A friend and I were reminiscing about 90’s J-pop last night, so I thought I would share some videos of the group that really got me into J-pop: SPEED! I started listening to J-pop around the end of 1999. One of my friends had burned me four CDs full of J-pop MP3s and music videos, and my favorite video among those was “Precious Time” by SPEED. Soon after that I found the video for “Long Way Home”, another instant favorite. It was SPEED’s newest release at the time.
I went back and searched for SPEED’s older songs. They made their debut as young teens (ages 12-15) in 1996. Their voices are pretty squeaky, and their songs are kind of hit or miss for me, but I enjoy their videos. Another one of my favorites is “All My True Love”, in particular because the video was shot in Arizona (a place I have a number of connections to)!
Sadly, SPEED disbanded in 2000, shortly after I learned about them. They reunited a couple of times to release a song or two here and there. “Walking in the Rain” might be my number one favorite SPEED song.
In 2008 SPEED reunited for a longer period, starting with the release of “Ashita no Sora”. I really liked the song and was excited that they were back, with a more mature look and sound! SPEED also re-recorded and re-shot videos for some of their oldest songs. “Nettaiya” was always one of my favorite of their songs, but the original video was super basic, so I was happy to see it got a nice remake. After four years (which is actually just as long as their original run), SPEED disbanded again in 2012. I wonder if we’ll ever see them make another return?
uwahh a fellow SPEED fan! Thanks for sharing your favorite songs/pv~ My favorites were their earliest ones like My Graduation and WHITE LOVE, but these songs (esp Nettaiya) are so nice! My favorite member was Hiro, love her voice <3
Yay!! Those are classics. 🙂 Wait, didn’t you just buy the Hiro CDs from me at ALA Swap Meet? XD;