"Nōdōteki Sanpunkan" | ||||
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Single by Tokyo Jihen | ||||
from the album Sports | ||||
B-side |
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Released | November 17, 2009 | |||
Format | CD Single, Digital download | |||
Recorded | 2009 | |||
Genre | Alternative rock, funk | |||
Length | 3:00 | |||
Label | EMI Music Japan | |||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | Tokyo Jihen | |||
Tokyo Jihen singles chronology | ||||
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"Nōdōteki Sanpunkan" (能動的三分間, "Active Three Minutes"), also known by its English name "3min.", is a single by Japanese rock band Tokyo Jihen, led by musician Ringo Sheena. The song was the band's first release in two years, and was used in a commercial campaign for Ezaki Glico's Watering KissMint brand of gum, featuring Sheena as its spokesperson, and was known for its use of the moonwalk dance in the commercial and music video. The song was released on December 2, 2009, three months before the band's fourth album Sports.
In 2007, Tokyo Jihen released their third album, Variety, an album which featured members other than vocalist Sheena composing music, compared to the band's first two albums. During the two years in between this release and the band's 2007 tour Spa & Treatment, each member was involved in their own personal projects outside of the band, and the band did not meet often. They first met to discuss the Sports album in late 2008.
In 2008 to celebrate her 10th anniversary, Sheena held three concerts at the Saitama Super Arena, Sheena Ringo (Nama) Ringo-han '80: Jūshūnen kin'en-sai. In 2009, Sheena released a solo album entitled Sanmon Gossip, and as well as a single called "Ariamaru Tomi", which was used as the drama Smile's theme song. The members of Tokyo Jihen wrote and performed songs for Rie Tomosaka's come-back album Toridori., which was released on June 24, 2009.
"Nōdōteki Sanpunkan" was first announced on Tokyo Jihen's official website on October 16, 2009.
Sheena and Tokyo Jihen considered "Nōdōteki Sanpunkan" a theme song for the new sound that the band was developing after Variety. Sheena wrote and composed the song as a method to practice techniques for their upcoming releases. As such, she wrote the song using songwriting techniques that were the most natural to her, without thinking of how her audience would receive it.
For the endroll of Sheena's solo music video collection DVD Seiteki Healing: Sono Yon (2009), director Yuichi Kodama created an animated version of Sheena, performing the moonwalk, a dance popularised by American musician Michael Jackson. As the animated Sheena was performing this, she felt the need to learn the dance herself, so created "Nōdōteki Sanpunkan" in order to practice this. Sheena was unsure why moonwalking was featured in the release, but felt that it was to do with Jackson's death in June 2009. After the band's Spa & Treatment tour in 2007, Sheena wanted the band to have a great change in sound. Sheena considered techniques she wanted to use in the upcoming album that she wanted the band-members to master, and inserted these into "Nōdōteki Sanpunkan". The band members found these techniques difficult, to the point where Sheena was considering giving up on the composition before the band managed to record it.