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.
I actually placed this news as an addendum to the article on Reiko Takahashi that I had written back in early February this year regarding "Let me into your place ~Sunset Road~"（サンセット・ロード）. However, I then decided that I just didn't want Takahashi fans to just bump into this fact days, weeks or even months down the line through an article that they had already seen, and I gather that for these same fans, this is a "Stop the presses!" moment. So I've given the news its own article.
A few days ago, a Canadian YouTuber by the name of Goosebumps Radio was able to interview Takahashi (now known as Rayco) for a little over half an hour on her career, the whole City Pop boom and even the mysterious Akiba Tape. So, why not give them a listen if you haven't already done so? It's definitely not too late (inside joke).
Come to think of it, that picture of Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）above does remind me of 90s dance-pop singer Cathy Dennis.
And speaking of Dennis, I remember that Kyon-Kyon had once released a May 1989 album titled "KOIZUMI IN THE HOUSE" which involved her delving into House and Acid House music. In fact, the last article that I did regarding the former 80s aidoru singer was for her "Fade Out" which is also included in the album. Well, this time, it's all about its track mate on the album "Micro Wave" which brings out the dance beats alongside the story of getting a bento nuked at the convenience store. I'd gotten that done so many times at my local 7-11, Lawson's and am/pm for my karaage bento and hanbaagu bento that the cashiers didn't even bother asking me anymore after a while.
Yoshimasa Inoue（井上ヨシマサ）handled lyrics, melody and arrangement for "Micro Wave", quite the trippy little song. I didn't think that I would ever hear something from a dance DJ booth about a microwave oven warming something up for dinner but as both commenter Brian Mitchell and I agree upon, songwriters could and did write about anything and everything.
In the last few days, one of the commenters informed me that Arashi（嵐）was going to have their final concert at Tokyo Dome on May 30th...which they did, and I'm sure it was a whopper with plenty of cheering and weeping fans.
My somewhat befuddled response was: Wait! They were still together?!
OK, my apologies to Arashi fans everywhere, but I'd thought that the group disbanded back in 2021 with a fair bit of pomp and circumstance including a final performance on the Kohaku Utagassen. But as it turns out, I misinterpreted the announcement from Arashi back then. Back then, the guys had actually opted for a hiatus and not a permanent breakup. Well, the permanent breakup was sealed last night. I had a regular Wednesday night student at my final school who was a huge Masaki Aiba fan. I can only imagine the lengths she went to secure a ticket and get all glammed up for the final concert.
When it comes to some of the (former) Johnny's Entertainment groups over the years, I had placed descriptors on them. The Tanokin Trio（たのきんトリオ）of Masahiko Kondo（近藤真彦）, Toshihiko Tahara（田原俊彦）and Yoshio Nomura（野村義男）from the 1980s were the cheeky high schoolers while Hikaru Genji（光GENJI ）was all about the roller skates. SMAP was a group I saw as being the Voltron of the Johnny's mountain (each member with their own distinct personality and characteristics joining together to become this entertainment colossus in Japan)
But Arashi was the group that followed SMAP at the peak, and I saw them as being the quintet of good buddies who loved to hang out together not only at work but also during their precious free time. And that's the vibe I got from their final single "Five" which came out in March. It's an upbeat and satisfying coda to their 59-strong list of singles. It sounds...for the lack of a better term...just all-so-very Arashi and the music video, which seems to have been partly filmed in 1970s Kodak memories colour filters with some Beatles-esque silliness thrown in, shows Ohno and the guys looking rested and ready for the next step forward in their professional and personal lives while riding a bus that looks to have been inspired by the Partridge Family.
"Five" was created by songwriters HIKARI and Tomoki Ishizuka（石塚知生）. It has hit No. 1 on Oricon Streaming. All my good wishes go to Satoshi Ohno（大野智）, Sho Sakurai（櫻井翔）, Masaki Aiba（相葉雅紀）, Kazunari Ninomiya（二宮和也）and Jun Matsumoto（松本潤）, especially to leader Ohno who I hope will be able to catch tons of fish and make those art gallery-fresh paintings now. However, I am wondering whether Arashi can be tempted to make one more trip to the NHK Shibuya stage on New Year's Eve.
Meanwhile, you can get really nostalgic by looking at the article I wrote for Arashi's debut single"A-RA-SHI" back in 2013.
It's been decades since I was on the dance floor on a Saturday night. Barely remembering things from that period, once a great song hit the speakers, it was everyone rushing to the floor all at once to move that body without causing any major collisions. "Bizarre Love Triangle" by New Order was one of the favourites.
Speaking of which, I just encountered this latest by singer/producer/track maker tofubeats titled "Angels on the Dance Floor" which came out as a digital single only yesterday. The music video looks like an ancient game from the old PlayStation 1 and the plot reminds me of something rather Kafka as developed by either Rod Serling or Alfred Hitchcock. But lest it get too dark, the young lad here is only getting riled up because everyone around him is getting into a great dance groove. He eventually "gets" it and everything is happy again.
Keeping things within this rather nostalgic twilight zone, even the arrangement of "Angels on the Dance Floor" is reminiscent of dance music from a few decades ago. If I'm not mistaken, the song seems to be following some old-fashioned House lines. I'm hoping some of the more dance-oriented commenters on KKP can confirm or deny my statement. By the way, below is the KIRARA mix of the tune. Enjoy it with your Tamagotchi!
Happy weekend! Well, Miki Hyodo（兵藤未来）is a singer-songwriter that I discovered because of this blog and so far, she's gotten my attention because of her unique approach to New Music or City Pop and the like. For example, I covered both sides of her 1977 debut single: "Tonde Kita Yume"（飛んできた夢）and "Maverick"（マーヴェリック）which has her bringing out her Margaritaville game to listeners' ears.
I found another song written, composed and performed by Hyodo called "Soto wa Makkura"(It's Pitch Dark Out) which belongs to her 1977 debut album"One Paradise" (incidentally, the above songs are also included in the album). This time, instead of the tropical, Hyodo brings out a hot, sultry and bluesy proclamation as if she were performing in a honky-tonk dive bar during a torrid August night in Florida. It's dark outside so why not come inside into the light so that they can go into somewhere more enticingly dark...preferably her room, perhaps?😇 Yep, this is some ice-cube-being-dragged-down-the-neck make out invitation music. Love the guitars and electric organ in play here.
I have never really hidden the fact that for a guy who isn't really into art, I've been a fan of Seizo Watase（わたせせいぞう） (as you can see above) and Hiroshi Nagai（永井博）, basically two artists who have been depicting the idealized City Pop lifestyle onto canvas. Up to now, I've been investing in my annual Watase calendars but I really ought to give Nagai a chance as well next time.
Good golly! I swear that the above video is a real-life depiction of the Watase/Nagai lifestyle! And to boot, the video is for a single titled "On The West Coastline" by the collaboration between music producers and performers Dirty Androids & punipunidenki（ぷにぷに電機）which came out in August 2021 (an April 2020 compilation album titled "SPD GAR 003" contained the song, mind you). I can only imagine how people were feeling watching this video during COVID times. Having said that, interspersing those scenes of the good time and beautiful people are excerpts of women looking quite isolated and lonely with only a common Walkman to keep them company. But in the end, the balance between the two looks quite solid so perhaps the message is that life is a coin consisting of those two sides and one's constantly flipping it.
It's a combination of strings (including an emotional cello in the intro), groovy rhythms, haunting synths and punipunidenki's whispery vocals for some of that Neo-City Pop vibe. Maybe the video is showing something darker, but the actual song seems to keep up the happy happy joy joy in modern-day Japan. I only posted something about Dirty Androids at the beginning of this month, and I also noted another collaboration between the two a few years ago.
Around this time three years ago, I mentioned the short-lived group DEBBIE'S ALLY, led by Itsuko "Debbie" Kodama（児玉伊津子）, and her buddies which included a number of high-powered studio musicians. That first song I did was the title track from their sole September 1980 album, the disco breezy "Yoake no Dreaming"（夜明けのドリーミング）.
One other track that I've found is "In The Starlight" which seems to take things midway between the city and the seaside resort. Written by Kodama herself and composed by singer-guitarist Akio Yabe（矢部昭夫）, Debbie is slightly less whispery in the vocals and the arrangement is a bit more AOR relaxed as if the summer drive to Hakone is on. Some of the guitar work sounds somewhat Tatsuro-esque. Order those cocktails! 🍹
