01. The Beginning of the Endless Vacation: Namie Amuro’s Infectious Impact
The year is 1995: The Eurobeat boom is thriving with hits such as, “Try Me” are making waves across the country. The single not only airs on radio and television broadcasts but also is played at clubs such as Velfarre and Juliana’s where Para Para routines for this and many other tracks were enthusiastically performed by club-goers.
02. The Start of the Sub-style Separation: Gaggles of Ganguro and Mobs of Manba
In all between the years 2000 and 2002, there was a huge-ass gap left for Avex and the fashion scene in general. This didn’t mean that Namie wasn’t on Popteen covers or getting commercial deals, it just meant that the hype around her comparably wasn’t as large as it was in the nineties. People were out looking for new things as inspiration just as much as Namie was trying to find herself again.
03. Ayumi Hamasaki’s Rise to Royalty: Popteen Princesses and Glamorous Gals
On the other end, there were the Popteen Gyaru who still loved the mainstream gal legacy that Namie Amuro had set forth and they had already set sight on their new Avex-driven “it-girl” to lead the way as Namie Amuro worked behind the scenes to find her next trendsetting image. This truly is where Gyaru separated into two entirely different sub-styles with very different values and would go on to affect the Gyaru boom later on in the 2010s.
While baby Koda Kumi was training to be the next big thing to hit the market and Ayu was doing her thing and was dominating the charts with new songs and concepts; Namie Amuro was attempting to finally make a long-awaited comeback…By the mid-2000s however, the battle of the two reigning queens of Avex was joined by a third: Koda Kumi was set to debut with her song, “Take Back” but her actual career did not kick off until her songs “Real Emotion” and “1000 Words” were used for the Square Enix video game franchise Final Fantasy’s X-2.
This is where the story takes a turn for both Popteen and the music industry which in turn had long influenced Gyaru fashion. There are definitely groups that inspired the Gyaru market.
06. Reiwa’s Revival: The Future in Music and Fashion
As an old lady that’s loyal to all things of the past, I find that the Reiwa era of Gyaru is somewhat awkward to me. Perhaps I am old and jaded but I think I’m just wise enough to know better. The effects of the idol boom and the Hallyu wave along with the rise of social media platforms have truly left a large imprint on any sort of revival that has occurred in the past four to five years.