Memeshikute, a silly song followed by a silly dance, composed by the visual kei air band Golden Bomber has been taking Japan by storm for years! Even today, six years after the release, it is still a heavy influence in various media, such as commercials, TV shows, games and more. This was no doubt the starting point of the band’s great success and become a solid signature of Golden Bomber. However, with such huge monetizable sensation—which the band is still milking today, how much did their revenue actually grow? How much money did Golden Bomber make solely from Memeshikute? First, let’s jump back a step and recap!
The ever so popular four-man air band Golden Bomber was not always this well received as they are today, but on October 21, 2009 they released one single that would change their entire career, “Memeshikute”. This silly song is about an unmanly guy who only wants to be loved, unfortunately gets dumped by his girlfriend over another man. In the beginning of the music video we can actually see the protagonist of the story on his knees, begging for her to come back as he leaves all pride behind. Not only is Memeshikute a really catchy song, but it also comes with a vivacious and funny dance that certainly played a key role to their success, along with the band’s unified eccentric humor and unusual look. Watch the video below in case you’re unfamiliar with the song and the dance.
While the single Memeshikute was released in 2009, it was not however until the beginning of 2010 the band gained enough recognition to attract big offers from major record labels. Their popularity at that time was still growing, without greed in sight the band rejected all offers and continued to stay with their current indie record label Zany Zap to ensure creative freedom.
After reaching so many milestones with Memeshikute, vocalist Kiryuuin Shou finally speaks out to expose how much he earned from royalties solely from this hit song. To first give you an idea of how much success this song provided, here are some noteworthy breakthroughs.
- Taking the number one spot in Oricon Indie Chart.
- They set a record that went down in history of karaoke rankings, placing number one consecutively for 51 entire weeks!
- Performing with Japan’s top artists and groups from both the pop scene and rock scene.
- Tons of TV commercial features.
- Releasing Memeshikute in various themes, including K-pop (Korean pop), C-pop (Chinese pop) and other various versions.
During the UTAGE! broadcast on May 25, 2015 Kiryuuin Shou was asked by the TV host Nakai Masahiro how much royalty was gained from Memeshikute. With a shy voice Kiryuuin Shou replied “Let’s see, about 100 million yen.”, which converts to about 833,300 dollars today.
Golden Bomber’s Kiryuuin Shou on UTAGE!. Yellow caption reads “Oku-en gurai”, “About 100 million yen”.
The conversation went something like this:
[…]
Kiryuuin Shou: Let’s see, about 100 million yen.Rino (HKT48) and Minami (AKB48) reacts to Shou’s breaking news with “Eh?”.
Nakai Masahiro: Could you repeat that?
Kiryuuin Shou: About 100 million yen. I figured there was no point in hiding it.
Rino Sashihara: What did you use that hundred million yen on?
Kiryuuin Shou: I don’t really plan on spending it, haha! I love seeing how much I have on my bankbook.AKB48’s Mayu reacts.
Golden Bomber is indeed a band of transparency and always been self-aware that glory does not last forever. They never let fame lead them astray which is one of many other reasons to their popularity! Speaking of transparency, let’s close out this story with some real transparency!
More info:
Official Website
Zany Zap YouTube
Source: Tamineta2
Translation: Unofficial Golden Bomber Facebook fan page