, formerly and commonly known as , is a Japanese girl group associated with Up-Front Promotion. The group was produced by singer-songwriter and record producer Tsunku, who composed the majority of their songs until 2014. Since their formation, the group has seen changes in their membership, with the current members of the group consisting of Sakura Oda, Miki Nonaka, Homare Okamura, Mei Yamazaki, Rio Sakurai, Haruka Inoue, Ako Yumigeta, Meisa Sugihara, Miyu Yasuda, Moa Suzuki, and Hanano Ishikawa.
After the release of their indies single, "Ai no Tane", in 1997, Morning Musume made their official debut in 1998 with the single "Morning Coffee." Their highest-selling single, "Love Machine" (1999), was the first single to reach no. 1 on the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart and sold over 1 million copies upon release. In 2012, the group held the second highest overall single sales of a female group on the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart, with the Oricon record of most top-ten singles, having 64 of them.
Morning Musume is credited with the revival of the idol industry in Japan in the late 1990s. Morning Musume has been the flagship group of the musical collective Hello! Project, becoming the basis of other groups under the collective, such as Country Musume, Coconuts Musume, and Ice Creamusume. In addition, Morning Musume has spun off with multiple successful sub-units, such as Tanpopo, Petit Moni, Mini-Moni, Morning Musume Sakuragumi, Morning Musume Otomegumi, Morning Musume Tanjō 10nen Kinentai, Ecomoni, and Dream Morning Musume.
History
1997–1998: Formation and beginnings In 1997, the reality competition television program Asayan held an audition to cast a female vocalist for Tsunku's band, Sharam Q. While Michiyo Heike won the competition, Tsunku decided to form a girl group with the five runner-ups: Natsumi Abe, Yuko Nakazawa, Kaori Iida, Asuka Fukuda, and Aya Ishiguro. They were issued a challenge to sell 50,000 copies of their demo single, "Ai no Tane", with just five days of promotion events. They managed the feat in four promotion days.
In early 1998, Morning Musume debuted with their first single, "Morning Coffee". The success of this single (hitting number six on the Japanese pop charts) brought them three new members known as the second generation: Kei Yasuda, Mari Yaguchi, and Sayaka Ichii, bringing the total member count to eight. The second single, "Summer Night Town", was the first single of the new lineup—a mature pop tune about unsuccessfully attempting to hide one's true feelings. Their third single, "Daite Hold on Me!", continued in the same vein musically as Summer Night Town, and managed to hit number one on the charts.
"First Time" was released in July 1998, featuring the singles "Ai no Tane", "Morning Coffee" and "Summer Night Town".
That year, Tsunku also formed Tanpopo, the first subgroup of Morning Musume, with Kaori Iida, Aya Ishiguro, and Mari Yaguchi. Tanpopo touted slower, more mature songs.
When "Morning Coffee" was released, however, Morning Musume's label Zetima went by a different name, One Up Music (One Up is a combination of Warner Music Japan (the label that distributed One Up Music's catalog) and Up-Front Group (One Up Music's parent company)). However, in April 1998, one month before the release of "Summer Night Town", One Up Music ended its distribution deal with Warner, and was rebranded as Zetima when it merged with Y.J. Sounds (another former Up-Front Group-affiliated label). Distribution rights would be given to Sony Music Japan's sub label Epic Records for "Summer Night Town", "First Time", and all of Zetima's subsequent releases.
1999-2000: "Love Machine", 3rd and 4th generations The group released its fourth single "Memory Seishun no Hikari" in early 1999, reaching number two on Oricon, second to Glay's "Winter, Again" which had first week sales of 955,780 copies. The song features rap passages by L The Headtoucha. Asuka Fukuda then left the group to focus on her studies.
"Manatsu no Kōsen" was released in May and went to number three on the charts. Their sixth single, "Furusato", was released in July. Second Morning was released in July 1999, and contained the singles "Daite Hold on Me!", "Memory Seishun no Hikari", "Manatsu no Kōsen", and "Furusato". "Daite Hold on Me!" and "Manatsu no Kōsen" were remixed.
Tsunku held auditions for the third generation of Morning Musume, and Maki Goto was added. The group's seventh single, "Love Machine", sold 1,760,000 copies, making it a major hit. Goto was paired with Kei Yasuda and Sayaka Ichii to form Morning Musume's first sub-group Petit Moni, releasing their first single, "Chokotto Love" to over 1,123,610 copies.
"Koi no Dance Site" was released in early 2000, reaching number two and selling over a million copies. The single sold 600,860 copies. Aya Ishiguro left the group before the single was released in order to marry Shinya, drummer of visual kei rock band Luna Sea, leaving the group with seven members. In March, their third studio album, 3rd: Love Paradise was released. It sod more than 800,000 copies, making it Morning Musume's highest-selling studio album to date.
Morning Musume then introduced their fourth generation members, consisting of Rika Ishikawa, Hitomi Yoshizawa, Nozomi Tsuji, and Ai Kago. Their first single, "Happy Summer Wedding", reached no. 1 on Oricon and sold 1,370,000 copies. Afterwards, Sayaka Ichii left to pursue her own music career. "I Wish" and "Renai Revolution 21". Morning Musume also began performing in musicals each year, with their musical Love Century: Yume wa Minakerya Hajimaranai.
2001-2002: 5th Generation and Maki Goto's departure In April 2001, group leader Yuko Nakazawa left to focus on her solo career and because of her age, making Kaori Iida and Kei Yasuda Morning Musume's co-leaders. In July 2001, Morning Musume released the single "The Peace!". At the end of January 2001, they released their first compilation album, Best! Morning Musume 1. It sold 2,259,510 copies. It featured 15 tracks, the only original song being "Say Yeah! (Motto Miracle Night)".
At the end of 2001, four new members joined the group as the fifth generation through the audition "Love Audition 21:" Ai Takahashi, Asami Konno, Makoto Ogawa, and Risa Niigaki. Following this, Morning Musume released "Mr. Moonlight: Ai no Big Band". In February, "Sōda! We're Alive", was released. In July 2002, "Do It! Now" was released.
Morning Musume's fourth studio album, 4th Ikimasshoi! was released in March 2002. Late 2002 was marked by the graduation of Maki Goto. In October "Koko ni Iruzee!" was released. It was number one on Oricon.
2003-2004: 6th generation, Sakuragumi, and Otomegumi "Morning Musume no Hyokkori Hyōtanjima" was released in February 2003 as the group's seventeenth single. In April, they released "As for One Day", which sold 129,893 copies and hit number one in Oricon charts.
Before the auditions for the sixth generation were held, the group released the album No. 5. Kei Yasuda and Natsume Abe then announced that they were leaving the group. In mid-2003, four new members were added as the sixth generation: Eri Kamei, Sayumi Michishige, and Reina Tanaka, who passed through Morning Musume's auditions, and Miki Fujimoto, who had been a soloist within Hello! Project. The sixth generation's first single was "Shabondama", Mari Yaguchi became Morning Musume's sub-leader after Yasuda's departure.
Later in 2003, Morning Musume was split into two subgroups so that it could tour more cities and fit smaller venues: Morning Musume Sakuragumi, included Natsumi Abe, Mari Yaguchi, Hitomi Yoshizawa, Ai Kago, Ai Takahashi, Risa Niigaki, Asami Konno and Eri Kamei;and Morning Musume Otomegumi, featured Kaori Iida, Rika Ishikawa, Nozomi Tsuji, Makoto Ogawa, Miki Fujimoto, Sayumi Michishige, and Reina Tanaka. After regrouping, Morning Musume released the single "Go Girl: Koi no Victory".
In January 2004, Natsumi Abe left to pursue a solo career. Her last single was "Ai Araba It's All Right", The group soon released another single, "Roman: My Dear Boy". The song showcased an almost rock flavor and centered its lyrics around offering "a dance" to a boy. This was followed by their twenty-third single, "Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari",. Nozomi Tsuji and Ai Kago in left in August 2004 to focus on "W", their new duo group. In mid-2004, Morning Musume's second compilation album, Best! Morning Musume 2 was released and featured "Yah! Aishitai" as the only new track.
In November 2004, Morning Musume released "Namida ga Tomaranai Hōkago". Following this single Morning Musume Early Single Box was released. At the end of 2004, Morning Musume released their sixth studio album, named Ai no Dai 6 Kan
2005-2006: 7th generation
On January 30, 2005, then-leader and the last member from the first generation Kaori Iida left to pursue a solo career, with Mari Yaguchi taking on leadership role with Hitomi Yoshizawa as subleader. Her last single was "The Manpower!!!", The beginning of 2005 also saw the beginning of Musume Document 2005, which covered behind-the-scenes material, historical footage, and interviews.
The "Lucky 7 Auditions" for the group's 7th generation members were held in various Japan cities in late 2004, resulting in six finalists. However, on January 9, 2005, Tsunku surprised everyone by announcing that no one in the Lucky 7 audition would be added to Morning Musume, citing that he had set his expectations extra-high this year in hopes of finding an "ace". In February 2005, Tsunku started another audition for Morning Musume's seventh generation. This audition resulted with Koharu Kusumi finally being chosen as the sole "miracle" member of the seventh generation.
On April 27, 2005, the group's twenty-sixth single, "Osaka Koi no Uta" was released. Prior to its release, Yaguchi announced on April 14, 2005, that she would retire from Morning Musume following a dating scandal. Sub-leader Hitomi Yoshizawa took over as the leader of Morning Musume, and Miki Fujimoto became sub-leader as of July 15, 2005.
Kusumi's first single with Morning Musume was July's "Iroppoi Jirettai", A 3 city handshake event was organized for the promotion of this single. Morning Musume's last single of 2005 was "Chokkan 2: Nogashita Sakana wa Ōkiizo!", which was a remake of a previous album-only song.
On December 31, 2005, former Morning Musume members Mari Yaguchi, Kaori Iida, Natsumi Abe, Yuko Nakazawa, Ai Kago, Nozomi Tsuji, Rika Ishikawa, Maki Goto, and Kei Yasuda joined the current lineup of Morning Musume to perform the group's signature hit "Love Machine" on the 2005/2006 edition of Kōhaku Uta Gassen.
On January 16, 2006, it was announced that Morning Musume had won a Kanagawa Image Up Award in recognition of Hello! Project's support of an anti-pollution campaign. Yoshizawa, Fujimoto, and Takahashi represented the group to accept the award.
In February, the group released their seventh studio album, Rainbow 7. In March 2006, "Sexy Boy: Soyokaze ni Yorisotte" was released.
On April 28, 2006, it was announced by Tsunku from his official website that fifth-generation members Asami Konno and Makoto Ogawa would be leaving the group. Konno graduated on July 23, 2006, to attend university and Ogawa left on August 27, 2006, to study English abroad. Their last single with the group "Ambitious! Yashinteki de Ii Jan". A limited-edition CD of all past 30 singles mixed into a thirteen-minute track was included on the first pressing.