura's explosive performance at the Red and White Songs Festival, and it can even be regarded as the most popular song of this year's Red and White Songs Festival.

"Ainu People" is an adaptation of Xie Feng's "Yellow Man", which greatly incited the independence sentiment of Hokkaido. The Hokkaido Parliament even passed legislation to make this song the "administrative district song" of Hokkaido.

According to reliable sources, this song is expected to win the second prize in the song and dance category of the Red and White Songs Festival, and the first prize was awarded to Takuya Kimura of Johnny & Associates. If Takakura Bunta had defeated Suho Ikuo earlier, and One Piece Entertainment had taken over the Burning Legacy earlier, the first prize this year might have been "Ainu".

The awards in the entertainment industry are not based on fighting and killing, or social skills, but on strength and background...

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The second song is "Johnny wanna live".

It was originally a charity advertising song for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, but this time it was sung by three members of the band Beasts.

Starting from the third song "Girl A", the rest of the songs in this album are all sung by Akina Nakamori.

"Girl A" is a cover of Akina Nakamori's early masterpiece
This song transformed Akina Nakamori from a traditional sweet girl idol to a rebellious and free girl representative, taking a path that was rare in Japan at the time.

The song peaked at No. 5 on the Oricon charts, stayed on the charts for 29 weeks, and sold nearly 40 copies. This song is also one of Akina Nakamori's famous and early representative works.

This made Akina Nakamori win almost all the newcomer awards in the Japanese music scene at the end of the year. She made a big transformation from a pure girl at her debut, and her rebelliousness with sexual connotations was even banned by NHK TV station, which also caused a lot of attention.

From then on, Akina Nakamori and her lifelong rival Seiko Matsuda, who always wore a princess white dress, embarked on a completely different idol path.

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The fourth song "Shipwreck" and the fifth song "DESIRE - Passion -"

These two songs are also re-covers of Akina Nakamori's representative works in her career.

"Unbreakable Ship" is the 1987th single released by Akina Nakamori on September 9, 30, with lyrics and music written by Tokiko Kato and arranged by Kaoru Wakakusa.

The song reached number 1 on the Japanese Oricon chart, stayed on the chart for 19 weeks, and achieved sales of 41 copies.

中森明菜凭此曲，夺得第29届日本唱片大奖金赏，第2届日本金唱片大奖最佳日语单曲。1987年12月31日第5次出席红白歌会演唱该歌曲。

Before the release of this single, the relationship crisis between Akina Nakamori and her then-boyfriend Masahiko Kondo was already an open fact, and the media's frequent reports of Masahiko Kondo's scandals with other actresses made things worse.

At the same time, Johnny's Newsletter, published by Johnny's Office, reported extensively on Akina Nakamori's sister Akiho Nakamori, who signed a contract with Diamond Pictures and collaborated with Toru Nishimura to shoot art works. A large number of photos of art videotapes were made into posters and distributed everywhere.

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In this case, Akina Nakamori covered the song "The Hard Ship" which was originally written and sung by Tokiko Kato, describing that love is like a ship in distress at sea with a bumpy future.

At that time and even later, whenever Akina Nakamori sang this song on TV shows and in concerts, she would almost always choke up or cry.

From this point on, Akina Nakamori's image began to gradually change from cheerful and enthusiastic to tragic and sad.

The song "Shipwreck" won the 1987th Japan Record Award Gold Prize in 29 and the 2nd Japan Gold Disc Award for Best Japanese Single.

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"DESIRE -情熱-" was the first song that Akina Nakamori won the Japan Record Award. The album sold 51.6 copies. This song is also regarded as the representative work of Japan's original singer Akina Nakamori.

The costumes and movements for this song were designed by Akina Nakamori herself. The stage costume was a kimono, and the waving and squatting movements were inspired by baseball. After the release of "DESIRE -情熱-", Akina Nakamori's modified kimono and bob hairstyle caused a sensation at the time and became a hit.

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In addition to these five old songs that have been released, what attracted Ryuichi Sakamoto's attention more were the other five new songs.

(End of this chapter)