UVERworld

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Formed: June 6, 2000, Kusatsu City, Shiga Prefecture, Japan Genres: Rock (Alternative Rock, Mixture Rock, Pop Rock), Hip Hop, Industrial, Jazz Fusion and J-POP

Introduction: Uverworld (stylized as UVERworld), alternatively known by their nickname UVER, is a Japanese six-piece rock band under record label gr8! records, which is a subsidiary of Sony Music Records. The band's name "Uverworld" is a term coined by the band members, which they did by combining the German word "über" (meaning over) with the English word "world" to form a phrase that means "crossing above the world".

As a band they have released a total of nine studio albums and over twenty singles, which all garnered quite the success. They have also sold over three million records worldwide. The band is influenced by 1960s rock bands like The Beatles, The Zombies and The Beach Boys. The style became so popular it was later influenced by The Cookies, The Kinks and The Cramps. Vocalist Takuya Shimizu later cited Frank Sinatra, Queen, David Bowie, Weezer, Green Day and My Chemical Romance as the influencers for the band.

Biography: The six-piece band known as UVERworld first formed back in 2000, and were at the time known as Sound Goku Road, (or alternatively more popularily known as "Sangoku Road" in the independent music scene). The band originally consisted of seven members, and at the time released a demo CD titled Prime'03. This CD ended up selling 3000 copies, and as an unfortunate follow-up to the CD, two of the band members ultimately decided to leave. The members who left were their saxophonist Seika, and their second-man vocalist Ryohei. After Seika's departure their vocalist Ace∞trigger renamed himself to TAKUYA∞, while the band also renamed to UVERworld.

In 2005, the band signed with record label gr8! records. The band made their debut with the single titled "D-technolife", which was used as the second opening theme to the now famous anime Bleach. The single made its debut in the Oricon charts at the fourth spot, with a total of 32.000 copies sold. The single landed close to Mr. Children's twenty-seventh single "Yonjigen Four Dimensions", which took the very top spot. The single would later drop to seventh place a week later, with a toal of 16,306 copies sold. The third week the single would see another drop from seventh to ninth spot, with a total of 13,761 copies sold. Later it was revealed that the single lasted five weeks in the Top 30 weekly singles rankings. The single's sales and Chaku-Uta Full downloads were certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan.

Three months later, their second single "Chance!" was used as the commercial and opening theme song to the second PSP game of Bleach: Heat the Soul series. The band's second single first entered the Oricon charts on the fifth spot, with a total of 14,150 copies sold. The single later dropped to the 23rd spot, with a total of 6,360 copies sold in the second week. The single's ranking remained the same, however the number of copies sold by the third week was fewer than the previous week with a total of 5,495 copies sold. It was later revealed that the single only managed to stay on the Top 30 weekly singles ranking for three weeks.

(Continuation of their biography on wikipedia)

Members:

• Takuya Shimizu (清水琢也), also known as TAKUYA∞ - vocalist, rapper, guitarist, bassist, pianist, synthesizer, programmer, drummer and in-charge of lyrics and composition (2000-)
• Katsuya (克哉) - guitarist, keyboardist, programmer and percussionist (2000-)
• Nobuto (信人) - bassist and percussionist (2000-)
• Seika (誠果) - saxophonist, percussonist, manipulator and recorder (2000-)
• Akira (彰) - guitarist, programmer, percussionist and in-charge of composition (2000-)
• Shintaro (真太郎) - drummer and percussionist (2000-)

(Source: Wikipedia, edited)