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Naoki Maeda (前田尚紀 Maeda Naoki), more commonly called simply Naoki, is a Japanese music composer and producer who works for Konami. Naoki's official title is Konami AM Internal Sound Team.
Though Naoki worked on many different video game titles like Salamander, his most known contribution is to the Bemani series: he's the main composer for the Dance Dance Revolution games. Most of his songs are signed with a pseudonym.
Naoki: mystery man
Little information on Naoki is revealed officially: for example, on an interview with several music producers released in the DDRMAX USA booklet, Naoki's profile was the least complete, not revealing his age or how much time he's been working for Konami.
It has been speculated by some fans that Naoki Maeda is not his real name; "Naoki M." happens to be an anagram for "Konami." This has led some fans to believe this is just another pseudonym. However, there is no solid proof (other than speculation) that Naoki Maeda is not in fact his real name. Given the fact that Maeda is a common Japanese surname and Naoki is a very common Japanese given name, it is possible that people are simply reading into a coincidence.
Pseudonyms
See also Bemani pseudonyms
Naoki uses at least two dozen pseudonyms in attributing his work.
However, he is sometimes confused with other artists. Some pseudonyms attributed to Naoki which are not him are:
- 2MB Konami artist U1-Asami
- STM200 composer of a fan-made remix of "PARANOiA" (PARANOiA Eternal) and winner of the Dance Dance Revolution 5th Mix musicianship trial contest
Music partners
Though he writes many instrumental songs alone, several of Naoki's songs feature vocals, which are performed by others. Commonly featured singers include Aaron G. and Paula Terry.
He's also worked together with many other artists: Naoki is the composer and producer for the group BeForU, and with jun (Junko Karashima) he makes some songs under the name TËЯRA; along with dj TAKA he worked on "Kakumei", a remix of Chopin's "Revolutionary Etude".
See also
Games he worked on:
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