Editing Lazy (band) (section)

===Pop Idol Era (1977–1978)===

Lazy made their commercial debut on July 25, 1977, with the single "Hey! I Love You!" on [[RCA Records|RCA Japan]]. Rather than developing their hard rock sound, management and producers repackaged the five young men as a Japanese boy band — assigning each member a Western stage nickname (Kageyama as "Michell," Takasaki as "Suzy," Higuchi as "Davy," Tanaka as "Funny," and Inoue as "Pocky"), outfitting them in costumes, and crafting singles aimed at the teenage market. The approach was commercially successful, producing a steady stream of singles through 1978 and two studio albums: ''This Is the Lazy'' (1978) and ''Dream a Dream'' (1978). According to Kageyama, the gap between the idol persona and the members' actual musical identity caused significant internal friction during this period.