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.
It has been a good long while since I put up a Checkers（チェッカーズ）article. Getting a bit nostalgic for that ol' rock-n'-roll that Fumiya Fujii（藤井フミヤ）and the guys sang back in the 1980s such as "Namida no Request"（涙のリクエスト）and "Gizagiza Heart no Komori Uta"（ギザギザハートの子守唄）.
Fortunately, I could find another Checkers tune that had been rattling around in my memories although I'm not sure whether this got the prolific karaoke treatment at our old university karaoke bar hangout, Kuri, like the first two. "Kamisama Help!" (Help Me, God!) was Checkers' 9th single from November 1985 and it's definitely got that 1950s Sha-Na-Na rock-n'-roll taste that got the guys on the map. In fact, Chinfa Kan's（康珍化）lyrics give a shoutout to that group. Going on with those lyrics, the whole story revolves around a good fellow who has long had feelings for a female friend who just seems to end up getting dumped by all sorts of cool guys. Every time this happens, she runs to her good buddy to cry on his shoulder although she's completely oblivious to his love for her. The poor lad does need help.
Hiroaki Serizawa（芹澤廣明）was behind the melody and arrangement. On the J-Wiki article for "Kamisama Help!", Checkers leader Tohru Takeuchi（武内享）remarked on the music show "The Best 10" that the song was a shouty enka. Well, if you say so.😕 "Kamisama Help!" hit No. 1 on Oricon and quickly became the 44th-ranked single for 1985, and it even lasted long enough on the charts to score a No. 97 ranking for 1986. It first showed up on an album through "EARLY SINGLES", the band's BEST compilation released in August 1994 which peaked at No. 3. I'm surprised that the song didn't show up on any of their previous BEST albums.
Ah, Yuko Ogura（小倉優子）. Marcos V. once wrote an article about one of her songs, "Koi no Jumon wa Papapipupa" (恋の呪文はパパピプパ) which was a surprise for me since I had no idea that she actually sang anything. And yet, I should have known that since back in the day, any young up-and-comer in the geinokai would eventually get wrangled into doing some work in the recording booth, no matter the level of talent.
In all actuality, my knowledge of tarento and former pinup idol Ogura was through her commercials and appearances on variety programs during my time in Japan in which she took on this fairly high and babyish voice which has lowered in recent years from helium levels. However, I did find the above video (which is also posted on the article for "The Yoru mo Hippare") that shows a raw teenage Ogura with a completely rapid-fire and down-to-earth voice.
During my trip to Tokyo in 2014, I was exploring one of my favourite haunts, Tower Records at JR Shinjuku Station. When I got to the 7th floor where the first floor for the CD shop was located, I discovered a whole ton of people...mostly guys...amassed like rush-hour commuters at one end. Apparently, Ogura was making an appearance there to promote something and when I saw her, she looked absolutely porcelain...maybe to an alarming degree, although she was rattling off at warp speed so I gathered that she was in good health (but in severe need of Vitamin D).
Anyways, I did want to showcase her 3rd single"Onna no Ko, Otoko no Ko" (Girls & Boys) which has the aforementioned "Koi no Jumon wa Papapipupa" as the coupling song. Released in November 2004, if that melody hits you as being somewhat Shibuya-kei, then congratulations! It is indeed Pizzicato Five's（ピチカート・ファイヴ）Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）behind words and music for this breezy and happy-go-lucky tune that scored a No. 20 ranking on Oricon. Her voice fits the music quite nicely.
As for the setting for the music video, I think that I may have visited that Tokyo shopping mall once and it's by a JR train station but for the life of me, I can't remember the name of the place. By the way, the song title shouldn't be confused with Hiromi Go's（郷ひろみ）debut hit"Otoko no Ko , Onna no Ko"(男の子女の子）since the nouns are reversed.
"Onna no Ko, Otoko no Ko" was also the ending theme for the anime adaptation of the manga "School Rumble" which had its run through a couple of seasons and OVAs from 2004 to 2008. With a title like that, I'd assumed that it was all about a bunch of high school toughs fighting each other but actually it's a school-based romantic comedy.
Yeah, we're breaking heat records today! Most likely, a 78-year-old one is going to fall by the wayside by sunset since we'll probably go higher than 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The fan is most definitely on in my room and I've got a bottle of water at my side.
Anyways, I found this 1968 single by a teenage Judy Ongg（ジュディ・オング）titled "Sayonara Juu-nana Sai"(Goodbye 17). Her tenth single to be exact from September that year, it was written by Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子）and composed by Shosuke Ichikawa（市川昭介）, and it's quite the maudlin ballad about what I'm assuming is a girl's first heartbreak. The arrangement is pretty interesting in that it starts off with some haunting echoes from an American 60s love ballad which then takes on a folksy tilt thanks to that European stringed instrument. However, along the way, it also combines some French jazziness and a fairly rocking drum. Intriguingly enough, the main melody even reminds me of a more downbeat version of "Bei Mir Bistu Shein", popularized by the Andrews Sisters. I gather that "Sayonara Juu-nana Sai" could be set either in Tokyo or Paris.
Fortunately for me, my 17th year on Earth was filled with my burgeoning interest in kayo kyoku and Western music in general so I was taping the heck out of the radio stations including CHIN-FM which had "Sounds of Japan".
Up to now, my knowledge on Johnny's Entertainment groups coming into the 21st century has been mostly limited to SMAP and Arashi（嵐）, two popular units of guys who have since disbanded in the last few years. There have been other groups in the late Mr. Kitagawa's kingdom such as King & Prince, TOKIO and Hey! Say! JUMP, I know, because of their appearances on NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）and TV Asahi's long-running "Music Station".
(short version)
Sexy Zone is also a group that I have heard about and seen through their own shots on the annual Kohaku Utagassen and the above shows. They first formed in 2011 and had consisted of the following five fellows: Kento Nakajima（中島健人）, Fuuma Kikuchi（菊池風磨）, Shouri Sato（佐藤勝利）, Sou Matsushima（松島聡）and Marius Yo（マリウス葉）, although Mr. Yo left at the end of 2020 due to health reasons.
Now, why did I choose "Suppin Kiss" (Kiss From a Face with No Makeup)? Well, the keyboards and guitar work sound slightly closer to the Neo-City Pop material that I've been hearing recently and the song accompanied by the video kinda gave me a rather fresh impression of the lads (the soap helped). It also comes across as happy enough to make it as an opening or closing theme for an anime but actually it was used for a Kose Cosmetics commercial.
"Suppin Kiss" was one-half of their double-A 16th single"Karakuri Darake no Tenderness/Suppin Kiss"（カラクリだらけのテンダネス/すっぴんKISS...Tenderness Filled with Trickery） from December 2018. It was written by Kanata Okajima（岡嶋かな多）and Koudai Iwatsubo（イワツボコーダイ）with the latter also providing the melody alongside Simon Janlov. It hit No. 1 on Oricon and became the 41st-ranked single for the year, selling around 165,000 copies.
Somehow, I think that the Japanese names for certain plants and flowers lend quite a bit more warmth than their English-language equivalents. For instance, natsu tsubaki（夏椿）is known officially on Wikipedia as Stewartia pseudocamellia. Gesundheit! However, translating it directly brings out the more romantic summer camellia.
As well, enka singer Aya Shimazu（島津亜矢）also provides some justice through her rendition of "Natsu Tsubaki", her 70th single released in July 2021. Being one of the most well-known female singers of her genre, comparing her to some of her contemporaries is quite interesting. Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）always struck me as the representative of steel under silk whenever she sings while Yoshimi Tendo（天童よしみ）has had that Kansai robustness. Shimazu seems to possess that tenderheartedness that she wears quite openly on her sleeve whenever she sings of affairs of the heart. I don't see her often cry during a performance but the tears are still there in her voice, no matter the song, and that also has had her singing English-language soul ballads quite effectively, too.
"Natsu Tsubaki", which was written by Makoto Kitajo（喜多條忠）and composed by Tetsuya Watari（渡哲也）, has the titular flower being the backdrop of the aftermath of a torrid romance that has clearly come to an end with the protagonist probably picking up the pieces in the form of camellia petals. It does start off with an electric guitar riffing away followed by some horns booming (perhaps reflecting the past affair) before Shimazu softly but clearly describes the scene. This can be just one of those enka examples for taking that lonely drink in a quiet bar somewhere.
Happy Monday! Our first heat alert of the year has come out and the air conditioner is now ready to go. As well, the fan is thumping away behind me.
I didn't think that I would ever have to draw upon my education in first-year Linguistics for an article in "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but here we are. The voiceless velar plosive, aka [k], seems to be the sound of choice for Takako Minekawa's（嶺川貴子） "milk rock", a track from her third studio album"Cloudy Cloud Calculator" released in December 1997.
Minekawa's title and lyrics are chock-filled with final [k] words as she marvels at the happy synthpop rhythm leading to that floating white and liquid melody that she refers to in the end. The song and the accompanying video are very child-friendly for all those who need to practice their phonics (well, aside from the Japanese words), and it wouldn't surprise me if the producers of "Sesame Street" hadn't entertained the thought of hiring Minekawa for some of their segments.
A year later in September 1998, a Minekawa EP, "Ximer... C.C.C. Remix" was released which included remixes of tracks from "Cloudy Cloud Calculator". "milk rock" was given a more bossa-based Shibuya-kei sheen by musician Keigo "Cornelius" Oyamada（小山田圭吾）, one-half of Flipper's Guitar. The two would later get married in 2000.
My last article for tonight is a bit of a special tribute Reminiscings of Youth article for iconic UK synthpop band Depeche Mode since keyboardist Andy Fletcher sadly passed away on May 26th a few days ago at the age of 60. I've already given my thoughts on the band vis a vis my nights at the disco through the first ROY on them, "Strangelove" but I found another ready choice.
"Master and Servant" was recorded in May 1984 and released some time afterwards as the band's 11th single, and yep, I kinda found out about what the song was about right on the dance floor at The Copa here in Toronto. While we were all bopping about, I just had to ask my friend:
J-Canuck: Uh, is Depeche Mode singing about S&--?
Friend: Yup.
J-Canuck: Whips, chains, rubber ma--?
Friend: Yup.
J-Canuck: Well, in that case, the safety word is APPLES!
Wow! I guess it really is a lot like life.😋 Anyways, as controversial as it was, personally speaking, I couldn't help but feel that the video and the song were a lot more reassuringly tongue-in-cheek (whose tongue in whose cheek?😉...sorry about that) than anything truly risque. Plus, hey, it's a Depeche Mode song! Tons of fun to listen to and dance to. Additionally, Dave Gahan's voice just had that authoritative British Voice-of-Doom quality as if he were channeling his inner Pinhead from "Hellraiser".
Apparently, "Master and Servant" was banned from a lot of radio stations in America which muted its effect on the Billboard chart by only peaking at No. 87. Not even sure whether it did well in Canada but it did reach No. 2 in Germany.
Now, what was hitting the Top 3 in Oricon's May 1984 chart? I'm sure that the songs were considerably more innocent.
A while back, a commenter referring to one of my City Pop-themed articles recommended the R&B duo Silk Sonic. To be honest, I hadn't heard about them before but when I was told that the duo consisted of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, my attention was grabbed especially because of Mars since he has been bringing back some of the old funk and soul of my youth through hits such as "Uptown Funk" and "Treasure".
Then, when I heard "Love's Train" (which was released as a Valentine's Day gift of sorts in February 2022) for the first time a few nights ago, I was absolutely smitten. I'd been wondering whether the musical stylings from the R&B of the late 1970s and early 1980s by folks like Michael Jackson, Earth Wind & Fire and DeBarge would make a comeback, and it looks like it has. Electricity was snapping up and down my spine as I heard it.
Silk Sonic's"Love's Train" is a cover of the 1982 original by the R&B/funk band Con Funk Shun and it's also just as scintillating and memorable and mellow and velvety. Along with its Wikipedia categorization of those two genres in the first line of the paragraph, it's also been given the Quiet Storm label.
Now, cherishing my R&B from way back means that I also love my Quiet Storm, too. However, I never gave much thought about what it means and why it has been called that way, and that's considering that a few of my ROY articles over the past few years include representatives of that sub-genre. According to Wikipedia, it's "...a radio format and genre of R&B, performed in a smooth, romantic, jazz-influenced style...and was named after the title song on Smokey Robinson's 1975 album A Quiet Storm".
For me, Quiet Storm means updated postwar cool jazz (Bill Evans) mixed with soulful groove, and whenever the name pops up into my head, the first person that appears is Anita Baker. Her "Sweet Love" from 1986 absolutely floored me when I first heard it on the radio as a university student. Some other examples are Bobby Caldwell's"What You Won't Do For Love" and DeBarge's"All This Love".
The whole story behind the formation of Quiet Storm strikes me as being a fairy tale come true for any person who has ever wanted to become a successful radio DJ. Howard University students Melvin Lindsey and Jack Shuler were working at WHUR-FM in Washington D.C. in 1976 as interns when they suddenly got their chance to go behind the mike, and Lindsey with his buttery voice and his selections of love ballads from the 1950s to the 1970s were hits to the extent that the two guys got their own show. I mean, it would be like if the City Pop-loving YouTuber who first brought "Plastic Love" to the world's attention had been in a radio station rather than behind a laptop. Wouldn't it be something if someone decided to make a movie out of Lindsey's life? Sadly though, the Quiet Storm pioneer passed away at the age of 36 in 1992.
Around Halloween last year, I put up an Author's Pick titled "Well, If You Like Japanese City Pop..." just to showcase any non-Japanese artists who have come up with songs that had that similar Japanese urban contemporary style. So, after thoroughly enjoying "Love's Train", I started wondering whether I could find similar examples of Quiet Storm within Japanese music since City Pop absorbed genres such as R&B, disco, and Latin.
It didn't take too long as it turned out and although you might disagree with my five choices (obviously not comprehensive at all), perhaps you can also give your own thoughts on what might be your J-Quiet Storm choices. And for that matter, what are your favourite Quiet Storm songs? Wiki also has its own list of Quiet Storm.
For all those in the United States, Happy Memorial Day! Hope all of you are enjoying the long weekend. And for anyone else who was born on this day, May 29th, Happy Birthday! Without trying not to sound like "Entertainment Tonight", you are sharing birthdays with composer Danny Elfman, seiyuu Saori Hayami（早見沙織）and former Spice Girl Melanie Brown.
We're still exploring the varied discography of rock group Quruli（くるり）and today I have here their 14th single from February 2005, "BIRTHDAY". The band has been full of surprises for me since nikala came up with their 2014 eccentric pop tune"Liberty & Gravity" while I went back to their debut single not long ago, "Tokyo"（東京）from 1998 which is more alternative rock from that decade.
"BIRTHDAY", which was written and composed by vocalist/guitarist Shigeru Kishida (岸田繁) during their third phase (July 2002 to December 2006 with a year off in between), is also a track on Quruli's November 2005 6th studio album"NIKKI". According to J-Wiki, the band had wanted the album to follow a 1960s UK rock path a la The Beatles, The Who and The Kinks, three groups that Kishida greatly respected. "BIRTHDAY" is an upbeat love tune that also strikes me as having a bit of country in the guitars and bouzouki. I was also interested who was helping out with the background vocals, and I found out that it was singer-songwriter Inotomo（イノトモ）.
It's kinda too bad that we only have the shortened version of the music video here since it's nice to see the Man in Pink dancing about in Tokyo. "BIRTHDAY" reached No. 10 on Oricon while "NIKKI" hit No. 3 on the album charts.
“Hare Hare Yukai” is the ending theme song for the 2006 version of the classic anime series “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” made by Kyoto Animation. It is composed by anime music composer Satoru Kosaki.
We all know the sound of “J-pop”, but none of us can give the exact definition of it, because J-pop is not one genre. J-pop is a mixture of many styles of music over the years. It comprises all kinds of musical elements Japan has heard in the last century.
“Hare Hare Yukai” is one of the “J-pop” songs. There are some EDM elements in it, some rock, and a little bit of influence from the 90s. However, every influence that is supposed to make this song identifiable exists in small fragments, which, in the end, results in a track that doesn’t distinguish itself from other songs.
But why is a song so featureless in arrangement attract me so much?
If it was four years ago, I definitely would not like it. At that time, I was just introduced to Toshiki and Tatsuro’s classic city pop tracks and I was busy exploring all the exciting bass slaps, horn sections, and guitar solos. This track would appear too bland for me. But now, four years later, I have seen everything. Funk is an everyday concept and no bass lines would get me as excited as I was when I first heard city pop. The dust of the funk has settled down, and it is now the pure appreciation of the music and the emotion that leads me to listen.
And that leads me to this song. Yes, the arrangement is not distintive, but a distintive arrangement is no longer the attraction I look for. What really attracted me is the energy and the touch of melancholy it presents. It makes me think of the time I had during my middle school life. The study, assignments, food, and teachers were repetitive. No one had to worry about contagious diseases. Time seemed to be endless, and I had a lot of fun with my friends. I was familiar and comfortable with everything: people, grades, and responsibilities. These two years was the most carefree and joyful time of my life, and this song resonates with the memories I have.
“On a particular sunny day,
A happiness greater than magic
Will pour down endlessly. It's not impossible!
When we meet again tomorrow, we'll laugh and hum a tune.”
These lyrics from the song represent just what I feel about it. If I were to sum it up in one word, it would be “hope”. Hope that everything will remain easy and familiar; hope that good things can last; hope that the weather will always be sunny and people be happy; hope that covid never happened; hope that I will always see my friends tomorrow after tomorrow, until eternity.
But none of it happened. After I graduated middle school, I would end up transferring to an American high school, where people are unfamiliar and tests are stressful, Kyoto Animation would collapse under fire, and we would eventually hit the age of quarantine and masks.
“Hare Hare Yukai” is a reminder to me that time has changed, that I have grown up. Loving this song in the way I do means both my music taste and mentality have matured. I am no longer the high schooler who only loves the superficial rhythm of funk. I am now an adult who knows how to form my own understanding and taste the emotion in music. My carefree years were gone, and now, it is time to begin another adventure in my new phase of life.
J-Canuck and I went out for dinner yesterday and we had a great time. As you might expect, our conversation would ultimately turn to Japanese music. We're talking about Akina's birthday approaching in July, and how we might want to celebrate on this blog. Our conversation then gravitated towards her B-side songs, and that's when I mentioned Nukumori (which means warmth in English) to J-Canuck.
Nukumori (温り) is my favorite Akina B-side song. It came with the single "Ni Bun no Ichi no Shinwa" (１／２の神話) and so it's pretty old (1983 specifically). I think that's Akina's 4th single, right after her breakout song "Second Love" (セカンド．ラブ).
I didn't know about Nukumori until I watched a YouTube video 10+ years ago, where she was singing it in her 2002 concert (or was it 2003? or 2000? I forgot, sorry). Unfortunately, I couldn't find that video on YouTube anymore due to copyright strike.
I fell in love with Nukumori the first time I heard it. It was a complete surprise. Even though it's written in the early 80s, I thought the music was quite timeless. I never get tried listening to it. In fact, after I bid goodbye with J-Canuck on the subway last night, I put the song in a loop and continued listening to it till I got home. I have the re-released 1983 version. But I think the YouTube version I mentioned above is better, with Akina's more matured voice. If you could find it, I would highly recommend listening to it and doing a comparison. Here's the "young Akina" version that I found on YouTube.
The song talked about a girl whose boyfriend was having an affair. She knew about it, and was prepared to say goodbye. She was hoping that her boyfriend would be brave enough to say it. She remembered while they're walking on the street, whenever a car passed by, her boyfriend would grab her and took her into his arms. She would never forget the warmth she felt. Walking on the street and seeing the show window, she realized that spring was near. However, she was not in the mood to celebrate. Her time would be forever frozen until she could forget about him.
Overall, it's a sad love song.
There's a little back story about Nukumori, though. I read about it on Bunshun's (文春) website. Here's the link to the article: https://bunshun.jp/articles/-/49332 (go to page 4 of the article if you want to get to the back story directly)
Both the music and lyrics were written by someone named Inoue Azusa (井上あづさ). According to the article, it's a pen name. But you won't find this name anywhere in Akina's other singles or albums, or with any other singers. This person was actually a staff member of Warner (I think Akina signed with both Warner and KEN ON 研音 at the time), who had been working with Akina for 3 years since her debut. Having a staff member providing a song itself was not a problem, as there were many cases when a staff chipped in a song or two under a pen name. The real problem was that Inoue never told Akina or Warner about it! Furthermore, he used an outside company to manage the royalties he received without Warner or Akina knowing. According to the article, "Ni Bun no Ichi no Shinwa" sold 770,000 copies, and with B-side's royalty at 180 yen per copy, it totaled more than 100 million yen (>US$500,000 in 1983) for this Warner staff! Naturally, everyone's focus was on A-side, so it's easy for someone to sneak in his/her own song onto B-side, get a free-ride (remember, A-side is doing the actual selling), and make tons of money. The article says he did it not only once, but on multiple occasions with Akina's other singles under different pen names. Inoue was interviewed for the article. He admitted that the above story was true, but shook it off as a norm in the music industry. He told Bunshun that he didn't tell Akina because Akina didn't ask, and thought Akina would trust him. He also said Warner's management never had a problem with it.
Bunshun characterized this as a betrayal against Akina. I'm not too sure about it because I think Akina did not suffer from any monetary loss, or any other loss for that matter. When you're a famous singer, many people made money off your name. That's pretty natural and normal. I'm not sure if I completely understand Bunshun's logic here.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy Nukumori, if you haven't discovered it yourself yet.
Well, now that local public events in Toronto are coming back online following the pandemic, one such event is taking place this weekend. The Doors Open project has certain facilities opening up to the public when they usually aren't. I took a gander at four places this morning, one of which was the highlight, the small atrium for the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto, as you can see above. It kinda either looks like the Console Room for the Twelfth Doctor's TARDIS or Main Engineering in the Enterprise-D. Yup, I still have my sci-fi on the brain.😵
But I'm realizing that it was my first time walking this much in many, many months so right now I've aching all over and I'm probably going to need some heavy dollops of Voltaren later today. Will need to exercise some more in the weeks and months to come.
Anyways, since I was visiting a number of rooms that I wouldn't usually enter, I thought perhaps "In The Room" would be an ideal song to start this broadcasting day of "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Sung by Miki Matsubara（松原みき）, this is a snappy and upbeat song which was composed by Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）, the same fellow who came up with her classic "Mayonaka no Door"（真夜中のドアー）, many years earlier, and it's interesting because just like with Akira Terao（寺尾聰）tackling something more late 80s City Pop through "The Stolen Memories" with its sophisticated pop sense, Matsubara is also doing the same here with the synths and horns.
The arrangement was done by Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）and Ichiko Takehana（竹花いち子）handled the lyrics. Despite the upbeat night-on-the-town feeling of the music, the setting of Takehana's lyrics is within a room of a woman who is quietly and bitterly kicking herself after losing her guy to another woman. Apparently, the breakup was very cordial but she's regretting that she didn't even have a chance to pour some anger onto him. "In The Room" was Matsubara's final single coming out in May 1988 and it was also a track on her final album from the same month "WiNK".
It was literally amateur night with my old Casio camera when I took this shot of the Yokohama skyline. Well, it was either that or I just had a little too much to drink at that Chinese buffet place.
Therefore, let us go to something more refined. Perhaps Yoshimi Iwasaki（岩崎良美）was still considered an aidoru when this 18th single of hers, "Kuchibiru kara Suspense" (Suspense from My Lips) came out in July 1984, but still, this song is fairly dramatic and sophisticated in its arrangement. For one thing, there was that common partnership during the 1980s with lyricist Chinfa Kan（康珍化）and composer Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）as the former's words talk of a possible sin playing out with a lady secretly coveting her best friend's boyfriend. With those keyboards, boppy bass and horns, Iwasaki can easily join the City Pop aidoru pedestal along with Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）.
When I watch her performance in the video below, her voice and that certain tilt of her head remind me so much of her older sister Hiromi（岩崎宏美）.
Singer-songwriter Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）is someone that I've usually associated with City Pop of the 1970s and 1980s, but happily it looks like he was also delving into the music as the 1990s arrived as well.
Case in point: he released a classy City Pop tune of that decade called "Kanashimi no memory" (Sad Memory) in May 1992. With lyrics by Kanata Asamizu（朝水彼方）, Hayashi not only brought the melody but also the arrangement with singer-songwriter Keizo Nakanishi（中西圭三）. Asamizu's lyrics may be contrasting the different feelings of two people who have just broken up, but Hayashi's music makes for a nice accompaniment to a freeing drive throughout the big city with that certain keyboard and the shimmering strings (synth or not).
Maybe there's even a faint echo of Kazumasa Oda's（小田和正）"Love Story wa Totsuzen ni"（ラブ・ストーリーは突然にー）in there. It made me wonder whether "Kanashimi no memory" had been used as a theme for a J-Drama, but instead it was actually the theme song for a Beat Takeshi variety show "Kitano Fan Club"（北野ファンクラブ）on Fuji-TV.
If I've read the J-Wiki comment on Kirinji's（キリンジ）current status properly, it has been existing as a solo project with singer-songwriter Takaki Horigome（堀米孝樹）since 2021, although members from their full-fledged band days have come in to help from time to time.
A digital download single, the first of any single by Kirinji in about four years, was released in April 2021. Titled "Saikai"(Reunion), the Takaki Horigome-penned song is a pretty gentle mid-tempo piece which still retains some of that spaciness from recent works such as "Jikan ga nai"（時間がない）but also has that stylish AOR that has been with Kirinji since forever.
It can also become a bit of a time capsule since Horigome even refers to one ubiquitous pandemic countermeasure within the lyrics as former flames see each other at an intersection and decide to share a meal for the first time in a long while. There's no indication that they will ever go back to being a romantic couple again, but it looks like the much better status of friendship is looming over the horizon.
I've been reading that inbound tourism is about to return to Japan in limited numbers as of next month. Maybe there is a chance that I could have my own reunions again with old friends there in the not-too-distant future but I can understand the nation's slowly, slowly approach. Let us all hope that we can make it back.
Well, after a cool beginning to the week, things are heating up and the humidity is definitely rising as we head into the weekend. Summer is definitely encroaching upon us, and it's time to open up the patios. I could sure use a peach smoothie like the ones I used to make back in Ichikawa with the glass that I got for free from the Tokyo branch of Bubba Gump.
So to start off City Pop/J-AOR Friday, I've got a silky smooth but strutworthy number here by singer-songwriter Mayumi called "Summer Illusion" from her January 1986 album"MAYM". Heck of a time to have a track like this but perhaps Mayumi Horikawa（堀川まゆみ）wanted to remind folks shivering in cold Tokyo and elsewhere at the time that the hot season was on it way. I love the horns and the kittenish way that Mayumi delivers the song as if she were taking her sweet time in the downtown parts of the city that she basically owns. While the singer composed "Summer Illusion", Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）took care of the lyrics.
With a title like "Summer Illusion", the song comes across as something that would have been ideal for a cosmetics commercial. Just my opinion, but in a way, the arrangement also hits me as if Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）was behind it, and I could also imagine someone like Kanako Wada（和田加奈子）behind the mike in recording.
Ah, for that faithful reminder of what my music was like back when I was a teenager, I can always go to Tommy february6, aka singer-songwriter Tomoko Kawase（川瀬智子）of the indie rock group the brilliant green. Good ol' Tommy february6 was one of Kawase's personae representing the 80s synthpop period.
Tommy was releasing singles and albums between 2001 and 2005 when she took a bit of a break. However, she released a BEST compilation in February 2009 titled "Strawberry Cream Soda Pop “Daydream”" which included all of those fizzy and frothy singles and album tracks from the past. And then as the final track, she included what would be the title track for the album, "◯Strawberry●Cream◯Soda●Pop◯".
It was just like she never left the stage since the song sounded like what I would have expected from Tommy February6, cute-as-all-get-out vocals, twee 80s analog synths and crisp syn-drums smacking away. Heck, even the video has some Boy George emulators frolicking in there. Now, wouldn't that be a thing to have some of the Culture Club visit Tommy's tea party?
There's also a slightly rearranged version right here. As for the album, it peaked at No. 5 on Oricon. I vaguely remember having cream soda as a kid decades ago, but for the life of me, I can't even remember what it tastes like! 🙀
There are a number of movies that I regret not seeing at the theatre including a couple of recent superhero movies. One of the earliest that I never got to catch on the big screen was "Superman" with Christopher Reeve (though I ended up seeing "Superman II" five times!), and then there was "Back to the Future" which will soon celebrate its 37th anniversary this year. I actually caught that one a few years later for the first time on VHS at a showing by my university's Japanese-Canadian Students' Association event.
I can only imagine what it must have been like in the theatre especially in the above scene where Marty was racing the DeLorean to get back to 1985, and it seemed like fate was trying to put up as many roadblocks as possible to prevent that from happening. The moviegoers were most likely screaming like crazy and then cheering when Doc managed to get that bolt of lightning to provide the 1.21 gigawatts of power to the car/time machine. With Alan Silvestri's heroic theme for the entire franchise blasting away, the scene has gone down as one of the most satisfying and exciting in history.
Of course, along with Silvestri's score for "Back to the Future", there is "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and The News, and this song along with the movie are so inextricably linked that whenever I hear this Huey hit or see Marty on his skateboard, the other invariably comes to mind immediately. For that matter, "The Power of Love" is one of the big songs that has me waxing nostalgically about the 1980s in general. I think it's become Michael J Fox's theme song as well; I recall seeing a Japanese car commercial starring the guy while the song was playing.
I'd already known about Huey Lewis and The News by the time that "The Power of Love" hit the airwaves. I don't think that this particular song was the breakthrough hit for the San Francisco band; they'd already had a number of hits and other recognizable tunes but "The Power of Love" which was released in June 1985, not too long before the movie started showing up, ended up being their very first No. 1 hit on Billboard's Hot 100 (and a chart-topper in Canada, too).
Of course, being released in the 1980s, there had to be a dance remix version released as well. Hey, it's all good. As I mentioned above, there are plenty of other Huey Lewis and The News hits out there so I'll have to cover some of those as ROY articles.
So, what was occupying top three spaces on the Oricon chart for June 1985?
Getting warmer out there but still sunny and pleasant. We may be looking at a summery weekend with a Humidex, though.
I'm gonna have to give my thanks to commenter James Noah for this scintillating duet. Actually, he'd asked me if I knew the footage from the above video and after quickly scrolling down the comments, I found out it was from the 1969 Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）movie "Eikou e no 5000 Kilo"（栄光への5000キロ...5000 Kilometres to Glory） which looks like a flick about racing. I dutifully told him the results but then I had to also listen to the lovely song that adorns the video (sorry but that video has been taken down although I've replaced it with the trailer for the movie).
The song has nothing to do with "Eikou e no 5000 Kilo" but it is a duet with The Tough Guy and jazz chanteuse Kei Marimura（真梨邑ケイ）titled "Sayonara wa Hirusagari"(Goodbye in the Early Afternoon) which was released as an Ishihara single in December 1985, one of his final singles before his untimely death in 1987. Written by the late Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）and composed by Koumei Sone（曽根幸明）, the song still does hearken back to the 1960s in terms of how Mancini-and-martini it all sounds with the elegant and languid bossa jazz arrangement. It just makes me feel that the setting for this song has to be somewhere in the Mediterranean on a cruise ship or in some stylish restaurant on the coast. Must give a tip to the saxophonist.
One other notable thing is that the sweet-sorrow parting in the lyrics is hinted through the title that it takes place just past the noon hour. Usually when it comes to romantic breakups in kayo, I've gotten used to the idea that such things happen late at night or in the early morning after one more night of lust. I would usually feel sorry for the wait staff in the restaurant if they had a couple breaking up right after the lunch rush, but in the case of Ishihara and Marimura, I'm sure everything was done with a lot of class. No remonstrations or regrets...just appreciations of the good times now stored into memory.
From time to time, I've heard the Japanese phrase "akage no..."（赤毛の）which means "the red-haired...". Now, I think that a lot of folks in Japan would immediately bring to mind "Akage no Anne"（赤毛のアン）which translates into "Red-Haired Anne" but is actually Lucy Maud Montgomery's famous "Anne of Green Gables". However, since I first knew Anne Shirley under the latter title, "akage no..." doesn't have me think of her first, but instead, the mysterious red-haired girl that Charlie Brown has loved from afar. I'm glad to hear that the round-headed kid finally got to give her that peck on the cheek.
And as such, when I first heard Takao Kisugi's（来生たかお）"Akage no Rinjin"(The Red-Haired Neighbour), a happy-go-lucky New Music tune, I couldn't help but feel that a similar red-haired girl and her family moved into the lyrics. Well, specifically, Kisugi's sister, Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）, wrote the words about that red-haired girl, Miss Daniel, and clan from abroad moving into a postwar Tokyo suburb, gaining the curiosity of at least one young boy as he wondered about life and people overseas.
It's a happy but somewhat poignant tune, composed by Takao and arranged by Katsu Hoshi（星勝）, which has me assuming that the boy never really got to know Miss Daniel all that well. But here's hoping that the sighting was enough for the lad to make good on his ambitions abroad. In any case, "Akage no Rinjin" was the second track on Kisugi's debut album"Asai Yume"（浅い夢）from October 1976, but a single version of the song was later released in August 1978.
A few months back, I wrote about a singer from Aichi Prefecture named Mayumi Abe（阿部真弓）who was one-and-done with her singing career in the 1980s. Her lone single was "Tsumi to Batsu"(Crime & Punishment) from October 1984 but for that article in February, I only spoke about the speedy B-side "Koi ~ Burning"（恋・バーニング）.
This time, it's the A-side with "Tsumi to Batsu" which is also just as jumpy. With Takeshi Ike（いけたけし）behind the music and Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）as the arranger, the song does hint at a certain danger involving the protagonist as it combines the typical bounciness of an 80s aidorutune and the dramatic rock guitar-and-string tandem which sounds like a typical Hagita trope of the time. Ikki Matsumoto（松本一起）provided the lyrics, and the overall effect of "Tsumi to Batsu" is that it reminds me of a few early Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）hits such as "Shojo A"（少女A）from the first half of the 1980s.
What can a city pop artist release when they settle into their 30s?
Toshiki Kadomatsu has an answer. Starting in 1991, the album covers of his works stopped featuring scenes of the seaside or city, instead, he started to release albums with titles such as "All is Vanity". His musical style started to incline towards fusion rather than the city pop sound that he was used to producing.
Kazuhito Murata has an answer. Instead of ditching his old style completely, he chose to build his new style upon it. He did not throw away his theme of the seaside but instead slowed the music down to create a more breezy and nostalgic sound. An example of this transition is shown in the song "Paradise Road", released in his 8th album "空を泳ぐ日" in 1990.
Tatsuro Yamashita also has an answer. His 1986 release "Pocket Music" marks the start of his musical transition from holiday and ocean-themed music heard in his "Big Wave" album to ballad songs. It took him 6 years and 4 albums to transit from "Sparkle" to "Get Back In Love".
Most of the city pop fans know Tatsuro Yamashita for his funky songs, such as "Sparkle", "Bomber", and "Ride on Time". It was the same for me. When I was initially introduced to Tatsuro Yamashita, it was the funkiness in his music that really attracted me, but as my music taste and experience matured, I started to like his ballad songs more and more. I find that the funky city pop songs are like canned beer. It gives you that pleasure and you are supposed to consume them fast in order to gain more pleasure, but these ballad tracks are like fine wine. You are supposed to sit down, listen to them slowly and taste every emotion it brings to you.
"Get Back in Love" is just such a song. Yes, the arrangement does sound fairly simple, but in the same way literature does not need scientific terms to express meaning, music does not need complicated arrangements to convey emotion. When Yamashita's other songs definitely have better arrangements, "Get Back in Love" is the one I go back most often to. Yamashita does not create the funkiest of music, but he definitely does create some of the most emotional and healing songs I've ever heard. In fact, his ballads are what took me through some of the hardest and most stressful parts of my life. However cloudy the weather may be, I can always find a bit of sunshine in songs like "Futari", "The War Song", "Christmas Eve", and "Get Back in Love".
People change, and so do these city pop musicians. They've all had to respond to the question that I proposed at the beginning of this article, and it is interesting to see how each one of them gave an answer to us. I think the result of Tatsuro Yamashita's transition shows how he has changed as an individual and how he matured as an established musician. These ballads definitely do not give him as much space to flex his expertise, but to compose a truly good slow song that conveys emotion and heals souls takes something beyond technical skills, and it is only when one has had enough understanding of music and life is he able to condense his experience and produce songs like "Get Back in Love"
On hearing that the iPod was being sent out to pasture permanently the other day, my aging mind flew back to the time of the Sony Walkman over 40 years ago. It was certainly making the news back then because of its compactness and portability. Imagine being able to listen to one's favourite music right from your pocket. Ironically, I never managed to get my own Walkman but my mother got her blue version, and I can bet that she was listening to her enka tapes.
I don't think that Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）ever meant for his "Pocket Music", the title track from his 8th studio album from April 1986, to be any representative for Sony's amazing product. However, when I hear his lyrics, I can't help but feel that Tats was envisioning a stroll through a park on a Sunday while listening to his beloved music from the comfort of his own Walkman.
The mellowness of his music, including Jon Faddis' fluegelhorn at the end, is such that the environment can be anywhere, in the city or in the country or in the mountains, but the weather is grand. As such then, I don't think that I would place "Pocket Music" in the usual City Pop pocket but more in the general pop field. The song was the second track on the album, and it makes for a nice contrast with the shorter but very upbeat launching track of "Doyoubi no Koibito"（土曜日の恋人）. Perhaps in a way, "Pocket Music" even presaged the way that his music was going to go from the late 1980s into the 1990s.
Some gorgeous weather out there and it's a tad cooler than seasonal, but I'm not complaining at all. This is especially because I had just spent the last 90 minutes reorganizing the CD shelves for the first time in three years, and I'm feeling pretty spent. The cool air wafting into the room is relieving for me.
Anyways, I've written some stuff about tarentoYOU when she first started out as an 80s aidoruunder her real name of Yukiko Ehara（江原由希子）, and then as the vocalist for the band Fairchild. But basically I've known her primarily as a TV personality and actress with the geimei YOU (which she took on from 1988). She really had to pay her dues in the 1990s as a member of the zany comedic cast of popular duo Downtown's "Gottsu Ee Kanji"（ごっつええ感じ...Downtown's Feelin' Good)Sunday night show on Fuji-TV as you can see from 6:30 in the above video.
And yet, she still had time to put out a couple of pop albums during that decade with "Minami Muki"（南向き...Facing South） being her very last one to date. That came out in April 1996 and one of the tracks, "Suki nan desu" (I Do Love You) is quite comforting. With YOU first singing out a phrase that sounds a bit like EPO's take on the classic "Downtown", I'd first thought that perhaps Pizzicato Five or Original Love had been responsible for "Suki nan desu", although I don't really pick up on any overt Shibuya-kei tones (and yes, I know that the latter band had never wanted to be categorized as a Shibuya-kei unit). In fact, despite the jazziness and groove in the song, I think in the end, it's pretty much a classy pop tune whose lyrics were provided by YOU herself while Masayuki Ishii（石井マサユキ）came up with the melody.
I figured that leader Kazutoshi Sakurai（桜井和寿）of Mr. Children could wear emotions on his sleeve such as ardent love and excitement, but I think that with this song, it was all about anger, fury and frustration.
"Machine Gun wo Buppanase" (Spray That Machine Gun) was Mischiru's（ミスチル）12th single from August 1996, and there is some pretty urgent and raunchy rock going on here as Sakurai unloads on listeners about all of the craziness taking place within humanity and between countries, and yet, people are more than willing to ignore it all to do their own thing. Mr. Children has been compared to The Beatles, and the melody and arrangement with "Machine Gun wo Buppanase" had me thinking of an irate John Lennon whipping up an anti-war song. Perhaps in this case, it was Sakurai penning an anti-complacency tune.
I was kinda wondering about that extra title of "Bootleg". According to the J-Wiki article for the song, during the recording of Mr. Children's June 1996 album"Shinkai"（深海...Deep Sea）, "Machine Gun wo Buppanase" hadn't been placed onto the album...whether that was on purpose or by accident, it doesn't say but the fact that it did eventually get shoehorned in got it that extra title. The single hit No. 1 and went Triple Platinum, becoming the 33rd-ranked single of the year.
The song was something that I heard often in excerpts while I was living in Ichikawa, because it kept getting featured in the "CDTV" ranking show highlights. If the full music video is around, I would love to see that.
Happy Victoria Day! Hope my fellow Canadians have been able to get some relaxation over the long weekend.
With all of the myriad genres of music out there, it's inevitable that some of them have merged into something often new and fascinating...just like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (which I love, by the way). Jazz and rock joined into fusion, Caribbean genres met jazz/R&B to create ska, and even ska encountered New Wave and punk to make Two-tone. Even within Japan, Hawaiian and Latin got together with kayo kyoku to form Mood Kayo. It's kinda like seeing soap suds on the surface of water and having bubbles join up to form newer bubbles.
All this merging and evolution have continued up to the present day, and recently, I discovered that anison and Shibuya-kei had a mind meld of sorts as early as the late 1990s to give birth to Akishibu-kei（アキシブ系）, a portmanteau of Akiba-kei (after the Tokyo anime/electronics district of Akihabara) and Shibuya-kei. To me, this particular hybridized genre sounds like a new breed of Japanese dog but I've realized that sample songs are really bouncy disco-like anime themes. If this is indeed the case then perhaps I already have representatives of Akishibu-kei here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" such as "Egao ni Naru"（笑顔になる）by Rina Sato & Asuka Ohgame （佐藤利奈・大亀あすか）for the anime "Koufuku Graffiti"（幸腹グラフィティ）, seiyuuKana Hanazawa's（花澤香菜）"Moonlight Magic" and Kohmi Hirose's（広瀬香美）"Groovy!" from "Card Captor Sakura"（カードキャプターさくら）.
My realization that there was a genre known as Akishibu-kei came about because I found this song called "Groovin' Magic" by this musical unit called ROUND TABLE which delves into J-Pop, Neo-Shibuya-kei, guitar pop, soft rock, anison...and Akishibu-kei. The group formed in 1997 with vocalist and keyboardist Rieko Ito（伊藤利恵子）and vocalist and guitarist Katsutoshi Kitagawa（北川勝利）; not surprisingly, Kitagawa was behind two of the songs that I mentioned in the previous paragraph.
Between 2002 and 2012, there was also a guest vocalist by the name of Nino who helped with ROUND TABLE to provide songs, and so in those cases, the group was logically known as ROUND TABLE featuring Nino. One single from February 2005 under this name was "Groovin' Magic" which was the opening song for the 2004-2006mecha anime OVA "Top wo Nerae 2!"（トップをねらえ2!）or "Diebuster". The aforementioned "Egao ni Naru" for "Koufuku Graffiti" had its Burt Bacharach and Sunshine Pop influences but "Groovin' Magic" tends more toward the disco/R&B side of things a la Bird and Misia of the early 2000s. Vocalist Ito was responsible for both words and music.
