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Beatmania ClubMix
(styled as ''beatmania'') is a rhythm video game developed and distributed by Japanese game developer Konami and first released in December 1997. It contributed largely to the boom of music games in 1998, and the series expanded not only with arcade sequels, but also moved to home consoles and other portable devices, achieving a million unit sales. The Bemani line of music games from Konami is named after the series, was first adopted in the arcade release of ''Beatmania 3rdMix'' and kept ever since. The series came to an end with the last game being ''Beatmania The Final'', released in 2002. ''Beatmania'' gave birth to several spinoffs, such as the '' Beatmania IIDX'' series (a more advanced version featuring 7 keys and higher difficulty levels, and to this day still receiving new version updates) and the other being '' Beatmania III'', a remake of the 5-key series which featured a more modern hardware platform, a pedal for optional effects and a 3.5" floppy disk drive to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bemani
, stylized as BEMANI, is Konami's music video game division. Originally named the Games & Music Division (G.M.D.), it changed its name in honor of its first and most successful game, ''Beatmania'', and expanded into other music-based games, most notably rhythm games such as ''Dance Dance Revolution'', ''GuitarFreaks'', and ''DrumMania''. Current Bemani games Since 1997, Konami has released many different series of music games under the Bemani brand. Each series has a unique way of playing the game and detaches players from the typical Gamepad, hand held controller of modern game systems by using their whole body to control the game. ''Dance Dance Revolution'' lets players dance with their feet, ''Beatmania'' gives players a DJ style mixing board complete with turntable, ''ParaParaParadise'' is controlled with the players hands and arm by setting off motion sensors during the dance routine, and ''GuitarFreaks'' & ''DrumMania'' let players use simplified instruments to create mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naoki Maeda (composer)
Naoki Maeda may refer to: * Naoki Maeda (composer) (born 1969), Japanese composer * Naoki Maeda (footballer, born 1994), Japanese footballer * Naoki Maeda (footballer, born 1996), Japanese footballer {{hndis, Maeda, Naoki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mobile System GB
The was a short-lived peripheral developed by Nintendo that allowed the handheld Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance consoles to connect to a mobile phone and utilize its cellular network. The accessory used a proprietary networking service called operated by KDDI to exchange data. Following delays, the device and service launched in Japan on 27 January 2001. Together, they enabled online functionality for roughly 20 games, most notably ''Pokémon Crystal'' and ''Mobile Golf''. Nintendo and Konami formed a joint venture, Mobile21, to create games that utilized the service. Nintendo ultimately chose not to release the adapter outside Japan, citing international wireless incompatibilities and market differences. Its high costs and limited game compatibility hindered widespread adoption, with only 80,000 units sold in its first year. The service was discontinued after less than two years on 18 December 2002, marking an early, albeit unsuccessful, attempt at handheld Online game, o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hideo Kojima
is a Japanese video game designer. Regarded as one of the pioneering auteurs of video games, he developed a strong passion for film and literature during his childhood and adolescence, which in turn has had a significant influence on his games. In 1986, Kojima joined Konami, for which he directed, designed, and wrote ''Metal Gear (video game), Metal Gear'' (1987) for the MSX, MSX2, the game that laid the foundations for the stealth game, stealth genre and the ''Metal Gear'' franchise, his best known and most acclaimed work. At Konami, he also produced the ''Zone of the Enders'' series, as well as designing and writing ''Snatcher (video game), Snatcher'' (1988) and ''Policenauts'' (1994), graphic adventure games regarded for their cinematic presentation. Kojima founded Kojima Productions within Konami in 2005, and was appointed vice president of Konami Digital Entertainment in 2011. Following his departure from Konami in 2015, he refounded Kojima Productions as an independent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hikaru Utada
, also known mononymously as Utada, is a Japanese and American singer, songwriter, and producer. She is considered to be one of the most influential and best-selling musical artists in Japan. She is best known by international audiences for writing and producing four theme-song contributions to Square Enix and Disney Interactive Studios, Disney's collaborative video game series ''Kingdom Hearts'': "Hikari (Hikaru Utada song), Simple and Clean", "Passion (Hikaru Utada song), Sanctuary", "Chikai (Hikaru Utada song), Don't Think Twice", and "Face My Fears". Utada was born in New York City to Japanese parents, record producer Teruzane Utada and singer Keiko Fuji. She began to write music and lyrics at an early age and often traveled to Tokyo as a result of her father's job. After signing to EMI Music Japan, Toshiba-EMI, she released her English-language debut album ''Precious (Cubic U album), Precious'' under the name Cubic U in 1998, which was a commercial failure. In the follow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SMAP
was a Japanese boy band, composed of Masahiro Nakai, Takuya Kimura, Goro Inagaki, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, and Shingo Katori. The group was created in 1988 by music producer Johnny Kitagawa, founder of Johnny & Associates, originally as a six-piece with Katsuyuki Mori, until his departure from the band in 1996. The name stands for "Sports Music Assemble People". After making their debut in 1991, the group took the Japanese entertainment industry by storm, becoming one of the most successful boy bands in Asia. The group is often referred to as a "national treasure" and a "fortune and property of the country" in Japan. SMAP was regarded as an iconic group in Japan, after achieving an unprecedented level of success in numerous genres in the entertainment industry, including music, television, film, radio, and theater, as a group and individually. SMAP was credited for changing the Japanese entertainment and music industry, in terms of prolonging longevity of boy bands and broadenin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morning Musume
, formerly and commonly known as and colloquially referred to as , is a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon, Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most top-ten singles, having 64 of them. Morning Musume was formed in 1997 by rock singer-songwriter turned record producer Tsunku, who later composed the vast majority of the group's songs over the decade. They are the lead group of Hello! Project that specialises in upbeat, pop-oriented music coupled with dance performance. The group produced several splinter groups, and often collaborates with other Hello! Project acts, including Country Musume, Berryz Kobo, Cute (Japanese idol group), Cute, Melon Kinenbi, and V-u-den. The group's name can be translated as "Morning Girls" or "Morning Daughters"; it consists of members mostly in their late adolescence and early 20s. History 1997-1998: Formation and beginnings Japanese producer Tsunku started ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yellow Magic Orchestra
Yellow Magic Orchestra (abbreviated to YMO) was a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono (bass, keyboards, vocals), Yukihiro Takahashi (drums, lead vocals, occasional keyboards) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards, vocals). The group is considered influential and innovative in the field of popular electronic music. They were pioneers in their use of synthesizers, samplers, sequencers, drum machines, computers, and digital recording technology, and effectively anticipated the "electropop boom" of the 1980s. They are credited with influencing the development of various electronic genres, including synth-pop, city pop, dance, electro, hip-hop, J-pop and techno. They also explored subversive socio-political themes throughout their career. The three members were veterans of the music industry before coming together as YMO, and were inspired by eclectic sources, including the electronic music of Isao Tomita and Kraftwerk, Japanese traditional music, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moloko
Moloko () were an English-Irish electronic music duo formed in Sheffield, England, consisting of vocalist Róisín Murphy and music producer, producer Mark Brydon. Blending elements of electronica and dance music, they are best known for their UK top 10 singles "The Time Is Now (Moloko song), The Time Is Now" (2000) and "Familiar Feeling" (2003) as well as the 1999 Boris Dlugosch remix of "Sing It Back", which became an international hit. History Formation and success (1994–2000) Murphy had no prior professional singing experience when Moloko was formed, while Brydon had previously worked on music as a producer with musicians such as Boy George and Cabaret Voltaire (band), Cabaret Voltaire on releases from the 1990s in music, 1990s. In 1994, the two met at a party in Sheffield, where Murphy approached Brydon with the chat-up line, "Do you like my tight sweater? See how it fits my body!" Its first sentence became their debut album's title, recorded while the pair had begun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yasuharu Konishi
is a Japanese musician, composer and DJ. He was a founding member of Pizzicato Five and the only such to stay with the group until its breakup in 2001. Konishi's current activities are through his company readymade entertainment and his record label 524 records (a play on words from Konishi's name, as the numbers 524 can be read ''ko-ni-shi'' in Japanese using '' goroawase''). Collaboration Konishi is a prolific producer, composer, arranger and remixer. He has written, produced and arranged in collaboration with many artists, such as Unicorn, Towa Tei, Mari Natsuki, Cornelius, Yumi Yoshimura of Puffy AmiYumi, Alisa Mizuki, Akiko Wada, SMAP and Mika Nakashima. Konishi's remixes are featured in a far greater range of recordings. In addition to remixing individual tracks for a wide variety of artists for inclusion in their own releases, Konishi has been a prominent figure in several remix-only projects. Some of these have centered on music from cartoons, such as Lupin III and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shibuya-kei
is a microgenre of pop music or a general aesthetic that flourished in Japan in the mid-to-late 1990s. The music genre is distinguished by a "cut-and-paste" approach that was inspired by the kitsch, fusion, and artifice from certain music styles of the past. The most common reference points were 1960s culture and Western pop music, especially the work of Burt Bacharach, Brian Wilson, Phil Spector, and Serge Gainsbourg. Shibuya-kei first emerged as retail music from the Shibuya district of Tokyo. Flipper's Guitar, a duo led by Kenji Ozawa and Keigo Oyamada (Cornelius), formed the bedrock of the genre and influenced all of its groups, but the most prominent Shibuya-kei band was Pizzicato Five, who fused mainstream J-pop with a mix of jazz, soul, and lounge influences. Shibuya-kei peaked in the late 1990s and declined after its principal players began moving into other music styles. Overseas, fans of Shibuya-kei were typically indie pop enthusiasts, partly because many Shibu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dreams Come True (band)
is a Japanese pop band formed in 1988 by Miwa Yoshida (lead vocals), Masato Nakamura (bass) and Takahiro Nishikawa (keyboards). Nishikawa left in 2002 to pursue a solo career. Dreams Come True has sold more than 50 million records worldwide. Their fifth album, '' The Swinging Star'' (1992), was the first Japanese album to sell more than three million copies, and for several years was the highest-selling Japanese-language album of all time. Nakamura composed the music for the Sega Mega Drive games ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' (1991) and '' Sonic the Hedgehog 2'' (1992). History Dreams Come True was formed in 1988 by Miwa Yoshida (lead vocals), Masato Nakamura (bass) and Takahiro Nishikawa (keyboards). The band is commonly known as DCT and sometimes referred to as . Their first album, ''Dreams Come True'', sold more than one million copies in Japan. Their fifth, '' The Swinging Star'' (1992), was the first Japanese album to sell over three million copies, and for several years w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
