Morning Musume announces 45th single!

I don't know if anyone has noticed but lately I haven't been blogging as much as I should be. That's all thanks to this terrible cold I have courtesy of my sister who infected the whole house. But I wanted to make a post about this because I think it's pretty exciting news. And I wanted to post about it before it became old news. Well, it's technically old news anyway because this was announced about a week ago. I guess I wanted to post about it before it became so old it would be irrelevant.


It was announced that Morning Musume will be releasing their 45th single, Maji Desu ka Ska, on March 23rd. Not only is this their first single of 2011 it's the first single to feature the recently added 9th generation.


Now of course with this announcement comes 2 questions I'm sure every Momusu fan is asking themselves. But let's focus on one at a time.


Of course the absolute first question I was asking myself was, "I wonder who's going to sing when." Of course I'm mostly asking when the 9th generation will sing. Now, just because this is the new member's debut single we shouldn't automatically assume that they will get a significant amount of lines, or even any. If you recall on the 2nd generation's and the 4th generation's debut singles not one of the new members got a solo line. And there was only 8 members in Summer Night Town and they could have totally made the lines even. The only time every member of a generation gets a solo on their debut single is when that generation only consists of 1 or 2 members. Like with the 3rd gen, 7th gen, and both 8th gens debuts. Everyone seems to really love Shabondama because it was the only debut single to be lead by the new generation. Which is all well and good but everyone seems to forget that every 6th gen member got a solo line except for Eri. And you can't even count on the best singer, or singers, of the generation to get a solo line. In the 5th gens debut single only Risa got a solo, despite Ai-chan being the best vocalist of the 5th gen.


So it's really anyone's guess as to when and how often the 9th gen will sing in this song. But personally I think each 9th gen girl will get 1 solo lines. And Mizuki and Riho may get 2. But that's mostly because even though Tsunku is unpredictable, he's not stupid. He has to build the 9th gen up right off the bat. Because over the last 4 years Tsunku dropped the ball on promoting the girls. Really Resonant Blue was the start of it, but Mikan wasn't all that fair.


For the longest time it was the Ai, Risa, Reina, and Eri show. Morning Musume's singles went from thinking that the song was good to thinking are they really leading it again. Losing lead singer and popular member Eri, and losing arguably the best singer Morning Musume has ever seen this fall, Momusu needs to change fast. So, I'm thinking Momusu's line distribution will look like this: Reina and Risa lead. Sayumi and Aika get some of the lines Ai would normally get and split the lines Eri would get if she didn't graduate. Then Sayumi, Aika, and Ai-chan have a minor lead. And the 9th gen gets a line or two. Ai is leaving so Momusu needs to start distancing themselves for Ai-chan now. Only singing wise of course. And they need to build up the fanbase of the current members, so Momusu can take the blow when Ai leaves this fall.


And of course the second question I asked myself was, "what will the song sound like." The song is titled Maji Desu ka Ska!, so of course the song is going to have a ska beat. Just like Mr. Moonlight ~Ai no Big Band~ had a big band beat. It's obvious. But what's not so obvious to me is what ska actually is. Whenever I heard ska music mentioned I always assumed that skaters and emo kids listened to ska. Which should be a clear indication that I'm not 100% familiar with ska music. The only actual song I know is ska is LANDS song Genki. And that's only because it's the ska version of the song.



When I watched Jin's movie Bandage I absolutely fell in love with the ska version of Genki. Because the music is absolutely incredible. It's got this sort of orchestra kinda reggae feel to it. I've been listening to this song nonstop for months. So, if Morning Musume releases a song along these lines, that would be absolutely incredible.


But having it be ska music pretty much indicates that the song is going to be upbeat and cheerful. Which Morning Musume desperately needs to release again. Because all of their singles have been sad and depressing sounding. Even the songs that are supposed to be positive came off as sad. All of their cheerful songs were wasted as B-sides or album tracks. I'm looking forward to Maji Desu ka Ska becoming this Momusu era's Renai Revolution 21. Meaning I hope the older members feel too old and leave. But there's not way that's going to happen. Especially since Sayumi is absolutely in love with the 9th gen. Well, I hope in the very least this makes Tsunku add more members to the line up. To have a more balanced age.




If you're as excited about this single as I am you can buy it from CDJapan by clicking the links below.


Morning Musume - Maji Desu ka Ska! [w/ DVD, Limited Edition / Type A]



Morning Musume - Maji Desu ka Ska! [w/ DVD, Limited Edition / Type B]



Morning Musume - Maji Desu ka Ska! [w/ DVD, Limited Edition / Type C]



Morning Musume - Maji Desu ka Ska! [w/ DVD, Limited Edition / Type D]



Morning Musume - Maji Desu ka Ska! [Regular Edition]