B'z

[11] In the late 1980s, Tak Matsumoto had been extremely busy as a guitarist with various recording sessions and live performances, including for Tetsuya Komuro's TM Network and Mari Hamada.

Their first music video compilation, Film Risky, was recorded in New York City and London in four weeks and was released on December 16.

The arena-class tour had amazing features such as a huge lighting set, called the "Starfish", and seats that rotated 360 degrees.

In the first half of 1995, B'z spent their time recording, and after creating numerous demos, they held the "B'z Pleasure '95 'Buzz'" stadium tour with 12 shows in 7 cities.

During a short hiatus in 1997, Inaba released his debut solo album, Magma, on which he wrote all the music and lyrics.

[9] B'z's first promotional effort for the album included performances in concert halls in Akita, Hakodate, Kōchi, Shiga, and Nagasaki, before plunging into the main tour, "B'z Live-Gym '98 'Survive'", which started on January 24, 1998.

They did away with extra stage acts and concentrated on their musical performance, playing songs from the new album and many hits from the past.

Their single "Juice", which featured drummer Brian Tichy,[9] was released on July 12 and set a Japanese record of marking No.

On February 26, 2001, "B'z Live-Gym 2001 'Eleven'" kicked off with a warmup show at the Ehime Kenmin Bunka Kaikan, which was exclusive to fan club members.

[9] The supporting tour, "B'z Live-Gym 2002 'Green ~Go★Fight★Win~'" began at Saitama Super Arena on July 8 and ended at Osaka Dome on September 9, encompassing 700,000 attendees, 14 shows, and 11 cities.

On November 27, a live video, A Beautiful Reel, was released, which packaged everything that happened on the "Green" tour, as well as a second disc containing material from "Rock n' California Roll".

The tour kicked off on July 3 at Hakodate Shimin Kaikan and finished at Nagisa-en on September 21, which just so happened to be the day of their debut, having a total of 23 shows altogether.

For promotional activities, B'z started the tour "B'z Live-Gym 2005 'Circle of Rock'" that ran from April to September, totaling 27 shows in 41 locations.

B'z kicked off the tour "B'z Live-Gym 2006 'Monster's Garage'" at the Amami Bunka Center on July 2, having 17 shows in all, including 5 big domes in 11 locations and 450,000 audience members altogether.

On November 19, 2007, B'z was inducted into Hollywood's RockWalk as the first Asian inductee in Sunset Boulevard, California, United States.

They were recommended by Steve Vai, whom they collaborated with in 1999 on the track "Asian Sky" from his album The Ultra Zone, as well as supported him during his 2007 tour in Japan.

The drum parts for the two singles from Action, "Eien no Tsubasa" and "Super Love Song", were recorded by drummers Josh Freese and Jeremy Colson, respectively.

The concert featured songs from The Circle and Monster eras, along with a number of older hits as well as several English versions.

To commemorate the occasion, the "B'z 20" campaign was launched that saw two further compilation albums: B'z The Best "Ultra Pleasure" was released on June 18, 2008, and featured the greatest of the band's hits on a two-disc collection in chronological order, along with two all-new modern recordings of older tracks, while B'z The Best "Ultra Treasure" was released on September 17, 2008, whose two-disc track listing was decided by fans who were invited to vote for three songs of their choice at the B'z 20th anniversary website, which featured an exclusive song on a three-disc gift bundle, as well as a re-recording and a remix.

[22] After the "B'z Live-Gym 2010 'Ain't No Magic'" tour, Inaba and Matsumoto worked on solo activities and did not release any single as a duo in 2010.

In 2011, they came back as B'z with their forty-eighth single, "Sayonara Kizu Darake no Hibi yo", which was written for and used as a commercial song for Pepsi NEX.

They released their eighteenth studio album, C'mon, on July 27, 2011, which also featured their forty-ninth single, "Don't Wanna Lie", which was used as the ending theme in Detective Conan: Quarter of Silence.

In the summer of 2011, B'z embarked on their third North American tour, "B'z Live-Gym 2011 -Long Time No See-", which featured shows in Vancouver, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

[27] To support the EP, B'z embarked on their fourth North American tour, titled "B'z Live-Gym 2012 -Into Free-", which included stops in San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto, Silver Spring, New York City, and Los Angeles.

[31] In August 2017, the band released B'z Complete Single Box Set, and although being a high-priced limited edition, it managed to chart in the Top 10.

In July, they released the video B'z Live-Gym 2017–2018 "Live Dinosaur", which topped both DVD and Blu-ray charts, selling over 90 thousand copies in the first week.

The album was released on May 29, 2019, and featured new backing band members who made their debut on that year's "B'z Live Gym 2019 -Whole Lotta New Love-" tour, as well as a guest appearance by Aerosmith's Joe Perry on "Rain & Dream".

[42] During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, B'z made their entire Live-Gym catalog available to watch on YouTube for free, including their most recent one, "Whole Lotta New Love", for a limited time.

[52] Greenberg, in a review of "Ichibu to Zenbu/Dive", argued that most of their work has a "somewhat disjointed structure", "creative vocal descents and cascades", and "riff-heavy guitars".

[53] Marty Friedman compared them to Aerosmith, but stated to prefer B'z because of Inaba's type of voice and high vocal technique, and Matsumoto's personality while playing the guitar solo.

B'z band logo
Matsumoto on stage, 2012
A billboard advertising the album Magic in Shibuya Crossing , 2009
B'z performing in New York City, 2012