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Meg (singer)

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Meg
Meg singing live at Japan Expo 2011 (Paris, France)
Meg live at Japan Expo 2011 in Paris
Born (1980-10-03) October 3, 1980 (age 44)
Occupations
  • Singer
  • songwriter
  • record producer
  • model
  • fashion designer
Agents
  • Sylph Creation
    Unborde Artista
  • Asobisystem
Children1
Musical career
Genres
Years active2001–present
Labels
Websitemegweb.jp

Meg (Yorichika Keiko (Japanese: 頼近恵子); born October 3, 1980),[1] stylised in all caps, is a Japanese recording artist, record producer, model and fashion designer from Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. She is signed with Starchild Records, a division of King Records. Between 2003 and 2013 she created over a dozen albums and two dozen singles. She started a fashion brand called "Cheryl" in 2004, and both a cosmetic brand, "baw," and a restaurant, café Maison de Ruban, in 2014.

Biography

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Meg made her singing debut in July 2002 with the song "傘としずく (Kasa To Shizuku)",[2] which she produced herself and arranged by CMJK. The single was an indie single released under Burger Inn Records.

She made her transition to a major label, Warner Music Japan, with the single "Scanty Blues", which was composed by Yasuyuki Okamura. During production Meg and Okamura disagreed on the arrangement of the song, which caused him to stop working on it, and Meg recruited techno producer Ubar Tmar to finish the song as she wanted it. The finished "Scanty Blues" took on an acid techno-influenced, house-like sound, while Okamura's own rock arrangement of the song was included as the B-side. Nevertheless, her next single was a cover of Okamura's song "Ikenai Koto Kai".

In 2003, Warner Music commissioned Third Ear Recordings to produce a remix album for Meg, "mgrmx", which featured artists such as Theo Parrish and Christ.; this album became Meg's first work to be released outside of Japan as it also received an LP release in Europe.

In the summer of 2004, Meg started a new fashion brand called "Cheryl", which followed on from the work she did on her previous brand, "mgcloset". Items by Cheryl were stocked in Klein-Mart Tokyo, a store launched and directed by Meg specifically for the purpose of selling Cheryl designs, but which also stocked homewares, accessories, and vintage and imported fashion.[citation needed]

In January 2006, she changed the official capitalization of her stage name from "meg" to "MEG". In the same year, Cheryl was rebranded as "Carolina Glaser by Cheryl", introducing men's designs. She opened another storefront to sell the new brand, the Carolina Glaser Boutique.

Her third studio album, Aquaberry, reached number 1 on the pop albums chart on the Japanese upon its release and managed to sell higher than her previous album Dithyrambos.[1] The album did not produce any singles.[3]

Meg began working with producer Yasutaka Nakata in 2007 and released her ninth single, "Amai Zeitaku", in May 2007, switching to the electropop genre.[1] She has since worked with other producers, including the new rave English band Hadouken! for her 14th single, "Freak", and the Shanghai Restoration Project for a mini album titled Journey.[4]

Meg's 2008 album Step became her best-selling album in her career, peaking at number 8 in the Oricon chart, selling 29,048 units, making it the second technopop album to reach the Oricon Top Ten since Perfume's Game, which debuted at number one.[5]

Her sixth studio album, Beautiful, was released on May 27, 2009, and also has reached the Oricon Top Ten.[6] Her seventh full studio album, Maverick, was released on June 23, 2010, once again featuring production and songwriting work by Yasutaka Nakata.

In July 2010, Meg wrote in her blog informing fans that she would be leaving Universal Music Japan and travelling to Paris for a break. She would release the single "Passport/Paris" and a compilation album titled Best Flight with her label before going on indefinite hiatus.[7] On a May 2012 interview with Natalie.mu, Meg revealed that some of the reasons of her going on hiatus was the quick production of Yasutaka Nakata on her album Maverick, completing the album for just three weeks, and that she realized that she did not take much time on the lyrical content of the songs and added that the album is leaning towards more "pop" than club music, in which she considered a "fast pace" on the album's production.[8]

In 2011, she returned to Warner Music, under the management of the newly launched Unborde Records label. Starting June 20, 2011 Meg began releasing digital singles only available in the French iTunes Store. Her fourth digital single, "Rouge No Dengon", was originally supposed to be released on September 26, 2011, but due to issues getting it onto the iTunes France Store, it was delayed and released on September 27 instead.

Two singles, "Kiss or Bite" and "Save", were announced in April 2013 and marked Meg's first dual single release. They were released together in a special package and as separate releases on June 5, 2013. The tracks from the two singles were created with a unified narrative involving a love story with post-apocalyptic and horror themes. The release was also accompanied by a set of seven trading cards and a browser game called "Meg the World." The browser game was designed with a pixel art style evocative of fourth generation video games and featured chiptune versions of songs from the two singles, while dialogue in the game elaborated upon the themes found in the songs' lyrics.[9] These themes would later be used on the following studio album, Continue, which was released on December 4, 2013.[10]

Since 2014, she focused on business by her own cosmetic brand "baw", and also the café Maison de Ruban, a café she opened inspired by her time spent in France.[citation needed]. Both businesses have now closed.

Discography

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Albums

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Year Title Genre Label Oricon
album
charts
 Sales Producer
2003 Mgrmx Electronic dance — — 300 Kouichi Tsutaya
Room Girl Pop Dream Machine 87 4,000 Yasuyuki Okamura, CMJK, Nobuhiko Kashihara, Meg
2006 Dithyrambos Pop Shampoo Nine 291 800 Meg
2007 Aquaberry Indie electronic AZ Tribe, Rainbow 139 2,000 Nakamura Hiroshi
Beam J-pop/electropop Universal J 24 29,000 Nakata Yasutaka
2008 Step J-pop/electropop 8 29,000
2009 Beautiful J-pop/electropop 10 18,000
Journey Indie electronic 38 6,000 Shanghai Restoration Project
2010 Maverick[11] J-pop/electropop 20 8,000 Nakata Yasutaka
Best Flight J-pop/electropop/ electronica/pop-rock 22 7,000 Nakata Yasutaka, Hadouken!, Shanghai Restoration Project, Zentarou Watanabe
2012 La Japonaise[12] Pop Starchild, King 60 2,000 Nakata Yasutaka, Shanghai Restoration Project, The Telephones, various
Wear I Am[13] Pop 36 3,000 Nakata Yasutaka, taku (M-Flo), Yasuyuki Okamura, various
2013 Continue Pop 80 — TeddyLoid, Masaru Yokoyama, Tomoki Hasegawa, various

Singles

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Year Title Peak
(Oricon) 		Peak
(Billboard) 		Sales Album
2001 "Kasa To Shizuku" (傘としずく) — — — Room Girl
2002 "Scanty Blues" (スキャンティブルース, Sukyanti Burūsu) — — —
"Ikenai Kotokai/Kasa to Shizuku" (イケナイコトカイ/傘としずく) 84 — 4,000
2003 "Kōro" (光露) 156 — 700
"Groove Tube" 131 — 1,400
2004 "Stereo04" — — — Dithyrambos
2006 "Rockstar" 1 — — —
"Dawn" 1 — — —
2007 "Amai Zeitaku" (甘い贅沢) 1 183 — 600 Beam
"OK" 43 — 8,000
2008 "Magic" 42 — 4,000 Step
"Heart" 26 62 6,000
"Precious" 17 49 8,000 Beautiful
2009 "Freak" 21 — 5,000 Best Flight
2010 "Secret Adventure" 44 — 2,400 Maverick
"Passport/Paris" 75 — 1,600 Best Flight
2012 "Trap" 34 — 3,000 Wear I Am
2013 "Kiss or Bite" 72 — — Continue
"Save" 73 — —
Digital singles
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Other appearances

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Year Song Artist Album
2008 "Hikyou no Oku no Ushi no Kioku" (秘境の奥の虫歯の記憶) Ukawanimation! N/A
"Denwa" (電話) Suneohair Birthday
"Wish You Smile" Sound Around Sweet Music
2009 "Lyricist" Towa Tei Big Fun
"Haruka" (遥) Ryukyudisko, iLL Pleasure, ∀
"When You Wish Upon a Star" Meg × Q;indivi House☆Disney
2012 "Hijitsuzai Boy" (非実在ボーイ) Ram Rider Audio Galaxy: Ram Rider vs Stars!!!
2020 "Stay with Me" Ram Rider N/A

References

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  1. ^ a b c Biography. universal-music.co.jp)
  2. ^ "Oricon entertainment encyclopedia". Oricon.
  3. ^ MEG Official Discography Page On Official Website. Megweb.jp. Retrieved October 14, 2013.
  4. ^ Oricon Style "Freak" Information. Oricon.co.jp (February 22, 1999). Retrieved October 14, 2013.
  5. ^ "2008年06月16日～2008年06月22日のCDアルバム週間ランキング（2008年06月30日付）". Oricon. Retrieved February 17, 2012.
  6. ^ Oricon Style "Beautiful" Detail. Oricon.co.jp (February 22, 1999). Retrieved October 14, 2013.
  7. ^ News on Meg's Hiatus. Tokyograph.com (July 30, 2010). Retrieved October 14, 2013.
  8. ^ ナタリー – [Power Push] MEG「LA JAPONAISE」インタビュー (1/3). Natalie.mu. Retrieved October 14, 2013.
  9. ^ MEG＆MEG ZOMBIES、ゲームで新作の世界観チラ見せ. Natalie.mu. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  10. ^ MEG師走に新アルバム＆RPG「MEG THE WORLD」続編も. Natalie.mu. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  11. ^ "TBA/Ltd Edition". 95music (in Chinese). Archived from the original on May 9, 2010. Retrieved April 20, 2010.
  12. ^ MEG Concept Album "LA JAPONAISE". Cdjapan.co.jp (April 25, 2012). Retrieved October 14, 2013.
  13. ^ MEG reveals new album wtitle, "WEAR I AM". Natalie.mu. Retrieved October 14, 2013.
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