Dream : The Reboot!

[Shoujo Q]

Here is my oh so short and full of holes bio of Dream.



Dream formed in 1999 under Avex with three members, in 2002 they had lost a member and auditioned for new members and became an 8 member group. 2003 was the height of their music. After that they struggled because Avex secretly hates everyone that isn't Ayumi Hamasaki and another member left the group bringing it down to seven members. In 2007 instead of dying with dignity they reformed as DRM and released some digital singles. After losing one of the original members in 2008 they changed their name back to Dream because changing your name never works, just ask the New Kids on the Block and Prince. Since then they have been trying for a comeback having moved to the rhythm zone label.



Also fun fact is that the group was also a futsal team (TEAM dream), playing competition against Gatas Brilhantes H.P.





For those who don't know Dream, please read their wiki page. It's full of 98% more stuff I haven't covered like... the names of the girls! <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... iggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' />





Anyway, reason for the post.



They just released their second major single under rhythm zone, Ev'rybody Alright! If Kpop and Jpop had a baby it would be this song. Watch the PV here.



They debut at #22 if anyone is interested. :x



Here is the first single under their new label, My Way ~Ulala~. It's their first official single since 2005, not including the digitial singles they released in 2008 as DRM.



Dream will be releasing their first new album since 2004, Hands Up! in late November.





Does anyone still care about this group? I just felt bad, I had NO idea they were still around and I liked some of their stuff back in 2003. I just felt they needed a reboot thread for those who weren't in the know. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... iggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' />





I think a big problem for Dream was the fact that avex wasn't promoting them and Morning Musume was their AKB48. They just couldn't break out from under them as far as female idol groups are concerned, resulting in their limited success despite having lots of little promotional outlets with animes and stuff.

[Melon]

I really liked 3nin dream, but my favorite member was Mai, so when she left...I left too.



I can't believe Kana's still in the group, wow.



The song reminds me of a Kumi song. The vocal effects on their voices really invoked her for some reason in my mind. The song's okay, it's not very catchy. I liked the segment of whipping hair back and forth, and their costume/set changes. They needed a cooler song for those fierce sets and outfits.

[neshcom]

I never kept up with Dream, so this is a new thing for me. I don't like their voices; they either sing too low or sound like Dr. Girlfriend. The song is okay and the PV is kind of cool, if not cluttered and mis-matched. You just don't get the feeling that you're watching idols, just people. Not enough personality, I guess. I definitely agree that this sounds like a k-pop song. My Way sounds like that early 90s euro-pop/pop that was big in the US and I'm just turned off by it.

[ShinUkyo]

[quote name='PQ' post='86117' date='Oct 6 2010, 07:20 AM']Does anyone still care about this group?

I just felt bad, I had NO idea they were still around and I liked some of their stuff back in 2003.

I just felt they needed a reboot thread for those who weren't in the know. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... iggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':wub:' />[/quote]

Of course! I'm a diehard Dream fan since day one (more than ten years ago.) It's trippy to think it's been that long, but in a way it feels like longer. I loved their reinvention in 2003, and I was huge into the (albeit failed) Avex attempt at forming a girlpop collective. Dream became their version of Morning Musume, and Sweets was their answer to Berryz Koubou (even though Sweets technically came first.) Then they had folks like Fruits Punch, Kayo Aiko, and some other short-lived soloists. A couple Dream members ended up with solo projects, and they did the big Christmas single every year where the whole collective came together. Avex certainly got all of the angles right, it just never worked out. Like you said, a lot of this was poor artist promotion on their part. If there's one thing that both Hello Project and AKB48 can do properly, it's marketing to their very specific core audience. Avex never really figured out what theirs was, sadly.



I'm really digging these new singles, and it's really weird hearing the Dream girls do such grown-up songs. Not to mention the sexy image change, wow! Then again, it has been five or six years since their prime. It made sense that they would shed the idol pop image, if for no other reason than they're growing up. Perfect Girls is an amazing song, and Breakout is pretty decent. Ev'rybody Alright is pretty good as well, although like you said it reeks of the typical Kpop songs we hear all the time nowadays (with endless auto-tune to boot.) I think My Way is freakin' AMAZING, though, and I hope more of the songs on their album are like that. I really need to check it out, and I hope this spells a bright sort of future for these gals.



It sucks to hear that Kana is leaving soon, as the group won't seem right without her. Not to mention the lack of all three founding members, once she leaves. But meh, I've fallen for the rest of these gals over the past eight plus years, so I'm fine with the five-piece group that will remain. Watching their new videos, I feel nostalgia seeing folks like Sayaka and Mai all grown-up! And on a random note, as to my adoration for Dream: their mini-album "Natsuiro" is among my 100 most-listened-to albums of all-time. Upon hearing this from most people, you'd say something like, "Top 100? That doesn't sound very prestigious." But keeping in mind that I own something like 13,000 CD's, you can tell I really loved that album. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... hahaha.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':weeeh:' />



[quote name='neshcom' post='86125' date='Oct 6 2010, 11:17 AM']I never kept up with Dream, so this is a new thing for me. I don't like their voices; they either sing too low or sound like Dr. Girlfriend. The song is okay and the PV is kind of cool, if not cluttered and mis-matched. You just don't get the feeling that you're watching idols, just people. Not enough personality, I guess. I definitely agree that this sounds like a k-pop song. My Way sounds like that early 90s euro-pop/pop that was big in the US and I'm just turned off by it.[/quote]

I think part of their singing so low is to differentiate themselves from their idol pop era (2002-2005.) They are trying very hard to shed that cutesy image, and so they're going for that more-modern and R&B flavored style. For a second, when you said My Way sounded like 90's Euro music, you had me thinking it would be Eurobeat (like when they debuted in 1999.) <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':wub:' /> It's nothing like that, however, and it still strikes me as fairly modern. It's a solid and no-risk sort of pop song, but I'm completely enamored with it already.

[ShinUkyo]

I've been watching the PV's for Perfect Girls and My Way ~Ulala~, once per day, since stumbling upon this thread. Normally I don't even use my computer on a daily basis, period - so for me this is a revelation. This and, I don't normally watch PV's by myself. I tend to save that for visits to friends' houses, like Steve (AEUG.) But sadly, as I'm the only Dream fan among local people, I don't have folks to share this love with. Still, I haven't been following Dream's recent resurgence closely enough. This needs to change, and it will. I've watched the making videos for the recent singles, and I must say that these are definitely the same Dream they used to be. They are charming, cute, shy, and everything I remember from their idol days. The image change in the music itself is in contrast to this, but again it's not a bad thing. It's also awesome watching the documentary footage of their touring this year, as so many of the fans in the crowd are women. This includes the fans who stalk them on the street and so-forth, all women! They certainly survived their attempt as wota-bait, and this is fine. Between Hellopro and AKB alone, there's enough of that in the industry.



I'll now stop, as this may as well be a schizophrenic thread at this point. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... >/sigh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' />

I should dig up my 2006 Dream Live DVD's, as it's been entirely too long.