<figure id="attachment_393340" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 839px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-393340"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="dabde37a"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/10/f13f17ad627b1171677b5a9023fae79e.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-393340" class="wp-caption-text">Koizumi at the time of her debut in 1982. This was before she cut her hair short (Photo/Kyodo)</figcaption></figure>
<p>Kyoko Koizumi&#8217;s Music&#8221; (Tatsumi Shuppan) has been published, which explains how Kyoko Koizumi&#8217;s talent gradually blossomed and awakened after starting out as an idol, based on her &#8220;music. The author is music critic and broadcaster Chappie Kato. The book traces Koizumi&#8217;s &#8220;changes&#8221; through 38 singles and 21 albums from her debut song &#8220;Watashi no 16-sai&#8221; in March 1982 to the end of the 1990s. We interviewed Chappie again. What is the idol Kyoko Koizumi?</p>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent"> Why did she cut her hair short?</span></h3>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> She debuted when I was in my first year of high school. Her classmates included Akina Nakamori, Masaru Hayami, Hidemi Ishikawa, and Chiemi Hori, the so-called &#8220;1982 group of flowers. When she debuted, I had the impression that she was simply one of them. However, a year after her debut, for some reason, she cut off her hair, which had been cut like Seiko&#8217;s until then. It didn&#8217;t go with her bright outfit, which I thought was interesting.</span></p>
<p>What was the reason or meaning behind the sudden haircut?</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> When Koizumi-san first debuted, she tried her best to do what she was told to do, but she gradually became uncomfortable with the discrepancy between her idol self and her life-size self. I couldn&#8217;t relate at all to the image of a girl that the songs portrayed, and I felt like, &#8216;Oh no, girls don&#8217;t usually think like this. It was the same with my hair. So I ended up with a short cut, which I adored at the time. Koizumi-san often says, &#8216;I don&#8217;t remember the first year after my debut. She often says, &#8216;It wasn&#8217;t me. It was like, &#8216;I can&#8217;t do this anymore! I was just too tired to continue.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In a sense, the hair cut was Koizumi&#8217;s suggestion, &#8220;Why don&#8217;t you produce it in a more natural way? I think that was Koizumi&#8217;s suggestion. However, her agency was flexible in its response, saying, &#8220;What has been cut can no longer be helped. We decided to make the most of the haircut.</span></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead="In order to be the &quot;me I want to be"></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">An idol who is &#8220;somehow different&#8221; from ordinary idols</span></h3>
<p>What did the public think of Koizumi&#8217;s sudden change?</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In my high school class, there were two factions, Akina Nakamori&#8217;s and Kyoko Koizumi&#8217;s. Both of them were different from the usual idols of the time. Akina was going for the ultimate in singing, while Koizumi was trying to create a new image of idols, including fashion and other aspects. Even though their vectors were different, what they had in common was that they both had a &#8220;self&#8221; that they wanted to be.</span></p>
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<p>However, just because they have initiative does not mean that they can easily be who they want to be. Both of them had their own supporters. In Koizumi&#8217;s case, it was Mitsuyoshi Tamura, the second director in charge at Victor. Mr. Tamura was the type of person who wanted to do something interesting and different! He was the type of person who wanted to do something interesting and different. Tamura also saw a certain talent in Koizumi in her everyday life.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Mr. Tamura encouraged Koizumi to write lyrics. When they talked about movies and TV dramas, Koizumi would make sense and talk about them in an interesting way. He thought, &#8216;She can write lyrics! I can&#8217;t do that! I can&#8217;t do that! Koizumi refused, but Mr. Tamura somehow encouraged her to write lyrics under the name &#8220;Mikayo. The song &#8220;Someday&#8221; appeared on the album &#8220;Flapper&#8221; (July 1985).</span></p>
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<p>Koizumi, who had gained popularity with her catchy sense of words and melodies in songs such as &#8220;Tsuyoshi Namida Musume&#8221; (November 1983) and &#8220;Yamato Nadeshiko Nanami&#8221; (September 1984), also tried her hand at writing lyrics, but at the same time she was a proper idol. At the same time, however, there was an event that sent tremors through the idol industry &#8230;&#8230; and the entertainment industry as a whole. The Onyanko Club appeared.</p>
<p>In April 1985, the Fuji Television network, under the direction of Yasushi Akimoto, began broadcasting &#8220;Yuyake Nyan Nyan,&#8221; a program based on the concept of &#8220;after-school club activities. In July 1985, &#8220;Sailor Undress Me&#8221; (Sailor Undress Me), a song sung by &#8220;amateur&#8221; onyanko, who were completely different from existing idols, was released and became an explosive hit. The song was such a hit that it could be called a social phenomenon.</p>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent">I felt extremely threatened.</span></h3>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Seiko Matsuda and Akina were at the top of the group, and Koizumi&#8217;s strategy was to follow in the footsteps of Kin-chan&#8217;s &#8220;good girl, bad girl, and normal girl,&#8221; where Seiko was the &#8220;good girl&#8221; and Akina was the &#8220;bad girl. If Seiko was the &#8220;good girl&#8221; and Akina was the &#8220;bad girl,&#8221; Koizumi was the &#8220;normal girl,&#8221; which was the majority.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In &#8220;Sailor Undress Me&#8221;, amateur high school girls, who are real &#8220;normal girls&#8221;, cheerfully sing about sex. The amateurishness of the song was certainly interesting and appealed to the high school and college boys of the time. Mr. Tamura says, &#8220;I felt extremely threatened.</span></p>
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<p>Feeling that he could not win with this line, Mr. Tamura asked Yasushi Akimoto to write the lyrics. Of course, Akimoto was the creator of Onyanko and a &#8220;rival. However, from the perspective of Mr. Tamura, who was working with Mr. Akimoto on a song for Tunnels at the same time, they were also comrades in creating something interesting. The song &#8220;Nantette Idol&#8221; (November 1985) was born from a lyric written by Akimoto that affirmed the &#8220;truth about idols. The content of the song, &#8220;Nantente Idol&#8221; (November 1985), is quite outrageous and destroys the stereotypical image of idols at the time, saying, &#8220;Idols are just a business act, and it&#8217;s a fantasy that they don&#8217;t even have boyfriends. The content of the song is quite outlandish and destroys the stereotypical image of idols at the time.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> Akimoto-san said that he thought it was funny when he wrote it, but he was afraid that the agency would reject it. It&#8217;s as if the people who are doing the business are revealing their inside information to their fans. In fact, the president of the office was vehemently opposed to the idea, but the staff around him managed to persuade him, saying, &#8220;It has to be this lyric! I managed to persuade him.</span></p>
<p>Tamura&#8217;s plan to create a work that would serve as a counter to Onyanko was successful, and &#8220;Nantente Idol&#8221; became a big hit. Many people probably think of this song when they think of Kyoko Koizumi.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent">It is often referred to as &#8220;the song that changed idols. However, Koizumi-san often says that he hated singing &#8220;What an Idol&#8221; because he thought it was a joke played by adults. But at the same time, he was proud that he was the only one who could sing this song! I was proud that I was the only one who could sing this song. In short, I felt the demands of the times. I dared to choose to be an accomplice with &#8220;adults playing pranks.</span></p>
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<p>Koizumi&#8217;s pride as a professional idol can be seen in her willingness to play along with &#8220;adult pranks.</p>
<p>Koizumi never said it out loud, but I think he had a sense of rivalry with the Onyanko group. He would say, &#8216;Is it okay to put out a record just for fun and have it reach No. 1? I think he had a rivalry with the Onyanko group. I think he felt that although their amateurishness was the concept, they lacked skill and professionalism. So, I showed them the determination of a &#8220;professional idol.</p>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent"> I don&#8217;t know what was so great about it.</span></h3>
<p>Koizumi then began to transcend the boundaries of being an idol and began to show her talent as a writer. He gradually began to self-produce his own songs, and in May 1991, six years after he began writing lyrics, he released &#8220;I&#8217;m glad I met you&#8221; (May 1991), which finally won the Record Award for Best Original Poem. This was the result of meeting and working with a variety of people, who stimulated him and honed his skills. In the music scene, working with Kyoko Koizumi has become a status symbol.</p>
<p>Her music is still highly regarded today, and Chappie was recently shocked by something that struck him.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> A song-loving woman born in the Heisei era told me, &#8220;I know that Akina is by far the best singer, and I know that Seiko is great, but what is so great about Koizumi? But I don&#8217;t understand what was so great about Koizumi-san. That is because the path that Mr. Koizumi has newly pioneered has now become the standard. So, they would say, &#8220;What&#8217;s new?&#8221; I guess. There are many idols nowadays who don&#8217;t look like idols.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> That is why I want people to know about Koizumi&#8217;s music and the background that led to its creation. In particular, there have been very few books that explain the musical details of his works from his idol days. Nowadays, we can listen to all the songs released in the past at any time. I would like to encourage the younger generation to listen to Koizumi&#8217;s music with this book in hand.</span></p>
<figure id="attachment_393341" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 363px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-393341"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="e8b27598"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/10/51494b66b20eaec11fe501f5bdf797f4.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-393341" class="wp-caption-text">The book explains the background behind the creation of 38 singles and 21 albums.</figcaption></figure>
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<p><a href="https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E5%B0%8F%E6%B3%89%E4%BB%8A%E6%97%A5%E5%AD%90%E3%81%AE%E9%9F%B3%E6%A5%BD-%E3%83%81%E3%83%A3%E3%83%83%E3%83%94%E3%83%BC%E5%8A%A0%E8%97%A4/dp/4777831094"> The Music of Kyoko Koizumi&#8221; (written by Chappie Kato, Tatsumi Shuppan)</a></p>
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 The book, "The Music of Kyoko Koizumi" (Tatsumi Shuppan), which unravels the gradual evolution of Kyoko Koizumi from her beginnings as an idol through her music, has just been published. We asked the author, Chappie Kato, about the idol Kyoko Koizumi.

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