X-Japan Rock Essay, Research Paper

Hideto Matsumoto ~hide~

33 years

1964.12.19-1998.5.12

100,000 people gathered in front of hide’s house on May 2nd. “His sudden death suprised me. I still can’t believe it. He now sleeps with an beautiful face. I tried waking him up, but, he still lays still,” says Yoshiki, the leader of hide’s earlier band, X-Japan. On May 2nd, he was found dead. It was an acidental suicide when he was massaging his neck with an rope. He was carried to the hospital unconcious but announced dead same day 8:52pm.

Too bad that he died. He surely was revolutionary in the Japanese Rock(JOCK) scene. One of the best guitarist, approved by many rock listeners around the world. His activity starting in Japan, spread to Europe to Los Angeles. In Japan, he started out as the Saber Tigers when he was 15(1979). He used to be a fat and shy kid, but rock has changed him into a more free and bright kid. Rock was everything to him. Later on, he joined with Yoshiki(leader, drums), Toshi(vocal), Pata(guitar), and heath(guitar) to form X-Japan in 1988. This band was a big hit in Japan, and this was the first major step(in main stream) for hide. This band broke up in 97. While in X-Japan hide started his solo activity in 93. His first single was Eyes Love You(93/8/5). This was a pop-rock song which I don’t like but this was chosen as MTV Best Video Award Japan. This spread his face through out the world and won him recognition. Then he had his first solo album, HIDE YOUR FACE, it was amazing. It included brass rock, funk, industrial, country and grounge(I don’t know spelling). This album showed his talents in various music genre. In January 28, 1998 hide made a band called hide with Spread Beaver. This band was hide plus I.N.A(Co-producer/programming), Chirolyn(BASS), Satoshi(drums), D.I.E(keyboard), Pata, Kiyoshi, and Kaz(guitar). Their first single ROCKET DIVE was the first song of hide’s I heard. I saw it on TV and his performance was just amazing. The pink background, matched with his pink hair and the band members tied to ropes and jumping up and down was plain “IMPACT.” I was instantly absorbed. I started listening to X-Japan CDs my mother had and I really liked them. I bought his 2nd solo album, PSYENCE. This album, again, included many music genre and this made me certain I was going to buy more of his CDs. And there my researching started.

Back to hide’s world wide activity. His music was highly approved in Europe and many people supported/admired him there. In Europe, he made his 4th band, ZILCH in 1998 around March, right before his death. This band included Ray McVeigh(guitar+vocal), Paul Raven(bass) and Joey Castillo(drums). This band started by translating and remixing hide’s song he made with his other bands. I think this band is one of the Top 3 best band in the world, too bad they’re over. From America, Charlie Clouser from Nine Inch Nails helped remixing, and others were mostly Europeans.

Also, Marilyn Manson was too an hide fan. Manson dyed his hair pink because of hide’s influence. I think this shows hide had real skills and it was approved by people from many countries.

Bibliography

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