Yup, we’re going to talk about SCANDAL because they are by far my favorite band.
From left to right: Tomomi Ogawa, Haruna Ono, Rina Suzuki, Mami Sasazaki
Now for those of you who don’t know them, SCANDAL is a Japanese pop-rock band. They have been known to do other styles like rap, but their music is mainly centered around pop-rock and the subgenres of said genre. Off the top of my head, I can tell you that they’ve done soft rock, garage rock, pop, electro-pop, straight rock, hard rock, punk rock, and rap. The variety of styles SCANDAL is able to do is what makes them such an amazing band. When a new single is announced, it’s quite fun for us fans to sit around and speculate what genre the song will be and what it will sound like. Keeps us busy until it comes out. Their latest single is Awanai Tsumori no Genki de ne, which roughly translates into I don’t plan on seeing you again, take care. Awanai is an example of their straight rock. The link will lead you to a performance of the song.
SCANDAL is composed of four members. There is Haruna Ono, the lead vocalist and rythym guitarist. She is often considered SCANDAL’s leader. Then there is Tomomi Ogawa, the bassist and second lead vocalist. She and Haruna sing the most and can often be found doing duets. Next we have Mami Sasazaki, she is their lead guitarist and a vocalist. She usually sings on the slower or lower key songs because her voice is more punk-ish. Lastly, we have the youngest member, Rina Suzuki. She’s their drummer and occasionally vocalist. Since she’s their drummer, she doesn’t sing too much on stage, but she has helped with backing vocals on the albums and she sometimes sings solos when she steps away from the drums. Koi no Hajimari wa Diet is an example of one of her solos. Technically a duo with Haruna, but Haruna doesn’t sing on it and only has a speaking role.
The girls met and formed the band when they were in high school. They all went to a high school specializing in performance arts. At first, the girls were all on different paths. Tomomi and Haruna wanted to become dancers while Mami and Rina were undecided. The girls had a teacher who suggested to them to try instruments and it just kind of snowballed from there. Tomomi was originally playing guitar, but she switched to bass because she thought it would be easier since it had less strings. Haruna was previously in a professional dance group who she left to pursue music with SCANDAL. SCANDAL often has dance choreography in their music videos and sometimes in their performance’s because of Tomo’s and Haru’s past with dancing.
Now let’s talk about the members individually.
First up, we're going to talk about my favorite member, Haruna Ono.
She is gorgeous. As I mentioned, Haru is the lead singer and rhythm vocalist for SCANDAL. Since the band was signed to a major label, fans have considered her the leader. For a while, Haru denied being the leader but eventually, the girls embraced the image for her and she now plays the part of the band’s leader. Haruna is often seen as the badass one on stage, she can really take command of the stage. Though, Haru claims that when the cameras are off and she’s offstage, she’s really a shy person. It’s sort of funny imagining her as a shy person when you see how dominating she is on stage. A while ago, they did an interview where the interviewer asked them to tell the fans a secret of theirs. Haruna’s secret? She’s apparently a masochist. That was apparently the secret she wanted to tell us. Haha, you’ve got to love Haru’s openness.
Whenever Haru gets a confused look on her face, she is adorable. She kind of looks like a bunny. Oh who am I kidding? Haru is adorable no matter what. But here’s a gif of her being confused:
Next up we have Tomomi Ogawa
As mentioned, Tomomi is the bassist and secondary vocalist for SCANDAL. She is known as the silly one. Paired with Mami, the two of them enjoy causing trouble together. Tomo is known for being hyperactive and always seeming happy. She’s also known for being sensitive. When the girls performed at Osaka Jo Hall, their dream venue, Tomo was caught crying many, many times on stage. Even during the backstage footage, Tomo was in tears because of how happy she was to be performing at Osaka Jo Hall. Her voice, I think, is an acquired taste. It’s pretty high pitched, so not everyone will like it. But I think that once people give it a chance, they come to really like her voice.
Next we have Mami Sasazaki
Mami is the lead guitarist and vocalist for the band. She has solos on the songs Koe and Shoujo M. Her voice is more soft than Haru and Tomo’s, it’s kind of more punk-ish. And yes, Mami has purple hair. She started with natural black hair, dyed it blonde, when to purple, and is back to blonde. She changes her hair a lot. Mami is most known for her excellent skills at the guitar. As I mentioned above, she enjoys causing trouble with Tomo. Mami is also known for her love of video games and anime.
Now we have the youngest, Rina Suzuki
Rina is their drummer, and she’s quite cute, no? Rina is the youngest member and she acts like it too. She’s often using cutesy language and dressing in cutesy clothes. She’s the most feminine one out of the girls, she’s almost always in a skirt. Rina says that she is a bit of a perfectionist. She says that when the girls are practicing for a performance, she’ll often be in tears if she’s messing up because she wants to be perfect. When the band started, Rina wasn’t very good at the drums. She even considered leaving the band because she felt like she was holding the girls back. Haru prevented her from leaving, promising that if she left, the band would break up. It was a promise between the girls that if any of them left, the band would be dissolved because “SCANDAL is not SCANDAL without them all”. Rina has improved a lot at the drums, that was made clear by her solo at Nippon Budokan. Rina is known for her love of dinosaurs, she has a plastic dinosaur doll she brings everywhere with her known as Dai-chan. From what the other girls have said, she apparently asks them if she can bring Dai-chan with her on stage before every performance. She’s so adorable. When asked to tell fans their secret, Rina was more open than Haru. Her secret was that she walks around naked at home. Yeah. Imagine how the male fans reacted to that. It was pretty freaking funny.
So that’s SCANDAL. If you want to listen to them, here are a few songs to check out….
Burn
Doll
Shoujo S
Queens are Trumps
Awanai Tsumori no Genki de ne
Welcome Home
Koi no Hajimari wa Diet
Cherry Jam
Everybody Say Yeah
On second thought….. Just listen to all their songs. You may need to find their songs in Daily Motion, YouTube takes them down pretty often. Well, that’s all.
