PERFUME: THE ELECTROPOP GAME CHANGERS

Recently, I’ve been reminiscing on my youth and critical turning points in my life. These were moments when I opened myself to new interests in an effort to grow and expand my horizons. Whenever I could find free time in my busy work schedule, I would revisit old songs that I listened to growing up. Songs that I had “legally” downloaded onto my iPod touch when I was in middle school. I honestly have always enjoyed listening to any type of sound as long as it had a good beat! I could dive in and talk about so many different music genres, but today I wanted to stop and focus on one specific genre: Electronic.

Electronic music wasn't something that I necessarily grew up listening to. It was always a music genre that I would hear from time to time. However, there was one Electronic group that truly changed the trajectory of my music taste. This group captured my attention and unlocked a new sub genre for me. The group name in question is…. Perfume! The Japanese techno-pop group had introduced me to the unthinkable and merged idol culture with Electronic music and visual arts.

Short backstory of the group: The trio formed in 2000 at the Actors School Hiroshima (ASH) in Hiroshima, Japan. Through this school, the girls would train to become performers and eventually create their own girl group named Perfume. I won't go too into detail on their origin story, but the original members of the group, Ayaka Nishiwaki (A-chan), Yuka Kashino (Kashiyuka), and former member Yuka Kawashima (Kawayuka) all share the same Japanese kanji character for 香 (ka / kaori, fragrance) in their names.Thus naming the group Perfume! Kawayuka had left the group and was replaced by Ayano Omoto (Nocchi). One cool key note about their time at ASH was how the girls trained under MIKIKO, a dance instructor at the school who would work closely as Perfume’s choreographer for the next 25 years. The girls would later move to Tokyo after graduating and join a new company called Bee-Hive. Here is when Perfume is introduced to a completely new sound. This sound would solidify their artistry and overall image of the group moving forward. This is all thanks to the dj/ producer Yasutaka Nakata. Perfume at this point were simply just street performers, but Nakata saw potential stardom in the girls and transformed them into a futuristic idol group.

The group's 2008 debut album GAME was a commercial success and was the beginning of their journey to fame. Perfume was truly booked and busy so early in their career! Commercials, magazines, talk shows, variety shows. You name it, they did it! The album GAME was a “game changer” due to its non-traditional approach on idol culture. This would even spark the popular debate, “Is Perfume even considered an idol group?”. This new era of Perfume has pushed them away from their indie idol days at ASH/ Bee-Hive and completely rebranded themselves into an Electronic pop sensation. The dance moves were sharpened and more complex. Each member's voice was auto tuned and layered together, almost creating their own unique and futuristic vocals. Vocals that in a way, blurred the line between natural and artificial.

The first track on GAME, Polyrhythm, is just fab! The song was written for a Kankyō Recycle Campaign’s tv commercial that promoted environmental protection and recycling in Japan. Polyrhythm opens up with this simple, yet ethereal synth build up that quickly warps you into an electropop state of mind. The lyrics to me are a love letter to mother nature. They take on an optimistic view of the world and promote how the organic and inorganic can continuously coexist on Earth. The song also compares the feeling of love to plastic, an inorganic material that can be used repeatedly through the process of recycling. Almost just like a Polyrhythm!

Polyrhythm’s Music Video is truly just one green screen and a dream. A-chan, Kashiyuka and Nocchi are immersed into this futuristic environment that once again connects the “natural” and “artificial” worlds together. 3D rendered organic symbols (ex. plants, trees and animals) are layered with abstract inorganic symbols and scientific motifs. The editing used in this video allows the viewer to take a look into Perfume’s world through the lens of a polyrhythmic kaleidoscope.

Around the time of GAME’s release, a lot of Japanease media outlets were difficult for international fans to interact with. Fortunately, the ability to access these videos were all made possible by the fans. Perfume was still pretty niche at the time and was slowly building up an international fanbase, but these fans were super dedicated and had created special forums such as Perfume City Forum. Fans would share media, talk about the members and even translate interviews and special tv appearances all within these online spaces. This made Perfume more accessible to international fans. Perfume thankfully started to push into a more global audience around 2012-2013. They even started to tour around the world. I’ve had the opportunity to see them perform live not once, but three different times in NYC. These concert spaces allowed me to meet new people and create friendships that I still cherish till this day.

Perfume has a very established resume both within Asia and on a global scale. When the girls are not performing to a sold out crowd of 50k at the Tokyo Dome , they are overseas performing at venues such as Coachella, Primavera and SXSW to name a few. Polyrhythm was even featured in the movie Cars 2 ! The girls were flown out to attend the movie's red carpet event and screening in LA.

I think the most shocking performance was back in 2017 when Perfume performed their song FUSION simultaneously in three different continents at the same time. Since the beginning of their careers, Perfume had always performed together on the same stage. The thought of Perfume performing on different stages, let alone different continents, was unheard of. This reality was made possible through collaboration with their longtime choreographer MIKIKO, mobile phone operator NTT Docomo, and the innovative creative collective Rhizomatiks.

Each member was sent to three different cities for this never before seen performance. Nocchi in New York, Kashiyuka in London and A-Chan in Tokyo. There was no space for error because the performance was recorded in real time on a livestream. This particular live performance displayed how in sync Perfume was with one another. This would also bring to light MIKIKO’s technical and perfectionist approach to choreography on a literal global scale. Special video editing effects made possible by Rhizomatiks fused A-Chan, Kashiyuka and Nocchi into the same room and at some moments of the performance into one human figure. FUSION was a moment in Perfume's artistic career that challenged the concept of space & time and how it can be manipulated into something new. This song really expanded the creative boundaries of Electronic music and challenged the traditional stage presence of girl groups.

Portuguese version of this article can be found at Ironia