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.
Friday, December 15, 2017
Toshiki Kadomatsu -- City Nights
Looking at the Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）file, I've noticed that the most recent entries have almost all involved one of his best clients, Anri（杏里）, during the early 1980s.
Well, of course, the songwriter was also a singer and musician at the time, and he really has gotten my attention with his "City Nights" from his debut album"Sea Breeze" from June 1981. Not only is the album well titled considering the image I've often had of him but "City Nights" starts off with such an American AOR vibe that I had to wonder whether Ambrosia or the Doobie Brothers snuck in and helped with the production at one point. I think the arrangement is as much Los Angeles urban contemporary as it is Tokyo City Pop.
I've now got mullets on the brain thanks to this song.😆 Must have been quite the time in downtown Tokyo at the time. But then again, I don't have to wonder too much since I was there.
Oh wow, that's amazing that you experienced that time first hand. I have that record and it has such a groovy vibe! Definitely feels like the kind of music that would have been played in all the cool clubs back then. 「Yokohama Twilight Time」also has an amazing swing!
Yup, I got to experience the skinny 90-yen cans of Coke, video game cafes and aidoru music of 1981. It was a truly heady time. Glad to know that there was amazing genre of music attached to it.
Oh wow, that's amazing that you experienced that time first hand. I have that record and it has such a groovy vibe! Definitely feels like the kind of music that would have been played in all the cool clubs back then. 「Yokohama Twilight Time」also has an amazing swing!
ReplyDeleteHello, Beat Ratio.
DeleteYup, I got to experience the skinny 90-yen cans of Coke, video game cafes and aidoru music of 1981. It was a truly heady time. Glad to know that there was amazing genre of music attached to it.