Here’s a brief clip of the official video for Perfume’s “Spring Of Lie.” Ya know how lots of people are all on about how the members of Perfume are basically robots and easily replaceable? Perfume runs with that idea in a nice touch of self awareness.
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Poop!
please don’t be a hater
How can the members of Perfume be replacable? This isn’t AKB48; they are old friends. The three of them have worked together for 12 years now. Perfume is about as near to a genuine ‘group’, as in a bunch of friends first and a successful music outfit second, as pop gets.
On top of that, they are genuinely good singers; the autotune/electronic voice effect is essentially another instrument, and their harmony is, if not unique, something you’d be hard pressed to replicate. That’s particularly true in light of the fact they are all superbly well co-ordinated dancers, their dancing is very prominent in their shows and videos and the sheer amount of choreography any new member would have to learn would be insane. That’s totally ignoring the great relationship they clearly have with their offstage crew – the musicians, the choreographers, the designers, the costumiers, the video directors, the concert and staging designers, the TV show crew…the Perfume we see is the tip of the iceberg. Perfume is a machine, yes, but it’s one worked by many creative people; we only see three of them.
And then there’s their chemistry and characters, which absolutely shine if you go beyond just listening to their music and start watching their videos or their TV show. Most pop groups play things absolutely WYSIWYG straight; Perfume have had their tongues well in their cheeks for years now. Watch the videos for Natural Ni Koishite, or Voice, or the What Is Disco concert intro; as well as great music, they’re hilarious and self-deprecating, and almost everything they do demands you redefine what ‘real’ is. Perfume is a group that’s only slightly ‘manufactured’ as these things go (Kashiyuka and A-Chan went to school together but the original third member, who was at school with them, dropped out in 2000. Nocchi replaced her), but they know everyone’s going to jump to conclusions about that sort of thing, especially when people hear their particular electronic sound, so they openly play with the idea. They’re postmodern in a way nothing so mainstream has ever been, I believe, and this video is just another aspect of that. That’s the thing that makes them so special; there’s no way any part of Perfume can be easily swapped out.