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Old Oct 8, 2020, 04:25 AM
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SaintSquall SaintSquall is offline
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I'm missing some credits including engineers for this album, but I can't resist adding it now, being a Megumi Hayakawa fan.

Fortunately Masao Nakajima is credited on all her albums as a composer and/or arranger, it gives me the possibility to add Megumi Hayakawa's albums. You can count on me to add her full discography in the future to VGMdb :-)

This artist is not very well known, having -unfortunately- made an express career of about one and a half years in the 80s in Japan before disappearing from the scene (and reappearing many years later under her real name Hiroshi Shimazu). But career has nothing to do with talent, and if you like rock (Hard / Melodic / Pop) and AOR, and some great voices like Mari Hamada or Steffanie Borges, you absolutely must listen to her albums. It's simple, for me it's the best Japanese female voice of the 80s, surely my best discovery of the last few years. Moreover the compositions, arrangements and instrumentations of her albums are great.

I recommend specially "FACE TO FACE" what I consider her best album, the only one released on CD:
https://vgmdb.net/album/103410
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Old Oct 10, 2020, 06:41 AM
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Daemonskald Daemonskald is offline
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She and a few other female vocalists were part of what can be called "Metal Idols/Kayo Metal Idols"; a short lived phenomenon (around 1982 - 1987) where some producers just wanted try a heavier sound with the then popular kayo idols.

Heavy Metal was on the rise in Japan with bands like Loudness, 44 Magnum, Vow Wow... so it's easy to see they just wanted to capitalized on it.

But they did not forecast the band boom which started 1984 - 1985 and embraced all genre including rock (from soft rock to hard rock) even fronted by female vocalists (Rebecca, Personz, Princess Princess, Show-Ya, etc...). Heck, even "old-school idols" turned rock at that time (Ann Lewis, maybe the best example of all)...

As idols are pure producers' products, they disapeared as fast as they came. Only Hamada Mari "survived" from this phenomenon and still sings nowadays. You might wonder why. Easy: the "Metal Queen" was at least smarter than the other and starting her 3rd album she was already self-produced.

Other notable thing that happened thanks to this phenomenon; most sessions musicians that played in these albums started their own band (if it was not already the case): B'z, FENCE OF DEFENSE, MAKE-UP, etc... to name a few.

Also, if you like or are interested in "Metal Idols", I always point to this site as a good starter/reference:
http://matsnagger.ninja-mania.jp/Meg...megumisama.htm
http://matsnagger.ninja-mania.jp/jap...metaqueens.htm
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Old Oct 11, 2020, 07:05 AM
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SaintSquall SaintSquall is offline
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Thanks for the info and the links. I don't think I've been to this site before.

There is also this website which is not bad:
https://idol.ne.jp/hayakawamegumi

I was wondering why Megumi Hayakawa's career had ended so suddenly, so it would be simply the producers' fault... However she must have been successful, 6 albums and 4 singles at not even a year and a half, it’s huge... So I said to myself that she could not stand the pressure or that she was fed up with the scene… Anyway, it's a shame to have stopped so quickly, even if there are a lot of songs to listen and listen again…

In fact more than metal idols, it's mostly great and strong voices that I'm looking for, so it can be singers within bands too.

I also know a little Youri Sugimoto, especially through her songs for animes. She has a great voice, I love especially her songs for the OVA "Digital Devil Story: Megami Taisen" and the movie "Grey Digital Target".
On the other hand I find her 1984 album "Dynamyte" a little disappointing compared to his good reputation on the web. Even if there are 3 or 4 songs not bad, the melodies are not very catchy and lack originality mostly, and the instrumentations lack a bit of madness.
That said, speaking of this album, I can add it to VGMdb, since we find Masatoshi Nishimura there…

Last edited by SaintSquall; Oct 11, 2020 at 08:55 AM.
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