Flight Master/Pony Canyon
Was it like this in the 1940s with Sinatra and all the screaming bobby-soxers? Or in the late 1960s when four mop-haired Liverpudlians laid waste to the American pop charts? This time it began across the Pacific with a novelty act and a guilty-pleasure song. But in the ensuing eight months, the J-pop boy band Shuchishin has repeatedly recaptured that lightening in its bottle. Maybe its marginal talent is comparable to the Spice Girls at best, but Shuchishin has miraculously churned out one classic after another in such a short time span that it unequivocally qualifies as one of the best pop vocal acts ever, maybe the very best.