Well, how about that for a coincidence? Just last week, I posted up an article regarding NHK-FM's late-night radio show "Crossover Eleven"（クロスオーバーイレブン）which focused on a lot of the popular non-Japanese music. And then just now, I discovered the radio program that immediately preceded it.
"Sound Street"（サウンドストリート）was a show which focused on both Japanese and foreign music that played in the 10-11 pm hour for about 45 minutes Mondays to Fridays. Lasting from 1978 to 1987, it was hosted by a number of folks in the music industry including the amazing Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）who held the Tuesday night slot for about five years in the 1980s. The above broadcast from June 1st 1982 had Sakamoto inviting his good friend Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）for a round of songs and laughs. Tats himself would host the Thursday program between 1983 and 1986.
The opening theme for "Sound Street" was Sakamoto's own creation "Photo Music" although I'm not sure whether it had been played right from the beginning of its run in 1978 (perhaps before its release on vinyl in 1981, there had been no official opener). Of course, that was also the same year that Yellow Magic Orchestra launched so I'm sure he and his fellow bandmates, Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）and Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）, were fully in thrall to the technopop sound, and so not surprisingly, The Professor's dreamy and whimsical "Photo Music" is right up that YMO alley. "Photo Music" actually didn't get released until it found itself as a B-side to the light and fun "Computer Obaachan"（コンピューターおばあちゃん）which was released in December 1981.
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