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When John, Paul, George, and Ringo rolled into Tokyo in June 1966 for a series of concerts at Budokan, much of the country was still grooving to the "eleki" boom fueled by The Ventures, who had been visiting the country since 1962 and had recently caught on massively. The "eleki" sound was popularized by such bands as The Blue Jeans (who opened for The Beatles on their Tokyo dates), The Spacemen, and The Sharp 5, and was characterized by an instrumental, surf-music style played on electric guitar. "Eleki", which is a Japanese abbreviation for "electric", marked the first major music movement in Japan where people were plugging in.
Japan, with its island country tradition of often looking to foreign shores for ideas, inspiration, and products, was of course by this time familiar with the British Invasion groups, including The Beatles, and some local beat bands were already breaking a trail in the market. But the Fab Four's stand at Budokan was in retrospect a turningpoint of sorts, and almost immediately after the shows the floodgates opened, spewing out a whole generation of kids rushing to form beat bands of their own.
With "eleki" no longer the sound du jour, the Japanese media scrambled to find a name for the new trend, initially settling on the uninspired "eleki vocal groups". However, the name that eventually stuck was "group sounds". While the actual origin is unclear, legend has it that it came about after Yuzo Kayama (teen film star and leader of the "eleki" group The Launchers) challenged Jackey Yoshikawa, leader of "Group Sounds" band Jackey & The Blue Comets, to come up with a name for his sound that didn't involve mangling terms like "rock and roll" with too many "l"s and "r"s on his television show. Yoshikawa, according to the story, came up with the term "group sounds" on the spot, and it soon spread across the country, becoming the style's official name.
The former "eleki" bands who had added vocalists and jumped on the GS bandwagon were first out of the gate, and groups like The Spiders and The Blue Comets posted several hits intheir new GS formats. But it was the second wave of GS bands that really pushed up the mercury. The Tigers, The Golden Cups, The Tempters, The Jaguars, The Beavers, The Dynamites, The Mops, The Carnabeats, and at least 20 other band made their major label debuts in 1967, ruling the airwaves and the hearts of their primarily teenaged female audience.
Many of the GS bands played a mixture of original music and straight-up covers of their influences, including The Animals, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and of course The Beatles. And much like their UK counterparts, these groups often caused a scene wherever they went, replete with screaming, crying fans and extensive media coverage. In addition to their concerts, the GS bands were heavily exposed through other channels as well, including movies, television, and public appearances - all funded by their record companies, who know money when they smell it.
Despite the star treatment, however, most of the GS bands were on meager allowances from their labels, and treated like puppets of the men in the back room.
In addition to the unfavorable contracts, most of the bands relied on outside writers to create their music and lyrics, giving them even less bargaining power.
By the time 1968 rolled around, signs began to appear that the GS heyday might be coming to an end. While the GS bands were, in general, nowhere near as wild or subversive as many of their counterparts in the UK, many schools began punishing students who were caught attending concerts by GS bands, sometimes sending teachers to round up students who disobeyed the no attendance rule. In addition, many towns began to ban GS bands from playing at all, severely limiting their ability to connect directly with fans. Public enemy number one was, for a while, The Tigers. Fronted by heartthrob Kenji Sawada - aka Julie - The Tigers played a concert in Nara where several fans were injured, and this was all it took to incur the ire of parents and local administrations looking for a reason to lash out.
In addition to the societal forces working against GS, a less heralded third wave of GS bands was hitting Japan at around this time, further slicing up the pie and led by bands including The Peacocks, The Blue Impulse, The Gullivers, The Phoenix, The Lions, and notably The Ox. Hailing from Osaka, members of The Ox were known to faint in fits of intensity during their performances, sometimes setting off chain reactions in the audience. Also perceived as a threat to the youth of Japan, The Ox soon found themselves without much in the way of gigs, and sales.
However, perhaps the most valid reason for the death of GS was the fact that it had stagnated as a movement. By 1969, record companies were clambering over one another to sign any band that identified itself with GS, much in the same way that the grunge movement of the early nineties in the States caused A&R teams to comb college towns across the country for the next Nirvana. Bands were aligning themselves with GS from a pure image standpoint, and many had moved to a more Japanese style of kayokyoku (that at times even smacked of enka) in order to avoid the wrath of the establishment they were courting.
In reaction, audiences began to move away from the GS bands, turning instead toward singer/songwriters and the "new rock" bands that would proliferate in the '70s and stand as a significant milestone in the development of original Japanese rock music.
While out of favor among most "real" music fans since the '70s, GS is seeing a minor resurgence in Japan, with bands including The Captains taking on the look and sound of their predecessors.
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