B'z

B'z (Japanese: ビーズ, Hepburn: Bīzu) is a Japanese rock duo consisting of guitarist, composer and producer Takahiro "Tak" Matsumoto and vocalist and lyricist Koshi Inaba, known for their energetic hard rock tracks and pop rock ballads. B'z is one of the best-selling music artists in the world and the best-selling in their native Japan by certifications, having released 50 consecutive No. 1 singles, 27 No. 1 albums, and 4 No. 1 EPs on the Oricon music charts, and have sold more than 100 million records worldwide.

In 2003, HMV Japan ranked them at number 30 on their list of the 100 most important Japanese pop acts. In 2007, B'z became the first music act from Asia to have their handprints and signatures put up on Hollywood's RockWalk. In 2008, they were awarded a Guinness World Record for "Best-selling album act in Japan", which also notes them to be the best-selling act in Japan overall.

In the late 1980s, Tak Matsumoto had been extremely busy as a guitarist with various recording sessions and live performances, including for Tetsuya Komuro's TM Network and Mari Hamada. On May 21, 1988, Matsumoto released his first solo album, Thousand Wave, with positive critical reception. However, wanting to start a band, he searched for band members, particularly a singer. Eventually, through his management, he listened to the demo tape of vocalist Koshi Inaba in 1988, who would later form B'z with him. At the first session, they played The Beatles' "Let It Be" and "Oh! Darling". At the time, Japan's music scene was experiencing a band boom. With all the digital sounds in mainstream music, the only sounds that Inaba and Matsumoto felt could not be expressed and replicated were the guitar and the human voice. As a result, they decided to keep it a two-man unit. On September 21, 1988, B'z made their debut with their first album, B'z, and single, "Dakara Sono Te o Hanashite". Their music was very much a product of its times, with synthesizers and samplers sharing equal time with Matsumoto's guitar, producing an experimental sound, very different from their later well-known hard rock sound.

Instead of immediately performing live after a debut album as many Japanese bands were doing, B'z had a clear vision of how they wanted to perform and decided to wait until they had enough material to play live. The two concentrated on recording, improving the quality of their music. Their efforts resulted in a second album, Off the Lock, released on May 21, 1989. With this second album came their first series of live performances, known better to their fans as "Live-Gym". "B'z Live-Gym #00" started in Nagoya, continued in Osaka, and finished in Tokyo. Tickets were sold out on the day they became available. On October 21, their first mini-album (EP), Bad Communication, was released. The title track is a blend of rock and dance music and is still a classic played during their "Live-Gyms". It charted for 163 weeks on the Oricon Charts. Their first nationwide tour, "B'z Live-Gym #001 'Off the Lock'", covered 16 shows around Japan.

On February 21, 1990, their third album, Break Through, was released. It charted at No. 3 on the Oricon Albums Chart. To promote it, they started a tour with 22 shows nationwide. Their single "Taiyō no Komachi Angel" was released on June 13 and peaked at No. 1 on the Oricon Singles Chart; this started a trend of every single released since then debuting at No. 1 on the Oricon Singles Chart. Shortly after, Wicked Beat, their second mini album, was released on June 21. It also reached No. 3 on the charts. Like the band's other releases, it became commercially successful (reaching one million certifications) retroactively between 1990 and 1991. Their fourth album, Risky, was released on November 7 and was their first album to top the charts. It was the beginning of a steady shift in the duo's style from pop rock to 80's hard rock. The "B'z Live-Gym '90~'91 'Risky'" tour, with 49 performances, also started in November. Their first music video compilation, Film Risky, was recorded in New York City and London in four weeks and was released on December 16. With a barrage of releases, 1990 came to be the busiest year for B'z.

Their third mini album, Mars, was released on May 29, 1991; little promotion was done for it. After releasing only two singles, B'z released their fifth album, In the Life, on November 27. The release of the album marked B'z shying away from their advanced digital sounds and more towards rock. Their first live video, "Just Another Life", was out on December 11. For promotion, B'z also embarked on their "B'z Live-Gym '91~'92 'In the Life'" tour, with 66 performances in total. The tour started in December and managed to flow into the next year. The total number of "Live-Gyms" they did during that year exceeded 100.

In the summer of 1992, the "B'z Pleasure '92 'Time'" tour took place with 12 performances in 3 major cities. The arena-class tour had amazing features such as a huge lighting set, called the "Starfish", and seats that rotated 360 degrees. October 28 marked the release of their sixth album, Run, and proved to be even more hard rock oriented than their previous albums. On December 9, they released a slightly different mini-album, Friends. Different from Run, its concept is somewhat similar to that of a movie soundtrack.

In early 1993, the Run tour concluded after 49 performances in 21 locations. In March, B'z released their twelfth and best-selling single, "Ai no mama ni Wagamama ni Boku wa Kimi dake o Kizutsukenai", which was certified double-million by the RIAJ in 2003. They then held an open-air concert for the first time, called "B'z Live-Gym Pleasure '93 'Jap the Ripper'". The shows took place at Bentenjima in Hamamatsu-city, Shizuoka on July 31 and August 1. The successful event gathered fifty thousand people per day, totaling 100,000 people in the end. Following this, B'z concentrated on recording once again, which resulted in a lot of material. On February 9, 1994, the "B'z Live-Gym '94 'The 9th Blues'" tour started. The tour became their longest and biggest tour thus far, managing 87 performances in a year. During the tour, their seventh and only double album, The 7th Blues, was released on March 2. The album title not only came from it being their seventh album but also after the seventh chord that is frequently used in blues. Becoming much more "bluesier" and soulful, this album evidently shows their lean towards blues. The album was made as kind of a "fan trap," as they wanted to "weed out" casual and non-rock fans from their fanbase as they shifted more towards rock. It included the hit single "Don't Leave Me" and a bluesy re-recording of "Lady Navigation". "The 9th Blues" tour finished at the Tsukisamu Green Dome in Sapporo on December 24.

In the first half of 1995, B'z spent their time recording, and after creating numerous demos, they held the "B'z Pleasure '95 'Buzz'" stadium tour with 12 shows in 7 cities. Their eighth album, Loose, was released on November 22. Loose was concentrated on the original concept of a two-man band. While combining rock with pop, this album is well-balanced with a variety of sounds. The album sold over 3 million copies, making it their best-selling album at the time. The "B'z Live-Gym '96 'Spirit Loose'" tour started on March 15, 1996, and held 44 performances in 21 locations. The show opened with a short B'z action movie shot in Los Angeles. A short while afterward, B'z released their 6th mini-album, titled Friends II, on November 25. Much like Friends before it, the album displayed more of an adult-oriented rock.

During a short hiatus in 1997, Inaba released his debut solo album, Magma, on which he wrote all the music and lyrics. The album, which topped the Oricon charts, showcased another side of him, different from that of his usual image in B'z. In March, the dome tour "B'z Live-Gym Pleasure '97 'Fireball'" consisted of 9 performances in 5 locations. Tickets for each dome, which have a capacity of about 30 to 50 thousand people each, were all sold out. The tour included stops at Tokyo (3 nights), Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Maebashi, all being successful. On November 19, their ninth studio album, Survive, showcased yet another new direction in sound and style. B'z's first promotional effort for the album included performances in concert halls in Akita, Hakodate, Kōchi, Shiga, and Nagasaki, before plunging into the main tour, "B'z Live-Gym '98 'Survive'", which started on January 24, 1998. On May 20, B'z released their first official compilation album, B'z The Best "Pleasure", which also marked their 10th year since debuting. Every song included in this album was a huge hit and was highly acclaimed as it was the first Japanese album to sell more than 5 million copies, which was achieved by the end of the year. On June 6, the "Survive" tour successfully ended. In mid-1998, B'z entered a period of both rest and recording. During that period, on September 20, their second best-of album, B'z The Best "Treasure" was released, selling almost 4.5 million copies by the end of the year.

B'z started off 1999 by busily promoting their recent singles and their tenth studio album, Brotherhood, which was released on July 14. It is considered their heaviest rock album up to that point. The album's track "Giri Giri Chop (Version 51)" was recorded with drummer Pat Torpey and bassist Billy Sheehan, both from Mr. Big. In July, another dome-class tour, "B'z Live-Gym '99 'Brotherhood'" began in Sapporo and included 14 performances in 7 locations. They did away with extra stage acts and concentrated on their musical performance, playing songs from the new album and many hits from the past. On August 28 and 29, they played at Yokohama International Stadium, which were the first music concerts held in that stadium and gathered a total of 140,000 people over the two days. Although the second day at Yokohama experienced heavy rain, the tour ended successfully. Shortly afterward, B'z started recording again and continued to do so throughout the rest of the year without rest.