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| Marie-Sophie Mejan via Wikimedia Commons |
I think one of the lasting images of pop culture in Japan in the 1980s is the one showing all of those young folks dancing in Harajuku while garbed in that wild clothing. Given the opportunity, I would have loved to have been there on the sidelines looking on, but at the same time, I would also have been terrified if any of those punks were to have accosted me. I bruise easier than a five-day-old banana.
There were those same 1980s Harajuku vibes when I first listened to this song called "GO! GO! POP-TOWN" which leads the December 1982 album "Yoroshiku Saretai!"（ヨロシク♡されたい!...Wanna Be Nice!）by Sayaka Ito（伊藤さやか）. With that name, I'd assumed that she was already up on the blog, but nope, this is her first entry.
"GO! GO! POP-TOWN", which was written by Heart Box and composed by Kenji Omura（大村憲司）, has that light and bouncy rock n' roll and New Wave feeling. In fact, I was also reminded of the West Coast girl group The Go-Gos and strangely enough, they and this song title share a couple of words. At the same time, there is that Toni Basil vibe as well.
Ito, who hails from Aichi Prefecture, was born Mitsuko Ito（伊藤美津子）in 1963. She practiced the piano and the cello, but her dream was to become a rock n' roll singer so in her freshman year at high school, she started up a band called 39. During a trip to Okinawa with her friends, Ito was scouted by the president of a talent agency who had been looking for a new model in commercials, and in 1980, she ended up in a Shiseido ad. Acting and music came her way, but Ito gave a hard NO when approached about taking the aidoru route. The music part of her career went as far as 1986 with nine singles and six albums under her belt including "Yoroshiku Saretai!" which was her 2nd effort.
After listing to this I am super suprised that she was Mitsuko Ito was not able to become an aidoru! She is musically talented and this pop song and her style reminds me of the Go-GO's and the bagels! I think the quality here is pretty high at least in a western point of view.
ReplyDeleteHi, Brian. I don't think it was because she couldn't become an aidoru; it was more that she didn't want to become one. She was apparently pretty demanding on that point and just wanted to be known as a rock n' roll/pop singer for that brief time.
DeleteAh, thanks for the explanation I see I read over the part in the article where you clearly stated she gave a hard no to the aidoru track. Well, I am glad she become an artist in her own right and I will have to listen to some of her other works!
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