"EZ Do Dance" (stylized as "EZ DO DANCE") is a song by the Japanese band TRF. It was released on June 21, 1993, as the band's second single. It was TRF's breakthrough hit and is credited with helping to introduce the general Japanese public to contemporary dance music. The song was given the Music Video Award at the 35th

Japan Record Awards is a major music awards show, held annually in Japan that recognizes outstanding achievements in the Japan Composer's Association. Until 2005, the show aired on New Year's Eve, but has since aired every December 30 on TBS Japan at 6:30 P.M JST a ...

and has been used in video games such as ''

Dance Dance Revolution X2 (''DDR X2'') is a music video game, and a part of the ''Dance Dance Revolution'' series. The arcade version of ''DDR X2'' was revealed by Konami on November 20, 2009. The sequel to '' Dance Dance Revolution X'', X2 began public beta testing on ...

'' and '' Just Dance Wii U''. "EZ Do Dance" also crossed over to the anime communities, where it is used as both the theme and insert songs in the ''

Pretty Rhythm is a Japanese multimedia franchise produced by Syn Sophia and Takara Tomy Arts aimed at girls in elementary school. The ''Pretty Rhythm'' franchise was first launched in July 2010 with the rhythm and dress-up arcade game ''Pretty Rhythm: Mini ...

'' series and its spin-off, ''

King of Prism ''King of Prism'' is a Japanese media franchise produced by Avex Pictures and Tatsunoko Production. The series is a spin-off of the ''Pretty Rhythm'' multimedia series and focuses on the male characters introduced in ''Pretty Rhythms third anime ...

''.

Background and release

"EZ Do Dance" was written and produced by

Tetsuya Komuro is a Japanese musician, songwriter and record producer. He is recognized as the most successful producer in Japanese music history and introduced contemporary electronic dance music to the Japanese mainstream. He was also a former owner of the ...

. It is inspired by

Eurobeat Eurobeat refers to two styles of dance music that originated in Europe: one is a British variant of Italian Eurodisco-influencedAng, Ien & Morley, David (2005). "Cultural Studies: Volume 3, Issue 2". ''Routledge''. pgs. 171, 173, 170. . "Eurorec ...

music, and it is composed at 140 BPM. The song was a

tie-in A tie-in work is a work of fiction or other product based on a media property such as a film, video game, television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property. Tie-ins are authorized by the owners of the original prope ...

for Bristol Meyers' Sea Breeze commercial. The single was first released on June 21, 1993, and re-released on November 29, 2006. "EZ Do Dance" was also the title track of TRF's third studio album of the same name.

Reception

"EZ Do Dance" peaked at #15 on

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

Weekly Singles Chart and sold approximately 780,000 copies, making it TRF's breakthrough hit. The song is one of TRF and Tetsuya Komuro's most identifiable songs and is credited with helping to introduce the regular Japanese public to contemporary dance music.

Remix

A remix produced by

Yasutaka Nakata is a Japanese DJ and music producer. He formed the band Capsule in 1997 with vocalist Toshiko Koshijima and himself as composer and record producer when both were 17. The band debuted in 2001 with the song "Sakura". He is known for being the ...

, titled "EZ Do Dance retracked by Yasutaka Nakata ( Capsule)" was included in TRF's 2013 tribute album.

Track listing

Awards and nominations

In popular culture

"EZ Do Dance" is a playable song in arcade versions of ''

Dance Dance Revolution (''DDR'') is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, ''Dance Dance Revolution'' is the pioneering series of the rhythm and dance V ...

'', from ''

DDR X2 (''DDR X2'') is a music video game, and a part of the ''Dance Dance Revolution'' series. The arcade version of ''DDR X2'' was revealed by Konami on November 20, 2009. The sequel to ''Dance Dance Revolution X'', X2 began public beta testing on N ...

'' to the 2014 edition of ''DDR''. The song was removed from the latter on July 3, 2015. DJ Koo, the frontman of TRF, released the ''Dance Dance Revolution 20th Anniversary Non Stop Mix'' album on March 3, 2019, with "EZ Do Dance" as the final song. The song is also included in '' Just Dance Wii U''. An instrumental version of the song was used in the 1998

racing game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic rac ...

''JGTC All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship''.

Cover versions

Japanese singer

Saori@destiny Saori@destiny (born June 10, 1986) is a Japanese singer-lyricist. She made her independent debut on December 5, 2007, with the single "My Boy", followed by her major-label debut single "Sakura" on March 26, 2008 under D-topia Entertainment. Duri ...

released a cover version of the song on her mini-album, ''Wow War Techno'', in 2009. Japanese co-ed group Dream5 released a cover version as part of its sixth single, a double

A-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

titled "I My Me Mine" / "EZ Do Dance", on May 2, 2012. The song was used in

Ito-Yokado is a Japanese general merchandise and department store, originally founded in 1920. In 2005, it was reorganized, as part of a corporate restructuring, as a subsidiary of the Seven & I Holdings Co. As of March 2013, there are 178 Ito-Yokado ...

's "Dancing Good Day" commercial and the single charted at #19 on the

Weekly Singles Chart.

''Pretty Rhythm'' versions

The Japanese

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of who ...

Prizmmy was a Japanese girl group formed by Avex Pictures in 2012. The group debuted through the ''Pretty Rhythm'' anime series, where they hosted the live-action segments in each episode and later released their first song, "Everybody's Gonna Be Happ ...

released a cover version of "EZ Do Dance" as ist eighth single on July 24, 2013, in a collaboration between Avex Pictures and the ''

'' franchise to honor TRF's 20th anniversary. It was the second opening theme song to the

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

series '' Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live''. The single charted at #84 on the

Weekly Singles Chart. Following the release, "EZ Do Dance" has continued to be used in the ''Pretty Rhythm'' franchise, especially in the ''

'' spin-offs. The song was covered by DJ Coo (voiced by

Shotaro Morikubo is a Japanese actor, voice actor and singer who has voiced characters in anime, drama CDs, and video games. He was formerly affiliated with I'm Enterprise, Sigma Seven and VIMS. His most notable roles were Shikamaru Nara from ''Naruto'', Souj ...

) under the title "EZ Do Dance (DJ Coo ver.)", the character being based on DJ Koo from TRF. A remix of the song, titled "EZ Do Dance (K.O.P. Mix)", was used in the 2016 anime film '' King of Prism by Pretty Rhythm'' as a battle song between Kazuki Nishina (voiced by

Toshiki Masuda is a Japanese voice actor and singer previously affiliated with Space Craft Group. He became a freelancer in August 2018. He joined the record label Toy's Factory in November 2018 as a voice actor and solo singer. Biography Masuda was born on Ma ...

) and Alexander Yamato (voiced by

Shunsuke Takeuchi is a Japanese voice actor and singer affiliated with 81 Produce. He won the award for Best Rookie Actor at the 10th Seiyu Awards. His roles include Producer in ''The Idolmaster Cinderella Girls'', Alexander Yamato in ''King of Prism'', Juuza Hyou ...

). The song was also performed in the stage adaptation ''King of Prism: Over the Sunshine!'', where it was performed by Takuto Omi as Kazuki and Spi as Alexander. A reprise titled "EZ Do Dance (Thunder Storm ver.)" appeared in the sequel film, '' King of Prism: Pride the Hero'', where it was performed by the characters Taiga Kougami (voiced by

Tasuku Hatanaka is a Japanese actor, voice actor and singer. Biography He voiced Yuma Tsukumo in the anime series ''Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal'', Ushio in ''Ushio and Tora'', Ikoma in ''Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress'', Gō Nagakura in ''Battery'', and Fudō Nomura in ' ...

) and Alexander Yamato (voiced by

). As an April Fool's joke in 2019, Buster Bros!!! from the multimedia project Hypnosis Mic: Division Rap Battle released a parody of the song titled "EZ Do Rap" as a "

diss track A diss track, diss record or diss song (diss – abbr. from ''disrespect'') is a song whose primary purpose is to verbally attack someone else, usually another artist. Diss tracks are often the result of an existing, escalating feud between the ...

" to the ''King of Prism'' anime series, which received over 100,000 retweets on ''

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

''.

References

{{Authority control 1993 singles TRF (group) songs Anime songs Avex Group singles Japanese-language songs Pretty Rhythm Songs written by Tetsuya Komuro Japanese television drama theme songs