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.
Happy Christmas to all of you this day...or perhaps it's more like Happy Boxing Day or simply sympathies for your massive hangover.
The movie "White Christmas" (1954) has once again made its annual appearance on TV here. It's one of the favourites of the season in my household. But of course, the song itself is one of the most famous Xmas tunes in existence and therefore has been covered by just about everyone ranging from Barbra Streisand to Sailor Mars.
Five years ago, one of the first J-Xmas tunes I wrote about here on the blog was Japan's equivalent of "White Christmas", "Christmas Eve" by Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）. It has also been covered a number of times by various artists in both English and Japanese. Ah, yes, I know the above is a parody of the famous JR commercial featuring the song.
The first cover of "Christmas Eve" that I had ever heard was the rap version by hip-hop group Kick The Can Crew when they released their "Christmas Eve Rap" as their 4th single in November 2001. Peaking at No. 5 on Oricon, it sold approximately 400,000 copies. The band never placed it in an original album since it was a seasonal song but it is a track on their "Best Album 2001~2003" from November 2003. That album hit No. 1 and became the 44th-ranked album for 2004.
Several years later in 2008, the R&B duo Chemistry crooned their own take on the song through their album of ballads called "Winter of Love". The album came out in November and hit No. 7 on the charts.
Okinawan singer BENI then gave the English version of "Christmas Eve" a whirl on her own album of covers titled "COVERS:2" from November 2012. It peaked at No. 5.
Exactly 2 years later, Chris Hart sang his rendition of the Yamashita classic in his Xmas album "Christmas Hearts" which peaked at No. 8. Out of the versions mentioned so far, I think I like Hart's cover the best.
Yesterday on Xmas Eve, I received a friendly greeting from a fellow by the name of Beat Ratio from Australia who also shares my affinity for City Pop and 1980s Japan in general. He's been interested in breaking into the music industry and heading to Japan so he showed me his self-made video and cover of "Christmas Eve". I asked him if I could upload it here and he was very gracious in allowing me to do so.
Also if he is interested, I would also like to ask Beat Ratio why he wanted to cover this particular song by Yamashita. In any case, it's just another 364 days before Xmas Eve again.
Ryo Aska's"Hajimari wa Itsumo Ame" (There's Always Rain In The Beginning) had me at "Hajimari", to paraphrase a line from an old Tom Cruise movie. A bit exaggerated, but even without knowing what the lyrics were about, I just remember this ballad hooking me immediately even as the commercial song for a Panasonic stereo component system. Just the way the melody and Aska's vocals wound its way through the song was remarkable. It took a bit of doing, but I was finally able to track down the title and eventually get the album that it was on, "Scene II".
The taller half of J-Pop's power duo of Chage & Aska had a banner year in 1991. C&A had a massive hit that year with their summer release of "Say Yes",but just a few months earlier, Aska had released "Hajimari wa Itsumo Ame" in March as his 3rd single as a solo artist. Originally, a self-cover of a song that he had penned for Akina Nakamori（中森明菜） was to have been the jingle for that commercial, but the production staff and even the folks at Panasonic were so enamoured with this new song that it wasn't too difficult a decision to have it put in instead. Aska took care of both the music and lyrics, and I can now understand why the appeal was so great on a literal level as well. The singer just so tenderly sang about how much in love he was with this girl, even noting how wonderful her name was and how much rain there was when they first met. It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of lovelorn guys would go to this ballad to serenade their significant others under the window. As for the official video above, I think there's a lot to be said romantically about Aska making that call in the rain in an actual old-fashioned phone booth instead of just speaking into a tiny cellphone.
"Hajimari wa Itsumo Ame" went as far as the No. 2 spot on the charts, and sold a little over a million copies. And it secured the No. 5 ranking for the whole year, compared to the even more successful "Say Yes" which became the No. 2 song of 1991 which sold close to 3 million discs. A good year, indeed.
For his 2004 album, "THE HITS -- CORNERSTONES 3", Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）gave his own softer version of the song. It almost sounds unplugged, and the arrangement is distinctly Sato, considering his work with Sing Like Talking.
(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)
Beni gives her own English-language version of "Hajimari wa Itsumo Ame", although the video is very brief.
And this was the Panasonic commercial (at 00:42) that had plenty of hearts-a-throbbing.
While I'll always be a 80s JPop music fan at heart, I do listen to current stuff as well and one of my favorite artists now is singer BENI. Aside from being absolutely gorgeous, she is also a great singer with a powerful voice. It also helps that she is bilingual and can speak both English and Japanese fluently.
Born Beni Daniels on March 30, 1986 in Okinawa, BENI is the daughter of a Caucasian American father and a Okinawan born Japanese/Caucasian ハーフ mother. BENI's parents where both music lovers and exposed Beni to a wide variety of both American and Japanese music as she was growing up (BENI cites Amuro Namie, Alicia Keys and Janet Jackson as indluences). BENI also learned to play the piano as a child.
When Beni was in the 6th grade, her family moved from Okinawa to Yokosuka City in Kanagawa Prefecture where she went to school at the アメリカンスクール・イン・ジャパン there. One of her fellow classmates was Crystal Kay, who herself would go on to become an accomplished Japanese R & B star.
During her Middle and High School years, BENI moved between Japan and America, even residing for a short time in San Diego, California. BENI was very athletic and played soccer during Intermediate and High School.
In 2002 at the age of 16, BENI entered the オスカープロモーション/Oscar Promotion Company sponsored talent contest - 全日本国民的美少女コンテスト/Kokuminteki Bishojo Contest where she made it all the way to the finals which was quite a feat considering she had no formal music or vocal training.
After graduating from Nile C. Kinnick High School in Yokosuka, Beni attended college at 上智大学/Sophia University where she majored in Sociology but decided to leave her studies to pursue her dream of
singing.
BENI got her big break when one of her demo tapes was seen by agents with Avex Trax. Impressed by her clear voice, natural beauty and bilingual ability, they soon decided to sign her up to the label.
BENI was first introduced as a part of Avex Trax's teen idol group 美少女クラブ31/Bishoujo Club 31. It wasn't long before Beni quickly graduated from the group and went solo with her first single 『Harmony』 in 2004. At this time she used the name 安良城紅/Arashiro Beni, using her mother's maiden last name. From 2005-2008 she would release three albums but in 2008, BENI left Avex Trax to go with Universal. In the process BENI dropped her last name just by her first name. These changes seemed to work for the better as she began to get more notice with songs such as 「Kiss Kiss Kiss」, 「KIRA☆KIRA☆」 and the above song 「BYE BYE」. 「BYE BYE」 wasn't a major hit (it only placed #57 on the Oricon charts) but it got a lot of airplay owing to its selection as the outro theme for ダウンタウン's フジテレビ music program show 『HEY!HEY!HEY! MUSIC CHAMP』 ヘイ!ヘイ!ヘイ! ミュージック・チャンプ. With its fusion blend of traditional Japanese koto music mixed with a catchy R & B hook, it seemed to reflect perfectly BENI's diverse cultural/ethnic mix.
BENI would release other singles throughout the next couple years including 「ギミギミ♥」, 「Heaven's Door」 and 「Darlin'」.
In 2012, BENI released two albums of various song covers appropriately named 『COVERS』 & 『COVERS2』 where she sang English-version cover variations of various Japanese pop songs like EXILE's 「Ti Amo」, スピッツ's 「ロビンソン」, サザンオールスターズ's 「いとしのエリー」, 尾崎豊's 「I LOVE YOU」 and ASKA's 「はじまりはいつも雨」. 『COVERS2』 in fact debuted on the Oricon weekly chart at #5 selling over 50,000 copies, making it BENI's best debut sales ever.
At only 26, it's only a matter of time before BENI finds her way to the top spot on the Oricon charts and I for one will be there routing for her.
Here's a live performance of her song 「Kiss Kiss Kiss」
And here's a live performance of her song 「Darlin'」
