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generasia:Featured article for 2020 week 38

Perfume promoting "Time Warp" (2020)

Perfume

Perfume (パフューム) is an all-girl electro-pop trio from Hiroshima consisting of Oomoto Ayano ("Nocchi"), Kashino Yuka ("Kashiyuka") and Nishiwaki Ayaka ("A~chan"). They have been signed with Amuse Inc. since 2003 and with Universal Music Japan since 2012, debuting locally in 2001 and nationally in 2005. The group was formed with an original post-Shibuya-kei sound as it was popular during the years until their transition toward contemporary electronic dance music that incorporated elements of synthpop, bubblegum pop, dance-pop, techno, and house music. The group is also known for their heavily processed vocals, making clever use of autotune, Harmony Engine, and vocoders. Over the years, Perfume has been one of the most successful acts in Asian music. The group's musical structure has been identified as "technopop".

The group was formed in early 2000 inside young talent academy Actors School Hiroshima, and debuted with their first Hiroshima-local single "Omajinai Perori" released on March 21, 2002. A year later they moved to Tokyo and started working with CAPSULE's producer Nakata Yasutaka, after which on August 6, 2003 they released their first nationwide indie single, "Sweet Donuts". In 2005 they got a major contract deal with Tokuma Japan Communications, and released their major debut single "Linear Motor Girl" on September 21st.

At first, Perfume had a hard time finding an audience or any success. It was not until 2008 with the group's seventh single "Polyrhythm" that they started to receive major attention in Japan. The single peaked at #7 on the Oricon charts, becoming their first Top 10 single, and since then, all of their subsequent works have debuted within the Top 3 of the charts. Their first original studio album, GAME, released on April 16, 2008, became their first number one album, and "Love the World", released on July 9, 2008, their first number one single. With roughly combined sales of both singles and albums, the group has sold over 4 million records, with 1.5 million albums sold in Japan alone as of March 2012.

Their 31st single "Time Warp" is released this week on September 14th.