Tsunku♂, Hello! Project: Greatness upon greatness

Hello! Project, Tsunku's creation, during Wonderful Hearts tour, January 2009.

Tsunku♂'s songs are revolutionary, and he is by far one of the most prolific composers of the modern are. He takes a song idea and turns it around very quickly. Somebody who writes and produces upwards of 100 songs a year has the juice and has it at a high level.

I compare Tsunku♂ to the Beatles in his cultural impact. Sony Music, in its usual idiotic fashion, only offers H!P DVDs in Region 2 format -- purposely blocking out the U.S. market. Well, just get a region-free DVD player and that barrier can be crashed, but most Americans aren't bright enough to figure that out, and we are very culturally lazy.

So how does this compare to the Beatles? Recall that, in the early 1960s, EMI would not release Beatles songs into the U.S. market, where they would have eaten Motown alive (which they did eventually). But the Beatles were so wildly popular in Europe, and even Asia, that sooner or later it had to happen. In 1963, the dam burst, and the Beatles were global stars, and Motown and much of the U.S. rock-and-roll market swerved toward the British invasion.

Reina of Morning Musume, opening sonng, "Resonant Blue," Wonderful Hearts, January 2009.

Same here, folks, but probably worse. Hello! Project is an insanely simple concept -- get attractive young girls to espouse exhuberant and optimistic visions olf the future, flirt with the guys musically while at the same time being kind and gentle, wear astonishing and even wild costumes -- and just flat-out do what girls like to do! It is a cosmically combustible combination. If H!P ever became widely available in the U.S. -- especially with English subtitles -- it would run wild, like a prairie fire, like a hot Samurai sword through soft American pop-music butter. The U.S. acts are all old and lazy. J-pop, especially H!P, is energetic and innovative. No wonder Sony wants that Region 2 firewall in place.

Before colliding with Hello! Project through the Internet last year, I was a frustrated, unhappy former music teacher, college professor and journalist, in a midlife-crisis quagmire with no way out. Now, just over a year later, I am a working journalist with all manner of artistic sidelines going, and I'm even going back to Puffy AmiYumi concerts whenever they swing through the U.S.

In other words, Tsunku♂'s vision has turned me around. That goes for everybody -- the legendary "varsity" team, Morning Musume; the "J.V." team, Berryz Kobo; the "freshman" unit, °C-ute; the tiny and talented H!P Pro Eggs, fantastic elders like Yossi, Abe, Konno, Yaguchi, Melon Kinenbi, V-u-den, and on and on.

°C-ute, one of the greatest song-and-dance ensembles in the world, January 2009.

Frankly, I dislike most female music acts, for the same reason sports fans won't tolerate female play-by-play game announcers. It has to be a heck of a quality voice to keep my attention.

How has Tsunku♂ taken on this problem? Force of numbers.

Lord, the July 29, 2007, H!P concert was the latest masterpiece where at least 60 girls (at my count) again blew the doors off Saitama Super Arena (if I'm wrong here, please forgive me) just as they blew the doors off Yokohama Arena back in January.

And Tsunku♂ knows when he has a hit on his hands. For example, "Jump" was a hidden flip side in °C-ute's early 2007 single, and after °C-ute tore the doors down in its February and April concerts with that song, Tsunku♂ made it a fantasic finale in July with all the units combining in what I consider the best pop-music song performance of the past dozen years.

Miyabi, foreground, of Berryz Kobo, January 2009 during Wonderful Hearts tour.

It's just getting better and better -- Buono!, the anime tie-ins, the infectious enthusiasm, the expert implementation of the kawai concept, the costumes, the glitter, the color ... bring it on!

This is Rad signing off -- for now.