Once upon a time there was an uncontested ruler of the J-pop kingdom. His name was Tetsuya Komuro, and in the mid-‘90s he was the man with the Midas touch, as Komuro productions regularly topped the charts. In one memorable week in 1995, the top five positions on the Japanese singles chart were occupied by Komuro-produced acts, a feat that no one – including Komuro – has since matched. Another measure of Komuro’s success was that for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1996, he was Japan's No. 1 songwriter in terms of royalties collected. Komuro’s rise to the top of the J-pop heap in the first half of the ‘90s paralleled the extraordinary success of independent record label Avex, which released most of the artists he produced. Perhaps the most representative “Komuro family” act was trf (short for “Tetsuya Rave Factory”), whose music was based on the dance/pop template on which Komuro based his sound. As Komuro explained in a 1995 interview, “The simplest way of expressing what I had in mind with trf is 'karaoke and dance.' With karaoke, you only sing, and at a disco, you only dance. I thought, 'Wouldn't it be fun if the two biggest forms of entertainment for kids could be mixed?’” Komuro's musical career began in the early '80s, when he formed techno/pop band trio TMN with Takashi Utsunomiya and Naoto Kine. In 1992, with TMN about to break up, Komuro put together trf, who were then signed by Avex. That label had made a name for itself by releasing compi...
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Once upon a time there was an uncontested ruler of the J-pop kingdom. His name was Tetsuya Komuro, and in the mid-‘90s he was the man with the Midas touch, as Komuro productions regularly topped the charts. In one memorable week in 1995, the top five positions on the Japanese singles chart were occupied by Komuro-produced acts, a feat that no one – including Komuro – has since matched. Another measure of Komuro’s success was that for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1996, he was Japan's No. 1 songwriter in terms of royalties collected. Komuro’s rise to the top of the J-pop heap in the first half of the ‘90s paralleled the extraordinary success of independent record label Avex, which released most of the artists he produced. Perhaps the most representative “Komuro family” act was trf (short for “Tetsuya Rave Factory”), whose music was based on the dance/pop template on which Komuro based his sound. As Komuro explained in a 1995 interview, “The simplest way of expressing what I had in mind with trf is 'karaoke and dance.' With karaoke, you only sing, and at a disco, you only dance. I thought, 'Wouldn't it be fun if the two biggest forms of entertainment for kids could be mixed?’” Komuro's musical career began in the early '80s, when he formed techno/pop band trio TMN with Takashi Utsunomiya and Naoto Kine. In 1992, with TMN about to break up, Komuro put together trf, who were then signed by Avex. That label had made a name for itself by releasing compilations of foreign dance music in association with the then-megapopular Tokyo club Juliana’s. Other acts produced by Komuro during his mid-’90s heyday included dos, his own globe trio, Miho Nakayama, Kyoko Koizumi, Tomomi Kahala, Arisa Mizuki, Ryoko Shinohara and, most notably,
Namie Amuro, who was Japan’s leading pre-
Ayumi Hamasaki idol. In 1997 Komuro announced the establishment of TK News, a music and TV software development company set up as a joint venture aimed at promoting Komuro-produced music in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China. Despite a lot of initial fanfare, nothing ever really came of the TK News project. Komuro also set up his own record label, Orumok (geddit?) Records, which never took off either. Komuro’s star then began to fade as Japanese music fans OD’d on the Komuro sound. He gradually distanced himself from Avex, producing
Ami Suzuki for Sony, for example, although globe – whose other members include rapper Marc Panther and female singer Keiko (now Mrs. Komuro) – still records for Avex. Globe, by the way, was briefly a quartet with the addition of former
X Japan leader Yoshiki, who apparently lost interest in globe rather quickly. Komuro may no longer be the king of J-pop, but he had an amazing run of success, and these days he’s probably quite happy to spend most of his time in the counting house, counting all his money.
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