Pure Idol Heart: C-Zone

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

C-Zone

C-Zone is an Indies Idol group that made their debut in Chiba [Outside Tokyo] in 2004 and makes their home base in Chiba.

C-Zone is no different then say AKB48 or Morning Musume ,other then they maybe the best kept Idol secret around . If you are familiar with the rock genre Visual Kei .C-Zone is much like that, in terms of they just do their thing and fly under the radar compared to most well known groups.

That is not to say they have no experience under their belts, they have done most of the same things that AKB48 and Morning Musume have done and are doing, they just do it without a lot of internet noise.

For example when Morning Musume was in Los Angeles at Anime Expo on the main stage, C-Zone was there on a secondary stage. In 2010, they went to Paris, France and performed in front of 5,000 event goers.

They have a TV show, radio show just like any other well-known group.

C-Zone who are made up of Yamamoto Yume, Ikeda Aya, Kawase Rio, and Kitamura Shizuka , have performed at some of the major pop festivals and racing events in Japan. In 2008 C-Zone joined up with a GT Racing team to do a promotional song and advertising for and on the car. They also did a campaign for Disney. In 2009, their single “Snow Breeze” was selected by Gala Yuzawa Snow Resort as a campaign song.

They have done theme songs for anime as well as done work as actresses, MC`s and various narrating work.

To date C-Zone has released 10 singles and 2 albums, the lack of having only about two singles a year, has limited the rate they have been able to grow each year. However being an Indies group they are taking advantage of every opportunity handed to them and have created a stable career for themselves.

There are many Idol groups in Japan, which are not pushed by major media,major agencies or have a large International fan base on the internet ,worshiping their every move . The only difference between the types of Idols is that they are not signed to agencies most fans living outside of Japan would know of , such as an Hello!Project . Because loyalty is very important to both artist and agency, groups and artists tend to stay with the company that gave them a start and out of that loyalty, some groups may never be as well known as AKB48 or Morning Musume.

There are even groups that are perfectly happy with the freedom that being an Indies offers them,such as being able to get closer to their fans in ways that a major can no longer do.

Visual Kei is one such genre that is almost 100% Indies and they enjoy a wide creative freedom. Just because a group is not as popular as AKB48 or Morning Musume, does not mean they are a lesser group or work not as hard, It just means the roads they travel are different. If those two groups did not have the backing they have, they would be no different then the 100`s of other Independent groups in Japan.

Will C-Zone ever grow to battle each day with the heavy hitters in the industry on the Oricon rankings?
Who knows ,after all it was not long ago that Momoiro Clover was just another Akiba Idol unit.