If I'm not mistaken, Chinese New Year is sometime next week. I'm not sure if I will be celebrating this with my anime buddy although he will be going out with his family for the usual Peking Duck dinner. There's nothing like a good dim sum around this time of year (or anytime, honestly speaking), and it's certainly a whole lot cheaper and more expansive than the variety provided in the Chinatowns in Japan (Yokohama, Kobe, etc.).
On that note, I found another J-Pop song based on Chinatown, titled simply "Chinatown" by a singer named Maiko Nakano（中野麻衣子）. Aside from the first several bars and one riff near the end, though, there really isn't anything that links the song to the area aside from the singing of the title and perhaps a lost romance there. Still, the melody and Nakano's vocals are pleasing to the ears with its urban contemporary feeling, and the arrangement I could automatically peg as belonging in the late 80s or early 90s. Sure enough, I did discover on the Amazon page that it was released in March 1991. The song sounds as if it belongs in that sophisti-pop scene from around that time period or perhaps it may have been categorized in that New Adult Music genre that I found out about recently.
But that was all I could find out about "Chinatown"...and the singer, for that matter. I could discover that it was a single for Nakano but otherwise, bupkiss. Through the JASRAC database, I was able to find out that Nakano wrote the lyrics while Masahiro Watanabe（渡邉正浩）took care of the music. Apparently, though, a few copies are available on Amazon.
Hi, J-Canuck.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Chinese New Year is just around the corner, less than an hour or so away in many parts of Asian that celebrates the festival. There is not much of a celebration where I am, but I think it’ll be a great idea to get some tim sum this weekend at Chinatown in Houston and see if we can feel some CNY vibe.
This song is, as you said, very pleasing and makes for some easy listening. I like the strains of erhu (or a violin mimicking the erhu) at the intro and end of the song, which helps to keep to the title of the song. Ms Nakano has a nice, laid-back charm in her voice. Pity that it seems she didn’t go much further with her singing career.
Hi, Francium.
DeleteHope you have a Happy Chinese New Year! I will be meeting up with my friend who hails from Taiwan this Sunday so I may be in store for some of that dim sum. :)
Yep, it's a rather harsh business in Japan. Far fewer get to last a long time in music and I'm afraid Ms. Nakano didn't quite make the cut. Still, for us music "archaeologists", it's always interesting to come across some of these unknown nuggets.