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.
One
of my new hobbies is Japanese literature, with a very special focus on Yukio
Mishima (三島由紀夫) –
who quickly became my favorite writer ever, right next to Marquis de Sade –, Kafu Nagai
(永井荷風)
and, right now, Ryu Murakami (村上龍) – also known in the West as “the other Murakami”.
From the latter, I’m reading a collection of short stories called “Tokyo
Decadence” (2016), and the first two parts of the book, comprised of seven short
stories selected from “Run, Takahashi!” and “Topaz”, were published during Japan's bubble years (1986 and 1988, respectively). So, with the word decadence in
mind, Murakami introduces a lot of intriguing characters and plots, such as in the lovely and
very interesting story about a truck driver who discovers a new life as a host in a gay bar
after passing through a divorce and losing his job, or the creepy story about a
young man with mental disorder who ends up killing almost everyone in a family
(man and two kids), with the exception of the woman, after stalking this same
woman for a while, and some stories revolving around call girls specialized in
sadomasochism. Yes, the content can be a bit crude (like in the call girls’
stories), and sometimes creepy (the young man with mental disorder who ends up becoming a killer), but that’s why I became interested in Ryu Murakami in the
first place.
Since
these stories were written by Murakami during the bubble years, and they seem
to take place in that time frame, I like to read them thinking
about my favorite Japanese cultural phenomenon from the 80s, aka female aidoru
singers, which can also be related to the era's overall decandent feeling. And with that in mind, I decided to talk about five songs, recorded by
not-so-famous aidoru singers, ranging from the late 80s to the early 90s –
well, I'm aware that's not a new topic coming from me, but whatever.
Starting off, here’s “Black Velvet” (ブラック・ベルベット), one of my favorite songs
recorded by sexy aidoru Aya Sugimoto (杉本彩). Originally released in 1988 as a song from her
second album, “Mizu no Naka no Chiisana Taiyou” (水の中の小さな太陽), it became one of her
concert staples, and I’m not complaining, since I love its funky synthpop sound
that was so common during the first Eurobeat era. And really, when I think
about decadence, Aya Sugimoto always pops on my mind... but I do like her a
lot, which can be kind of surprising. About the video, I have three or four
different live performances of “Black Velvet” stored, but Aya is particularly
bouncy in this one. Vocals are always bad, so that doesn’t matter.
Risa
Tachibana (立花理佐) is another aidoru who I like a lot. At first, I
thought about writing about her most unique song, the over the top “Risa no
Yousei Densetsu” (リサの妖精伝説), but I couldn’t resist posting
the ridiculously catchy “Do You Do You?” here (I keep singing the “do you do
you remember me?” part on and on). Like Aya Sugimoto’s “Black Velvet”, and also
the following songs in this list, the late 80s/early 90s Eurobeat sound is
predominant here, even though the song is quite rooted in a traditional pop
style. It was released as a single in 1989.
Kind of similar in sound to “Do You Do You?”, here’s Miwa
Kawagoe (川越美和) with
her second single, “Tenshi to Yu-Waku” (天使とYu-Waku), which was also released in 1989. I
particularly like the wild cascade of synths in the background during some
sections of the song. Besides that very particular detail in the arrangement,
it’s a generic lost tune from its time. Well, no song in this list is very
memorable, but that’s the fun of listening to B-rated aidoru singers in the
first place.
In
general, I dislike a lot of 80s aidoru’s debut songs, basically because they
all sound similar to each other, but also very tame, especially if compared to
the aidoru’s following outputs. That’s not the case with Eri Aikawa’s (相川恵里) “Junai
Countdown” (純愛カウントダウン), my favorite of her singles,
which, unlike a traditional aidoru debut song, is not a mid-tempo ballad, nor a
pure ‘fifteen years old girl’ type of song. Released in the 1988, it makes
sense that the arrangement is quite heavy on the horns, synths and bouncy bass
line. Besides appearing in her first album “Kiiroi Kirin” (黄色い麒麟), it
was later remixed for her second album, “O.TO.NA”, turning into an even more
explosive song.
To finish the post, here’s “See Through” (シースルー) by Akiho Sendo (千堂あきほ), which happens to be the lone child of the 90s in
this list, being released as a single in 1991. This one also
features a heavy – and melodic – synth sound, but this time with a little rock
twist, so common during the beginning of the 90s. It still sounds like an 80s tune, but with a pretty nice edge. In my opinion, it’s one of Akiho Sendo’s
best songs (the other being “Glass no ECSTASY” [硝子のECSTASY]).
I
don’t know, but I can pretty much guess Japan haven’t created any mainstream
female singer more outrageous than Aya Sugimoto (杉本彩).
The
girl was a very bad singer that came to light around 1988, a time when the old
and cute aidoru aesthetic was starting to melt down in what we might
call its last breath with acts such as Wink and Noriko Sakai (酒井法子),
for example. Meanwhile, ambiguous types of aidoru
singers, like the sexy Chisato Moritaka (森高千里)
and the edgy Shizuka Kudo (工藤静香), were also emerging around the same
time of Aya Sugimoto.
In
fact, Aya has always been the more “in-your-face”
of the bunch, as Chisato Moritaka, although flashy and sexy, never really meant
to create controversy. Aya
started her career with “Boys”, a
cover of busty singer Sabrina Salerno’s
Italo Disco hit from 1987, which had some memorable scenes of the Italian
beauty “accidentally” showing her big breats in a swimming pool. Of course, as
this wasn’t something very likely to happen in Japan, Aya’s performance, even
though rich in "breast bouncing", was very tame if compared to Sabrina’s more “explicit”
video.
After
a somewhat tame start with “Boys”, Aya Sugimoto continued her career as a
secondary class aidoru singer, and,
in early 1990, she released what’s probably one of her most memorable hits, “B&S” (it was a moderate hit, but,
for Aya Sugimoto’s standarts, it was a proper hit). Even though both “B&S”
and the coupling song, “GIRL FRIEND”, are both great songs, what’s important
for us here is how Aya’s image changed with this release.
The
thing is, before “B&S” Aya had a sexy image, but one more natural and “girl
next door”. However, starting with the release of “B&S”, and probably
thanks to the success of the song, her image became quite raunchier, and that’s
where our featured song, called “Gorgeous”, enters in scene.
“Gorgeous”
was released as a single by Aya Sugimoto in early November 1990, and, alongside
“Usagi” (うさぎ), a song which featured the girl wearing cheap bunny clothes, was one of
the main standouts of the “Japanese Dream” album, released in late November
1990.
About
the song itself, it’s an Eurodisco song that follows the same formula used by
Aya since her debut with “Boys” a couple of years before. The song, with its bouncy
sound, combined well with Aya’s choreography, and the outfit, which, by the
way, strangely reminded me of one outfit Cher used in her “If I Could Turn Back Time” (1989) video, was obviously one of the main marketing strategies around
her for this release.
In
the end, “Gorgeous” is one of the highlights in Aya Sugimoto’s not very
striking singing career. For me, she’s a very odd type of aidoru singer that,
somehow, existed during aidoru’s dark days. And some people believe Namie Amuro
(安室奈美恵) started the sexy trend... in all their
innocence, they know little or nothing about Aya Sugimoto and other sexy
ladies, such as Chisato Moritaka, Minako Tanaka (田中美奈子),
Reiko Kato (かとうれいこ) and Akiho Sendo (千堂あきほ),
to name a few.
Lyrics
for “Gorgeous” were written by Saikure Go -???- (崔呉五),
while music was composed by Akihiro Yoshimi (吉実明宏).
Hi everyone. It’s my time to contribute with a
list of some personal favorite Japanese songs from the 80s. I don’t pretend to
waste many lines in the introduction, but some important characteristics of my
list must be told before starting with the proper songs.
First, my main theme, eurobeat, is one of the key music
genres of mainstream Japanese music during the mid-to-late 80s as it
contributed with new musical and fashion aesthetics to the Japanese pop
landscape. Based on that, my method in most of the entries is to introduce one
special song and kinda tell a story related to the particular style of eurobeat
of the song and, also, related to the performer. It’s an interesting exercise
I’ve been developing in the blog since I started contributing earlier this
year. This practice also helped me organize my ideas and conclusions, and I’m
very grateful to JTM, nikala, Jari and especially J-Canuck for letting me write
my confuse thoughts in this very special space.
Second, an important, and maybe secondary,
characteristic of my list is that it’s only comprised of aidoru singers, with
no single exception. Some of them might be perceived as being more aidoru than
others, but, in the end, they’re all aidoru singers. This particular feature is
secondary because, in no moment, I had the intention of doing an aidoru list.
To be honest, most of the aidoru singers I chose to be part of my list would be
out of any serious aidoru-focused list. That’s why I put emphasis on the eurobeat
theme and not in the aidoru one. Summarizing, I see my list as a compilation of
interesting fusion moments between aidoru and the eurobeat sound. Also,
this post isn’t just about the songs. Sometimes I’m going to talk more about
other things, like fashion or the transformation suffered by the aidoru world,
than of the songs themselves. But the writing is ALWAYS based on the song, so
try to understand what I’m talking about with the song and the video (when it’s
available) in mind.
Third, I must warn that although my list is
MAINLY based on eurobeat, some songs are not in this category. They are kinda
shuffled with the others, but it’s not that difficult to identify them.
Last but not least, the reader must pay
attention to one important thing. This list is, by no means, absolute. My main
intention while selecting the songs was to construct a nice balance between
singles (some of them hit singles, some of them not) and album tracks. This
choice was very arbitrary, as I wanted to highlight some hidden gems over the
well known singles and hit songs. With other acts, I simply chose to talk about
famous singles.
Well, I ended wasting everyone’s patience with
the introduction. Let’s just start this list and have a great time.
I always found very interesting how trends come
and go. As the aidoru days were slowly coming to an end, some accomplished
aidoru singers just decided to change their styles and adapt themselves to new
trends, like the eurobeat trend that emerged after the mid-80s.
The beautiful and tanned Hidemi Ishikawa, owner
of one of the cutest cheeks of the aidoru world, started releasing synthpop
inspired songs around 1986 with a cover of the Pet Shop Boys sophomore single
“Love Comes Quickly”. But “Everynight” is, for me, the best example of her
eurobeat ambitions before retiring from the music scene in 1990 after a scandal
involving pregnancy and rushed marriage. Typical unfortunate aidoru story. Released in 1988, “Everynight” is different in sound from the "Stock Aitken Waterman" brand of eurobeat that became very popular in Japan one year after, in 1989, with Chisato Moritaka’s (森高千里) “17-sai” (17才), Wink’s “Ai ga Tomaranai ~Turn it Into Love~” (愛が止まらない), Minako Tanaka’s (田中美奈子) “Namida no Taiyou” (涙の太陽) and Eriko Tamura’s (田村英里子) “Shinken (Honki)” (真剣). That said, it was an early type of eurobeat more comparable with the Italo Disco sound that was starting to fade away in Europe in favor of House music. About this subject, it’s interesting to note that while Italo Disco and eurobeat were decreasing in popularity in Europe, it was, at the same time, becoming even more popular in Japan (and in Soviet Union, but that’s not the point here). This process resulted in a natural change of focus as Japan virtually became the only Italo Disco importer during the late 80s and early 90s. Basically, Japan became the main cash cow to Italy’s disco producers, a phenomenon that constituted what I call Japan’s “first dance craze”. This phenomenon faded around 1992 and 1993 to resurge even more powerful in 1995 as the “second dance craze”, when Namie Amuro (安室奈美恵) conquered the charts with her eurobeat covers of Lolita’s “Try Me”, Veronica Sale’s “Season” and Sophie’s “Stop the Music”. Back to the “first dance craze”, Italo Disco also faced competition from the English brand of eurobeat masterminded by Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW). Their main “product”, the cute little Australian singer Kylie Minogue, hit really big in Japan around 1988 and 1989. This instant popularity led to many Japanese covers of her hits, like the aforementioned Chisato Moritaka, which covered Kylie’s version of “The Locomotion” in her “Mite Special Live Concert” (見て ～スペシャル～ライヴ in 汐留ＰＩＴII 4.15.'89), and Wink, which covered many songs of the teen star, with “Ai ga Tomaranai ~Turn It Into Love~” being the most representative of them. In the end, both Italo Disco and SAW’s artists
were popular in Japan, while Italo Disco experienced a much more important role
in the advance of eurobeat with the “Super Eurobeat” compilation series that
started in 1990 and… well, it’s still going on in 2013. In the case of Hidemi’s “Everynight”, its charm
consists of the aggressive synths and the edginess portrayed by Hidemi’s vocals.
Aidoru singers who started recording eurobeat songs during the “first dance
craze” period had two options. First, the fluffy and sugary vocals combined
with playful eurobeat melodies and, second, a more serious and clubby approach.
Hidemi went with the second option here on “Every Night”, and it was a nice
idea as she was kind of leaving the cute aidoru days behind. All in all, I enjoy Hidemi’s “Everynight” a lot.
It represents very well this transition from mildly successful aidoru singer
into a more “dance diva” kind of singer that happened quite frequently during
the late 80s.
Eriko Tamura is not a common artist in any list,
but I had to include her beautiful “Tsumetaku Shinaide” in my list for one
specific reason: the melodramatic melody combined with the orchestral synthpop
arrangement offers a nice example of majestic pop sensibility that was common
during the 80s. Of course Eriko’s voice (and pin-up beauty) was a nice treat
too. I always think that she should have been a more successful aidoru based on
her vocals, but some lackluster songs didn’t help her achieve the deserved
fame. We must remember that the late 80s also represents the end of the aidoru
era, and Eriko’s image was more suitable for the early-to-mid 80s than for the
end of the decade. Despite that, her debut album, “May Be Dream” (released in July 1989), is a nice and
polished selection of late 80s dance-pop/eurobeat songs. Based on that, the
inclusion of “Tsumetaku Shinaide” in this list is my tribute to this great
phase of her career.
Being honest, though, Eriko’s material is not the
best example of 80s dance-pop, neither is “Tsumetaku Shinaide” an outstanding
song that stood the test of time. At the same time, although her production
team was clearly emulating a trendy sound in order to sell more records, the
melodic pop sensibility that I talked earlier is very noticeable in this little
romantic piece. In fact, Eriko sings it like a Cinderella. A beautiful song,
indeed.
This song is probably the most out of place of the bunch, but I like it so much that I needed to include it in this list. On the other hand, it would not be so off in JTM’s list that was posted earlier.
Not an eurobeat or synthpop song, “Shadow Hunter” (released in February 1987) could be better placed in the early-to-mid 80s, during the start of the burikko aidoru era inaugurated by Seiko Matsuda (松田 聖子). It reminds me vaguely of some Kyoko Koizumi’s (小泉 今日子) hits around 1984/85. Also, the song has quite a dynamic with all the horns and the bouncy bass line. Its overall sound makes me think of some spy movie or series. In reality, it was a “Sukeban Deka III” (スケバン刑事III) related song, which may explain its live action sound and adventurous feeling.
Yuka Onishi was never the best aidoru singer, nor the most famous one, but the "Sukeban Deka III" exposure had quite a positive impact on her career (she was one of Yui Asaka’s [浅香 唯] sisters in the series). Around 1989, though, instead of switching to an eurobeat sound like many of her contemporaries, she invested in a rock sound with an aidoru approach. She was quite daring trying to compete with PRINCESS PRINCESS and other all-female rock bands. Even the talented Minako Honda (本田 美奈子) failed to be successful with a similar strategy. Back to Onishi, she slowly retired from the
music career, and eventually got nude in a photo shoot (1999). I must confess
that it wasn’t nice to see a former 80s aidoru getting naked in exchange of
some bucks. I felt bad for her, and seeing the photos I can almost assure she
wasn’t happy at all. Or maybe I’m being too sentimental about my 80s aidoru. Nonetheless, the young and cheery Yuka Onishi
will always be in my memory singing “Shadow Hunter”. I bought an old Yuka
Onishi CD just because of this song (I ended liking the whole CD, though).
07) Megumi Hayashibara (林原めぐみ) -- Yoake no Shooting Star (夜明けのShooting Star)
Megumi Hayashibara is not a 80s singer. Although some rare and not memorable late 80s songs can be found in her discography, her major label debut as a singer was only in early 1991. On the other hand, she recorded one solid pop song in the 80s, “Yoake no Shooting Star”, an image song for the character Christina “Chris” MacKenzie (クリスチーナ・マッケンジー) from the anime OVA “Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in My Pocket” (機動戦士ガンダム0080 ポケットの中の戦争). “Yoake no Shooting Star” is a nice song, but nothing spectacular. The arrangement is just straightforward pop with a loud and cool synth melody that tastes like 80s right from the beginning. But what make it stand out is Megumi’s vocals, which are strong, full of cheerfulness and charisma. Based on that, it’s interesting to notice that “Yoake no Shooting Star” was also Megumi’s first recording ever. According to her autobiography manga series, she had to sing the song at an event in place of Megumi Shiina (椎名恵). Firstly, though, she had to have her vocal range tested, and in that specific day, she was sick with a high fever, which resulted in horrible vocals. But a man from the King Records (キングレコード株式会社) label listened to her and, somehow, liked what Hayashibara delivered. Finally, it was decided afterwards that “our” Megumi was going to officially record the song, which she did (for the source of this story, click here). And that’s the story behind Megumi Hayashibara’s first recording in early 1989. “Yoake no Shooting Star” got a spot in Megumi’s
sophomore album “WHATEVER” (1992), and in two of her compilations, “VINTAGE A”
(2000) and “VINTAGE WHITE” (2011). Also, Megumi seems to like the song very
much because she often includes it in her concerts, like in the 2002 concert
that is featured above. The arrangement is the original 1989 one (Megumi rarely
sings with a live band in her concerts), but with Megumi’s live vocals.
06) Aya Sugimoto (杉本彩) -- 13-Nichi no Runa (13日のルナ)
The late 80s/early 90s were a very curious moment of Japanese mainstream pop music. Some strange characters, like Chisato Moritaka and Minako Tanaka, were artistically created in this period, and with a sexy appeal that was buried since the late 70s. We all know that, overall, the 80s aidoru era was a time where the virgin and naïve aesthetics were an essential factor in the construction of female stars. Of course a very specific type of sexuality was present in this discourse, but it was different from what aidoru acts during a pre-Seiko Matsuda period, like Pink Lady (ピンク・レディー) and Momoe Yamaguchi (山口百恵), represented. Although the aforementioned Chisato Moritaka
and Minako Tanaka were sexy aidoru singers, Aya Sugimoto was more explicit and
wild if compared to them. Her stage persona, directly influenced by Italian
eurobeat singer Sabrina Salerno, was famous for some raunchy and over-the-top
performances. For instance, Aya’s debut single, “Boys”, was a cover of
Sabrina’s hit that became famous around Europe because of the explicit music
video where she happily reveals her large breasts in a swimming pool (check
this AMAZING video here. Unfortunatly you need to have a YouTube account because of some age restriction). And although Aya couldn’t go that far in Japan, her
bouncy breasts were also a highlight of her dance-oriented performances.
As for “13-Nichi no Runa”, which was released in December 1988, I don’t quite
remember when I discovered it, but I do remember that I became quickly addicted
to its catchiness. And yes, I know Aya Sugimoto was a very bad live singer, but
I just tend to ignore her lack of singing talent in favor of nice disco songs
and some sexy appeal. Back to the song, like most of her other wannabe hits,
it’s a nice example of the eurobeat/Hi-NRG sound of the late 80s. Her
energetic performances were nice to watch too.
After reading a 2008 interview with Aya Sugimoto
(for the interview, click here), I concluded that she acts like a self aware
woman who was defending feminine empowerment back in the late 80s. In her
words, “it would be difficult to wear clothes like that if it were not
accompanied by a new kind of spirit”. Also, “when I [Aya Sugimoto] wore sexy
clothes in the ’80s and the ’90s, it caused a stir”. These phrases induces the
reader to believe that Aya Sugimoto was almost revolutionary at the time, which
is kind of ambiguous as she was more like a sex toy teasing a male fan base
than a female empowerment icon. Besides that, she really devoted her entire
career in maintaining the status of a sexy symbol that defends sexual freedom.
Aya’s concrete and apparent sexiness, like the
tamer sexiness portrayed by Chisato Moritaka and Minako Tanaka, was one example
of the transformations experienced by the aidoru category during the late
80s/early 90s. That strange transition of pure/virgin aidoru into a more
sexualized type of aidoru is one of my favorite subjects and one that it’s not
very discussed in the English speaking world. I, for example, consider singers
like Aya, Chisato and Minako to be kind of ahead their time, just because sexy
divas like Namie Amuro and MAX were yet to rule the J-Pop world. These three
young ladies were not actual aidoru artists, but not out of this particular
landscape either. And I just find kind of strange how everyone actually ignores
the blatant sex appeal of these artists when constructing the J-Pop history. It
gives the impression that the kawaii and virgin aidoru ideal model of the 80s
gave space to the energetic and sexualized image of Namie Amuro in the mid-90s
while nothing else was created between these two extremes. Based on that, I
believe that Aya Sugimoto, for example, can be seen as a transition artist, or
something like that. I’m also aware that this type of sexualized aidoru singer
was not very successful, with the exception of Chisato Moritaka. The lack of
success is probably a reason for their constant absence in the J-Pop history,
and that’s understandable. It’s also important to remember that the fall of the
aidoru category from the top of the entertainment world represented a niche
division where different types of aidoru singers with a specific fan base in
mind were created, and the sexy aidoru type was one of many new types that were
trying to survive with a limited fan base.
Well, I’m not advancing in this territory now, but some other artists of
this specific list are going to be used to talk a little more about this
subject.
Strange theories aside, Aya Sugimoto is one of
my many guilty pleasures. I just have a thing for cheap dance-pop music of the
80s and not so talented performers. As for “13-Nichi no Runa”, it’s not a
groundbreaking song, but I remember how much I liked to study while listening
to it and other Aya Sugimoto’s songs during my graduation years. She was
probably the first “forgotten aidoru” I became a fan.
I was in serious doubt if Tomomi Nishimura’s “Nemurihime” was the right song for my eurobeat list. This song was in a serious battle with Noriko “Nori-P” Sakai’s (酒井法子) “Wagamama Syndrome” (ワガママ・シンドローム) (you can listen to it here, if you want), but I ended up with “Nemurihime”. Basically, I chose it because of a more complex arrangement if compared to Nori-P’s “Wagamama Syndrome”. I like both, but I don’t think Nori-P’s song would add something new to this list. Besides being a catchy and straightforward pop song, “Wagamama Syndrome” didn’t offer significant twists and innovations.
Back to “Nemurihime”, it’s a 1989 eurobeat song
with some interesting elements. Although I’ never been a true fan of Tomomi
Nishimura, mostly because of her weak vocals, I liked her delivery in “Nemurihime”,
especially when the ballad introduction gives place to the full synth
arrangement. One of the main characteristic of “Nemurihime”,
and of Nori-P’s “Wagamama Syndrome” as well, was the mixture of a mildly cutesy
style with a mysterious synth arrangement. In fact, it wouldn’t be out of place
in a Wink album of the late 80s. In the “Yoru no Hit Studio” live version
presented above, a lot of the synths are not audible. Like in many “Yoru no Hit
Studio” performances, the horns are actually taking the place of the synths. I
only decided to post this performance because the song is played almost in its
entirety, and, well… 80s, for me, is almost synonym of “Yoru no Hit Studio”. But
trust me, “Nemurihime” is a cool eurobeat song, and not a full orchestra disco.
04) Minako Tanaka (田中美奈子) -- Namida no Taiyou (涙の太陽)
Maybe I’m just a fool, but I like Minako Tanaka
very much. I like her image, her beauty, her sound and her vocals a lot. No
deeper reasons. Just like it. And do I know her entire discography? No, it’s
rare. I only know her singles and some of her album songs, nothing more. But I
consider myself a fan.
The first time I saw Minako Tanaka on YouTube
singing “Namida no Taiyou” I just couldn’t stop thinking of Chisato Moritaka.
It was the same style of music and a very similar image (Chisato’s image became
a lot more extravagant and campy, though). But besides being a “copy”, I liked
Minako’s vocals and beauty very much, which was a plus for her. Like I said
above, I’m a fan, and I started considering myself one right after the moment I
just described. It was around May or June 2011. “Namida no Taiyou” was Minako’s debut single in 1989. Let’s just call it the eurobeat rendition of “Namida no Taiyou”, as the song was covered by a lot (and I really mean a lot) of different artists since it was originally recorded in English as “Crying in a Storm” (1965) by “Japanese-born-but-raised-in-England” singer Emy Jackson (エミー・ジャクソン) (for Emy's original version, click here). About that, I think Japanese eurobeat singers had a thing for turning non eurobeat songs into eurobeat. Chisato Moritaka did that with the classic “17-sai”, while Wink… well, Wink did that with so many songs that it’s hard to make a proper account. In fact, Minako Tanaka’s second single, “Be My Baby”, was also an eurobeat cover of an old classic. Back to Minako’s version of “Namida no Taiyou”,
I find it very energetic. The arrangement is not made of classy or laidback
electronic sounds, but of loud, memorable and sharp synths. And combined with
Minako’s girly vocals, the result was an interesting listening experience. The
bridge is also something to keep an eye for (or ear, in this case) as the
keyboard sounds are mixed with a robust bass that features a lot of slapping. Minako’s version of “Namida no Taiyou” was not
a big hit, reaching only #18 on the Oricon charts. To be honest, none of her
songs would conquer the status of hits. She was just a sexy female pop singer
that could hardly be labeled as an aidoru. Nevertheless, I thought she deserved
a spot on my personal list.
BONUS TRACK) Sophie -- SOFT TIME (RED MONSTER MIX)
“SOFT TIME” is just a bonus I decided to
include in my “eurobeat” list before my top three songs. As it’s a classic 1989
eurobeat song which was included in the first volume of the “Super Eurobeat”
series, the only thing that makes it an outsider is the fact that it isn’t a
Japanese song, but the original Italian recording sung by Sophie (Elena
Ferretti).
I first discovered this song in early 2011 when
my Wink fanboyism was bigger than the stratosphere. Although I had had contact
with eurobeat before in two different times, in special when I discovered
Chisato Moritaka a year before, in 2010, I just didn’t became a fan of the genre before 2011. As I recall, Chisato got me into the overall aidoru world, and
eurobeat was just a secondary factor for me at the time. It was really with
Wink and their “Stock Aitken Waterman” brand of dance-pop (which was somehow
called eurobeat) that I started listening to eurobeat more seriously, and “SOFT
TIME”, a song I found listening to this first “Super Eurobeat” volume, still is
my favorite song of the genre (I soon discovered that almost nothing really
sounds like it, but that’s another story).
As for “SOFT TIME”, well…, the song is just
amazing, and this “RED MONSTER MIX” I decided to include just take things to
another level (it’s an official remix. I have it on CD). It’s not very
different from the original in structure, but the slight changes are just
amazing, just like when the synths in 6:13 mark are apparently going into a
higher register, and then Sophie comes back with the chorus before the ending.
What I also like is the common eurobeat practice of intercalating vocals with
the arrangement, just like after the 4:53 mark. Finally, the vocals, just like
the title, are very soft and beautiful, which contributes to the overall
melancholic vibe of the song. In the end, it’s a killer song, for sure.
Nothing better than a song starting with very sharp
80s synths and a groovy bass line.
“Mermaid” is my favorite song by classy aidoru
singer Miho Nakayama. Released in 1988, this summer gem is a funk/synthpop
masterpiece. I just can’t get enough of the raw and sharp synths used in this
song. As for Miho, her vocals became very mature around late 1987/early 1988,
and that’s visible in “Mermaid”. She really did a good job with this one. It’s
a pity she couldn’t deliver a high-level performance of it in live TV shows,
although she nailed it in her 1991 concert (you can watch it here). Besides being a very pretty young lady and a decent singer, I never found Miho very charismatic on stage. Her songs, on the other hand, were very nice during the 80s. Just like Wink’s “Samishii Nettagiyo” (淋しい熱帯魚), “Mermaid” is a very synth rich song, which is an important characteristic of the 80s. Unlike today’s American mainstream electronic music, which relies heavily in one or two synth hooks, mainstream electronic music in the 80s was, overall, more sophisticated (although raw and rudimentary in its sound). As synthesizers were one of the main new musical technologies of the decade, experimentation (and exaggeration) was at its peak. Nowadays, on the other hand, synthesizers are not used in a very creative way. Maybe the overall musical aesthetics changed a lot in the last thirty or twenty five years. Of course that’s just a personal feeling, but I thought it was nice to share my view. Back to “Mermaid”, it earned Miho’s third #1
single on the Oricon charts. Also, it was released in the same day of her
seventh album “Mind Game”. Although it wasn’t featured in the album, “Mermaid”
is a nice start to the overall feeling and sound of this album, as both relies
in a summery funk/synthpop sound. In that way, it works like an appetizer
before the main dish. Some songs from the album, like “Strange Parade” (my
favorite from the album. Check it here right after the 5:40 mark) and “Mind Game” (listen to it here), are even kind of
similar to “Mermaid” in structure and arrangement, which is not a bad thing at
all. All in all, I deeply recommend this one Miho album, “Mind Game”. It’s my
favorite from her career.
Her name has appeared many times before in this list, but her real time was yet to come. She's the main artist now, and she holds the second position in my ranking.
First of all, I must confess that I have the
bad, very bad habit of including this song in most of my “favorite songs” lists.
And the poor Moritaka, a singer with an overall great catalogue, ends up being
represented with this song, one she probably isn’t proud of nowadays. Cheap
talk aside, I love this song very much. It represents Moritaka’s extravaganza
at its best, both sonically and visually. We can really tell that after
“17-sai’s” success, she went even far into the campy style.
With typical late 80s synths, “Korekkiri Bye
Bye” is a very cheesy and horribly outdated song, or, in a more positive view,
a straightforward shameless bubblegum dance-pop song from the late 80s (“Stock
Aitken Waterman”, I’m looking right at you). The girl surely had guts to
perform a song like "Korekkiri Bye Bye" dressed like… well, I don’t know how to describe THIS "fashion style", but it looks like a heroine from a cartoon, at least (and this was
before “Sailor Moon”, for god’s sake). I’d really like to know what Moritaka
and her fashion staff were thinking when they came up with this look. “Korekkiri Bye Bye” can be found in Moritaka’s fouth studio album “Hijitsuryokuha Sengen” (非実力派宣言), which was released in July 1989. This particular album represents the start of Moritaka’s peak as an aidoru singer. To be honest, though, there’s quite a discussion about Moritaka’s status of an aidoru. As pointed out by Ian Martin, “she [Chisato Moritaka] existed in a strange sort of limbo between the end of the kayokyoku in the late 80s and the birth of J-Pop in the early 90s” (click here to read the full article). Also, Patrick St. Michel wrote that “the peak of her career happened after the golden-age of ’80s J-Pop, and just before acts like Namie Amuro and Ayumi Hamasaki became powerhouses across all of Asia” (click here to read the full article). As I agree with both of them, I understand that it’s difficult to call Moritaka an aidoru strictus sensus, but I can’t help thinking of her as such. That’s a tough dilemma.
Wink’s “Samishii Nettaigyo” could not stay out
of my list. Although “Ai ga Tomaranai ~Turn It Into Love~” is a personal
favorite, “Samishii Nettaigyo”, which was released in 1989, is not very far. Also, the plus of this song, or
the reason why I chose to reserve a spot for it in my list, is that it’s a very
influential pop song. Besides being a classic on its own, “Samishii Nettaigyo”
has been covered by a lot of artists, like actress Nana Katase (listen to it here), 90s eurobeat
girl group MAX (listen to it here), Hello! Project aidoru
duo W (listen to it here), and also by Anglo-Irish girl group from the 70s The Nolans, which Wink
also covered some of their songs like “Sexy Music” and “I’m in the Mood for
Dancing” (by the way, The Nolan’s english version of “Samishii Nettaigyo” is
called “Tidal Wave”. Listen to it here).
For me, personally, “Samishii Nettaigyo” also
marks the real birth of Wink as a musical act on its own. I’m saying that
because most of their earlier hits were Japanese covers of European pop/disco
songs, while with “Samishii Nettaigyo” the duo started to make their successful
path as a true act, and not a cover based act (they continued relying heavily
in cover songs, but they also released a bunch of successful original tracks).
Their songwriting team did that emulating the overall trendy synthpop/eurobeat
sound of their time, and also combining it with Wink’s emotionless and
vulnerable stage personas. The result was the great “Samishii Nettaigyo”, an
upbeat but sad dance-pop song about an unrequited love and some water
metaphors. Also, worthy of note are some specific parts of the song like the
main synth melody, the instrumental breakdown with the melancholic synth notes
and, of course, the catchy chorus. Overall, this song offers an amazing synth
arrangement full of details and spacey sounds in the background (my favorite
performance of this song is from "Yoru no Hit Studio" where three keyboard
players were reproducing all the electronic sounds live. It was a dream to see
a band with so much live synthesizers being played and just one guitar player.
Something like the revenge of the synthesizers. You can check it here after the
5:40 mark). Making it even better, like a cherry at the top of the cake, the
bass line is monstrously groovy. In the end, “Samishii Nettaigyo” surely
deserved to be the smash hit it was and, also, the top song of my list.
As a funny story, one of my best friends says
he can’t like Wink, especially this “fish” song (that’s how he calls it). The
raw synthesizers are probably too much for him, and Wink’s lifeless stage
personas don’t help at all. One day, after a discussion involving Wink, I put a
Perfume concert, and he instantly said it was a lot better than Wink. But he’s
a nice guy who watched the whole Wink concert in DVD with me some years ago
simply because we’re friends.
Well guys,
that’s it for today. Thanks a lot for taking some time to read this long post.
I just hope this selection introduces some nice songs and a couple of ideas I chose to develop as well. It was a very
difficult, but pleasurable exercise. Of course I could change this list almost
every day, but that’s just one bad consequence of “best of lists”: in the end,
we are never truly satisfied with them. But I think it’s ok for now.
Today I’m going to talk about “OVERHEAT NIGHT”, the
second single released by Chisato Moritaka (森高千里), in October 1987. After talking
specifically about the song, I make some considerations about the fashion style
portrayed by Moritaka and some other sexy idols that were active during the
late 80s/early 90s.
In general, “OVERHEAT
NIGHT” is a disco inspired song with some eurobeat elements. We can find three different
versions of the song in Moritaka’s discography. The single edit version, the
full album version found in the “Mi-Ha” album (ミーハー) and the “new recording” version
found on the “Moritaka Land” best album (森高ランド). The version presented in the beginning
of the article is the single edit and its video features a young and not-very-sexy Moritaka. My favorite one, however, might be the “Moritaka Land” version. Therefore, I decided to share the version
performed on the “Mite Special Live” (見て ~スペシャル~ ライヴ) from 1989 (one of my favorite
idol concerts ever) because it is similar to the one found on the “Moritaka
Land” compilation. This specific recording of the song is even more disco
inspired, with a groovy bassline and some nice synth work. Also, we can note
that Chisato, during the “Mite Special Live”, makes use of her typical and
famous sexy/pin-up persona.
Making some comparisons, we can relate Moritaka’s music
to Minako Tanaka (田中美奈子),Aya Sugimoto (杉本彩) and Reiko Katou (かとうれいこ), three idols that were relying heavily in disco/eurobeat
inspired songs at the time. About Minako Tanaka, I remember that when I first watched
her singing in a TV show, she was almost a replica of Chisato Moritaka: the
long/straight/black hair, the up-body outfits, the mini-skirts and, of course, THE
LEGS (in my humble opinion, Moritaka’s were better). Aya Sugimoto and Reiko Katou, on the
other hand, were overly sexual examples of late 80s/early 90s idol. So, based on
these four girls (Chisato, Minako, Aya and Reiko), we can see that adifferent kind of idol, not focused just
on the cute look, was emerging in Japan around the late 80s/early 90s. Therefore, it’s quite
suggestive that during the so-called “winter era of idols” or “idol cold age” (Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media
Culture. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN, 2012, p. 24), this new kind of feminine
representation came to light in the Japanese idol world.
Take a look at the videos below. The songs are,
respectively, “Tell Me” (1989) by Minako Tanaka, “B&S” (1989) by Aya Sugimoto and "Listen To Your Heart" (1990) by Reiko Katou. In
general, they are good pieces of late 80s dance-pop music, so enjoy the songs and
the girls’ charms.
Although I’m not a late80s fashion expert, I noticed that
Chisato and Minako were influenced by some outfits used in England during the
SAW (“Stock Aitken Waterman” production team) heyday. I selected, for example,
a performance by singer Sinitta. The name of the campy/cheesy song is “Toy Boy”
(1987) and the male dancers’ choreography/outfits are creepy as hell, so forget
them and focus on Sinitta, please. Basically, we can see that her clothes are
not so far away from the outfits used by the two sexy Japanese idols mentioned
above.
Curiously, I remember watching a 2007 Japanese
comedy/sci-fi movie called “Bubble Fiction: Boom or Bust” (バブルへGO!! タイムマシンはドラム式) and, as the title
reveals, the movie is passed in 1990, when the bubble economy times were going
down of the roof. The plot is kinda cheap and is not very interesting for this
article, but the hairstyle and outfits used by the actresses (not Ryoko Hirosue [広末涼子],
the main one, because she was a time traveler from 2007) were very similar to
the ones used by Chisato Moritaka and Minako Tanaka. As I didn’t live/visit
Japan at the time (I couldn’t as I was born in 1990), I can’t really tell if
that kind of look was trendy, but based on Chisato, Minako and this particular
movie, I created some sort of image of Japanese girls fashion during the late
80s/early 90s. Also, I don’t know if this fashion style was common in the
United States as well. I need to check this better someday. But take a look at
one scene of the movie below. The song playing in the background is, of course, "Diamonds" by PRINCESS PRINCESS (プリンセス プリンセス), the number one song of the year 1989.
As I said earlier, “OVERHEAT NIGHT” was Moritaka’s
second single, released in October 1987. The single reached #24 on the weekly
Oricon chart and sold around 22,000 copies (source: generasia). The song was placed in a full format in her second album “Mi-Ha”, released in March 1988.
It was later included in three compilations: “Moritaka Land” (1989), “The Best
Selection of First Moritaka 1987-1993” (1999) and “The Singles” (2012). The
song was written by Hiromasa Ijichi (伊秩弘将) while the music and arrangement were made
by Saito Hideo (斉藤英夫).
Even though “OVERHEAT NIGHT” isn’t Moritaka’s best, I
enjoy it a lot, and it was one of her first songs that hooked me. So I consider
it a special song.
To end this article,
here’s a photo of my own copy of “The best Selection of First Moritaka
1987-1993” compilation. “OVERHEAT NIGHT” is the second song from the first
disc.
