ESSAY 21
PINK LADY: BIRTH OF A LEGEND
by Jeffrey C. Branch
Hard to believe it was forty years ago this month that Pink Lady official made their debut on Japan's music scene with the release of "Pepper Keibu", a then stunning hybrid of song and dance that would propel Mitsuyo Nemoto and Keiko Masuda to the height of superstardom and, in turn, make them legends who's fame resonates with fans young and old (like me) to this very day.
But, in a way, it was a wonder Pink Lady got off the ground at all. As we all know, it all began with two high school girls from the boonies (Shizuoka) and their dreams of stardom as singers. Perhaps Mie and Kei had watched Candies on TV (they came the scene in 1973) and decided that they too wanted a taste of fame, that led to their appearance on Star Tanjo in those red and blue overalls and their improbable victory that got them signed by Trust & Confidence, the company that would manage their careers. As I had seen in a Christmas Eve 2004 TV special on Pink Lady that had been styled after the old U.S. TV show, This Is You Life, Mie and Kei didn't at all have it easy as they were drilled like Marine recruits on Parris Island, putting in long and grueling hours on a daily basis as they were taught to sing and dance under a stern taskmaster. What if that taskmaster thought the girls didn't have what it took, or they decided it wasn't worth the trouble and quit? Then Pink Lady would never have been born, plain and simple.
However, even after the girls had been transformed from overall wearing country bumpkins to minidress clad, high heeled beauty queens, the deal still wasn't completely done. The duo, christened as Pink Lady (Kei was on record saying she wasn't fond of the name) still had to pass muster with the suits at T & C, and when they performed "Pepper Keibu" (written by famed songsmith Yu Aku) for them, complete with their famous dance routine, said executives were, as seen on that TV special, considerably less than impressed, leading viewers, including me when I watched the show to wonder if the girls would've gotten the heave ho if their debut flopped. Fortunately, that didn't happen as the song peaked at #2 on the charts, the company's faith in the girls, though tenuous, had been rewarded, "SOS", released three months later would top the charts, and the Pink Lady express was officially off and running. The next stop would be pop music stardom the likes of which had not been seen before, and perhaps not been seen since then.
I've always been of the belief that Pink Lady came along at just the right time back in the late 70's when idol music was blossoming in Japan, lots of talented young women, duos, groups and solo stars were on TV singing their latest hits each and every week, and Mie and Kei had quickly become the 800 pound gorilla on the scene. The Ladies, with their dazzling combination of song and those amazing dance routines caught on with the public like wildfire, and fans just couldn't get enough. While Pink Lady wasn't the first group to ape what was considered the template of girl groups which began in America with the likes of The Supremes and even homegrown groups like Candies, there was a certain..magic about Pink Lady that made them special above just about everyone else in Japan. And with each new single that would skyrocket to the top, the legend of Pink Lady grew and grew. I've often equated the astronomical popularity of Pink Lady with Beatlemania in England a decade earlier as Mie and Kei became a national craze.
This leads to the following question: Could the circumstances that led Mie and Kei from Shizuoka to superstardom be replicated today? To be honest, I'm not certain. Things are incredibly different today as opposed to four decades ago, back in 1976, the music scene wasn't corporate driven as it is today, just look at the Godzilla sized behemoth that's AKB48 and the scores of sister groups from just about every prefecture in Japan (each with their own theater to perform in), plus other countries like China and Singapore, and that's not counting scores of smaller, independent groups that fly under the radar. Getting your face out there to be seen by the public is dissimilar as well, four decades ago, girls went on talent shows like Star Tanjo to hit it big, today, simply posting a video on YouTube can get you noticed in ways the old school methods couldn't. It's seemingly like every girl in Japan with a modicum of talent, a dream of stardom and a drive to make it a reality are out to make a name for themselves in an impossibly crowded field.
Taking all that into consideration, it's not hard to imagine how Mie and Kei could've been easily devoured by today's music scene. Despite their talent, chances are the girls would've been assimilated into an AKB-like idol machine, becoming nothing more than mere drones busting their butts for the betterment of the collective while achieving little to no personal recognition, or worse, chewed up and spat out by the system before their dream came true. The magical chain of events that resulted in the birth of Pink Lady was a once in a lifetime phenomenon that, in my opinion, will never be repeated like it had been forty years ago. With Mie and Kei pushing 60, they've seen first hand how the music industry has changed over the past five decades, and I'm sure they would agree that their singularly unique success story could never be retold in today's climate. Perhaps that's for the best, you can't duplicate the birth of a legend. And I'm glad Pink Lady was the beneficiary of that wonderful fate.