Welcome to the final full week of November 2025. With the autumn in full swing, it's easy to get a bit wistful about the passage of this year and time in general. And I've gotten into this mood as well. I've been doing "Kayo Kyoku Plus" now for what will be approaching 14 years so our baby has turned into a snappy teenager.
I first started the blog out by talking about the many examples of kayo kyoku and J-Pop that I purchased and knew for years and years and what the surrounding situation was for each article. Of course, that has changed since for the past several years, I'm writing mostly about new songs by familiar and not-so-familiar singers and bands that I've encountered and sometimes when I get into a whole long series of those, I do wonder about getting things "on track" in a manner of speaking and at least presenting those songs that I've known about since my toddlerhood.
We have "The First" category in the Labels and I remember that I put up my own article almost five years ago on some of the firsts that I achieved through particular songs such as the first kayo kyoku that I ever heard. Well, along that similar track, I'm going to post about the first examples of Japanese music media that I ever bought or got as a gift since they are different from that other list. The above thumbnail shows the first entry.
1. First Tokusatsu Maxi-Single: Kamen Rider/Mirror Man/ Silver Kamen/Ultra Seven (1972)
2. First Audiotape: Yellow Magic Orchestra -- Yellow Magic Orchestra (1978...bought in 1981)
3. First 45" Single: Hiromi Iwasaki -- Madonna Tachi no Lullaby (聖母たちのララバイ）(1982)
4. First LP: Seiko Matsuda -- Train (1985)
5. First CD album: Akina Nakamori -- Cruise (1989)
6. First CD single: Miho Nakayama -- Virgin Eyes (1989)
Hiromi Iwasaki -- Madonna Tachi no Lullaby is one of my wife's favorites! Akina Nakamori -- Cruise sounds a little like Sade's "smooth operator" mixed with Madonna's "La Isla Bonita." And, The Kamen rider theme song has got to be the most well known and iconic song of the list.
ReplyDeleteHello, Brian. "Madonna Tachi no Lullaby" will arguably go down as Iwasaki's greatest hit although one American songwriter was initially very unhappy with the song. Yup, agreed that the "Kamen Rider" theme is the most famous of the lot.
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