I've usually assumed that the small and temporary genre of exotic kayo was limited to the late 1970s when hits such as Judy Ongg's（ジュディ・オング）"Miserarete"（魅せられて）boarded the Oricon charts. After that, it was the Golden Age of aidoru, City Pop and technopop.
However, there may have been some pop-ups here and there of songs that seemed to bring images of life and love overseas in distant Asian and European climes. Maybe one such song can be Mayumi Hara's（原真祐美）"Persia no Namida" (Persian Tears). Released in September 1984 as her 7th and penultimate single, it feels slightly like an adventure on the Silk Road in an aidoru atmosphere. The silky strings along with other stringed instruments help sell the image of traveling in the titular area. "Persia no Namida" was written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composed by Yasuo Kosugi（小杉保夫）.
About two years after this song was released, Anzen Chita also had their own Persia-themed song: プルシアンブルーの肖像. BUT on the other hand Mayumi Hara's sounds a little bit more ethnic but not particularly Middle Eastern.
ReplyDeleteDidn't think that the songwriters were ever aiming for cultural accuracy when they were coming up with the rhythms in exotic kayo. Apparently, as long as something like a bouzouki was in there, they were happy. Maybe the citizens of those relevant nations were somewhat bemused, though.
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