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.
With a wind chill factor in the negative double digits today, it was about as far from summer as one could get, and I had to get a major errand done outside. I've got a feeling that there may be an exodus later this month to the warmer climes such as the Caribbean. After all, not everyone wants to frolic in the Christmas cold.
Perhaps to give some support to the sun worshippers, I present another lovely instrumental from the good folks at Nash Music Library. "Havana Port" comes from their March 2025 collection known as "Caribbean Breeze" and it's a pleasant but pretty jaunty slice of Latin jazz (with the trombone at the fore) to go with your Cuba Libre in the sun. I actually put the YouTube link into the software of Sonoteller just for fun. Nothing all that revelatory but it was interesting.
A couple of nights ago, I caught the penultimate episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）for the year. Usually, the NHK music show alternates venues between Tokyo and Osaka, but for the first time, it held its performances in Fukuoka at a new hall. Not surprisingly, a lot of the guests, if not all of them, were from that particular area such as Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）and Fumiya Fujii（藤井フミヤ）, formerly of Checkers.
My long odyssey down the kayo kyoku/J-Pop path can be described as one where stretches of that road were populated by certain regular singers and bands, so the 80s part was filled with folks such as the aforementioned Checkers, Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）, Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）and Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）. That started with my trip to Japan in 1981 and continued throughout my high school and university years. But when I got to Japan to start my first post-university job as a teacher in Gunma Prefecture in 1989, I felt that there was a phasing out of the "old guard", so to speak, from my perception, to be replaced by acts including Princess Princess, Wink, Kome Kome Club（米米CLUB）and Miki Imai（今井美樹）.
Fujii performed a song that I hadn't heard in decades on "Uta Con" on Tuesday. It was the Checkers' 23rd single from June 1990, "Yoake no Breath"(Breath of Dawn). My impression of the popular band has always been stuck in those mid-1980s when the band was doing their 50s rock-n-roll stuff but I also realize that Fujii could come up with the emotional ballads such as "True Love" later in the 90s, and such was the case with "Yoake no Breath".
Written by Fujii and composed by Checkers' keyboardist Masaharu Tsuruku（鶴久政治）, it's been described as a straight love song although I can pick up on some of the old Checkers' proud swagger and perhaps a bit of gospel soul as well. On Oricon, it reached No. 2 and eventually became the 34th-ranked single of the year.
According to the J-Wiki article for "Yoake no Breath", this song and one other were vying to get that position of getting released as a single, and what ultimately got "Yoake no Breath" the brass ring was the fact that Fujii was getting married at around the same time, so why not have a love song come out next for Checkers? Well, it did more than that. It also got the band their 7th invitation to the Kohaku Utagassen and was also used as the campaign song for the movie "Tasmania Monogatari"（タスマニア物語...Tasmania Story）.
When it comes to Japan Railways, there has been one campaign of theirs that has stood out because of the glorious beauty of Kyoto and that one song which has accompanied the commercials for over thirty years. I'm hoping that whoever in the JR advertising department was behind the idea of using "My Favorite Things" got a major bonus for the idea. The cinematic version of "The Sound of Music" from where "My Favorite Things" originated is practically essential viewing in the junior high schools of Japan, so that particular song among the many others in there is well known to everyone. But now, the Japanese probably relate the song more to Kyoto than the original movie.
Of course, before Julie Andrews and the movie version became the huge hit, "The Sound of Music" originated as a stage musical in 1959 with Mary Martin in the starring role of Maria. I never knew all that much about Martin but I knew her son, Larry Hagman, as the infamous JR Ewing in the show "Dallas". And of course, there was his earlier role as the far nicer military man Tony in "I Dream of Jeannie".
For the record, I'll have you know that from the lyrics, my favourite things would be apple strudel and schnitzel with noodles. If these were available at a buffet, I would be a happy man. Now, the reason for me choosing this one is that although it wasn't specifically made for the Holidays, "My Favorite Things" has been a staple on the radio and mall speakers during the Xmas season. Personally, I used to remember my kindergarten teacher always playing this on the record player...most likely to sedate us.
I figure that if Rodgers and Hart have a ROY entry on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", then Rodgers and Hammerstein should get a shot as well. Anyways, what were the big hits in 1959 in Japan when "The Sound of Music" made its debut on Broadway?
A day in the radio? Oh, here I thought that I was going to have to put on my English teacher's hat once more to rectify a prepositional issue.
But then, I figured out that this was a track from the 2000 album "Fakevox" by Japanese duo Tomonori Hayashibe（ハヤシベトモノリ）and Takeshi Wakiya（ワキヤタケシ）who are collectively known as Plus-Tech Squeeze Box. They first got together in 1997 and have released a couple of original albums including the aforementioned "Fakevox". Their genres of choice happen to be electronica and Shibuya-kei, and "A Day in the Radio" is a good example of the two genres put together like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.
Hayashibe was responsible for both words and music, and it starts off like something for a Nintendo video game but then explodes into a cute Day-Glo danceable (privately, if you wish) ditty. From the sounds of it, I would have thought it ideal as a theme song for some zany gag-filled anime.
Along with a number of other anime and theme song pairings, "City Hunter" and "Get Wild" will never get tired. If there were a headstone on TM Network's grave, it would only need to say "Get Wild" and people would understand. On this blog, the legendary anison has at least three articles.
But before folks go to the shrine of composer Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）, let it be said that though he came up with the main melody, his namesake (and not relative) Mitsuko Komuro（小室みつ子）was the lyricist for "Get Wild". Kinda like how Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）ended up recording a lot of City Pop in the 1980s but provided her songwriting for the good-time summery pop of TUBE, Mitsuko was someone that I also knew for her City Pop singing such as with "Koi no Dancin'"（恋のダンシン）but is the wordsmith for the very different "Get Wild". I never treated "Get Wild" as a City Pop song despite it was for an anime that was stubbornly based in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
And Mitsuko Komuro's own cover of "Get Wild" isn't a City Pop song either. Her take is present on her November 1994 8th album"Simple Dreams". It still has the pop-rock edge in there but it's also a bit more contemplative and ethereal than the TM Network version. At this rate, perhaps I should make "Get Wild" its own category in Labels.
Man, I hope the Xmas revelers are enjoying really hot cocoa and nothing radioactive above. But it is indeed the season.
Of course, one of the great Christmas musical chestnuts out there is "Winter Wonderland" which was first recorded in 1934 by Felix Bernard and lyricist Richard Bernhard Smith, according to Wikipedia. Since then, the song has been covered by so many artists everywhere, and of course, that includes Bing Crosby. It wouldn't be a KKP Christmas without Der Bingle. And so, he came up with his version in 1962. The snazzy one with the cool video above may be the 1962 version or any subsequent version by him but let's just go with that year, shall we? His baritone will always be welcome in my ears at this time.
I've had this version of "Winter Wonderland" on the backlog for quite a while now, and I figure that it must have come from one of Scott's "Holly Jolly X'masu" episodes, since I could never imagine a ska version of the classic. But here we are.
akiko is a jazz singer who has been on the blog before with her 2003 take on "Good Morning Heartache", originally performed by Billie Holiday. Well, she provides her jaunty collaboration with The Ska Flames in "Winter Wonderland" via her 2007 release "A White Album". The band has been around since 1985 and has released six albums and eight singles up to 2020.
I took one look at that cover of Kei Ishiguro's（石黒ケイ）1985 album"Mont Saint-Michel no Kodoku"（モン・サン・ミッシェルの孤独...The Solitude of Mont Saint-Michel ）along with the singer's very artistic appearance, and figured that this was going to be a different animal compared to my usual impression of her as a jazzy City Pop singer through songs such as "Hearty" and "Misty Night"（ミスティ・ナイト）. Even the title hints at the Gallic-ness of it all and when it's produced in the mid-1980s, it's just gotta be somewhat avant-garde and/or New Wave.
And yep, the first track on "Mont Saint-Michel", "Ame no Freeway" (Rainy Freeway), strikes me quite different for an Ishiguro song, but not so much that I consider it to be way out from left field. Written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composed by Masahiro Ikumi（幾見雅博）, there are the synthesizers and syn-drums that remind me a bit of Asami Kobayashi's（小林麻美）"Ame Oto wa Chopin no Shirabe"（雨音はショパンの調べ）along with the breezy je ne sais quoi arrangement. Still, even with Ishiguro's vocals that hint at a certain feeling of chaise lounge behaviour, I can pick up on some of the old urban contemporary and sophisticated pop.
Back in September, I posted up that All-Points Bulletin for Neff regarding some Chinese covers of songs that he couldn't quite identify. I believe that he was able to resolve most of the mystery songs thankfully. But I also remember while trying to help him out that I came across a few songs that may have been connected to the mystery ones but ended up nothing of the sort. Of course, I was disappointed but in the process, I was able to find some new kayo kyoku with their common denominator being a common title.
"Ryoujou" on Jisho.org talks about "the mood when traveling". And of course, travel is a big theme in kayo kyoku, notably as the action one takes when there's a need to get away from a problem, usually post-romantic in nature. The protagonists take trains and planes (not sure about automobiles, though) to some faraway place in Japan, away from Tokyo or Osaka (Tsugaru Strait is especially popular) or even overseas to mourn and/or reset those feelings.
Through Google, I even discovered some very specific terminology for that particular mood. Wanderlust was one word that I had already known but here are some of the others:
Wanderlust: A strong desire to travel and explore the world.
Eudaimonia: A state of intense happiness and contentment while traveling, when everything feels right.
Resfeber: The restless, anxious excitement that comes before a journey begins.
Strikhedonia: The joy of being able to say, "to hell with it!" and go on an adventure.
Fernweh: The opposite of homesickness; an ache or longing for places you have never seen before.
Sehnsucht: A wistful yearning for something far-off and indefinable, or for travels past and future.
Where enka and kayo kyoku are concerned, I think perhaps Fernweh and Sehnsucht might be the traveling moods that match the feelings there, although the words themselves sound like alien crewmembers on the Enterprise on "Star Trek".
Anyways, let's begin with the first "Ryoujou" that was recorded by Mari Sono（園まり）for release as a single in June 1972 to commemorate her 10th anniversary in the music business. Quite the poignant kayo kyoku, this was written by Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）as the lyrics describe a woman who has either broken up or is on the verge of breaking up with her beau by flying off to Paris. It's the strings and what sounds like a harpsichord that give me the heavy sense of the melancholy here but I also have to note the deep horns that pop up as if the lady is about to take one major leap of faith.
Less than a couple of years later, enka veteran Shinichi Mori（森進一）released an album "Ryoujou" in March 1974. The title track was written by Kohan Kawauchi（川内康範）and composed by Kosho Inomata（猪俣公章）as a song of longing by a fellow who's looking upon a woman he's had feelings for. She hasn't reciprocated them and maybe she isn't even aware of them especially since she's probably just broken it off with another guy. It's a got a bit more brass and heart-on-a-sleeve emotion so I can put it between kayo kyoku and enka.
Then, we come to Hiroshi Itsuki's（五木ひろし）"Ryoujou" which was released much later in 1998. With lyrics by Reiji Mizuki（水木れいじ）, the singer himself came up with the melody. If there were such a thing as Itsuki Song, then his "Ryoujou" would be the class example with the haunting chorus, the seemingly tear-choked vocals and the wistful arrangement.
In all likelihood, this track from Kingo Hamada's（濱田金吾）6th album"Heart Cocktail" from March 1985, "Tokyo Come & Gone" reflects the sad and concise four frames of a manga that makes up the cover of the album. My condolences to the former Itos.
"Tokyo Come & Gone" was written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composed by Hamada as a wistful and reflective ballad of what used to be a happy relationship and is now a very former one. Not sure what happened but hey, that's life and romance in the big city, I guess. It's a beautiful and melancholy City Pop melody by Hamada with the Fender Rhodes and one other keyboard gently making contact. There's very much of a "there are other fish in the sea" feeling in this one as it accompanies Mr. Ito heading sadly into the horizon.
I think with Brazil being in the Southern Hemisphere, the weather ought to be getting quite a bit warmer with their summer. A lot of folks here are very envious right now.
Anyways, I have another sparkling track by QYPTHONE from their 5th album from December 2002, "Montuno No. 5". And I guess with its track mate, "On the Palette", "Melody" keeps the music from aforementioned Brazil continuing on full speed, although not with the Shibuya-kei of "On the Palette". Perhaps the entire album has that samba and bossa nova theme; certainly, "Melody", written and composed by Takeshi Nakatsuka（中塚武）, plunges into the Atlantic with some exciting samba and I'm assuming that Izumi Ookawara（大河原泉）is the vocalist here. New Year's must be something else down in Rio.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to December. Not sure how it is meteorologically where you are, but here in Toronto, we woke up to a wind chill factor of around -7 degrees Celsius and a slight frosting of snow on the ground. Not surprisingly, the department stores and malls are in Christmas mode with the appropriate music, and sure enough, even KKP has entered the Yuletide spirit.
Of course, Christmas songs such as "Jingle Bells" and "White Christmas" are famous all around the world. And even the ones whose titles don't have a "Christmas" or "Santa Claus" or "Jingle" or "Eve" are well-known for their Xmas cheer including "Sleigh Ride" and "Little Drummer Boy". Now, in Japan, where Christmas has been taking hold of the population like icing on carrot cake for years and years and years (aside from the fact that it isn't a statutory holiday over there, and really shouldn't be), as we all know in "Kayo Kyoku Plus", many J-Xmas tunes have been created during the better part of the past century. And I'd add that perhaps around 90% of them have those special key words that I've mentioned above that would provide the big hint that Christmas is on the way. There are those tunes such as "Christmas Eve" and "December 24" that pretty much give the show away.
However, the remaining 10% don't have any of those Christmas-y buzzwords in the title. Therefore, for those listeners who have just gotten into Japanese popular music and are starting to discover the Xmas section of kayo kyoku and J-Pop, as a public service, I've decided to start December off with some of those J-Xmas songs that don't overtly include anything Christmas-y in the title. Perhaps they can make for some delightful discoveries for some. So without further ado:
