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.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Tower Records
Tower Records in Shibuya
An outlet in Shiodome, near Ginza
Figured since this is a blog about old J-Pop that I should talk about where my old music haunts were. The prime one was Tower Records in Shibuya. I've read that this is the largest store of its kind on the planet according to floor area. I wouldn't be surprised since it has 7 floors with close to three-quarters of a million discs (according to the video below). Tower Records may have died elsewhere (like Toronto and New York) and rivals HMV and Virgin have died even in Japan, but it seems to be thriving in Japan with a lot of branches in Tokyo alone. I went there at least once a month to search for discs, and I often got my magazine fix on the 7th English-language floor.
As I said, branches abound all over Tokyo alone. This one is underground in the Shiodome City Centre, a modern commercial complex between Ginza and Shimbashi. It used to be occupied by the homegrown WAVE CD shop, which had been a popular chain in the late 80s and 90s.
This is what I saw whenever I entered the store.
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