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.
Last night, for the first time in a long while, my family watched the venerable rakugo-ka variety series, NTV's "Shoten"（笑点...Laughing Points）, on Jme. And as it turned out, it was the penultimate episode (from earlier this spring) of one of the longest-serving Japanese comic storytellers, Kikuo Hayashiya（林家木久扇）in the bright yellow garb. He had been on the show since 1969 so it was basically a 55-year run for him. I'm hoping that he's enjoying his retirement.
Considering that "Shoten" has been around since 1966, change has been an inevitable part of the program including change in the comedians on the zabuton over the decades. That was also the case with the theme song for "Shoten". The current comical theme song penned by Hachidai Nakamura（中村八大） has been around for so long (since around Hayashiya's arrival on the show) that people can be forgiven if they thought that it has been the only theme.
But such was not the case. For the first several months of "Shoten", there was apparently no theme and I gather that the show went straight into the hijinks without any music, but then from January 1967, the first theme song made its appearance known as this jaunty and jazzy minyo-style song done to an orchestra. Known as "Shoten Ondo" (The Laughing Points Song), it was recorded by the original group of rakugo-ka known as the Shoten Group（笑点グループ）with the lead vocalist being the first host himself, Tatekawa Danshi VII（立川談志）. The lyrics were provided by Tatekawa with the melody composed by Naoshi Miyazaki（宮崎尚志）. "Shoten Ondo" would last for almost three years before the more familiar theme song replaced it in late 1969 with the departure of Tatekawa from "Shoten".
I guess the lyric "hold me tight" has been used in so many kayo kyoku probably going back to the 1960s that it was only a matter of time that it would actually be used as a title of a song.
Sure enough, Machiko Watanabe（渡辺真知子）recorded her 8th single for release in May 1980 and it's actually titled "Hold Me Tight". I'd already mentioned the song in passing last month when I covered the B-side, "Summer Night". Written and composed by Watanabe with Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）arranging everything, I would say that most of it is in the jaunty City Pop mode with a touch of disco but when the chorus comes in, I couldn't help but also hear some country and even a bit of gospel in the delivery. Lyrics-wise, it's all about enjoying that summer beach walk and in all likelihood, some of that summer romancing as the title would suggest.
Well, either the above businessman is really intensely looking at the snow offscreen or he's got a lot on his mind. Actually, I just had to bring in this particular Bing AI picture since I didn't use it for the AI gallery article I put up just now.
It didn't take long to find a song to go with it. "Yukimizake" (Snow View Sake) is a song by the late singer-songwriter Kenji Endo（遠藤賢司）from his November 1971 second album"Manzoku Dekiru ka na"（満足できるかな...Can I Ever Be Satisfied?）. I first wrote about Endo through an Author's Pick regarding foodie kayo a few years ago and he provided his paean to one of his favourite dishes "Curry Rice"（カレーライス）which is also included on the album.
Starting a bit like "Mellow Yellow" with that bass and drum, "Yukimizake" is a laidback bluesy folk tune that would sound ideal with a bunch of sake-drinking people all huddled around a fire outside in wintry Hokkaido. I can imagine everybody knocking back some heated glasses of One Cup Ozeki. I bought one of those from a vending machine, drank it down and had one of the worst hangovers in my life. For the rest of my time in Japan, I used it for only cooking purposes. It is now Hakkaisan or Kubota or bust for me.
"Petit Dejeuner" is the type of song that I'd like to hear while enjoying a leisurely breakfast on a holiday morning. This is a number by hitmaker Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）who has always pursued high-quality pop music without doing anything weird with the melody, but it's strange here because I find his contributions on this album more appealing than any of the other big hits he's written. The arrangement here also comes off as being very sophisticated.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
Yeah, ha-ha. Those were the days. Phones actually had cords attached to them. Nice cocktail, though.
Well, let's see here. When I looked up the name Makoto Ishida（石田誠）on J-Wiki, I found a businessman, a TV director and a famed physician. But I only got bupkis when I searched for a singer-songwriter with the same name. And even when I put his name along with his June 1983 album"Moonlight in Your Eyes" into the search engine, I was only reassured of its existence and the fact of its release date.
But that is one nice cover on the album with those West Coast palm trees against a sunset or sunrise sky. Couldn't get more City Pop than that. And with his track "Lonely Girl", I definitely got those Boz Scaggs and Bobby Caldwell vibes in the arrangement (lovely electric guitar solo in the middle) along with the fact that Ishida's vocals also reminded me of the singing tones of one Kingo Hamada（浜田金吾）. If anyone else out there has more information on Ishida, please let us know.
Our cruise on the Harmony of the Seas back in 2017 was a pleasant one and it was especially nice to take a stroll on Deck 16 at night in the cool sea air as the ship was making its voyage. Couldn't quite make it a midnight one due to certain family members needing to retire early but hey, 9 pm is good.
"Midnight Cruise" is a track from neo-soul group WONK's September 2017 album"Castor", one of two albums that came out the same day with its twin album "Pollux". Written and composed by the band, it does have the soul as well as some nighttime jazz lounging about in its comfy slippers. The lyrics seem to talk about a couple groping their way through a dark and foreboding world although the melody hints at some light at the end of the tunnel.
Will always love Kento Nagatsuka's（長塚健斗）multilayered vocals here. There is something within them that reminds me of the wonderful harmonies of the band Off-Course's（オフコース）vocalist, Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）.
Ahh...once again, we're treated to another urban contemporary tune with something to do with "twilight" in the title. It was a few weeks ago when I noted that trend in kayo kyoku in an Author's Pick and indeed Twilight Time continues.
This is the first time for me to know about the singer Keiko Saijo（西城慶子）but what a short, sweet and succulent song to be introduced to. "Twilight Silence" is the title track from her 1981 album and with its bossa jazz background and Saijo's smoky vocals, the song practically demands a date, a steak dinner and the best red wine (I've read that it's probably Cabernet Sauvignon) while this is playing...oh, and a penthouse apartment overlooking a bay. My delusions of budget-sapping grandeur aside, "Twilight Silence" is quite the classy tune which has some echoes of "This Masquerade" by George Benson. Mimi Yokosuka（よこすか未美）and Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）were responsible for words and music respectively.
As for Saijo, she was born in Ibaraki Prefecture and has tackled music ranging from jazz to kayo kyoku. Her career began in 1958 when she was 20 years old and since then she has released her fair share of singles and albums along with a lot of commercial jingles.
Nope, I know that the postcard has the place name of Santa Monica and not Santa Maria, but it was the only thumbnail of California I could find, unless I make something nice and California-esque from Bing.
My experience with California is rather limited, sad to say. I've been to the Golden State only twice in my lifetime. I was in Los Angeles for one night in 1989 and then the following year, I visited San Francisco and Sacramento. But I have yet to go anywhere in the state with the word "Santa" and so my image of such an area is probably rather rosy and romantic with sunny seas, wide avenues, lovely houses and great restaurants. Maybe my friend and fellow writer Larry can give me some insights on Santa Maria especially since he has lived in California for many years.
And indeed, Santa Maria is the focus here because the song is "Santa Maria Yuki no Fune" (The Ship Bound for Santa Maria) by Tomoko Kuwae（桑江知子）. It is a track on her debut album from June 1979, "Born Free", but for some reason, the uploader has had the video labeled "Manhattan Yuki no Fune"（The Ship Bound for Manhattan） since it first got onto YouTube in 2020. Mind you, I think it is possible for a cruise liner to dock in New York City.
In any case, "Santa Maria Yuki no Fune" is a summery and dreamy number with those disco strings and percussion detailing the story of a Tokyoite who has decided that Santa Maria is the place to be with the mixed emotions that such a huge move would carry. And back in 1979, perhaps it was indeed a huge move, but at least it's still closer to Japan than Manhattan. The song was written by Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）and composed by Kimio Mizutani（水谷公生）.
It was probably through doing some of the articles for eclectic bands such as Emmylee & The Psyzans（エミーリー&ザ・サイザンス）recently that I came across this particular group called Tokyo Bravo（東京ブラボー）. According to one site, the band began with vocalist Kan "Kang-Chang" Takagi（高木完）, guitarist Bravo Komatsu（ブラボー小松）and organist Mitsuwa Sakamoto（坂本ミツワ） back in 1981 with bassist Hajime Okano（岡野ハジメ）and drummer Toshiro Sensui（泉水敏郎）joining later. Tokyo Bravo was around only for a short time, breaking up in 1984, but during that period, they were more than happy to dabble in Group Sounds, glam rock, surf rock, garage rock, punk and New Wave for their fans' pleasure.
Kang-Chang didn't sing on this instrumental which seems to be the band's calling card (though he makes for an engaging encourager). The Bravo Komatsu-penned "Eleki de Swim" (Electric Guitar Swim) has got that feeling of jangly rock and New Wave, and I couldn't help but hear a bit of the Rolling Stones'"Paint it Black" and some B-52s due to that combination of guitar and organ.
If anyone can confirm this, I'd appreciate it, but my impression is that while they performed between 1981 and 1984 in the live houses of Shinjuku, they never released anything on vinyl with a CD of their exploits only coming out in 1990. Continuing with the timeline, Tokyo Bravo got back together for a short time in 1999 and did the same thing in 2008. According to his J-Wiki page, Takagi has gone into hip-hop and during his university days in the late 1970s, he was once acquainted with Kensaku Okubo（大久保謙作）, later to become the bassist and leader of the thoroughly entertaining Kome Kome Club（米米Club）. Before coming across this fact, I had also gotten that impression that there was a bit of a proto-K2C in Tokyo Bravo thanks to that performance video up above with Takagi leading the audience like good ol' Carl Smokey Ishii of the later band. Incidentally the aforementioned bassist Okano was also participating in other groups such as another multi-genre group Cioccolata.
Not sure if it's their home in Tokyo Japan or Unionville Ontario, but Kayo Grace Kyoku is enjoying a walk nearby with her younger sisters Nayo and Mayo on either side of her. Of course, Mr. Calico will always be around. Having been to Tokyo and Unionville, both have their lovely advantages.
That's the message by veteran band Pedro & Capricious（ペドロ＆カプリシャス）through their 7th single"Wagamachi wa..."(Our Town is...) from November 1974. A folksy sunshine pop tune that is upbeat enough to earn status as a theme song for a Japanese family drama, that is indeed chanteuse Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子）as the main vocalist when she was the second person to hold that position. Written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）, the story is that the parents are reminding the kids about always remembering and cherishing where they came from. They might be striking it big in Tokyo but getting back to the old hometown will be far more valuable as they will learn over the decades.
Tropical Storm Shanshan may have been downgraded from a typhoon but it still seems to be wreaking havoc on the Japanese archipelago, so I'm hoping that everyone is doing the best they can under some very trying meteorological conditions.
For this week's Reminiscings of Youth, I remember years ago when a certain video game of battle put up a theme song whose melody was instantly recognized by me and it was effectively sung in this very sad and resigned fashion as if soldiers were left wondering when this war would ever end.
But my ROY memory goes back even further since the original version of "Mad World" was recorded by the New Wave duo Tears for Fears. Although the September 1982 single had been released before their "Change" song, it was actually the opposite for me here in Toronto; I'd heard and enjoyed "Change" before "Mad World" came out as the follow-up.
The order didn't matter though because both songs are still great. Tears for Fears' Roland Orzabal came up with words and music for this lyrically unhappy tune although the music video has the man himself doing a one-man rave party on the jetty while his partner, Curt Smith, was left inside a manor to sing away. Being a fellow who was in thrall to all of the technopop of the time, "Mad World" was a cool world of all these bloops and bleeps including those quicksilver "horns" descending every so often like bombs.
Strangely enough, "Mad World" didn't (initially anyways) make any sort of dent in the American and Canadian charts but it did hit No. 3 on the UK charts, going Gold. Of course, after doing my ROY last week on "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", it was going to be a simple segue into this Tears for Fears classic. So, what was at the top of the Oricon charts back in September 1982? I will give you Nos. 1, 2 and 4.
Takafumi Ikeda（池田貴史）was once the keyboardist of the funk band Super Butter Dog but I had fully expected that he would be showing up for the first time on this blog. However, when I began typing his name into Labels, his name miraculously popped up immediately signifying that he had already been introduced. As it turns out, he had. Over a decade ago, I noted in a February 2014 KKP article that he and chanteuse Yuko Ando（安藤裕子）had done a 2011 duet cover of "Ringo Satsujin Jiken"（林檎殺人事件）as originally done by Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ）and Kirin Kiki（樹木希林）back in 1978.
Oh, goofy me. In any case, Ikeda has taken on the stage name of Rekishi（レキシ）and last month, he released his most recent single which is yet another duet with a famous former 80s aidoru, Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）who is under the guise of Anmitsu Hime（あんみつ姫...Princess Anmitsu）. "Elekitellme" is a pretty funky strut which also sounds like a Latin jazz number if done in the in-house restaurant/bar within one of those robot-themed hotels in Tokyo. Written and composed by Ikeda, Rekishi and the princess are talking about a potential night of doing the nasty (nice to say your dreams out loud there, Rekishi😎) but of course, the official video below has something a lot more innocent. It's also a tad disappointing that Kyon-Kyon doesn't even show up. Neat touch with the Vaporwave tribute in the thumbnail above, though.
Once again, we've reached Hump Day in the middle of the week when a lot of the working or studying population are crying out for a little breather. Too far away from last weekend and too far away from the upcoming one, Wednesdays can be quite hard to take, but endure them we do.
Speaking of breathers, I give you "Jounetsu wa Shoukyuushi (Oyasumi)" (Passion's Taking a Little Break...Good Night), another track from Natsuko Yamamoto's（山本奈津子）lone 1984 album "19/20". Her previous two tracks featured here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" were the cutesy City Pop"Hachi-gatsu no Fuan"（八月の不安）and the synthpop "Kuchibiru Scandal"（くちびるスキャンダル）. So it looks like we've got some variety in "19/20" here because "Jounetsu wa Shoukyuushi" seems more like straight-line pop.
From what I remember, passion has been a popular word in kayo kyoku titles and lyrics, so it's rather refreshing to hear that the emotion is blurting out that it's decided to go on a bit of a vacation. After all, even passion has to wind down its fire once in a while. Written by Yumi Morita（森田由美）and composed by Nobuo Tsunetomi（常富喜雄）, the bass and the synths are in there for sure but those representative instruments of City Pop and technopop aren't quite showing the flag, so to speak, in this particular track, maybe in reflection of what the title says. Even Yamamoto herself sounds like she's more than ready to take that nap on the chaise lounge.
Years ago, I had a copy of the famous "Ghost in the Shell" (the original 1995 anime) on VHS tape sitting on one of my bookshelves. Since it was a copy that didn't bother to put in the subtitles, I was mentally grasping at straws at what the minutiae of the plot was all about unfortunately. However, it didn't take away from the stunning sequences including Major Motoko Kusanagi dropping from a building into stealth mode and those metallic fingers flying over the keyboards at warp speed.
I found out yesterday that the voice behind Major Kusanagi, narrator and seiyuu Atsuko Tanaka（田中敦子）, had passed away on August 20th at the age of 61 due to illness. She had a huge variety of roles in anime going back to the early 1990s but her voicing of the Major is her most famous role. My condolences to her family, friends and fans.
"Mirai e no Yakusoku" (Promise for the Future) was used as the image song in commercials. Recorded by actress and singer Saeko Higuchi（樋口沙絵子）, it was written by Higuchi and Seiko Aoki（青木せい子）with Keisuke Murakami（村上啓介）providing the melody (which nearly takes things into Harold Faltermeyer's"Top Gun"anthem). It's a typically upbeat slice of 1990s J-Pop/rock with the undeniable air of hope...presumably for Kusanagi herself. I haven't seen any of the sequels but hopefully the Major is doing well.
Beginning her career in 1990, Higuchi, who would later change her name to Saeko Hinaga（日永沙絵子）, released several singles and albums up to the late 2000s and also formed her own band known as groovy groupie in 1999. Sadly, she herself succumbed to illness in July 2022.
Well, "Uta Con"（うたコン）returned from summer hiatus with tributes to "Tora-san" and the current morning serial drama on NHK. Probably the most frustrating thing about the return was the number of times that we viewers on Jme had to get that audio and visual blockage of copyright death whenever a singer performed a song from the West such as tonight's rendition of the Love Theme from "The Godfather". Without exaggerating too much, it felt like a Swiss cheese slice of an episode. The other observation is that tonight's episode was devoid of any aidoru group appearing. Perhaps it's kinda weird to note something like that for an NHK show which usually focuses on the kayo kyoku but "Uta Con" is basically the only regular program that we watch here that features contemporary aidoru.
From what I've read, the relatively new aidoru group Fruits Zipper has yet to make an appearance on "Uta Con" so I figure that I must have found out about them through the almighty YouTube algorithm. Formed in 2022, they are a unit that belongs to ASOBISYSTEM co.,ltd, an entertainment and event planning company after coming out of a project of theirs called Kawaii Lab. Currently there are seven members from all over Japan and even Germany: Amane Tsukiashi (月足 天音), Karen Matsumoto (松本 かれん), Mana Manaka (真中 まな), Yui Sakurai (櫻井 優衣), Noel Hayase (早瀬 ノエル), Luna Nakagawa (仲川 瑠夏), and Suzuka Chinzei (鎮西 寿々歌).
In the past couple of years, Fruits Zipper has released several digital singles including their second single titled "Watashi no Ichiban Kawaii Tokoro" (The Cutest Part of Me) from April 2022. It also got released several months later in September 2023 as their lone CD single thus far. Written and composed by Sho Yamamoto（ヤマモトショウ）, the song and the ladies definitely don't hold back on the kawaii as a young footloose-and-fancy-free lass enjoys her beau's company while giving-and-taking the supreme cuteness. It's a truly aidoru experience especially with that music video; I think I gained a few more kilograms from watching it.
Toronto has earned a lot of nicknames over the decades, one of which is the City of Festivals. Especially during what relatively little we have of a summer, there are festivals happening weekly including ones celebrating the many nationalities that are represented here.
Just over the past weekend, we even had the semi-annual late summer version of Fan Expo with all of the fans and personages representing sports, movies, TV and anime rushing right into the downtown convention centre. I even saw a couple of "Bocchi the Rock" cosplayers being interviewed on television. Not sure if the reporter even knew what "Bocchi the Rock" really was.
Anyways, commenter Robert B told me about this band Swinging Popsicle which has been around for almost two decades. With a slightly bigger Wikipedia article than a J-Wiki one, I found out that the band consists of vocalist Mineko Fujishima (藤島 美音子), guitarist Osamu Shimada (嶋田 修) and bassist Hironobu Hirata (平田 博信) . The three of them had met through a newspaper ad seeking to start a band in 1995 and since then, they've been categorized as an indies pop/rock group, although on J-Wiki, they've also been given the shoegazer and Shibuya-kei labels.
Their first single "Joy of Living" was released in July 1997. Fujishima's got a nice sweet and raw voice (she was also responsible for lyrics...and strangely enough, she looks a bit like Maki Goto from Morning Musume on the cover above) while the melody by Shimada has got a smoothly thrumming 70s soul rhythm while the horns seem to take things from the Shibuya-kei department; at the same time, there is also the feeling of rock permeating everything.
The single itself didn't show up on the Oricon chart but Swinging Popsicle's first full self-titled album from June 1998 did reach No. 73. In any case, all that preamble ramble above is to reflect all that joy of living from meeting like-minded people in a setting whether it be a park or a convention centre.
Fans panic as huge pop star Namie Amuro completely disappears
A pop star “as big as Madonna” is being wiped from the internet and streaming services after her retirement from public life aged just 40.
The above heading and first sentence for this article came from the entertainment section of news.com.au and it's dated November 20th 2023. Never let it be said that J-Canuck has his pulse on every aspect of J-Pop at all times. And I don't...I really do live up to my reputation as a late bloomer and latecomer. I didn't even hear about this Thanos Snap of huge swathes of Namie Amuro's（安室奈美恵）discography online and even her own website until commenter and fellow writer Fireminer (who has contributed an article today) keyed me in on the development yesterday.
However, I can imagine fans going into a major tizzy at the time especially after Amuro had retired years ago in 2018 and staying very much off the pop culture grid as promised. After all, it's bad enough that a J-Pop legend had left the building years earlier than expected, but now her collection of songs and albums have been mysteriously repossessed by an existential truck. And Amuro hasn't left any message explaining why.
It's been the better part of a year since this has all happened and I'm not sure why it did. Speculation is the only thing I can do here. Is this some sort of grand plan? Was Namie getting really fed up that her post-retirement was still overly filled with fans and media going nuts about her and her discography? In a way, I can compare this with the retirement of 70s superstar Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）from entertainment in that by the end of her time in 1980, she was very ready to leave the spotlight after gradually developing a sour taste in her mouth with the industry. But when she left, the fans still had all of her music and other forms of her entertainment legacy to savor for decades. Perhaps that's not as easy to say about the current state of affairs with Amuro at this time.
On the other hand, is this an Amuro-geddon? I really don't think so. Even though the Namie Amuro section of sites like Spotify has tumbleweeds rolling about, I've seen that SoundCloud still has at least the live performances of her hits. YouTube has much the same; true, her music videos are not to be found unless they're excerpts from commercials but as someone who has written about her on the blog, the dearth of full music videos was the usual case for Amuro from long before.
It was suggested that I should put up a Top 10 list of her best singles on behalf of any new fans in the future, but I opted not to go with that because again we're not looking at an Amuro-geddon here. There was something that sounded rather funereal about that (plus, I couldn't find an easy Top 10 list of her most successful singles online); after all, she hasn't left this mortal coil...she's just insistently retired. I even thought about putting up my favourite Top 3 Amuro songs but instead, I'm going to go with something business as usual.
As I mentioned to Fireminer, my favourite songs by Amuro were in her early years in the 1990s when she was not only hitting the top of the charts with her Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）-penned hits but making the hits on style and fashion. This particular single here, "How to be a girl", was one of the last ones I remember along with her "Never End" from 2000.
"How to be a girl" was Amuro's 10th single from May 1997. Written and composed by Komuro with further lyrical help from Marc Panther, his bandmate from globe, there is very much of a "don't mess with me" attitude from the singer although the lyrics have a young lady in a whirlwind of confusion thanks to an act of affection from the night before that perhaps she hadn't experienced. Those lyrics might show vulnerability but the music shows the funky and tough exterior. I remember "How to be a girl" as well from the music video of her doing the catwalk strut in a subway, but again, the best I can do here is the commercial.
The single was another No. 1 hit for Amuro and it eventually became the 23rd-ranked single of 1997 and a million-seller. It is also available as a track on her July 1997 album"Concentration 20" which was a No. 1 hit as well and the No. 7 album of the year.
Heck of a thing for an article like this to show up several months after Amuro's discographic disappearing act, but here's hoping that the singer herself is doing well and is being successful in whatever she's up to now. As for the fans, I'm hoping that they have moved on as well and are able to purchase any of her albums and singles.
Happy Monday to everyone out there. We've got another article via contributor and commenter Fireminer.
From Soundcloud
Despite the celebration of Kyu Sakamoto’s Sukiyaki, the Japanese record industry has had a difficult time exporting their products. We can go as far back as Pink Lady’s ill-fated expedition to America, which culminated in a truly terrible variety show. J-Pop and Japanese music in general haven’t gathered the same amount of international cache when compared to K-Pop and, to a lesser extent, Cantonese Pop. Things are changing for the better, though. From the anecdotes of friends and relatives living overseas, it seems like the Japanese record industry is banking on anime and video games to popularize J-Pop. It is more common now for Japanese singers to perform at anime conventions or Japanese cultural festivals in countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, etc. while ani-songs and game musics are being made available on day one on multiple streaming platforms.
It is baffling to see how long did it take the Japanese record industry to realize all of these. As far back as the late 70s and early 80s, when anime in America was still mostly the purview of chop-up syndicated TV animation and VHS tapes being passed around C/FO members, anime fans had already clamored for the music they heard from the shows. There were anime albums sold in limited quantities at specialty shops in America. But the Internet supercharged things. The widespread popularity of Vocaloid, MMD, Bad Apple!!, vaporwave, etc. in the West, as well as the revitalization of City Pop, had a lot to do with kids being able to just go to YouTube and explore the world of Japanese music.
So let’s us remember an early viral hit of that era, Omoide wa Okkusenman! (思い出はおっくせんまん!) which can be translated as “110 million memories!”. The original song was composed by Capcom’s former sound designer Takashi Tateishi (立石 孝) as the background music for Doctor Wily's Stage in Mega Man 2. It was rearranged and had lyrics written for it by Japanese YouTubers in early 2007. And then it blew up when the vocal versions were uploaded to Nico Nico Douga (NND) -- and there were multiple of them. Omoide wa Okkusenman! had already become a meme by the time it spread on YouTube. It also inspired another NND hit based on Mega Man 2 music called Air Man ga Taosenai (エアーマンが倒せない).
The original Mega Man 2 music is an earworm alright, but Omoide wa Okkusenman!’s lyrics go perfectly with it. It’s a reminiscence of youth, of someone who had gotten tired of adult life and so looked back at his innocent childhood fondly, only then to realize that he could not go back to those days and instead chose to use his sweet memories as motivation to keep going forward. This universal message is the primary reason why the song connects with so many people. Screaming “Ultraman! Ultraman Seven!” -- two Japanese cultural institutions -- on top of his lungs also helped.
Jam Project Omoide wa Okkusenman!
The most famous “official” cover of Omoide wa Okkusenman! is arguably the one by JAM Project, which appears as the bonus track in the album Nico Nico Douga Selection: Sainō no Mudazukai (ニコニコ動画せれくちょん～才能の無駄遣い～). It gives out the arena rock vibes here, and the keyboard in particular reminds me of that period in the mid-70s, before arena rock became really bloated and bands were still experimenting with electronic music.
What was I doing at 18 during the summer? Easy answer there. I was out in a suburban townhouse development painting fences, watering lawns and picking up trash. For two months, I earned my money to help pay for my tuition into university (the other help came in the form of government grants and student loans). It was weird being all by myself (kinda "Omega Man") in this huge area but along with the sunburn and athlete's foot, I did get my wages.
Meanwhile, thanks to singer-songwriter Mega Shinnosuke's July 2024 digital single"Juu-hassai no Natsu Yasumi"(Summer Holiday of an 18-Year-Old), actress Yui Okamoto（岡本ゆい）can enjoy a very pleasant walk out during the summer season (apparently, she can take 35-degree-Celsius-plus temperatures with high humidity) and read the screenplay for "The Trouble with Tribbles", one of the most famous episodes on the original "Star Trek" in a library. No judgments here, though. Any opportunity to soak up the sun and perhaps partake in copious amounts of iced drinks in July or August will always be welcome.
As well, Mega Shinnosuke's song is so relaxing and casual, it could probably hold hands with Ms. Okamoto for that walk through town. "Juu-Hassai no Natsu Yasumi" is also a track on his new album "Kimi ni Motetai!!"（君にモテたいっ!!...Wanna be a Hit with You!!）which is due to be released in September in a few weeks' time. Ah, incidentally, the below video is one scene from "The Trouble with Tribbles".
"Y'know, J-Canuck...you could've looked at the album a little more closely..."
Yeah, that's me talking to myself and giving myself the Agent Gibbs smack upside the back of my head right now. When I posted the first article on 90s band OPCELL, I mentioned that leader and singer-songwriter Kantaro Yamamoto（山本寛太郎）had changed his name to the stage name of Ken Ranmiya （KEN 蘭宮）, although I also placed an asterisk on my observation since I hadn't been 100% sure about how true that was; the name sounded awfully awkward. Well, as it turned out, if I had looked at the album cover with a bit more of a lens, I would have noticed that there was the name Ken Lang and 「蘭宮」can be pronounced as "ran-gu" and romanized into Lang. So, mystery solved.
Well, yesterday I provided an article for Yamamoto's"Jumping High Way", so I have decided to post something from the later part of his career when he and his friends keyboardist Yasuyuki Honda（本田恭之）and engineer/sound designer Tsuyoshi Inoue（井上剛）got together to form OPCELL in 1995. I'd done pretty much the same thing after posting a Yamamoto song last year when I put up the first OPCELL song onto the blog, "Hikari kara no Travel"（光からのトラベル）from their self-titled album.
"Hikari kara no Travel" is quite the dreamy track, almost taking things into synthpop although I left it as simply pop but this track, "Kanashimi wa Honesty"(Sadness is Honesty), sounds like something from Yamamoto's old days in the late 1970s and early 1980s but given that 1990s arrangement in terms of the keyboards and percussion. It's quite the car-friendly bouncy tune but still with some of that dreamy haze that was also in "Hikara kara no Travel".
Singer-songwriter Kantaro Yamamoto（山本寛太郎）has around four articles here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but the only one thus far which has his own name on the byline is the one for "Silver Sweet Heart"（シルバー･スイート･ハート）. This is a 1979 City Pop treat which came out as his third single.
Well, the second article with his name on the byline is for "Jumping High Way" which was written and composed by Yamamoto and arranged by Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）. Definitely not a City Pop song, it's more of a breezy AOR or generally New Music drive-friendly tune as it sounds like the singer is enjoying his cruise down the highways and byways of Japan. Things get a little more rock-oriented near the end as it sounds as if Yamamoto has decided to put his jalopy into a higher gear.
"Jumping High Way" is the first track that launches Yamamoto's lone 1981 album"Atlantroog"（アトラントローグ）. As for why he named it in that bizarre fashion, I've got no idea, but I'm hoping that the rest of the album is as down-to-earth as this song.
Although I'm not a fan of the traditional tough woman series of Japanese movies in which a lady ends up becoming the head of a yakuza gang, for example, the tropes are quite well known to me. That includes the fatal flashing of blades, the tempting flashing of skin, and the theme song. Actress and singer Meiko Kaji（梶芽衣子）was the first example that I knew by name thanks to my viewing of "Kill Bill, Vol. 1".
Recently, a commenter asked me about another entertainer from the early 1970s who also had her finger in the industry as a blood-and-guts female warrior. Her name isReiko Ike（池玲子）from Tokyo, and she was discovered as a teenage pinup model in the pages of a weekly magazine by a couple of higher-ups at Toei Company. She was made into a star through hardboiled crime flicks throughout the decade including a 1973 movie titled "Yasagure Anego-den Soukatsu Lynch"（やさぐれ姐御伝 総括リンチ）which can be translated into "Female Yakuza Tale: Inquisition and Torture". A lighthearted rom-com this definitely isn't.
I mentioned above that the theme song has been one of the familiar tropes and it's because of that sharp lone-wolf trumpet which seems to be part and parcel as an accompaniment for any ronin warrior in a chambara movie or TV series or a protagonist in a gangster flick. No exception here as Ike herself sings the theme song for "Yasagure Anego-den Soukatsu Lynch". The star's discography was brief with only two singles and a few albums in the 1970s and the second single was that theme, "Ocho no Blues" (Butterfly Blues) which was released in June 1973.
Written by Masao Ishizaka（石坂まさを）and composed by singer-songwriter Ichiro Araki（荒木一郎）, Ike and the arrangement sound like how her character probably comported herself as she walked through her territory: with confidence and nonchalant strength, and woe betide anyone who got in her way. In fact, I'd say that her vocals are even slightly more sultrier than the ones for Kaji, and she was only hovering around the age of 20 when this film was released. The video below contains scenes from the movie as the song is playing and just in case, I will give a friendly viewer's discretion advised warning here.
"Futago-za Graffiti" is City Pop's sunnyside progressive form extending the path laid down by Sugar Babe, Original Love and Kenji Ozawa（小沢健二）. It splendidly inherits the genes of "Downtown" via the groovy sound of that clavinet, but at the same time, its lyrical world is clearly in Kirinji's（キリンジ）21st-century court. It's the cool answer to the question "What is progressive City Pop?".
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).
The last time I wrote about singer-songwriter Rie Kitahara（北原理絵）was back in 2021 for her "Suiheisen"（水平線）from the April 1984 album"Minami Kaze"（南風）, a pleasant and airy slow tango of a tropical tune.
Tonight from the same album, I give you "Just Feeling". When I first heard it, the arrangement initially reminded me of "The Girl is Mine", the duet with Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson and so I'd thought that perhaps the song was a cover version of an American pop tune. Well, my instincts were partially correct. It is indeed a cover tune but one of a purely Japanese concoction. "Just Feeling" is actually a version of Yurie Kokubu's（国分友里恵）original rendition of "You Need Me" on Soichi Noriki's（野力奏一）1983 album"Noriki". So, Noriki is the composer here but Dwight Waldron's original lyrics have been replaced by Kitahara's own words.
In comparison with "Suiheisen", "Just Feeling" is feeling just downtown condo J-AOR living with brunch on the table.
Remembering that I was in the Tokyo area as a resident and employee rather than as a tourist, it's easy to forget that the megalopolis was quite the town for fun and frivolity...provided that I had enough saved from my monthly pay packet. Not the easiest thing to do as an English conversation teacher but I did have my opportunities to paint the town red...usually around restaurants and karaoke boxes. Exclusive clubs and French restaurants? Not so much (though I did partake on the rare occasion).
Maybe for those in a higher income tax bracket, a song like this might be more reflective. "Wonderland Yuuyami City"(Wonderland Twilight City) is a track from Atsuko Nina's（二名敦子）1986 5th album"him". As with a number of other City Pop tunes from the latter half of the 1980s, there is that brassy sense of caviar-and-champagne fragrance infused into the arrangement.
City Pop fans will positively be snapping their fingers and getting that urge to strut down Chuo Douri in Tokyo as they listen to this one. Shun Taguchi（田口俊）provided the lyrics but Masamichi Sugi（杉真理）, who I usually associated with more languid oldies pop compositions, really puts in the feeling of sharp suits, fine dresses, sports cars and luxurious dining in the Bubble Era. Perhaps I can find more of Sugi's more metropolitan-minded masterpieces sometime down the line.
It's been a while since I last put up an article for Rie Ida（井田リエ）& 42nd Street and I've got this relatively quieter song by her and the band. This song is "Kaーkeーhiーki" (Bargaining) from their November 1980 album"Step In My Heart" and though a number of definitions exist for this term which is written in kanji as「駆け引き」, I gather that Kayako Taiji's*（太地夏夜子）lyrics describe about the give-and-take of love in a relationship which can unfortunately snap like an overstretched cord.
Mitsuhiro Sonoyama's（園山光博）melody is a laidback one, heard as a slow strut as if one of the partners in the relationship is taking a cooling-off walk in a que sera sera way. It's some nice old-fashioned soul for the good ol' soul. Love the Latin guitar solo here.
*I tried tracking down the correct way to say the lyricist's family name but couldn't confirm it here, and Jisho has given a number of readings for it. If anyone is able to inform me of the proper reading, I would appreciate it.
We're back at the AI art gallery for this Friday night and of course, Fridays mean the more urban contemporary of Japanese popular music. As was the case during the last visit, I got together with my fellow foodie friends including KKP writer Larry Chan for lunch, and this time it was at a nice restaurant existing within a converted former postal station in midtown Toronto. I am still digesting my Steak Frites and Tiramisu as I type.
Yesterday, I was informed that the latest holiday craze is Summerween which is basically celebrating Halloween a couple of months or so earlier than scheduled. The Japanese would probably react by saying "Well, it's about time!". Although the big cities and its young populations have fully embraced Halloween in recent years, the dog days of summer have been the traditional time for the spooky in Japan. After all, telling those ghost stories and leaving a chill up and down listeners' backbones has been one way to stave off the torrid heat and humidity. Or so the theory goes...
I've never seen the anime "Yuusha ga Shinda!"（勇者が死んだ!...The Legendary Hero is Dead!）which had been broadcast early last year on Tokyo MX and it's not really a Halloween-themed show. I'd say that it was more of a comedic isekai program with at least one major supernatural element.
But what got me to bring Summerween in here was the opening theme song for "Yuusha ga Shinda!", "Shinda!" (Dead!) as written, composed and performed by Masayoshi Oishi（大石昌良）. The official music video and the arrangement of the song certainly hints at something more Halloween (and of course, Oishi himself still enjoys being the song-and-dance man). I actually wrote about Oishi's most recent anison outing earlier this year, "Namaramenkoi Gyaru"（なまらめんこいギャル）for the heartwarming Hokkaido-based show "Dosanko Gyaru wa Namaramenkoi"（道産子ギャルはなまらめんこい...Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable!）. That one is quite a bit more funk but "Shinda!" brings in more of the synthpop spookiness and the usual Oishi catchiness. Perhaps Danny Elfman might be a tad jealous. In any case, the singer's 10th single from May 2023 peaked at No. 28 on Oricon.
When this movie hit the theatres in late 1963, I was unfortunately yet to arrive on this mad, mad, mad, mad world for several more months, so my first viewing of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" was through its rerun on CBS one Saturday night when the network hadn't minded donating three hours of air time to this epic comedy.
And boy, was it epic! From what I learned, the movie industry was in some turmoil at the time since television had been stealing cinema's thunder and viewership. The studios had to throw in every trick ranging from Panavision to humongous casts to bring back bums into seats. So, you had these historical epics such as "The Ten Commandments" and big caper movies such as the original "Ocean's Eleven". Then you had "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" directed by Stanley Kramer who, a couple of years earlier. had helped make the extremely serious "Judgment at Nuremberg" with its own big cast including Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland and William Shatner involved with the theme of fascism and war.
"It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" then was Kramer's far more jovial take on greed and what it does to people. And in this case, the movie vacuumed up just about every comedian in existence (Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Dick Shawn, etc.) over forty years and dumped them into California with starring and cameo roles. As a kid, I was heaving up my internal organs like a scared sea cucumber as I watched scenes like Jonathan Winters' one-man rampage in a garage.
Then, there was Barrie Chase's weirdly alluring dance (Chase is now the only surviving cast member) along with an unbelievable final car chase which didn't have any action-movie stars but terrified funny people. And that led to the final comeuppance and takedown of almost everyone via a poor fire truck ladder. Spencer Tracy as an escaping police captain? Check. Peter Falk, years before Columbo? Check. Milton Berle as a milquetoast? Check. The Three Stooges in colour? Double check.
And adding to the joyful lunacy of it all? Ernest Gold's soundtrack including the main theme. The Saul Bass opening credit sequence with the theme are worth the price of admission all on their own. Gold got the whole premise of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and reflected that with the crazed circus arrangement of the theme which picks up here and there throughout the movie.
There was even a sung version with Mack David's lyrics and not surprisingly, the content is appropriately mad. The theme was nominated for an Oscar for Best Song but the actual winner for the movie at the Academy Awards was in Best Sound Effects. After all, Jimmy Durante kicked that bucket really melodiously.
As for the comparison that year in Japan, I'm going with the 5th Annual Japan Record Awards and specifically the winning songwriters this time around in 1963.
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