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Followers:
- Formed: 1987
- Genres: Rock
- Representative Albums: "B'z the Best Ultra Pleasure," "Action," "Yuruginaimono Hitotsu"
Biography
The fact that B'z is the biggest rock act of Japan and the whole Asia is well evidenced by their induction into the Hollywood Rock Walk -- they are the only band from their continent to get this honor. But even if that's not enough, there's the status of duo's guitarist, Tak Matsumoto as a Gibson Signature Artist (along with the likes of B.B. King and Ace Frehley), and then, the record sales speak for themselves -- the band sold more than 75 million records in their native country, and none of their stylistic wanderings, in which they indulged a lot, going from dance rock to hard rock to blues to J-pop and back, have been able to diminish their popularity.B'z was started in 1988 by guitarist Tak (Takahiro) Matsumoto, who played as a session musician for popular bands TM Network and Mari Hamada and released a solo album Thousand Wave, well-received by critics. Matsumoto decided to pass the vocal duties to someone else and, by means of a newspaper ad, robbed the Japanese education world of an aspiring math teacher named Koshi Inaba, who became the vocalist of the newly-formed duo that picked the moniker B'z. As Matsumoto explained later, they wanted to do a little alphabet play and name themselves A'z, but then decided it sounded too much like ‘AIDS' and settled for the next letter.
The band proved their seriousness straight away, refusing to tour in support of their first album on the ground that they didn't have enough material for the fans, and thus recording the second LP Off the Lock right after their eponymous debut (1988) and embarking on their first tour -- dubbed "Live Gym", which became a template for all of their subsequent tours -- in 1989. Soon afterwards B'z reached the top: the single Taiyou no Komachi Angel off their third album, the fittingly-named Break Through (1990), scored the first place on the national charts, it being the beginning of a steady tradition -- every single that B'z released since shot to #1. B'z, however, saw it unfit to simply rest on the laurels, and after the fourth album Risky they began the stylistic shift, moving from poppy dance rock of the 80s to a harder sound that first appeared on In The Life (1991) and flourished on Run (1992). That didn't damage their sales, and the band went on experimenting, releasing a very bluesy double CD The 7th Blues (1993) that was actually meant to ‘weed out' the casual listeners from their fanbase.
In 1995, B'z made a return to pop-rock (blended with AOR) that proved triumphant -- their eighth album Loose sold 3 million copies, and the band played a set of shows in the domes of Tokyo, Osaka and other big cities, gathering 30 to 50 thousand people each time. Inaba also managed to sneak a solo album in the schedule, released in 1997 to a huge success -- a feat that both band members would since repeat every few years. After that, the B'z had no need to support their popularity for a while -- they took their time in 1998-1999 to work on solo projects (Matsumoto's Knockin' "T" Around featured the '99 theme song of Formula 1), while their ‘best of' collections Treasure and Pleasure were crushing sales records in Japan. Their next album, Brotherhood, was out in 1990, and it's follow-up Eleven was released the next year after a number of gigs including a Budokan stint, with the following promo tour not limited to Japan, but scheduling successful shows in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
The international expansion of B'z continued in the 2000s. In 2002, the band played together with Aerosmith in the Japan/South Korea Soccer World Cup festivities, their line-up for the tour promoting their twelfth album Green (2001) featured Billy Sheehan (former Mr. Big bass player), and the drummer Shane Gaalaas, and the tour itself had a number of US dates, where they opened for Aerosmith. B'z returned to America in 2003 with another album (Big Machine, 2003), touring the US and Canadian West Coast, and in 2004 the Matsumoto solo effort was released in Europe as well as Japan. Still, the band mainly stuck to their homeland, and with good reason, since their mid-2000s efforts -- The Circle (2005), Monster (2006) and Action (2007) -- enjoyed steady success, their live shows still sold out domes and tours gathered audience of hundreds of thousands. In 2007, right before their 20th anniversary, the band still got their international certificate of success, becoming the first ever Asian inductees into the Hollywood's Rock Walk on Sunset Boulevard, owing this to the recommendation of Steve Vai, with whom they also toured in Japan. ~ Alexey Eremenko, All Music Guide
