7 comments on “Have any of you guys been following Morning Musume ever since the ASAYAN days?

  1. I got into momusu around the time of happy summer wedding release. (big band/funk dance man and b-side tsuugaku ressha mune-kyun r&b akira were revelations).

    The only asayan stuff I remember watching were those okamura specials (travelogue, bakajo test, etc.).

    My first exposure to jpop in spring 2000 were: speed (Hiromasa ijichi), Suzuki ami (komuro tetsuya), m-flo, utada, and tsunku….not hard to imagine why i’m still hooked.

  2. I was introduced to Momusu during the “Manatsu no Kousen” era, post-Asuka. So I was all ready for the Suzuki Ami showdown. Boy, that was the ultimate stomach punch to the gut! The bounce back to “Love Machine” healed a few wounds but I still have a slight resentment whenever I hear “Be Together.”

  3. It was early 2001 for me, not long after RR21 was released. It wasn’t easy to be an overseas JPop fan back then. High-speed internet was nothing like it is today, and neither streaming nor bittorrent were things. I got stuff from newsgroups, irc and fan-sites. A single song took like 15 minutes to download, short, crappy video clips 30+ minutes! It was a lot of fun, though. The Japanese music scene was in the middle of an insanely good period in 2001. So many great bands, pop groups and soloists releasing a wide variety of really great, interesting music.

    • It was in 2002 for me. Those fan sites and forums were indeed a great source of files and news.

  4. I believe I said it before but ASAYAN pushing Tsunku and Wada to come up with ideas to keep them on the show is what made them so exciting. Pucchimoni was born out of the show and Tsunku wanting to keep the ball rolling on Morning Musume’s success, with them pitching the idea when Love Machine was in its 5th week of sales. The ASAYAN staff knew the kind of content to keep people glued to their screens, Wada had the industry experience and Tsunku, while still green in the industry, had a great sense of what was popular.

    Speaking of SPEED, Tsunku (during SharanQ’s peak, mind you) played their debut song on his radio show a month before their debut he looked at the promotional material and wondered why Takako (one of the dancers) wasn’t at the forefront. He said she was gorgeous and said he would bet she would become the most popular. Even though Takako wasn’t a singer and rarely got focus compared to the two singers, she was the most popular member and the first to get a solo career (and the only SPEED member to get a #1). Tsunku seemed to be fascinated with them and Amuro Namie when they were on TV together. Tsunku still says to this day the perfect Musume member would be like Amuro during her idol days.

  5. 2001 when I first got into them. I saw their mini-CD of Memory Seishun no Hikari, when I was in London. Picked it up and have been a fan since. They were the Japanese group, singer, etc that I listened to, when I broke free from anime music or anime VA’s music.

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