"The Peace" was one of the first songs I instinctively sought out when I first decided to put myself through a Morning Musume "crash course" this year, and its distinctive quirks really helped it stand out for me right off the bat: the infectiously catchy chorus, the awesome call-and-response chants, the funky disco vibe, the silly false endings, Rika's switch from insightful thinker to cute ditz in the monologue, the (possibly unintentional) resemblance of certain parts to Super Mario World and Street Fighter music...but most of all, the straight up weirdness of the whole thing. Random lyrics about pizza delivery and convenience stores? A video that takes place in an unusually spacious men's restroom? It was pure insanity, and I couldn't help but be drawn into its psychotic little world.
The video is especially eye-opening...seeing teenage girls not only dance around all those urinals and toilets but also end up being covered in
gold towards the end, I could've sworn R. Kelly was involved in its creation.
And I'm glad I did my research in mostly chronological order, because it made it that much more awesome when a few weeks later I would discover [noembed]
[/noembed]. I was really looking forward to the new album after that.
So yeah, "The Peace" is awesome. Definitely one of the best, or at least one of the most notable, things to come out of the H!P/UFA machine, and a must-mention when discussing/educating on Momusu's history.
Oh SMAP...here's Masahiro Nakai's take on the song:
Morning MUSUME "The Peace" parody (Nakai-kun & SMAP) And here's the literal version:
Literal Version of Morning Musume's "The Peace!"