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| Wikimedia Commons from E. Başak |
When the original breakdancing craze hit North America back in the 1980s when I was a high school student, I could have thrown a rock into the existential television landscape and I would have been more than likely to hit a breakdancer mid-spin in a video. Breakdancing was pretty much everywhere...except in Japan, that is.
As much as Japan loves to soak up the pop culture from the United States and elsewhere, for some reason, breakdancing didn't seem to be the one thing that the young Japanese wanted to try. Well, it took a while but finally one person gave it a go on the airwaves.
I recall seeing Shingo Kazami（風見しんご）on an episode of "Yoru no Hit Studio"（夜のヒットスタジオ）, and he and his crew brought their brand of breakdancing onto the polished floor of the Fuji-TV studio as the young male aidoru sang his fourth single "Namida no Take a Chance" (Take a Chance While Crying) which was released back in December 1984. Kazami had been called the pioneer of breakdancing in Japan but to me, it was more like he was the only guy of breakdancing in Japan since after that, I didn't see any other examples of the famous street dancing by any other act in the country.
Written by Toyohisa Araki（荒木とよひさ）and composed by singer-songwriter Kuniko Fukushima（福島邦子）, "Namida no Take a Chance" didn't sound anything like a composition that would accompany a breakdance. Kazami himself sounded like he was in the Masahiko Kondo（近藤真彦）vein of aidoru-dom so it was an interesting combination, to say the least.
The song hit No. 10 on Oricon and became the 45th-ranked single for 1985. It was also a track on Kazami's 2nd studio album "Whoopee ~ Gyappi no Hanran"（Whoopee〜ギャーピーの叛乱〜...Gyappi's Revolt）. As for who or what gyappi is, an edition of "Myojo"（明星）stated that it's just a word that the singer came up with. Kazami has gone into all facets of entertainment and when I was there, I saw him often enough as a TV personality with a rather acid tongue.
It must have been very hard to sing and breakdance at the same time. I can imagine one being out of breath or even dizzy. I think Shingo Kazami deserves credit for pulling it off.
ReplyDeleteConsidering how often a hit singer has to appear on Japanese TV, I'm not surprised that there were probably few or no other breakdancing aidoru.
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