![Big in japan forever young](https://kumkoniak.com/43.jpg)
They first named their band "Forever Young" and subsequently changed it to "Alphaville" after the 1965 science fiction film. Gold had written "Big in Japan" in 1979 after hearing the music of Holly Johnson's band Big in Japan. The pair were heavily influenced by UK indie acts like Tubeway Army, Gary Numan and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD).
- 1.9 2018–present: Collaboration and Eternally YoursĪlphaville was formed after lead singer Marian Gold and Bernhard Lloyd met in Berlin in 1981.
- He wrote it with his band mates, Bernhard Lloyd and Frank Mertens.Īnd the track was produced by two of their regular collaborators, Colin Pearson and Wolfgang Loos. “Big in Japan” was written by Alphaville’s lead singer Marian Gold. Moreover, “Big in Japan” was also moderately successful when it was covered by a German rock band called the Guano Apes in 2000. Ironically it seems “Big in Japan” didn’t chart in the Land of the Rising Sun itself (Japan). However, the song did top the Eurochart Hot 100, the Official German Chart (where it was also certified Gold), the Sverigetopplistan (Sweden), the Schweizer Hitparade (Switzerland) and Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play list (USA). This is in addition to charting in 11 other countries. And in most of those nations “Big in Japan” also made it onto the top 10. Warner Music released “Big in Japan” in January of 1984. It was the lead single from Alphaville’s first album, “Forever Young”. In fact this track was an unexpected success that blew up before the band had even finished writing the rest of the songs that were eventually featured on that project.Īlphaville also dropped some remixes of this track in 1992. And “the Zoo” is actually the colloquial name of a popular drug den in Berlin. And if they are to actually do so they would be “big in Japan”, as in being able to conquer their addiction in a foreign environment. But this is just a probable interpretation as once again the intended relationship between the title and the storyline of the track is not made abundantly clear.
So all of this considered, perhaps what the singer is suggesting is that he and his romantic should perhaps flee “the Zoo”.
It points to the idea of someone becoming a popular success in a foreign country while remaining relatively-irrelevant in their own homeland. And this type of phrase is commonly used in reference to entertainers, especially the likes of musicians. But stripped down to its most basic form, it means that a person is able to achieve something great away from home that they aren’t able to do in their familiar environs. And such would likely be the case in which Alphaville has applied that saying to the aforementioned narrative. Now as for the title, “big is Japan”, simply put it is more or less an idiom.