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.
In the 50s and 60s, there were the various Mood Kayo bands and their music filling the bars and izakayas as much as the sake and whiskey were filling up the glasses there. On the one side, there were the Latin-based MK groups such as Los Indios and Los Primos, but on the other side, other such groups decided to go Hawaiian. The Mahina Stars were one such band. They started up in 1953 originally under the leadership of Ginji Yamaguchi（山口銀次）until the following year when Yamaguchi retired, leaving steel guitarist Hiroshi Wada（和田弘）as the new man in charge. As usual for such bands, suits were often the sartorial norm.
In June 1965, one of their most popular songs was released, "Aishite, Aishite, Aishichattanoyo"(Love, Love, I've Ended Up Falling In Love). Partnering up with Miyoko Tashiro（田代美代子）, this cute little ditty has become a standard for a number of singers. I used to hear it from time to time on the stereo, and remember watching one of the singalong segments on the 1981 Kohaku Utagassen when a mix of aidoru and enka singers took turns at it, with Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子） being one of them.
The Southern All Stars also had their own version of the song. Keyboardist and Mrs. Keisuke Kuwata, Yuko Hara（原由子）, took the lead singing a dreamier, more laidback cover. Her version could even be considered AOR, it's so relaxing. This cover was included in the "Inamura Jane"（稲村ジェーン）soundtrack released in September 1990. The movie was Keisuke Kuwata's（桑田佳祐）first foray into movie directing.
Nice webpage. Thank you for shearing the information. I’m also Showa era music.
ReplyDelete