Chapter 2: The Road Taken by DREAM

The female group “dream” debuted from avex on January 1, 2000.
In July 2002, the initial member Mai Matsumuro graduated from the group, and the group changed from a 3-member group to an 8-member group.
The group was re-started in 2003 with members who were junior high school students and high school students at the time, giving it a fresh start.

The 14th SINGLE [MUSIC IS MY THING] was released on February 13, 2003.

It started with a cover song, an avex specialty, and was released as an advance single because a cover album including this song was scheduled to be released the following week.
It was released as an advance single since the cover album including this song was scheduled to be released the following week.
In the music video, each member talks about their “dream,” which is the theme of the group’s name “dream.
I had a dream at that time, too, and I was living my life with the goal of “being active in the entertainment industry.
From the left, “dream02 Risa Ai”, “dream03 Erie Abe”, “dream04 Aya Takamoto”, “dream05 Mami Nakajima”, “dream06 Shizuka Nishida
dream07Kana Tachibana, dream08Masaru Hasebe, dream09Sayaka Yamamoto
The order is in alphabetical order, but Kana Tachibana is now number 7 for the privilege of being the leader.
This song was used in the animation “Hikaru no Go”.

3rdALBUM【dreamworld】issued on February 26, 2003

The same red and black check outfit as the single was used.
The songs were released as covers of songs from other countries.
Only Kana Tachibana and Yu Hasebe, the initial members, were given solo songs, and the other songs were basically sung in unison.
In the name of love” by Finzy Contini is my favorite cover of this song and I like the way it makes me feel to move forward.
The single song “MUSIC IS MY THING” was included in the album version.

15thSINGLE released on September 10, 2003 [I♡world］

It was the first original single by the current members to reach No. 10 on the Oricon Weekly Chart, and the sixth single, “My will,” was the first to reach the Top 10.
It entered the Top 10 after the 6th single “My will”.
There are three main songs in this album.
The songs are “Wo Ai Ni”, “Love is power”, and “I love dream world ~Singing about happiness all over the world~”.
The song “I love dream world ～Let’s sing about happiness all over the world～” is the group’s first attempt to write lyrics, and a song about peace was born.
I love the strong rhythm of “Wo Ai Ni” with its Chinese style,
Love is power” is a cheering song for a professional baseball team, and the sound of a bat hitting a ball in the song is interesting.

16th SINGLE [identity-prologue] released on February 25, 2004

The song was released as a single prior to the release of the album, which was scheduled to be released at a later date.
I love this song so much that it ranks high on my list of Dream’s songs, and it is the kind of song that makes me feel like a better version of myself.
I like the dark sound of the song, but there is a ray of light in it. In the music video, they are dressed and made up as if they have been in a survival situation.
I hope you will watch it.

4thALBUM released on March 10, 2004 [ID］

With this album and the stage play “ID”, dream02 Risa Ai has graduated. I was surprised that she graduated earlier than expected.
Except for the single songs, this album contained many songs that matched the contents of the stage “ID”. And from this work, there was a trend to release albums with DVDs.
What is myself? What am I moving toward? I like the song “Fake or Truth” on the album. I like the song “Fake or Truth” because it makes me wonder what is a lie and what is the truth, and I feel like I am struggling with it. I was 18 years old at the time of its release, and it was also the time when I was stepping into adulthood, so the song entered me easily.

17th SINGLE [PURE] released on August 4, 2004

Dream, now with seven members, takes on a new road again!
This single was dream’s first single to be released two weeks in a row, and the jacket was sold for 500 yen, which included a play on finding the next piece and a mistake.
This song starts with the sound of a piano, and is also known as the song that dream03’s Erie Abe performed on piano at a live concert in 2006! It is a song that says, “I am not weak, so let’s be brave!
The image of the song and the jacket are different, but I think that’s part of its charm.

18th SINGLE [Love Generation] released on August 11, 2004

The jacket is slightly different from the previous two consecutive week releases, making it an element of error detection.
The one in the middle, dream08 Yu Hasebe, is actually posing in a different way. This song is a love song for the first time in a long time, and it is all about having fun with the person you love.
It is a song that is best listened to when you are in love, as it expresses the feeling of wanting to spend eternity with the person you love. The lyrics, “Let’s be hotter, hotter, hotter,” reminded me of a gag from Takashi Fujii’s early days, which is true．

September 29, 2004 2nd best album [777 ~Best of dreams~].

This is an album of self-covered songs from the 7-member group’s 3-member days, from their debut song “Movin’on (777 ver.)” to “Yourself (777 ver.)”.
The songs are sung in a different atmosphere than when the three of them were together, and although the key may have been changed a little, they are sung in the same key.
Since I was living in the countryside at the time and couldn’t go to live concerts, I was very happy to see this kind of album.
On the back of this jacket, the background of the jacket is taken, and the leader, dream07 Kana Tachibana, has added a playful touch.
I like “Our Time (777 ver.)” in this album. It is a summer song, and you can get excited at the live performance, and you can easily remember the dance moves, and you can shout with rap music.

Cover album released on December 8, 2004 [dream meets Best Hits avex］

Cover album of avex works
Since the album was released in winter, many of the songs are winter songs.
MOON CHILD’s “ESCAPE”, Nanase Aikawa’s “I can’t stay a dreaming girl” and other rock songs were also covered.
She also covered her own song, “I love dreamworld – Let’s sing about happiness all over the world” in a seven-person version.
This is the kind of work that lets you know that avex has a wide variety of songs.
This album comes with a bonus drama CD, in which the members of dream perform only with their voices.

March 2, 2005 release of the 19th SINGLE [Gentle Breeze Study/Story］

It was the last single for this seven-member group,
The song “Soyo Kaze No Chikara” was inspired by the image of graduation.
The lyrics of the song emphasize the end of their school days, such as “Classroom, schoolyard, the place I always hated, now it looks a little different” and “I was embarrassed and laughed at in my ugly school uniform”.
The song is a fresh and cheerful graduation song.
Story” is a powerful song with a slightly mysterious tone. What do your own hands want there, pushing through the maze of days?
For me, I see it as a song in which the main character who graduated in “Gentle Breeze’s Probe” is moving forward to a new future, or is moving forward to a new future.
I listen to this song every year during the graduation season.

Best album released on March 2, 2005 [777 ~another side story~].

This is a seven-person cover of an album song and a coupling song from the three-person era.
Hidden gems? There are many great songs other than the singles! This is the album that appealed to the audience.
The jacket is the complete opposite of the previous best album, with a black jacket.
The song “Wish” is my favorite song in this album. It has a different atmosphere from the time when the 3 of us were together, and the scenery of the sunset really comes to mind when you listen to it. I’m with someone I love, but I can’t be honest with myself.
I wish I could have that feeling all the time.

Mini album [Natsuiro] released on July 27, 2005

This mini-album was released under the theme of summer, and all of the songs are summer themed.
The lead song, “Before This Summer Ends,” is a song from the album, but a music video was made for it, starring Yu Hasebe of dream08.
My favorite song is “La MASCERA,” which is a Latin style song. It’s a song that makes you shake your hips and show your many sides to the people you love! What if I show my true self and they don’t like me? What if they don’t like me if I show them my true self?
This is the image of a song that is always sung at live concerts. I had decided to move to Tokyo the following year, so I was listening to this song as it was the last summer I would spend with my family.

Mini album [Boy meets Girl] released on December 21, 2005

The theme of this mini-album was “summer” in the previous album, but this time it is “winter” and each song is about a couple’s meeting and parting.
The songs are “Come Go With me -sign-”, “Holy Love -beginning-”, “Colors -suspicion-”, “Lost Soul -crack-”, “It’s not forever -collapse-”, and “Transit -independence-”, and if you listen to them in order, they become a story. If you listen to them in order, you can enjoy this work as a story.
The lead song “Transit -independence-” had a music video made just like the previous song, and it is a continuation of “Before This Summer Ends”. The previous song was mainly performed by Yu Hasebe of dream08, but this song was shot at Hakkeijima Sea Paradise with the participation of other members, The music video is very sad, but the music video is very warm.
Holy Love -beginning-” I listen to this song every winter because it is very Xmas-like. It is a very cheerful song that makes me think that I would like to have this kind of encounter with my lover if I had one.

The best album “7th ANNIVERSARY BEST” was released on January 1, 2007.

It was released on January 1, the same day as the debut song, to commemorate the seven-year anniversary of the debut.
It is the best album of the 3 members and all the single songs up to now. The first edition includes music video DVDs of all the songs.
With this album, the second chapter of Dream’s history has come to a close, and she has chosen the path from idol to artist.
dream→DRM→Dream, and then in 2017, they stopped their activities.
This album includes the song “Dreaming Way” written by Mai Matsumuro, an early member of the group, for the seven members, and it is a very profound work.
I remember buying the CD with a strange feeling because it was the first CD I bought after moving to Tokyo for the first time in the new year.

Live album “Greatest Live Hits” released on January 1, 2007

This is a CD of live performances from the 3 member period and the 8 member period to the 7 member period.
This album is a live recording, so you can recall the scene or feel the atmosphere of the live performance with the audience’s calls.
Only “Movin’on” has two versions, one as 3 members and the other as 7 members, so you can compare the two.
STAY~now I’m here~” is a song that the members played by themselves and performed live, so you can hear their thoughts and feelings about the sound.

The members of the group 2025, which was born out of the avex dream audition, are still active individually.
The story that began in 2000 is still being carried on today, and the group seems to get together on anniversaries, members’ birthdays, and special occasions, so be sure to keep an eye on their individual activities.