Hyadain (Kenichi Maeyamada), God of the Idol World

Duan Sparkles
Jul 23, 2017 · 6 min read
Our savior doing grand workings.

Most Americans know Hyadain as that guy who did video game covers back in the day. My time interacting with Japanese music fans on Showroom has given me the impression that the perception of him in Japan is that of a solo artist. While many of us, Japanese and American wota alike, know the big names of Tsunku or Akimoto Yasushi, many don’t truly understand the absolutely massive impact that Hyadain has had on the idol world as a producer, nor why he is in fact my favorite producer in the idol world.

Let’s go back to 2007! The iPhone arrives, the 2007 Boston Mooninite Panic happens, the Spice Girls have a reunion tour, and C-ute has their major debut! But most important of all, Kenichi Maeyamada becomes Hyadain and posts a remix of Crash Man’s theme on Nico Nico Douga. His remixes quickly spread to the American internet, making him a generally known name in nerd culture, while he plants the seeds for his more mainstream career after writing the lyrics for the song “Don’t Go Baby”, which was featured in Initial D: Fourth Stage.

He eventually revealed his identity as Kenichi Maeyamada on the Hyadain blog in 2010. By 2011, he released his first single as Hyadain, “Hyadain no Kakakata Kataomoi-C”. But this walk through Hyadain’s life is actually about his impact on the idol world. Let’s step back to 2007 again, because who needs consistency of timeline. Most of you watch Doctor Who, you don’t care!

Hyadain’s earliest known involvement in the idol world was back during the early seeds of AKB48’s rise to power. In 2007, he wrote Tonari no Banana for the second stage of their Himawarigumi theater unit. Now, am I saying that AKB48 wouldn’t be as huge as it is now if Hyadain didn’t write an obscure song about girls becoming tasty ripe bananas because they’re more interesting and easier to peel than unripe bananas?

Yes, yes I am. That seems like a reasonable claim to make with no further research into evidence to the contrary.

The year is 2008! The American president is now black, and also he switched bodies with a Japanese schoolgirl in the Air Gear manga and became a body swapped support character for a while. In this period, the Hello!Project unit MilkyWay was created to promote Kirarin☆Revolution, and not one to choose sides in this early period of the idol wars, Hyadain wrote the song Tan Tan Taan, about the sky and rainbows and friendship being magic and such. It was their second single, #7 on the Oricon charts, and proved once again that Hyadain could do anything!

In 2008 he also arranged Melon Kinebi’s cover of BaBe’s GIVE ME UP, on their album MEGA MELON.

Being an anime promotion unit, MilkyWay may not have been extremely notable, but it was an important moment in Hyadain’s history, as it would be the first time he stepped into Hello!Project. He did more work that largely involved Kirarin☆Revolution songs, including Koharu Kusumi (a member of both MilkyWay and Morning Musume at the time) solo songs. These early songs were honestly very interesting to me, despite being pretty normal happy anime songs, because it’s the earliest known time I’ve noticed something he tends to do; Define the sound of an idol.

When Hyadain produces for an idol, he tries to feel the very essence of that idol or group. He wants to bring out their maximum potential. And if a company is smart, they strike that iron and cash rains from the heavens. All of Koharu’s songs after Hyadain were made in the style of the sound he defined for her, because he knows how to capture the true, most concentrated essence of an idol. There have been many times I won’t name, where Hyadain has created for a group, defined an incredible sound, and that sound was abandoned. It’s like burning money, when Hyadain is giving you a pot of gold!

But that brings us to a very important year, 2010. I was complaining about Inception because I hate Inception (that’s a whole essay), and America realized it loved Betty White again. But also YES YES WE ARE THE MOMOIRO CLOVER!!!

Hyadain would unleash the dogs of war as the hyper particle cannons of Momoiro Clover were fired into the idol world. Single after amazing single would absolutely tear through the charts with no regard for the health and safety of any other songs on it. A group that would embody everything great about Hyadain’s particular musical style, perhaps the equivalent of Tsunku and early Hello!Project. They lost one member and just added a Z after their name, then literally declared war on AKB48 numerous times. Hyadain even made a song about it!

Conspiracy theory or intentional symbolism?! This is the Era of Warring Idols!

Not long after making a Momoiro Clover Z song with ex-Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman, during their initial scorching of the Earth, he began producing for one of the greatest active idol groups in existence, Dempagumi.inc. One of the first things he did for them was a re-arrangement of the Beastie Boys’ Sabotage. In between Momoiro Clover Z and Dempagumi.inc, it became apparent to me that Hyadain was fully embracing idols as an art form.

Idols have the stigma of being a purely manufactured creation meant to churn out pop hits, but this is a stigma I do not believe fully describes the Japanese idol any longer. The Japanese idol industry is, in fact, the complete opposite of a typical “pop” industry, even the more mainstream jpop industry itself. Unlike a typical pop scene, Japanese idols cannot survive by following trends, they have to seek out new sounds and originality to stand out from the crowd. This breeds innovation and experimentation not typically seen in your average pop hits.

This is an envelope that Hyadain has pushed time and time again, right alongside his contemporaries, Tsunku, Dance☆Man, Akimoto Yasushi, and others. Dempagumi.inc and Momoiro Clover Z are two groups that skyrocketed through the indies to take the mainstream idol world by storm, proving that originality, hard work, and soul are the things that matter in the Japanese idol world.

Hyadain has worked with many other idols since then, even continuing to work in the indies despite his mainstream success in the idol, anisong, and contemporary music world. I can’t even cover all of the idol acts he’s worked with, because his impact is far reaching and his work is absolutely enormous. One could say that he’s the James Brown of idol producers, the hardest working man in the business. The absolute mega success of the groups he produces would put any other man on the level of God, perhaps even God King, but for some reason most people I encounter are absolutely shocked that Hyadain has done so much, even people in Japan.

I think a good note to end this on would be a list of the idols he’s worked with who I haven’t even gotten into talking about, who all probably deserve entire essays on their own. This list is to truly emphasize his level of importance and influence, so that you understand the full breadth of his work.

Otome Shinto

9nine

The Idolm@ster (Hey, I think it counts!)

Mayu Watanabe

Bakusute Sotokanda Icchome

Rurika Yokoyama

Takoyaki Rainbow

Chikasugi princess

Akamaru Dash☆

Ebichu

Sphere

Band Ja Naimon!

MAX

Niji no Conquistador

LinQ

Milk

Rev from DVL

Kobushi Factory

Rio Hiiragi

Milky Holmes

Little Glee Monster

Rock A Japonica

Minami Takahashi

Juice=Juice

While I’m sure I missed a few, this should be more than enough to convince you that Hyadain is our handsome idol god. At the end of the day, all I ask is that you forsake all Earthly beliefs and ascend to the enlightened school of thought that Hyadain is the perfect producer. If you don’t believe me, please listen to this transcendent Dempagumi.inc song that is somehow a new composition, re-arrangement, and a remix all at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih19o9c-xDo

Enjoy your spiritual awakening.

Duan Sparkles

Written by

I do lots of stuff! Nerd stuff, writing stuff, computer stuff, idol stuff, cooking stuff, Photoshop composite! Learning music production and Japanese right now!

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