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.

Saturday, February 10, 2018

Momoko Kikuchi -- Ocean Side (Song)


Through some of the exploration of Van Paugam's City Pop Radio on YouTube along with her debut album "Ocean Side", it's been interesting to realize how much of that genre's aesthetic (or should I say A  E  S  T  H  E  T  I  C?...sorry, Vaporwave joke there), aidoru Momoko Kikuchi(菊池桃子) embraced back in the 1980s.


I just listened to the title track of that September 1984 album and the opening bars of the song sounded like an Anri(杏里)tune from that time, it's just as City Pop as some of the other Kikuchi tunes that I've listened to and been surprised by. Of course, that's just a personal opinion...perception results may vary. Still, it's a nice summery song paired with her light vocals.

On top of that, it's not even a Toshiki Kadomatsu(角松敏生)tune. It was actually written by Kumiko Aoki(青木久美子)and composed by Tetsuji Hayashi(林哲司)who also knows a thing or two about concocting a pretty AOR/City Pop song. I'm now kinda wondering whether it would be appropriate to call Kikuchi the ideal City Pop aidoru along the same lines of calling Seiko Matsuda(松田聖子)or Naoko Kawai(河合奈保子)the quintessential aidoru of the early 1980s.

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