Julyssa’s Jukebox – The Morning Musume Edition

Ah, Morning Musume. My very first Asian fandom. How I loved the girls, the music and just everything about it. Then a change happened. The glory days of Morning Musume ended and now my fandom is a mere otaku service. I digress so hard because Morning Musume had the possibility of becoming great, they were just badly managed (then AKB48 happened and that was pretty much it for Morning Musume).

Anyway, in celebration of their  50th single (!) I dedicate my Jukebox post to this great Japanese girl group that I once used to love.

1. One・Two・Three

For a 50th single, this is a real disappointment. It’s not horribly bad, but come on, more genki and energy, seeing as it is the 50th single!

2. ザ☆ピース!(The Peace!)

I am not sure which was the first Morning Musume song I heard. I know I first encountered their sub-units before finding the entire group. But this song was one of my absolute favorites becuase, gosh I don’t even remember. Golden era of Morning Musume, how I miss you!

3. 女子かしまし物語 (The Story of Noisy Girls)

This song is pure crack, but it is adorable crack. SNSD and Super Junior, eat your heart outs. 14 girls in one tiny train compartment :D!

4. 笑顔YESヌード (Egao Yes Nude) + 悲しみトワイライト(Kanashimi Twilight)

Bear with me here because there was no way in hell I was not going to put these songs on this list without adding the last songs beneath.

These two songs are very special to me for two reasons: they are the two last songs in which Hitomi Yoshizawa featured (why and how much I love this woman, I shall discuss in another post) and because they were an indication that Morning Musume was embarking on a new sound. I was giddy because I felt that MM needed to get away from the 90s pop sound they frequently use. Not that it’s completely bad, but MM as a group have never really steered away from that. There was a need to evolve and to adapt to the music scene of today and these two songs were it. I was beyond ecstatic to see where MM was heading, albeit sad that Hitomi was leaving the group. I was a very happy MM fangirl then. How rapidly that changed…

5. リゾナント ブルー (Resonant Blue) + 3,2,1 BREAKIN’OUT!

Yeah, I had a hard time cutting down my choices. But there’s a good reason I added two songs again: these are the last good singles MM released. When Resonant Blue came out I was about to blow a gasket. Yes, yes, yes! They were keeping up with the new sound, it was more mature and sexy. Yes!!! I think I fist pumped for an entire week after this song came out. Then MM went back to their old sound, but this time around the songs were lackluster and the costumes vomit-worthy. That is when I left fandom, seeing as I had nothing to keep me back and by that time Kpop came and seduced me with it’s amazing production, cool choreography and amazing fashion. I am shallow, I know.

According to me, Breakin’Out is the last good single Morning Musume released as to date. That was three years ago.

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Oki, so I took some liberties with my choices. But dammit! I have never had so many issues just picking five songs from a group’s entire discography. First of all, MM’s discography is pretty big (50 singles + lord knows how many other songs from albums and what not) and I am pretty much in love with 80% of their songs. So yeah, this jukebox was pretty hard for me to do. Not only because of having to chose so few songs but because I am still bitter about Morning Musume. Just thinking about what they could’ve achieved had they just had the right management… I digress yet again. I want to say there’s some hope for Morning Musume, but I doubt it. My first Asian fandom is dead. Long live my first Asian fandom!

But congrats to Morning Musume in reaching their 50th single. I do hope they keep at it for many years to come. I just shall not care anymore :(.

Julyssa

Music is all I do: I work in music, I write about music, I listen to music.

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