The Brilliant Green
| The Brilliant Green | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Alternative , J-Pop , J-Rock , Pop-Rock |
| founding | 1995 |
| Website | www.sonymusic.co.jp |
| Current occupation | |
| Tomoko Kawase ( Japanese 川 瀬 智子 , * February 6, 1975 ) | |
| Shunsaku Okuda ( 奥 田 俊 作 , born July 11, 1971 ) | |
| Ryō Matsui ( 松井 亮 , born February 11, 1972 ) | |
The Brilliant Green is a Japanese alternative - band , which in March 1995 in Kyoto was founded. Their third release, There Will Be Love There , made their breakthrough on the Japanese music market. After a five year creative hiatus, they resumed their activities with the single Stand By Me in 2007.
In 2001, they were listed by Time Magazine as one of the top ten bands outside the United States, alongside groups like Radiohead and U2 .
Band history
Shunsaku Okuda and Ryō Matsui had known each other since high school, but it was not until a few years later that they decided to form a band together after they had both previously been unsuccessfully active in other groups. In the summer of 1994 they first met Tomoko Kawase, who was also looking for members for her band at the time. In March 1995 they founded The Brilliant Green together . Inspired by various Japanese and Western, especially British artists, they produced several demo recordings , including a cover version of Rise & Shine by the Swedish band The Cardigans . As early as May 1995, they signed a record deal with Sony Music Japan , but it would take more than two years for their first release.
After two years, countless live performances and several demo recordings, her debut single, Bye Bye Mr. Mug, was finally released on September 21, 1997 . Both Bye Bye Mr. Mug and the subsequent single Good Bye and Good Luck were only moderately successful and did not get past positions 69 and 70 on the Oricon charts. It wasn't until their third release, There Will Be Love There , that they achieved their first hit. There Will Be Love There sold almost 880,000 copies, making it her most successful single to date and reaching number 1 in the Japanese charts five weeks after its release date. This was followed by two more number 1 singles and their self-titled debut album, which has sold over 1.3 million copies to date and is one of the most successful Japanese albums of 1998. The Brilliant Greens first nationwide tour was completely sold out within three minutes thanks to previous successes and online concert ticket sales. 1999 was their most active year to date with a total of five single releases, a studio album and their nationwide tour There Will Be Live There , but the hype about the band that had started the previous year subsided over the course of the year and sales fell significantly.
While the first two singles in the spring of 1999 still reached top positions, Bye! My boy! in December not beyond position 29. In the following two years only two more songs and the album Los Angeles were released. At this point in time, the band was in danger of being forgotten on the Japanese music market, as there were no major releases and the band complained of lack of ideas. In 2002, Kawase started her first solo project, Tommy February 6 . When everything pointed to the end of the band, the singles Forever to Me ~ Owari Naki Kanashimi ~ , Rainy Days Never Stays , I'm So Sorry Baby and the Winter Album were released. Both the album and the singles sold sluggishly and could no longer keep up with the releases of their most popular times between 1998 and 1999, despite again excellent music reviews. The band then decided to cease their activities, but there was no official report that the band would break up. Over the next few years, Kawase and Tommy Heavenly 6 and Matsui and Meister took care of their solo projects, while Okuda withdrew from the public.
In 2007, The Brilliant Green surprisingly announced the resumption of their activities. Stand By Me was released on August 22, 2007, four years and eight months after it was last published . Two more singles and the successful Complete Single Collection followed . The latter made it to the top of the Japanese charts as the first of their albums and reached number 6 in the world charts. For the tenth anniversary of the band's debut album, a new studio album was announced for late 2008.
Music genre
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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In contrast to most other Japanese groups, the music of The Brilliant Green is very much influenced by the western, but mainly British, musical style, which is also reflected in and in the often very English- heavy texts ( Good Bye and Good Luck , Call My Name ). In addition to J-pop and hard rock influences ( Rainy Days Never Stays or Ash Like Snow ), influences from the Beatles and the Britpop movement are also evident in their songs ( Bye Bye Mr. Mug , Good Bye and Good Luck , Nagai Tameiki No You Ni ).
While all the songs are composed by Okuda and partly by Matsui ( I'm in Heaven , Baby London Star ), all lyrics are written exclusively by Kawase himself. In some of the English texts written by Kawase, serious grammatical errors and also classic Engrish are noticeable, which is often already evident in the titles ( There Will Be Love There , Rainy Days Never Stays ). It is not known whether these errors are intentional or result from a lack of knowledge of English.
The band's music style has hardly changed over the years, but newer songs - which were written during and after their long break - sound more modern and sometimes more mature than their first works.
Discography
Studio albums
- 1998: The Brilliant Green
- 1999: Terra 2001
- 2001: Los Angeles
- 2002: The Winter Album
- 2010: blackout
Compilations
- 2008: The Brilliant Green Complete Single Collection '97 -'08 (collection of all singles released so far)
Singles
- 1997: Bye Bye Mr. Mug
- 1997: Good Bye and Good Luck
- 1998: There Will Be Love There -Ai no Aru Basho- ( 愛 の あ る 場所 )
- 1998: Tsumetai Hana ( 冷 た い 花 )
- 1999: Sono Speed de ( そ の ス ピ ー ド で )
- 1999: Nagai Tameiki no Yō ni ( 長 い た め 息 の よ う に )
- 1999: Ai no ♥ Ai no Hoshi ( 愛 の ♥ 愛 の 星 )
- 1999: Call My Name
- 1999: Bye! My boy!
- 2000: Hello Another Way -Sorezore no Basho- ( そ れ ぞ れ の 場所 )
- 2000: Angel Song -Eve no Kane- ( イ ヴ の 鐘 )
- 2002: Forever to Me -Owari Naki Kanashimi- ( 終 わ り な き 悲 し み )
- 2002: Rainy Days Never Stays
- 2002: I'm So Sorry Baby
- 2007: Stand By Me
- 2007: Enemy
- 2008: Ash Like Snow
Video albums
- 1999: The Brilliant Green Clips (collection of all music videos released between 1997 and 1998)
- 2000: Super Terra 2000 (live recordings of concerts on January 11, 2001 at Fukuoka Sunpalace and January 15 and 16, 2001 at Shibuya CC Lemon Hall )
- 2001: Los Angeles Clips 2 (collection of all music videos released between 1999 and 2000)
- 2008: The Brilliant Green Music Video Collection '98 -'08 (collection of all previously published music videos)
Web links
- Official website at Warner Music Japan
- Official Sony Music Entertainment Japan