I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
For those who have been regular patrons of the AI art galleryhere on KKP over the past several months, the image above was what came out of the Bing machine when I threw in "Plastic Love" the title. Of course, that was for the Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）hit.
It was about a year ago that I first found out about Yoshifumi Niinuma（新沼好文）, aka the technopop artist known as Sympathy Nervous, thanks to YMOfan04, our blog commenter on all things musical and computer-y. I initially covered his 1979 "Polaroid" which I described as the technopop accompaniment to a mole happily digging underground all over the backyard (I take it the homeowner was none too pleased, though).
Well, among his many other tracks that he created in 1979 and 1980, Sympathy Nervous came up with a song titled..."Plastic Love", ironically enough. This was indeed some years before Takeuchi and her husband, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, came up with the smooth and groovy song that launched a thousand ships, and indeed, Sympathy Nervous' ominous and intense "Plastic Love" is a whole different animal. In fact, I can't really think of any terrestrial animal for this one; this may be truly about plastic-based aliens on a multi-dimensional date. According to the artist's website, Niinuma's wife had been involved with at least one of the songs, so it may be her intoning words via a very haunting vocoder on this particular tune which ends with a lot of blasts of static.
Those tracks that he whipped up in 1979 and 1980 were apparently brought together to form an album titled "Plastic Love" which was released in 2012. Once again, the product came out some years before the more famous "Plastic Love" would blast out of YouTube as the herald of City Pop around the world.
I only began watching movies regularly at the theatre from the late 1970s when I was approaching my mid-teens and one of my highlights was catching the 1980 "Airplane!", the David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker comedic buffet of craziness that had people rolling in the aisles because of the scattergun gags that came even faster than in the average Mel Brooks movie. The producers also broke the mold by casting serious actors such as Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges and Peter Graves who could deliver crazy lines in a straight-faced manner. Who could forget "Have you ever seen a grown man naked?", "I take mine (coffee) black...just like my men" and "Don't call me Shirley"?
One of those actors was the late Leslie Nielsen who hailed from Regina, Saskatchewan and was the brother of Erik Nielsen, a Progressive Conservative member of Parliament who was also once the Deputy Prime Minister between 1984 and 1986. I'd known about Nielsen since I was a little kid because he was always appearing in television dramas in serious roles as straight-edged cops or corrupt officials. Earlier than that though, Leslie had appeared as the starship commander in the 1956 "Forbidden Planet" which has been seen as a prototype for "Star Trek".
But his career made a major 90-degree turn when he took on "Airplane!". He was no longer the typical straight arrow but because of his zany performance as Dr. Rumack, he was seen as one of the most hilarious stone-faced comedians this side of Buster Keaton. And a couple of years later, he got his chance to take charge in another Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker project...this time on television as Lt. Frank Drebin on the 1982 "Police Squad!". Once again, the laughs came fast and furious (especially in our household) but after six episodes, it was suddenly cancelled for the lame reason that the head honcho of ABC Entertainment had thought that it required too much of the viewers' brain cells to get all of the humour. I had also wondered whether the craziness of the episodes could have lasted an entire season of twenty-two shows without exhausting itself but surely, it could have gone beyond six episodes (don't call me Shirley) which is why I think there may have been more at play behind the scenes than a mere disagreement of how much humour a person could take.
By this point, fans of "Police Squad!" know that the series was an affectionate comedic reference to the NBC cop show "M Squad" of the late 1950s starring Lee Marvin. And the parody extended to the opening credits and the jazzy theme song. Crazily enough, this is Ira Newborn's second time on the Reminiscings of Youth series since I also wrote about him when he came up with the groovy fusion theme for the legendary comedy variety series "SCTV" in 1981.
Well, nothing groovy or fusion about the theme for "Police Squad!". Newborn came up with an epically snazzy Big Band jazz tune that greeted viewers for each of those half-dozen episodes and slaughtered fellow Canadian thespians for half of them. Another wonderful thing is that there is a full version of the theme and it got played in its entirety for the first cinematic feature version in 1989, "The Naked Gun", another laugh riot.
So, when "Police Squad!" had made its premiere in March 1982, what Japanese pop singles were also making their mark on the record shop shelves? Well, we have three records that came out on the same day, March 21st.
It was less than a week ago that I paid tribute to seiyuu Nobuyo Ohyama（大山のぶ代）, the most famous voice actress behind anime icon Doraemon（ドラえもん）who had passed away on September 29th at the age of 90. Today, I discovered through NHK that another very familiar face on TV and movies has left this mortal coil.
The national broadcaster devoted a quarter of its prime-time news broadcast today to the life and career of actor and singer Toshiyuki Nishida（西田敏行）who died earlier on October 17th at the age of 76. Nishida played a whole variety of roles from good guys to bad guys in historic and contemporary projects, with one of his most famous roles being Densuke Hamasaki, the central character in the comedic movie franchise "Tsuribaka Nisshi"(釣りバカ日誌....The Fishing Maniac's Diary [although the official English title was "Free and Easy").
Admittedly, I didn't follow his acting or singing career all that much but the one song in his discography that has stayed me with me since I first heard it over forty years ago was his big 1981 hit "Moshimo Piano ga Hiketanara"（もしもピアノが弾けたなら）. It was one of the songs that helped me get onto the track of enjoying kayo kyoku and I will always remember it for the elegant piano arrangement and his performance of the song on his first appearance on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen at the end of that year.
I also remember Nishida for his contribution in singing "Hana wa Saku"（花は咲く...Flowers Will Bloom）, the tribute song to the victims of the March 11th 2011 disaster which also affected the entertainer's home prefecture of Fukushima. He wasn't a classically-trained singer by any means but for both "Moshimo Piano ga Hiketanara" and "Hana wa Saku", there was an enormous amount of tender heart and enjoyment of singing that he put into those songs and onto his sleeve. Anytime that he performed either number, I would expect him to burst into tears.
In a number of ways, although as I mentioned above he played a lot of different roles, Nishida will always appear to me as that jovial and comical older brother in the cap, loose jacket, T-shirt and jeans with the slightly longer hair. There wasn't any pretension there; he was just folks.
Nishida's 14th single from September 1986 was "Jinsei Lullaby"(Life Lullaby) which was used as the theme for his starring vehicle, the TBS-produced drama "Naite Tamaru ka"（泣いてたまるか...Can I Stand to Cry?）. Written by Mitsuo Ikeda（池田充男）and composed by Hachiro Aoyama（青山八郎）, it's a jaunty and folksy pop song with a wonderful intro thanks to those strings and what sounds like a European string instrument.
My condolences to Nishida's family, friends and many fans.
Well, it looks like that Indian Summer might be coming a lot sooner than expected. Although things have been properly autumnal this week, this weekend and even going into next week, we'll be seeing temps perhaps hitting as high as 20 C which is a tad unusual for this time of year. Not complaining too much, though.
Even doing "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for well over a dozen years now, I will still be surprised now and then. A commenter from last week's "Sybille no Heya ~ Midnight Message"（シビルの部屋）was kind enough to reveal to me that the erstwhile Johnny's Entertainment (now STARTO Entertainment) that basically held the monopoly on male aidoru groups for decades once had a few female aidoru groups in its employ during the 1970s and 1980s!
One such group was Orange Sisters（オレンジ・シスターズ）consisting of Kayoko "Judy" Yoshitake（吉竹加世子）, Tae "Sandy" Sakai（酒井妙）, and Kiyomi "Candy" Yoshikawa（吉川聖美）. In 1982, Judy and Candy had been teen DJs for a tiny radio station known as the Kids Radio Station only broadcasting within the tony Aoyama district of Tokyo when through an audition, Sandy was selected to join the group. It was only a matter of time that the new trio would cut a record under the name Orange Sisters.
Although the three have only been designated as singers on J-Wiki, I would think that their employment under Johnny's and their singing style made them into an aidoru group. In any case, though, their debut single from March 1984 was "Summer Holiday", a very airy and pleasant 50s girl pop sort of tune written by Takako Osawa（大沢孝子）and composed/arranged by Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博）. It did just modestly though by peaking at No. 97 on Oricon. However, the song had gotten its exposure to everyone a year earlier as a track on the 1983 album"Raspberry Avenue" under the name Kids All Stars.
With Halloween just being a little over a couple of weeks away, I usually think of technopop force of nature Kyary Pamyu Pamyu（きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ）and her frilly costumes.
Not sure how she pulls it off, but Kyary and songwriter Yasutaka Nakata（中田ヤスタカ）always manage to make her songs sound 80s and 20s (or 10s) at the same time. The same goes with her October 2022 11th digital single"Isshin Doutai" which, according to Jisho.org, can be defined as "being one in body and soul" and "two hearts beating as one". I can also add "perfectly in synch with each other" like Kirk & Spock and Holmes & Watson.
"Isshin Doutai" has that KPP blippity-bloppity gleaming synthesizer style along with those high-falutin' vocals of hers. In addition, the accompanying music video has her back with the fantasy pastel colours and the distinct choreography. The fun with the mirror is fine but the standout is the lass dancing with the middle-aged fellow as if they were hangers come to life. I'm wondering if the guy is the same one who was the dancing salaryman in the earlier "Jikan ga nai"（時間がない）by Kirinji.
The song was also used as the second of three themes that Kyary provided for the 2022 anime adaptation of the video game "Ninjala"（ニンジャラ）. It was the opening theme from Episode 41 to Episode 112.
Ahhh, yes. Kayo Grace and Mr. Calico are having an afternoon nap in the backyard hammock. My envy goes out to them both. I used to take naps frequently on weekend afternoons when I was decades younger while the rest of the family was watching some form of sports on TV. Nowadays, although I do nod off immediately after lunch in the armchair for a number of minutes, I don't really take naps anymore. For one reason, I usually do at least a few of the KKP articles during the afternoon.
The music duo uto（烏兎）also has the right idea for that round of napping. Their 4th single from July 2024 is "Hirune" (Afternoon Nap) and there isn't a more apt song for sleeping in the hours between lunch and dinner. Written by vocalist Baysatoh（ベイ佐藤）and composed by her and her piano-playing partner Hikari Kubota（窪田ひかり）, the soft melody and Baysatoh's singing are so soothing that it's almost a shame that they can put me into slumber since I do want to appreciate their magical musical moment in its entirety.
I couldn't find a lot of information on uto but according to an Otaru record shop's website, uto hails from Obihiro in Hokkaido but their base of operations is currently in Tokyo. I also found their Twitter account where their name stands for "crow and rabbit", although the term can also mean "sun and moon" (and the YouTube explanation under the video points that out) and even "time" itself. Apparently, one of them is also quite the illustrator.
.jpg)
