Yesterday,
looking at Oricon’s 1986 Top 100 hits, I was surprised to see how many
female aidoru tunes were in the list – I counted nothing less than 54 songs. In
other words, half of the list was occupied by female aidoru tunes, leaving the
other half to Enka singers, Rock bands, City Pop artists, male aidoru
singers/groups, among other genres of Japanese popular music we could add here.
Apart
from some usual Akina Nakamori (中森明菜), Kyoko Koizumi (小泉今日子) or Miho Nakayama’s (中山美穂) hits (to name a few big aidoru from
the time), the huge majority of aidoru singers in 1986’s list were members of
the big group Onyanko Club (おニャン子クラブ)
going solo or being divided into subunits. For the critics, it was probably a
very similar nightmare to what happens with AKB48, its subunits and sister
groups nowadays, and we can thank – or blame – the same man, Yasushi Akimoto (秋元康), for both phenomenons.
Among
the many singles released by Onyanko Club’s members in this particular year, I was able to
discover an interesting and unusual one: “Ajisaibashi” by Sanae Jounouchi (城之内早苗).
Released
in June 1986 as Sanae Jounouchi’s debut single, “Ajisaibashi” was meant to be an enka song. It somehow succeeds, but I find the vocals really light in this one,
if compared to the usual vibrato-heavy and more traditional enka singing style. Maybe
Sanae was still learning how to sing enka in a more mature way (I still have to
listen to her more recent singles), but “Ajisaibashi” ends sounding more like an
usual ballad with a warm melody and just some enka flourishes in the
arrangement. In the end, it was probably due to this “light way of performing
enka” that I liked the song so much.
Here’s
Sanae singing “Ajisaibashi” in a more recent performance.
“Ajisaibashi” reached #1 on the Oricon chart, selling 155,000 copies.
Lyrics were written by Yasushi Akimoto, while music and arrangement were done
by Akira Mitake (見岳章).
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| Source: generasia.com |
Hi, Marcos.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to compare "Ajisaibashi" to a liqueur, it would be Bailey's Irish Creme (whisky and cream). Enka would be whisky and since whisky by itself is a bit strong for me (although I like enka), I think this song goes down very smoothly for those who may not be huge enka fans. It's a very sweet and nice debut for the Onyanko Club member.
In fact, I think the arrangement makes the song and Jounouchi sound as if it had been recorded more than a decade before it was!
Another drink-related enka song by Sanae Jounouchi, "Yowa sete yo kon'ya dake". Written and originally performed by that famed enka singer-songwriter, Chisato Moritaka.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Saz1IZCRnYw
Hi, Jim. Yes, when it comes to enka, Chisato is the one. :) I'll have to think about covering this one just on the fact that it's an enka that was written and composed by Moritaka herself. Thanks!
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