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.
A couple of months ago, I posted an article featuring a 2022 duet between Bitei Matsuki & Souki Urakami（松木美定・浦上想起）titled "Butai no Ue de"（舞台の上で）. They showed that jazz and pop are still happily intermingling with each other in Japanese music, and so I was interested in seeing what more both have had to offer in their careers thus far.
Well in Bitei's case, even earlier in December 2021, he released an EP called "Luminescence de Tsuranuite"(Penetrating with Luminescence). That title track has that whimsical mixture of old-style jazz and pop that seems to be his calling card. Apparently, not only did Bitei come up with words and music but he was also responsible for the illustrations popping up in the music video above. A definite artiste, I see.
One other personal observation that I have is that when I hear him sing the elegant "Luminescence de Tsuranuite", I sometimes get images of Gilbert O'Sullivan in my mind. Maybe there's even some feeling of the 1970s hidden in the arrangement.
Watching the video above, I was reminded of some of my final years in Japan when it was usually the case that I came home from teaching class quite a few minutes past midnight. It was because my final school was located on the west side of Tokyo while I was living out east in Chiba Prefecture. Most of the time, I was OK with the subway but sometimes for whatever reason, I missed the final train so I had to splurge for an expensive taxi ride.
Still getting home was tough especially in the summers, when the temperature was a steamy 26 degrees Celsius even past the bewitching hour. Those vending machines just a few metres away from my apartment helped immensely as did the cool showers once I got home.
Anyways, I should get onto the song. Musician and singer Souki Urakami（浦上想起）was someone that I introduced onto the pages of KKP several weeks ago with his 2023 "Touzakaru Inu"（遠ざかる犬）with that combination of old-style jazz and pop. Well, I seem to have found Urakami's melodic soulmate, singer-songwriter Bitei Matsuki（松木美定）. Through a "Tokion" article, I discovered that both not only got inspired by the Carpenters but both also have a love of bringing together those two musical genres that I just mentioned.
In May 2022, Bitei and Urakami worked together behind and in front of the mike to create a single for the former titled "Butai no Ue de"(On the Stage). With Bitei taking care of words, music and arrangement, the song about getting through the darkness and onto the stage of hope and light has a very pleasant jazz waltz swing to it, although the pacing is a bit more uptempo than Bill Evans' classic "Waltz for Debby". The "Tokion" article mentions that Bitei has melded pop and the old hard bop but I think "Butai no Ue de" feels like Evans' form of cool jazz.
It's been an interesting couple of decades for Japanese pop music, and I'm talking about the music away from the Oricon charts. Being a jazz fan, I've had my interest in these bands that have mixed the genre with other styles, and for that matter, past genres with a more contemporary beat. Ego-Wrappin' comes to mind and I've also read that Matsuki has also been inspired by the band Lamp, a group with some City Pop underpinnings that was also recommended to me years ago.
