History
The four musicians, friends from Yamanashi Prefecture, formed the band in 1986 as a hokoten street band in Tokyo. They soon began getting club gigs and a record deal with Sony, with whom they released their first album, A Peacetime Boom, in 1989.
Vocalist Kazufumi Miyazawa who is the composer and lyricist for The Boom was inspired by the music of Okinawa. A single CD "Shima-uta" was released in 1993 with high sales, which reached approximately 1.5 million and brought fame to the band, around the world as well as at home. On December 31, 1993, The Boom participated in Kōhaku Uta Gassen, an exclusive show usually reserved for elite musicians.
After they released "Shima-uta," the group went on to perform "Kaze-ni Naritai," "Kaero-kana," and "Tsukisaemo-nemuruyoru," but Miyazawa wanted to write more Okinawa songs, so an album comprised purely of Okinawa songs was released.
Miyazawa released several solo albums and composed songs for other musicians, including Akiko Yano, Kyōko Koizumi, and Rimi Natsukawa. He also started a new band named Ganga Zumba who released their first album Um in April 2007.
Read more about this topic: The Boom
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