BaBe, the fun aidoru duo from the late 80s. Besides
the classics “Give Me Up” and “I Don’t Know”, BaBe had some great releases as
well, and “Get a Chance!”, my favorite from the girls, is one of them.
The obvious
eurobeat arrangement and the catchy chorus are what this song is about. The
hard bass and beat makes this an unlikely song for an aidoru duo like BaBe to perform, but I’m not complaining as the
result is great.
The video
above is from a crazy performance on "Music Station" where the girls had to sing
while walking thought a labyrinth with the camera crew running behind them to
capture everything. It’s quite fun as the girls expressions and little shouts
are very cute to watch. And that’s what aidoru
culture is all about, of course.
This
performance also made me think that the Japanese music shows from the 80s were
quite crazy and sometimes even epic. The production teams from music shows like
“Yoru no Hit Studio”, “The Best Ten” and “Music Station”, to name a few, had always
put a lot of effort into designing a nice and innovative stage for the newest aidoru performances at the time. They
didn’t succeed every time, with a big amount of bad designed and weird stages,
but you couldn’t say they didn’t try. And when they succeeded the viewers could
appreciate a stylistic and fun performance from both the artist and the
production team behind the stage design. Unfortunately this kind of thing is
almost lost nowadays. “Music Station” and “CDTV” still tries to do something
like that sometimes, but it’s not the same thing.
“Get a Chance!” was
released in May 1988 as BaBe’ sixth single. It reached #9 on the weekly Oricon
chart*. Other than that, I
couldn’t find how many copies of the single were sold. As it didn’t make the
Top 100 singles of 1988, I can say that it sold less than 91,000 copies,
because those were the numbers of the 100th place**. The song was
written by Mori Yukinojo (森雪之丞) and composed by
Hideya Nakazaki (中崎英也).
This was a really fun performance, thanks for sharing it (and the song!) I also miss the more gimmicky performances from The Best Ten and other shows, but I wonder if that more had to rely on having the same performers doing the same songs week in, week out?
ReplyDeleteNot as gimmicky as singing on the set of Sukeban Deka or in the middle of the Las Vegas strip, but a particular Akina Nakamori performance (involving a player piano) of "LIAR" from The Best Ten always got to me.
You're probably right, as in "The Best Ten" they had to inovate every week for the same performer/song. But that was not the case of You'u no Hit Studio, a music show taht always had beautifully designed stages too. I never always remember when Akina performed "SAND BEIGE -Sabaku e-" in a desert stage with camels and pyramids in the background, or when Miho Nakayama performed "SWITCH ON ~Heart no Switch wo Oshite~" while locked in a big bird cage.
ReplyDeleteI think I remember this "LIAR" performance. It was pretty nice. And "LIAR" is such a beautiful song as well. My favorite Akina's performance in "The Best Ten" is one of "SOUTHERN WIND", where she is surrounded by tropical birds (real birds, indeed) in a summery scenario. All in all, they were really good sometimes.
All I gotta say from watching the video is "Wow!" I sometimes watch "Music Station" on TV Japan, and they don't do those live performances anymore. And just seeing all those folks in the inset like Koji Tamaki, Moroboshi-kun, and of course, the one-and-only Tamori...just goes to show how much time has flown by.
ReplyDeleteThose ranking shows really pulled out all the stops for the performances. But my all-time favourite is watching a 1981 episode of either "Best 10" or "Top 10" where Seiko Matsuda had to perform one of her big hits while on a roller coaster. She didn't last the first dive....basically there was no more song, just terror-filled screaming. Meanwhile, her minder beside her was an absolute stoneface! I think the show was lucky that she didn't get sick on live national TV.
I'd love to see Seiko screaming in a roller coaster while trying to sing. They put the aidorus in very unpleasant situations sometimes. I remember Akina-chan (I think it was her) singing in a cold night with just the ocean behind her. The expression in her face denounced how much she was feeling cold. It was in "The Best Ten", probably the most extreme of the ranking music shows.
DeleteI miss the live bands on music shows too. They were responsible for great arrangements at the time. The synth-driven songs were always revamped into a classic orchestra arrangement, but it was great to see the changes. It gave a special feel to many songs of the time.