It is with great pleasure that I am re-blogging the MorningBerryz48 post on the AKB48 “Halloween Night” single. Many of you have seen the video clip before, however her Berryzness has also included a weath of photos and also included the “coupling songs” (“B-sides” to those of us who remember 45 records) which come with the different versions of the single/dvd.
Wow. Her post is better than any dissertation that I could write.
I especially love the Enka-song and dance for “Ippome Ondo”. I wanted to make my own special post for “Kimonos on Monday” with a preview video of the song, but you can view it here in its entirety! Photos too!
My brain almost exploded with happiness when I saw Haruka Kodama in the Under Girls “Sayonara Surfboard”. Also if you watch Next Girls “Mizu no naka no dendouritsu” you get a pretty good answer to the question: “Is it soup yet?”!
… and so much more!!!
Go see for yourself. If you have been following my blog for the Jpop culture, you should follow MorningBerryz48.
Mrs. Wiggins, cancel all of my appointments today. I’m busy.
Even before the camera moved up, I knew that it was Yukirin front-center here
I know that it is too early for Halloween, but I have been enjoying AKB48’s 41st single “Halloween Night” released a couple of weeks ago. I think that it is a very good disco song. Yes disco. The group did a very good job at capturing what I hear as a 1970s-style sound.
That is a big accomplishment, because in the 1970s, I was one of those “heavy metal kids” with the “DISCO SUCKS” t-shirt. Most of you are too young to know about this: The 1970s hard-rock, FM rock community I was a part of back then, did not like the Disco trend which was taking over the nation in the late 1970s. We loved Led Zeppelin, The Who, Todd Rundgren, Jethro Tull, Emerson Lake & Palmer, etc. , but would not tolerate any disco music. Looking back, I should not have been such a music bigot. I was young, and had a long musical journey ahead of me. I listen to all kinds of music today, and there are few genres that I do not like at least a little bit.
But .. EEE-gads, if the long-haired, leather clad 18-year old Denny would have known that someday the (something-something)-year old Denny would be loving a disco song by a “manufactured” Japanese girl dancers pop group, he would have thrown up his 12-pack of Colt 45.
… or maybe I would have liked this kind of disco music. I might admit, that there were some disco songs I thought were OK. In fact, The Rolling Stones – who were worshiped by the hard rock crowd – were actually kind of “disco” when I think back on it. There was no getting away from disco in the 70s, no matter how hard you rocked. Furthermore, most 1970s “chicks” were OK with the Disco. Even if they liked hard rock too, most of the ladies I knew liked to disco dance! The girls had it right. They might rock out at an Aerosmith concert, but they also knew that disco dancing was fun too. I guess I was too “anal” (which is the nice way to say what we heavy metal fans were).
“Look, if you are going to talk to this chick, you are going to have to go out on the disco dance floor”.
Oh, getting back to the new AKB48 single. It is pretty cool. Sashi does a good job centering this single. (All is forgiven. You deserve to be center, Rino-chan.) The integration of occasional English words is pretty cute, and lends itself to that 1970s feel. That “Boogie Night” phrase kills me. “Ready? …” So cute.
The official music video features the ladies in great (but freaky) Halloween costumes. However, I think that I prefer these shiny-silver dance outfits used in this promo performance video. I think these silver mini-skirts are cuter and sexier than the scary stuff. Overall, I am liking performance videos better than the official music videos these days. I think the TV appearances and other performance videos (PVs) allow for a better look at all the Idols. The official music videos (MVs) are usually cut pretty fast, and are often about something else than the song.
I like to watch the PVs and identify the members who I know. I don’t know ALL the members, particularly with all the recent graduations, and the creation of so many sister groups and sub-units. I can only identify about 30 current members by name, but may remember the name when reminded in a subbed video — “Oh, yeah … her.” The funny thing is, that I can ID which one is Yuki Kashiwagi, just from looking at her legs. (See top photo above.) As the camera pans over the dance floor, you just see the girls legs, but then before it panned up, I thought “oh, there is Yuki”. Ha. I am so much of a fan, I can now identify her just by her legs. Hoo boy … I should really get going to work today.
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Here is what some of the “Halloween” costumes look like …
… which you can see more of in the commercial — I mean — the “short version” of the official MV approved by the company..
Sakura is a great choice to be a jester. Mayuyu is adorable as a goth-lolita, and Jurina is a perfect black widow.
If you can get Jpopsuki to load, you can view the entire HN video here. You may have to “boogie” something while it loads, but it is worth the wait.
The music video has a lot of lighted-floor disco dancing — straight out of Saturday Night Fever. There are a lot of dancing dudes too. “There are girls who look like guys, dancing with guys who look like girls.” I think that I actually owned some of those polyester shirts shown. The great thing about those polyester leisure suits those guys are wearing is that they did not need any ironing or special care. You could “boogie” all night in it, wash your car with it the next day, then hang it up and it would look fine.
We also get to see disco dancing styles from not just the 70s — but some 80s “break” dancing, those 1990s dances, and the more modern “whatever-the-devil-you-young-people-call-dancing-these-days.” It is a very fun concept video, but I will probably stick with the performance video instead.
OH! If you want to learn how to dance AKB’s “Halloween Night” dance, instructions are linked here. I can only do the “bat” move.
STARLIGHT: Don’t point the telescope at all my embarrassing 1970s Heavy Metal T-shirts!!! … too scary …
Likes: Pop Culture, Humor, Japanese Culture, Iwasa Misaki, Hanako Oku, AKB48 History, Kurosawa films, Kimonos, Anime, Lolita fashion, Buddhist philosophy, and finding the perfect nicknames for my Pokemon.
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Denny Sinnoh 
Written
on August 14, 2015