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.
The last time I had singer-songwriter Seishiro Kusunose（楠瀬誠志郎）on the byline, it was back in 2021 for his 1987"Elevator Town" which was catchy because of the jazz and that supreme four-on-the-floor drumming.
Well, after around four and a half years, Kusunose is back on the byline with "Parody Date", a track from his August 1991 6th album"Suusen no Hoshi"（数千の星...Thousands of Stars）. I have no idea what a parody date is...it sounds like a plot device that would pop on a Japanese rom-com or a comedy anime but hey, the song itself is catchy enough.
I mentioned that jazz and the four-on-the-floor for "Elevator Town". Well, for "Parody Date", it's all about the Latin jazzy brass and the feeling that listeners were meant to do a cha-cha on the floor as well. It's OK...just close the drapes and you can have fun without anyone knowing. Anyways, Kusunose was behind the happy melody while Shota Namikawa（並河祥太）provided the lyrics. Satoshi Takebe（武部聡志）arranged everything into its cha-cha form.
Years ago, when we were all living in Japan, one of my friends, A-kun, related the story of when he and another mutual buddy, B-chan, had gone to a branch of Manga no Mori (a famous manga store franchise) in Ikebukuro near the Sunshine 60 Building. The two of them had their own preferences when browsing for Japanese comics so they promised that after half an hour or so, they would meet up near the cashier. A-kun had a pretty wide range of manga that he liked so he most likely went all over the store, but B-chan had specific genres in mind: magical girls, Takarazuka-like classical romances....and BL (boys' love). At the time, he hadn't been aware of that last one.
Well, the thirty-minute window passed by. A-kun was left waiting at the cashier for a few minutes but B-chan wouldn't show up, so he went to search for her. He finally did find her fully ensconced in one of those BL manga and when he approached her from behind to see what she was reading, she was taken by surprise. A-kun swore that B-chan threw away that BL manga like skipping a rock across a river. Apparently, it bounced twice and almost impaled another browser. It was on the level of Mio's own reaction above whenever anyone was about to find out her own love of creating BL. In any case, to her own dread, she was outed. Of course, neither A-kun nor I judged her on that.
In any case, the above preamble ramble was for me to introduce one of the new anime of the season "Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!"（ガンバレ!中村くん!!...Go for It, Nakamura!）, adapted from a manga that had run for a couple of years in the mid-2010s. I'm not into BL at all but this anime looks pretty darn humorous as young Okuto Nakamura falls hard for classmate Aiki Hirose. As well, I like the old-fashioned style of the design of the characters...reminds me of the 80s.
Heck, the entire design of the opening credits felt like a time warp back to my high school and university days. And then there is the opening theme by Yasuyuki Okamura（岡村靖幸）and former Sexy Zone member Kento Nakajima（中島健人）. It was about thirteen years ago that Okamura came up with one of the coolest and funkiest anison, "Viva Namida"（ビバナミダ）for "Space Dandy"...man, time does fly, doesn't it? And I don't think the singer who has looked like the most dance-crazed corporate section chief had created any more anison until this one in 2026.
Well, with "Shunpatsuteki ni Koi Shiyou", which literally translates as "Let's Fall in Love Right Here and Now!" but whose official English title is "Sudden Spark", we have Okamura creating and arranging the song into another techno funk piece just like "Viva Namida". It's a whole lot shorter than "Viva Namida" but I figure since the song won't officially get onto the market until late May, here's hoping that it will get longer through another verse and/or instrumental bridge. I see that Okamura still likes to cut a rug.
Strangely enough, what got my attention on "Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!" in the first place was the ending credits sequence. For the ending of each episode, a different old kayo kyoku or J-Pop hit from the Showa and Heisei eras will be played. Episode 1 has the late Kozo Murashita's（村下孝蔵）"Hatsukoi"（初恋）from 1983. Good choice! I always love it when the folks of today happily find out about a Japanese song from yesteryear.
It's been a slightly unusual Friday due to it being Good Friday and we've put in that special ROY article in the middle of all of the urban contemporary material. And so, I will finish up things here with a sixth posting that I will not consider a ROY.
For one thing, I posted Carl Anderson's "Pieces of a Heart" back in 2015, years before I came up with the Reminiscings of Youth series, simply because I loved and admired the ballad so much although it was campaigning for a product that I have never and will never use, Parliament Cigarettes. They might be death sticks but man, the commercials for it were always top-notch and classy when cigarette ads were allowed to exist.
Yup, I ended up buying the 1990 CD single in Japan which you can see at the very top. The coupling song is no slouch either, and in fact, "How Deep Does It Go?" is one of those soulful make-out tunes that pretty much demands that one shouldn't slouch either in the activity that the song is promoting here (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)😉. Oh, Anderson's voice, the bluesy sax and those nighttime keyboards make it all worth the while. Both songs on the single would be must-plays on that fantasy late-night radio show I concocted a while ago.
Although Anderson would have been 81 this year, he unfortunately succumbed to leukemia in February 2004 at the age of 59.
It was always nice taking friends who had come to visit Tokyo down to Odaiba by Tokyo Bay. Those into photography just loved to take shots of Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower.
A few years ago, I posted up a couple of articles on singer-songwriter Michihiro Kobayashi（小林みちひろ）. There's still not a lot of information available about him but judging from his "Margarita"（マルガリータ）and "Giniro no Ame"（銀色の雨）from 1980, he did love his Latin and he did love to take things easy.
From what I could glean from Hip Tank Records, I've been able to find out that his "Tokyo City" was his second single from 1977. Kobayashi took care of words and music while Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）handled the arrangement. There have been plenty of music covered in KKP regarding the capital city of Japan whether it be through the jazziness of Mood Kayo and the digital frenzy of technopop. But this is perhaps the first time I've heard anyone approach Tokyo as something feeling like a sleepy resort town. Shimmering strings and the bossa nova touch make for a relaxing time on the boardwalk. I'm not complaining at all, and the margaritas in Kobayashi's Tokyo must have that perfect combination of sweet and sour.
As I mentioned in the first article for today's (April 3rd 2026) batch of KKP articles, it is Good Friday. Being a national holiday, it is also my tradition to bring in a special Holiday edition of Reminiscings of Youth which will be smack dab in the middle of the usual Urban Contemporary Friday songs.
When it comes to my image of German pop songs, I think of the glacial beauty of Kraftwerk and the whole "Sprockets" thing on "Saturday Night Live" with Dieter where all German pop culture was seen as being angular and bizarre. So, in retrospect, listening to the very listenable "Duel" by the German synthpop band Propaganda, I feel that this is probably one of the most approachable pop songs that I'd ever heard. Mind you, the cover for the April 1985 single featuring fierce expressions by vocalists Claudia Brücken and Susanne Freytag would be enough for me to duck and cover but "Duel" itself is mighty fine right from the fantastical opening notes to the happy-go-lucky synth-y intro to the chorus which strikes me as a bit reminiscent of the 60s heyday of Herb Alpert. And Claudia has this voice which is truly wonderfully unique in pop music.
Well, if anyone is willing to make a music video of European spy intrigue, shouldn't it be a German synthpop band? I don't know how "Duel" did in Canada or the United States, but it scored a No. 2 ranking in Italy and No. 30 in the then-West Germany.
On the flip side of the single is "Jewel (Cut Rough)" which is handled this time by Freytag and it's basically "Duel" being thrown into a punk industrial blender with the vocalist accidentally falling into the machine as well. It also has one of the coolest percussion sequences that I've ever heard. Enjoy headbanging, everyone!
Then, depending on which form of "Duel" you purchase, you can also hear "Duel (Bitter Sweet)" which is an extended version.
April 22nd 1985 was the release date for "Duel" so what was up on the charts on that day exactly? I have Nos. 3, 5 and 6.
When I came across the name Masaki Sato, I initially went "Oh, yeah! Masaki Sato? I've seen that name oodles of times. Should be fine getting him from Labels."
Ah, well, on that point. Actually, he hadn't existed until now when I did place him into Labels for the first time in this blog's history. According to J-Wiki, there is an animator who had worked on "Dragonball" and someone involved in the fabric industry with that name but no singer. Furthermore, according to Discogs, the kanji for this singer's name can be rendered as either 佐藤正樹 or 佐藤真紀. Go figure on that.
There isn't a whole lot about the mysterious Masaki but he apparently released two singles in 1982 and 1983, and for that second single, this is "Million Night" which seems to be quite the intriguing evening for one fellow and a lady (and I guess he really likes wearing his sunglasses at night). It's more on the rocking side of City Pop and bass addicts ought to have a good time with this one. This was written by Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）, composed by Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）and arranged by Satoshi Takebe（武部聡志）.
I think as much as 1970s City Pop had certain distinctive arrangements and sounds (the keyboard haze effect) and the 1980s version also had their own fascinating tones (the sparkling mineral water glissando), there is also something about the 1990s version. And yes, I know that there will be some who disagree that the final decade of the 20th century in Japan had City Pop especially with the economic downturn there but I can't deny that there was rich urban contemporary music happening. The music industry including certain singers and producers probably didn't get the memo from Parliament or the stock exchanges.
For me anyways, there was that certain big brassiness and especially sparkly synthesizers that marked that time. Maybe the Bubble had burst, but musically in some corners, it was still living life large in the big city. Time to hit the New York Grill for dinner? Sure, let me dust off my VISA Gold!
Anyways, that's the buzz I get from Yurie Kokubu's（国分友里恵）"Dear~How To Love You", the first track from her 4th album, "Do You Love Me?" from August 1991. Written by her old bandmate from SHAMBARA, Kaoru Akimoto（秋元薫）, and composed by Hitoshi Haba（羽場仁志）, it starts out innocently enough but then the horns rev up and we're off to West Shinjuku for that medium-rare steak. And yep, the brassiness and sparkle are there. Plus, Kokubu seems to be really exercising those golden vocals more than ever.
