Thanks again to J-Canuck for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this great blog. For my first post contribution, I wanted to start off with one of my personal favorite 80s Jpop artists -Nakahara Meiko (中原めいこ).
Nakahara is probably most familiar to audiences for her various アニソング/Ani-Song soundtrack contributions during the アニメ boom of the 80s. Songs like ロ・ロ・ロ・ロシアンルーレット (Ro Ro Ro Russian Roulette)/宇宙恋愛 - スペースファンタジー(Uchureiai-Space Fantasy) both used for the cult anime series 『ダーティペア』 (Dirty Pair) and 鏡の中のアクトレス (Kagami No Actress) / Dance
In The Memories both used for the hugely popular series 『きまぐれオレンジ☆ロード』 (Kimagure Orange Road) have become favorite classics of anime fans. Yet Nakahara Meiko was an accomplished singer/songwriter/lyricist well before finding fame among the anime crowd.
Born Obara Meiko in 5/8/1959 in Yotsukaido City in Chiba Prefecture, Nakahara learned to play music at a very early age mastering the piano as a child. Nakahara had dreams of becoming an idol as a teen but did not have enough confidence in her abilities at first and thus decided to enroll into composer/arranger 鈴木邦彦/Suzuki Kunihiko's "Pop School" to further prepare for show business. Suzuki has worked with such artists such as ザ・ピーナッツ/The Peanuts and ザ・ゴールデン・カップス/The Golden Cups. She got a small taste of singing professionally as a backup chorus singer for 70s teen idol 郷ひろみ/Go Hiromi for one of his concert tours.
Nakahara eventually made her debut in 1982 with this funky, latin-inspired pop tune 『今夜だけDANCE・DANCE・DANCE』. It was a minor hit in 1982 but it would not be until her 1984 release 『君たちキウイ・パパイヤ・マンゴーだね』 until Nakahara found fame with that song which was selected by カネボウ化粧品/Kanebo Cosmetics to be it's Summer campaign song for that year.
Since then Nakahara has released other songs both as a solo artist and as a producer for such singers as girl group 少女隊/Shojo Tai and Guam/Hawaii raised idol 早見優/Hayami Yu whom she collaborated with on her hits 『PASSION』 and 『Caribbean Night』.
Her Hi-NRG, "Freestyle" inspired songs remind me a lot of ANRI/杏里 who also has a similar "American-pop" song writing style.
Nakahara eventually made her debut in 1982 with this funky, latin-inspired pop tune 『今夜だけDANCE・DANCE・DANCE』. It was a minor hit in 1982 but it would not be until her 1984 release 『君たちキウイ・パパイヤ・マンゴーだね』 until Nakahara found fame with that song which was selected by カネボウ化粧品/Kanebo Cosmetics to be it's Summer campaign song for that year.
Since then Nakahara has released other songs both as a solo artist and as a producer for such singers as girl group 少女隊/Shojo Tai and Guam/Hawaii raised idol 早見優/Hayami Yu whom she collaborated with on her hits 『PASSION』 and 『Caribbean Night』.
Her Hi-NRG, "Freestyle" inspired songs remind me a lot of ANRI/杏里 who also has a similar "American-pop" song writing style.
Nakahara eventually retired to New York in 1992 but has periodically contributed her talents as a producer/song writer for artists such as vocalist 坪倉唯子/Chibokura Rui (of B.B.クィーンズ/BB Queens fame).
Here's the ED for きまぐれオレンジ☆ロード 『Dance In The Memories』
Here's another live performance video (from 1994) featuring a medley of her songs.
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| Courtesy of Spade13th at Flickr |
Hi, JTM, and thanks very much for your inaugural post. I remember Nakahara from "Kimitachi Kiwi,Papaya, Mango da ne" and "Dance in the Memories" from KOR. The former is a great little novelty tune which reminds me of some of that American pop from the early 1950s, and of course, the latter is great for that Eurobeat sound of the late 80s.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the next post.