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.
Welcome to another Thursday ROY article to start things off for this broadcasting day.
From the time that I've started this category of Reminiscings of Youth where I talk about some of the non-Japanese pop songs that came into my ears and life, and make that superficial comparison with what was showing up on Oricon or being released as singles in Japan, I've been covering a lot of my favourite 70s and 80s tunes from the United States and the United Kingdom. However, strangely enough, I had yet to do anything about the songs of my youth from my own country of Canada.
Well, one of the finest examples of our Canadian humour came from the beloved show "SCTV" that had its run in those 70s and 80s. In a long-running satirical gag about fulfilling the need to provide Canadian content on the show, the producers and cast came up with "Great White North" (which is why I've often referred to my nation as the Great White North in past articles from time to time), a two-minute vignette featuring a couple of hoseheads, the brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie, spouting off on various Canadian concepts. Even surprising the guys who had played the McKenzies, Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, the skit became a huge hit on both sides of the US/Canada border, and for a while at least, terms such as the aforementioned "hosehead", "beauty, eh?" and "take off" merged into the pop culture vernacular. Up to my final days in Japan, there were people meeting me for the first time who when discovering where I was from, gave the secondary greeting of "How's it going, eh?" along with "Must be cold up there".
In the interests of providing Canadian content then, I bring you Spoons'"Nova Heart", a May 1982 release. Now, who are the Spoons? Well, the original band formed in 1979 in Burlington, Ontario, just to the west of Toronto and consisted of guitarist/lead vocalist Gordon Deppe, bassist Sandy Horne, keyboardist Brett Wickens and drummer Peter Shepherd, and I found out through their Wikipedia entry that they got the name for the band from all of the members sharing some alphabet soup and then suddenly staring at their spoons (ahhh...the magic of alphabet soup!).
Apparently, Spoons initially reflected their love for prog rock band such as Genesis (in the 1970s) but due to a lack of interest from audiences, they decided to go for something more pop and New Wave, and that's where I first found "Nova Heart". At the time, I'd just fallen for kayo kyoku after the trip to Japan in 1981 along with a suddenly ravenous interest in pop music (especially songs that included those analog synthesizers) in general thanks to music videos. So, the video for "Nova Heart" with its dreamy images (and the dreamy beauty of bassist Horne), the distinctive delivery by vocalist Deppe, and the mesmerizing synthpop arrangement immediately got my attention.
For a fellow who got all into technopop (Soft Cell, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, etc.) thanks to Yellow Magic Orchestra, hearing a local band embracing a somewhat similar sound was manna from heaven for me. "Nova Heart" did moderately well on the RPM charts by coming in at No. 40, but the song itself has lasted in my memories for about 40 years now. The song was also a track on Spoons' 1982 album"Arias & Symphonies".
To finish off, here's some more Canadiana with "Hinterland Who's Who", an animal-based PSA that was playing throughout my childhood on the television in the 1960s and 1970s. You have a good day, eh?
After our foray back into the 1970s for the last few Reminiscings of Youth articles especially to celebrate "September", on this last day of September 2020, I want to take things from the post-disco of Earth Wind & Fire circa 1978 to early 1980s New Wave.
Now, should that be New Wave or New Romantic? I always had a bit of a problem distinguishing the two since apparently Duran Duran went from New Romantic to New Wave but on the other hand, Visage was totally New Romantic while Talking Heads was totally New Wave...I think. My initial impression had been that New Wave was about the music while New Romanticism covered the entire spiel: fashion, makeup (lots of it), style and music.
But according to this 2015 answer from Adrienne Dancer, the owner of Los Angeles-based store Beat Bop Boom, New Wave and New Romantic had their own separate styles of music (the link "answer" will take you directly to Quora but I'll also provide it here as well; also take a look at music historian Joshua A. Pfeiffer's reply):
As someone who is a fan of both (and sells related memorabilia and merchandise)...I would consider a band like Flock of Seagulls or Duran Duran to be New Wave...
But a band like Visage or Japan I consider more New Romantic.
(Duran Duran I would say started off New Romantic and transitioned into New Wave.)
Both styles of bands in the 80s would have band members--mostly males--who would wear blousey shirts and make up and would have a heavy synthesizer focus, but I think that the main differences are about the themes of the songs and the sounds of the songs, as well.
I consider New Wave bands' songs more party-danceable. New Romantic bands almost more suited for Goth clubs and for listening in your bedroom kind of music--or the kind of songs you would put on a cassette mix tape for someone that you have a crush on. :)
New Romantic bands song subjects also might focus more on exotic foreign locations, deeper emotions... whereas New Wave songs would be more about having fun or immediate emotions.
Regardless, it was an interesting time to get into music for a callow youth like me with the songs and videos coming at me from both sides of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans at warp speed. Anyways, feel free to make your comments.
Anyways, before we all end up getting into a seminar about this, let us get straight into this week's ROY article with ABC's "The Look of Love".
I actually saw the video on one of the music video shows...or the last half of it...first before I heard "The Look of Love" on radio, and of course, not being particularly observant, I didn't bother seeing the name of the band or the title of the song. And yet, I was automatically attracted to it. Luckily, it was well on its way to becoming a big hit for ABC so it didn't take too much time to track down the particulars.
Now, looking back at "The Look of Love" on Wikipedia, I saw the genres being listed as synthpop and sophisti-pop, and I kinda did a double take on that first genre. But then, when I saw the video again, I kinda went "Oh, yeah...I can hear the synths and the syn-drums here". It was just that the arrangement was so classy and retro, and I later realized that I always had an interest in the old-style standards. So you had this stylishly retro-New Wave (and yep, I think ABC is New Wave) number with a video of the band and a cast of "thousands" hamming it up on a set that looked like it was supposed to be on some sort of variety show from the 1950s or 1960s, and yep, it grabbed me like the aroma of tenderloin steak on the grill.
"The Look of Love" certainly grabbed my fellow Canadians, too, as it hit No. 1 on the RPM Singles Chart, did pretty well in America by peaking at No. 18 on Billboard's Hot 100, and very well on the UK's OCC Singles Chart by placing in at No. 4.
Well, "The Look of Love" was released on May 7th 1982 in the UK. So, let us go with what was debuting around that time in Japan.
1. May 1st: Akina Nakamori -- Slow Motion (スローモーション）
I've been meaning to write about another song by techno-aidoruChiemi Manabe（真鍋ちえみ）, and so I found this happy-happy-joy-joy track from her lone album "Fushigi Shoujo"（不思議・少女）from 1982. The write-up for that album has already been done so feel free to peruse that as well.
One reason, I guess, that I didn't include Track 2"Koi no Seaside Party" (Seaside Party of Love) in the article for the whole album is that I was kinda intending to provide its own article. For one thing, my opinion is that out of all of the 10 original tracks from "Fushigi Shoujo", this particular hoppy little number is perhaps the most conventionally aidoru song. I mean, as soon as I heard the intro, my head started bopping side-to-side.
With lyrics by EPO and melody by Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）, "Koi no Seaside Party" is a number that people of all ages can appreciate from little kids, thanks to that sing-song music by Shimizu, to adult kayo fans like me. That cute technopop is in there though, in keeping with the overall sound of the album. Plus, the skippy nature of the song is such that it also brings back some 60s pop feeling, maybe even as a precursor to Shibuya-kei, although I admit that might be pushing the envelope too much. In any case, it's a cute little earworm to help digest Sunday dinner.
Back in Spring 2014, nikala wrote up a nice article on Techno Kayo as it applied to the aidoru of that time, and one of the people who was included was Chiemi Manabe（真鍋ちえみ）. The song which was included for her was "Nerawareta Shoujo"（ねらわれた少女...Targeted Girl）, her debut single from May 1982. What was striking about it was that dramatic technopop beat and somewhat ominous air to the song. Another interesting point was the combination of the late legendary lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and New Music/Technopop pioneer Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）to come up with this song. "Nerawareta Shoujo" was also included in her one and only album"Fushigi Shoujo" (Mysterious Girl) which would be released a few months after that single in August.
Well, for the years since, I had often been wondering about Manabe's discography and the image that had always come into my head was the cover from "Fushigi Shoujo" with her looking distinctly like Peter Pan. I assumed that she had even taken over the role from aidoru Ikue Sakakibara（榊原郁恵）who was quite famous for portraying the boy who never grew up. But although Manabe is listed as a former actress on her J-Wikifile, I haven't seen any indication whether she actually did play Pan. Still, it was fascinating to see this Peter Pan-esque figure singing technopop.
nikala pointed out in her piece that fans of techno kayo had labeled Manabe as the first bona fide techno aidoru. I wouldn't doubt it. Although there were other aidorus who had come out some years earlier with individual singles/album tracks with that technopop sound (such as "Robot" by the aforementioned Sakakibara), I think Manabe's entire short discography consisted of three singles and "Fushigi Shoujo" with all with those bright and perky synthesizers behind her.
Well, I finally got an in on the album when I was able to get my hands yesterday on the CD of "Fushigi Shoujo", thanks to Toshi at the Logic Store. So during my translation work today, I popped it into the stereo and had a listen.
The title track is the track that starts things off (the above video is for the whole album, by the way). "Fushigi Shoujo" was also created by Aku and Hosono, and it also starts off a bit dramatically like her debut single before the synthesizers go on a riff that's reminiscent of The Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade.
Ooooh...I see what you did there!
"Unto Tooku"（うんととおく...Very Far Away）sounds like it's trying to take in some of the more esoteric Yellow Magic Orchestra atmosphere going into the early 1980s. It was written by Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）, who I think deserves to be included at least as an honourary member of YMO for all of her contributions when the band was on tour, and composed by the late guitarist Kenji Omura（大村憲司）. It sounds quite trippy and New Wave with the echoing vocals by Manabe, and that intro would make a great test for a set of headphones. All of those other sound effects as well just keep the ears and imagination busy.
The parade of songwriters who are savvy with the technopop continues on the album with "Good-by Good-by" (37:06 on the album video above) written and composed by Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）. And as with a lot of Ohnuki's songs of the time, it is sweet and sweeping. You can just imagine Manabe at the top of some neighbourhood hill at night singing this to the moon or some other planetary body.
My last song for tonight here is a bonus track that was added to the remastered CD. Titled "Night Train Bishoujo"（ナイトレイン・美少女...Beautiful Girl on a Night Train）, this was Manabe's third and final single from October 1982 that had Aku and Hosono pairing up once more. There's something about the pairing of a piano and a synthesizer that really makes me like a lot of the technopop from this period. I also enjoy the drums and "shrieking" guitar in there as well. For some reason, I think this would have been a nice theme song for a contemporary anime.
Now, for some of the songs, Manabe's vocals aren't the strongest that I've ever heard but as I've mentioned before, a lot of the teen singers in the 80s were given some great support by their songwriters, and I think that's the case with the tracks on "Fushigi Shoujo". And I have to say that it has been a fun trip with this aidoru who was fully embraced by the technopop aesthetic for an entire album (and I got through my work a little faster than usual😁). For those who are interested in the techno aidoru, I think this would be a must-have.
Having a strong fondness for Japanese techno/synthpop, I thought for a while about making an entry about some of my favorites but also decided to narrow things down a bit. This one specifically deals with aidoru tracks produced by some techno masterminds like YMO, Masami Tsuchiya and Moonriders, also known as aidoru techno-kayo. I don't usually have an urge to listen to idols, but when I do, more often than not it's this stuff right here. I think it's because the arrangements and the concepts keep me interested. I love the quirky techno-ness of it all, and it seems like the creators actually put effort into these songs. Or perhaps I just like the sound of computer music mixed with cute vocals. Not that all the singers below necessarily sound cute, but those that do definitely benefit from all the synths and bleeps in the background.
Without further ado, here's the playlist, organized in chronological order. There isn't a particular theme to these selections since good music comes in different forms and moods. Enjoy!
1. Fever -- Digita Love [フィーバー -- デジタラブ] (1980)
Long before Yasutaka Nakata came along with Perfume, Keiichi Suzuki (鈴木慶一) already digitalized the Candies aesthetic with this edgy new wave tune for Fever. It doesn't actually sound like Perfume but the concept and the image are there. The cover image above of Naomi Watai (渡井なおみ), Izumi Okahiro (岡広いづみ) and Mayumi Kitagawa (北川まゆみ) in triangular formation really do resemble Nocchi, Acchan and Kashiyuka from their Computer City~Game era though in different outfits. The song itself has a nice mix of techno bleeps set to a surf rock rhythm. I found it enjoyable from start to finish. Always appreciate a bit of experimentation with aidoru tracks. P-Vine's compilation of Toshiba EMI's Techno-Kayo works was the one that introduced me to this obscure song. I wouldn't have heard it otherwise. As for Fever themselves, the little information I could dig on them tells me that they started off as a sexier version of Candies, debuting with the single “Akuma ni Kushizuke” (悪魔にくちづけ) in April 1979. They had one album and another four singles after that before they broke up in late 1980. “Digita Love” was their final release and their only techno song as far as I know.
As a one-third of the Hana no Chu-San Trio (花の中三トリオ), Sakurada may have been overshadowed by the legendary Momoe Yamaguchi but she did hold strong on her own with some of her mid-70's hits like “Hajimete no Dekigoto” (はじめての出来事) and “Juushichi no Natsu” (十七の夏). One of her latter highlights was the album “My Dear” from 1981, which had Side 1 of the LP produced by Akiko Yano (矢野顕子), who brought in all that bubbly technopop for Sakurada to try. Lots of great songs there, but the one that captivated me the most is “Kitto Kitto”. Although the music itself has Yano written all over it and in the refrain Sakurada copies her fluttery manner of delivering the lyrics, she interpreted it in her own way with that mature womanly voice of hers. Whereas Yano sounds sweet like the kindest friend, Sakurada goes for the sultry. Makes for an interesting combo with the music. You can call me addicted to the rapid refrain and the strings riff that follows it. It's just cleverly crafted in general with all these delicate details in the arrangement. Better not dissect them.
Chiemi Manabe had a very short idol career in the early 80's first as a member of the group Pansy (パンジー) and then as a soloist before she switched to modeling and acting and then disappeared from media altogether later in the decade. Techno-kayo enthusiasts refer to her as the original techno idol since she was one of the first along with Starbow to specialize in the sound. “Nerawareta Shoujo” was her debut single, which was written by the eminent Aku Yu (阿久悠) and composed/arranged by Haruomi Hosono (細野晴臣). What can I say... That synth line is a killer. And the melody has a unique eeriness to it that's unlike your generic pop song. Manabe's vocals are rather thin, but they don't bother me at all when set against the solid techno backdrop. Unfortunately, she didn't pursue singing for long only leaving us with three singles and one album, but what she had was very nice.
4. Imokin Trio -- High School Lullaby [イモ欽トリオ -- ハイスクール・ララバイ] (1982)
I couldn't help it, it's just too darn infectious. J-Canuck wrote an informative entry on Imokin Trio and the song, so I don't have any factual information to add. It's a pretty silly and classic Takashi Matsumoto (松本隆)/Hosono work for a group of boys who just wanted to make people laugh. The hilarious choreography, which had Kojio Nishiyama/Waruo (西山浩司) playing air drums as if he were Yukihiro Takahashi (高橋幸宏) and Ryoichi Yamaguchi/Yoshio (山口良一) behind the air synths in the position of Ryuichi Sakamoto (坂本龍一), probably played a huge role into making this song a winner, but even on its own, it has some strong synth lines that make it a quality techno tune. What was meant to be a novelty tune happened to turn into a classic. It hasn't worn itself out in my ears yet. When I sang it in karaoke, my friend remarked that it sounded girly with all those “suki suki baby” parts so I showed the performance to surprise her. She's been hooked ever since.
5. Mari Iijima -- Love Sick [飯島真理 -- Love Sick] (1983)
Mari Iijima's debut album “Rosé”, which was produced and arranged by Ryuichi Sakamoto, is notable for being of interest to both techno and City Pop enthusiasts, judging by some responses I came across online. Couldn't miss that pretty pink cover while flipping through the pages of Japanese City Pop either. Just listen to “Love Sick” and you'll know what the deal is. It's a loungy nightime melody with a digital/string arrangement and it's wonderful. Every time I listen to it, I can't help but be charmed by the way the classical strings in the opening give way to the synths that take over from there. Kudos to Sakamoto for that clever arrangement. Iijima's voice is sweet like the purest honey but it also has a mature flair to it, which you can pick out easily in this song. It's not often that you find a singer who had it right from the very start, but I'm happy to say that her debut was great. And she wrote and composed the whole thing herself.
6. Hiromi Go -- Dakara Spectacle [郷ひろみ -- だからスペクタクル] (1983)
Just to prove that YMO practically owned Japanese pop of the early 80's, they had to involve themselves with Hiromi Go or else their control wasn't complete. Ryuichi Sakamoto produced his 1983 album “Hiromi-Kyou no Hanzai” (比呂魅卿の犯罪), inviting the rest of YMO and its family including Kenji Omura and Akiko Yano to play the instruments. The album cover and the booklet images feature the idol in a New Romantic getup complete with blush and lipstick. It was a bit of an oddball entry in Go's discography but it was also the one that convinced me to get over my embarrassment of liking his music and give it an earnest try. Of all the tracks there, however, I decided to go with the one that he wrote and composed himself (and did it well) while Sakamoto let his arranging magic do the rest of the work. “Dakara Spectacle”, as you can tell from the title, is quite theatrical and somewhat cheesy but in a good way. Even though it's just little over 7 minutes long, it never drags. I like everything about this: the chorus, the verses, the instrumental bits. Despite Sakamoto's influence, it's very much a Go piece and he owns it like a dandy heartthrob that he is.
Like Chiemi Manabe, I would have liked for Kilala & Ulala go further but alas they only lasted for two years. Their only album “Double Fantasy” doesn't feature the usual techno composers save for Hosono and Masaya Matsuura (from PSY-S) on a couple of tracks but it's still memorable. My personal favorite number from it is “Yume, Fushigi Ikaga”, which was written/composed by EPO and arranged by Nobuyuki Shimizu (清水信之). Just listening to the futuristic melody and synths and the girls' bold voices makes me want to launch a rocket into the stratosphere. Although it was a CM jingle for some cosmetics company, I think it would make a fine theme for a tokusatsu show. Just an observation. You can read more about the duo in my entry here.
8. Chiemi Hori -- Wa Shoi! [堀ちえみ -- Wa・ショイ!] (1985)
According to J-Wiki, this was considered an unusually experimental for an aidoru tune due to all the sampler effects, but being accustomed to random noises and grunts in Morning Musume's songs, I wasn't that fazed when I first heard it. I just thought it was really catchy. Maybe it's because of Hori's happy-go-lucky vocals and the bouncy melody that it fits with all the sugary idol pop of the time. The arrangement and the effects are still pretty interesting though, so they make this stand out for me. The lyrics were provided by Hirofumi Suzuki (鈴木博文) and the music/arrangement by Ryomei Shirai (白井良明), both from Moonriders. I'm not sure if that was Shirai's intention, but those buzzing synths remind me of cicadas in the summer. Then again, the single was released in the midst of July heat, so it was crafted for the summer anyway. J-Wiki also notes that he created it with matsuri and ondo music images in mind. “Wasshoi” itself is sort of like Japanese equivalent of “heave ho” and is usually chanted at matsuri when carrying floats and portable shrines. I can just picture Hori herself taking part in the festivities while singing this. Oh, and the way she chirps “kira kira” is adorable. You can read more about the singer through generasia. Marcos V also wrote a great article on her last single here.
Here's a Sakamoto creation that has popped at me in various incarnations over the years, but it's Yukada's glorious opening track to her final album “Venus Tanjo” (ヴィーナス誕生) from March 1986 that I'm partial to. The other two are Sakamoto's self-cover with different lyrics titled “Ballet Mecanique” which came out a month later and Miki Nakatani's “Chronic Love” from 1999, an opening to the quirky mystery drama Keizoku that she has starred in. Those unique melody chords cannot be mistaken for anything else. It's one of Sakamoto's quintessential compositions, in my opinion. Combine that with Okada's cute and quivering vocals and you have an idol masterpiece. I've never seen her perform this which I doubt even happened considering the brief time between “Venus Tanjo” and her death, but I think it'd be a lovely sight. She had a lot of nice songs in her brief but legendary career, including the acclaimed “Kuchibiru Network” (also created by Sakamoto), and she also passed the test of keeping up the good work beyond the singles. That's why I decided to highlight “Wonder Trip Lover” aside from the fact that it happens to be a fine techno-kayo song. The other two names involved with it were EPO behind the lyrics and the late Tetsuro Kashibuchi (かしぶち哲郎) from Moonriders behind the arrangement. That galloping drumming in the refrain and the sax are unique to Okada's version and make it the special one for me.
I just like the spunky Kyon Kyon in general, so it really made my day when I found out that she teamed up with folks like Hosono and Masami Tsuchiya (土屋昌巳) who composed and arranged this tune. It was a leading track on her eleventh studio album "Phantasien" from July 1987. Being released later in the decade, it doesn't really resemble that early techno-kayo style, but it still has enough happy synthesisizer in it be their relative. Being a sucker for anything fantastical, I obviously enjoyed “Tsuretette Phantasien” for the whole “girl lost in a fantasyland” theme. And that German bit in the bridge specifically transplanted me to the fairytales of Brothers Grimm. I particularly enjoyed the toy military drum rhythm combined with that adventurous melody in the refrain. And the way it wraps up at the end is magical. The promotional video (which got taken down by powers that be) of Kyon Kyon wandering in the forest and encountering various creatures is very fitting.
That's it, folks. If you're interested in sampling more techno-kayo, you can check out P-Vine's impressive compilations where they selected a bunch of songs on various labels from Polydor and Teichiku to Victor and Kind Records. More about those here. Unfortunately, For Life Records and Sony didn't participate in the project, so names like Chiemi Manabe aren't represented there. Those are still extensive compilations though that include both aidoru tunes and more experimental fare. My playlist here has many of the artists featured there, though I didn't necessarily go for just the signature tunes. Hopefully you found something of interest.
