B'z
B'z (ビーズ, Bīzu) is a Japanese rock duo, consisting of guitarist, composer and producer Takahiro "Tak" Matsumoto (松本 孝弘, Matsumoto Takahiro) and vocalist and lyricist Koshi Inaba (稲葉 浩志, Inaba Kōshi).
B'z is one of the best-selling music artists in the world and the best-selling in their native Japan, having released 46 consecutive No. 1 singles, 25 No. 1 albums and sold more than 100 million records worldwide. In 2003, HMV Japan ranked the band at number 30 on their list of the 100 most important Japanese pop acts. In 2007, B'z became the first band from Asia to have their handprints and signatures put up in the Hollywood's RockWalk.
History
Early works (1988–1990)
Tak Matsumoto, guitarist in Tetsuya Komuro's TM Network, had been extremely busy with various recording sessions and live performances. On 21 May 1988, Matsumoto released his first solo album, Thousand Wave. He saw this as the end of his solo career, and began his search for band members. He later met vocalist Koshi Inaba, who would later found B'z with him. At the time, Japan's music scene was loaded with many new bands being created. With all the digital sounds in mainstream music, the only sounds that they felt could not be expressed and replicated were the guitar and the human voice. As a result, they decided to keep it a two-man unit. On 21 September 1988, B'z made their debut with their first album, B’z, and single, "Dakara Sono Te wo Hanashite (だからその手を離して)". Their music was very much a product of its times, with synthesizers and samplers sharing equal time with Matsumoto's guitar, producing an experimental sound, very different from their well-known hard rock sound of today.
