name | SMAP |
---|---|
background | group_or_band |
origin | Japan |
genre | Pop, bubblegum music |
years active | —present |
label | Victor Entertainment |
website | |
current members | Masahiro NakaiTakuya KimuraTsuyoshi KusanagiGoro InagakiShingo Katori |
past members | Katsuyuki Mori }} |
SMAP is a Japanese boy band formed by Johnny & Associates. While originally consisting of six members, the current group members are Masahiro Nakai, Takuya Kimura, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Goro Inagaki, and Shingo Katori. The group's name is an acronym standing for Sports Music Assemble People.
SMAP debuted their first CD in 1991 and has since released over forty singles and twenty albums. Approximately half the singles and a third of the albums reached the top of the Japanese Oricon music charts. In recent times, the interval between the band's single CD releases has become longer, and are now released approximately once a year.
The members of SMAP have also pursued careers outside of music, including involvement in television variety shows, dramas, commercials, and movies, making them one of the most popular Johnny's groups. Largely due to their popularity, Johnny & Associates became the most successful agency in Japan, with earnings of almost three billion Japanese yen in 1995. Their fanbase consists primarily of Japanese women.
On September 9, 1991, SMAP made their official CD debut by releasing the single "Can't Stop!! Loving", which debuted at number two on the Oricon singles chart. The group faced a quick decline in sales as their next string of singles became some of their lowest-selling singles in their history despite the fact that the singles all debuted within the Top 10 on the singles chart. It was not until 1994 did SMAP see their first number one single .
Since SMAP was so unsuccessful, Nakai asked Johnny's office to let SMAP host their own variety show to make people laugh with their unique personalities. The show was called . Through this show, SMAP slowly gained popularity. 1993 was a year of opportunities for SMAP. They had a hit single, and SMAP member Takuya Kimura was in a TV drama called "Asunaro Hakusho", in which he played Osamu Toride, a shy boy. Asunaro was a big hit and Kimura's popularity soared. At the same time, SMAP also provided the opening and ending themes for the anime Hime-chan's Ribbon, and Tsuyoshi Kusanagi appeared in multiple episodes as himself doing the voice of a regular character. SMAP also recorded the opening song, "Kimi Iro Omoi", for the anime Akazukin Cha Cha, and this time the youngest member, Shingo Katori, lent his voice for the whole show as the young strong werewolf, Riiya.
After that, SMAP members starred in movies both individually and as a group. In 1996, shortly after member Katsuyuki Mori left the group to pursue a career as a motorcycle racer, SMAP started their own variety program called SMAP×SMAP. On SMAP×SMAP, they cook (on a regular section of the show called Bistro Smap), perform in comedy sketches (often parodies of other shows), play games, sing and dance with other musical groups. As "an idol group that does anything", they began starring in a wide variety of programs such as live stage to music, dancing, hosting other programs, acting in movies and commercials.
SMAP continued to release new hit singles composed by professionals. Their 1998 single and their 2000 single "Lion Heart" sold more than one million copies each. Their song "Yozora no Mukō" was mentioned in some Japanese textbooks. Their 2001 greatest-hits album Smap Vest sold more than one million copies in only one week.
In 2000, NTT East produced two animated and two live-action television commercials for their ISDN service featuring a more updated version of the anime series Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. The live action commercials featured some of the members of SMAP in Gatchaman costumes.
In August 2001, Inagaki was involved in a traffic altercation, and there were allegations of wrongdoing on his part. Though he briefly retreated from the public spotlight and had all his commercial tie-ins and television appearances canceled and withdrawn, Inagaki made a comeback and starred in a 2004 drama about a fictional Japanese investment banker killed in the events of September 11. There were speculations that SMAP would disband following Takuya Kimura's announcement of his marriage and Goro Inagaki's traffic altercation in 2001.
In 2003, Nakai was identified as the highest tax payer of any entertainer in Japan by the Japanese National Tax Bureau. That same year, he was involved in at least four television shows simultaneously, in addition to commercials.
2004 was a year that did not have a single million-selling CD in Japan. Although they did not release even a single in 2004, the popularity of SMAP was still strong in 2005. This was reflected in the charts, where both their album and single (Sample Bang! and "Bang! Bang! Bakansu!" respectively) topped the respective Oricon weekly charts just moments after their release.
SMAP's 40th single was released on October 11, 2006. It is an expression of thanks in honor of the 15th anniversary of their debut.
In 2008, they had a six-day tour at the Tokyo Dome, becoming the first Japanese artist to have a total of six shows at the Dome in a single tour. They also released a new album Super Modern Artistic Performance (stylized as super.modern.artistic.performance) on September 24, 2008, the first day of the tour. will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas produced the first track of the album, "Theme of 019 Super Modern Artistic Performance". On October 1, 2008, since Super.Modern.Artistic.Performance topped the Oricon charts at 214,000 in sales, SMAP achieved total album sales of ten million, making them the second musical group of vocalists after Chage and Aska to do so.
While SMAP was scheduled to perform in their first overseas concert at the Shanghai World Expo on June 13, 2010, Shanghai World Expo officially announced on June 5, 2010 that the event had been canceled due to the possible chaos surrounding the first-come-first-serve concert ticket giveaway method on the day of the event. SMAP's album We Are SMAP, which included the song "Trust" written by Tetsuya Komuro, was released on July 21, 2010. SMAP's 2010 national concert tour program We Are SMAP! Tour 2010 commenced on July 31, 2010, including nineteen performances at five venues in Japan. With We Are SMAP! debuting at number-one of the Oricon weekly album chart, it was announced on July 27, 2010 that SMAP is the third group to accomplish the feat of having a number-one album in three consecutive decades (1990s, 2000s, 2010s) after Southern All Stars and Chage and Aska.
It was announced on August 2, 2010 that SMAP will go on holding their first overseas concerts at the Shanghai Stadium on the ninth and tenth of October 2010. On August 10, 2010, SMAP's forty-fifth single "This is Love" took the number-one spot on the Oricon weekly singles chart, selling around 276,000 copies.
However, the planned October concert in Shanghai has been delayed. Speculation has arisen the delay was caused by reaction to the 2010 Senkaku boat collision incident.
Compilations
Remix albums
Mini albums
Besides singing and acting, the group also manages to be active in numerous other forms of media fields as well. In August 1991 a Saint Seiya musical sponsored by Bandai, was shown in the Aoyama theater in Tokyo, Japan. The story recalls the Sanctuary and Poseidon chapter, starring the members of SMAP as the five bronze saints and Poseidon. In 2002, the group released a soft drink called "Drink! SMAP" in order to promote a CD of the same name. They did this once again in 2010 to promote the album "We are SMAP!".
SMAP was also chosen to be official spokespersons for Square-Enix's popular Dragon Quest series of role-playing video games. This actually is not the first time SMAP was associated with the series. SMAP starred in a musical based on the Dragon Quest games.
It was announced on June 10, 2010 that SMAP will appear in their first drama special in almost six years. Titled , it is said to be the industry's first "candid-camera drama", in which much of the filming for the drama special went on without SMAP's knowledge.
|- | 1992 | SMAP | Best 5 New Artist Award | |- | rowspan="2"| 1995 | Cool | Album Award | |- | Sexy Six Show | Music Video Award | |- | 1996 | SMAP 007: Gold Singer | Album Award | |- | 1997 | SMAP 008: Taxomax | Album Award | |- | 1999 | "Yozora no Mukō" | Song of the Year (Special Award) | |- | 2001 | "Lion Heart" | Song of the Year | |- | 2002 | SMAP Vest | Pop Album of the Year | |- | rowspan="3"| 2004 | "Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana" | Song of the Year | |- | Smap! Tour! 2002! | rowspan="3"| Music Video of the Year | |- | Live MIJ | |- | 2006 | SMAP to Icchatta! SMAP Sample Tour2005 | |- | 2007 | Pop Up! SMAP Live | rowspan="2"| Best Music Videos | |- | 2009 | SMAP 2008 Super Modern Artistic Performance Tour | |}
Category:Japanese boy bands Category:Japanese pop music groups Category:Japanese television personalities Category:Johnny's Entertainment Category:Musical quintets Category:Japanese idol groups
zh-min-nan:SMAP de:SMAP (Band) es:SMAP fr:SMAP (groupe) ko:SMAP id:SMAP it:SMAP ms:SMAP ja:SMAP pt:SMAP simple:SMAP sv:SMAP th:สแมป zh:SMAPThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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