Buck-Tick

Buck-Tick
Background information
Also known asB-T, Hinan Go-Go (非難GO-GO)
OriginFujioka, Gunma, Japan
Genres
DiscographyBuck-Tick discography
Years active1983–present
Labels
MembersHisashi Imai
Hidehiko Hoshino
Yutaka Higuchi
Toll Yagami
Past membersAraki
Atsushi Sakurai
Websitewww.buck-tick.com

Buck-Tick (stylized as BUCK-TICK) is a Japanese rock band formed in Fujioka, Gunma in 1983. The classic lineup of lead vocalist Atsushi Sakurai, lead guitarist Hisashi Imai, rhythm guitarist Hidehiko Hoshino, bassist Yutaka Higuchi and drummer Toll Yagami lasted from 1985 until 2023. Following Sakurai's death that year, Imai and Hoshino began sharing lead vocal duties. The band has experimented with many different genres of music throughout their four decade career,[5][6] including punk rock, gothic rock and industrial rock. Buck-Tick are commonly credited as one of the main founders of the visual kei movement.

The band have released twenty-three studio albums and forty-three singles as of 2023, nearly all reaching the top ten and twenty positions on the Japanese Oricon charts. Buck-Tick released both their debut independent and major studio albums in 1987, and achieved breakthrough success the following year with the album Seventh Heaven (#3) and the single "Just One More Kiss". In 1989, Taboo became their first number-one album. It was followed by several successful albums almost all of which topped the charts, Aku no Hana (1990, which includes the song of the same name; the band's only number-one single), Kurutta Taiyou (1991), Darker Than Darkness: Style 93 (1993), Six/Nine (1995), as well as the remixed album Hurry Up Mode (1990 Mix) and the compilation album Koroshi no Shirabe: This Is Not Greatest Hits (1992).

Buck-Tick reached their commercial peak in the mid-1990s (when they were dubbed a "top rock act" by Billboard[7]), but unlike other acts in the visual kei movement, they never ceased activities or faded into obscurity. The band has continued to tour and record regularly in the subsequent decades, and their last five studio albums between Arui wa Anarchy (2014) and Izora (2023) all reached the top six positions on the Oricon and Billboard Japan charts. Making them a rare example in Japanese music history and earning them a special "Inspiration Award Japan" at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards Japan.[5][8]

  1. ^ "Buck-Tick". AllMusic. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Buck-Tick". Tower Records (in Japanese). September 19, 2012. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  3. ^ "Buck-Tick の記事一覧". Real Sound (in Japanese). Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  4. ^ Sputnikmusic
  5. ^ a b "Buck-Tick". Metropolis. December 6, 2011. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  6. ^ "Buck-Tick サウンドはなぜ変貌し続ける？ 大いなる実験作『或いはアナーキー』を紐解く". Real Sound (in Japanese). June 4, 2014. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  7. ^ Varcoe, Fred (June 12, 1993). "Japanese Band Boom Goes Bust". Billboard. pp. 59, J-16.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference MTV17 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).