There was a time,
not long ago, when the majority of dance music that pumped out of speakers in Japanese
discos, clubs and bars was almost entirely imported. The Japanese were not known for
producing "danceable" dance music. But in the early ' one man changed all
that, selling millions of singles and albums in the process. Tetsuya Komuro, the man
behind such huge stars as trf, Namie Amuro and Tomomi Kahara, not only changed the dance
music scene but also the way in which Japanese pop music was marketed and sold.
Komuro, born in Tokyo in 1958, was raised in Setagaya Ward, not far from Shibuya, a place
that would continue to have considerable influence over him and his work. Komuro, or TK as
he is known in the industry, began his study of music when he was three, learning to play
the violin. Komuro also studied guitar, keyboards and synthesizer, which he pawned all his
other instruments to pay for.
As a student at Waseda University Komuro met up with Naoto Kine and Takashi Utsunomiya in
the band Speed Way. The three eventually left Speed Way to form their own group, TM
Network, whose first album, Rainbow Rainbow, came out in 1984. TM Network had their own
share of hits, such as "Get Wild" and "Self Control", but it was as a
solo artist that Komuro began to achieve real success, writing and producing songs for
other major talent such as Miho Nakayama, Seiko Matsuda and Kyoko Koizumi, ultimately
finding his true calling as a producer, songwriter and composer. After spending a year in
London exploring the dance music scene, Komuro returned to Japan more determined and sure
of what he wanted to do.
Komuro's idea was relatively simple: make songs that are catchy enough for karaoke but
funky enough for the dance floor and you have a sure-fire way of catching the ear of the
Japanese music market, the second largest in the world. Komuro's first success with this
formula was with trf, a dance/pop unit whose first singles "EZ Do Dance" and
"Boy Meets Girl", sold more than a million copies each. Expanding his marketing
concept beyond karaoke to utilize the power of television, Komuro began to use his
talent's songs in tie-ups as commercial jingles, an innovation which has since become
standard practice.
Komuro discoveries include some of the biggest talent of the '90s - Namie Amuro, Tomomi
Kahara, Max, Speed and globe, a three-member band which includes Marc Panther, a French
MTV VJ, and Komuro himself. Total sales of singles and albums that he has written,
produced, arranged and marketed amount to hundreds of millions, making Komuro one of the
top ten taxpayers in the entertainment industry every year for the past five years. Komuro
has also received the highest industry recognition year after year at music awards
ceremonies. The second half of the '90s has also seen Komuro's talent dominate the monthly
and yearly top ten sales charts based on karaoke revenue and total album sales.
Next, of course, is world domination. Komuro has signed a joint venture deal with Rupert
Murdoch' s News Corporation to discover, nurture and promote fresh talent from Hong Kong,
Taiwan and other Asian countries. Recently, Komuro teamed up with Jean Michel Jarre to
write the theme song for the 1998 soccer World Cup, thus boosting his international
profile. However, given the diversity of music in the US and Europe and the tastes of
music-buyers in those markets, it is unlikely that Komuro will be able to duplicate his
success abroad unless he changes his formula. Pop/ dance music sung by Lolita-type girls
whose voices matter less than their looks can only take you so far, after all.
There was a time,
not long ago, when the majority of dance music that pumped out of speakers in Japanese
discos, clubs and bars was almost entirely imported. The Japanese were not known for
producing "danceable" dance music. But in the early ' one man changed all
that, selling millions of singles and albums in the process. Tetsuya Komuro, the man
behind such huge stars as trf, Namie Amuro and Tomomi Kahara, not only changed the dance
music scene but also the way in which Japanese pop music was marketed and sold.
BIG IN JAPAN: