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.
It's just a few weeks away from Akiko Wada's（和田アキ子）birthday and it's been a long career for her since starting out with her first single in 1968.
Wada is still seen as one of the interpreters of Japanese-style blues, and I think "Tasogare ni Encore"(Encore at Sunset) is a good fit with that arrangement of gospel blues. The video is also a touching one as the life of a couple is played out through the good and bad times, but in the end, it all works out as their elderly versions have a swing together.
This track was part of a mini-album that was put out in December 2021, "WADASOUL2", and "Tasogare ni Encore" was written by Gota Nishidera（西寺郷太）of Nona Reeves and composed/produced by Yu Sakai（さかいゆう）. "WADASOUL2" also has the previous Wada song that I wrote about last year, the very different "YONA YONA DANCE".
Years ago while I was living in Ichikawa, an old friend of mine used to visit the apartment from time to time, and he enjoyed bringing over the various game platforms including the original Sony PlayStation. Of course, I had other friends who also enjoyed playing video games so whenever my friend arrived, they did too. It was often the case that when I had to finally hit the hay, they would just continue playing on in the living room.
One unique game that my friend brought over was "PaRappa the Rapper"（パラッパラッパー）, the 1990s music game produced by PSY-S' Masaya Matsuura（松浦雅也）that actually had the players rapping through the controls. The main character was PaRappa the dog who would do anything to gain the love of Sunny Funny the flower. Yes, realizing that this was all an imaginative flight of fancy, I still can't even imagine what pollination might mean between them. Usually when I think of dogs and flowers, there is another basic bodily function that comes to mind between the two, but since that in the milieu of PaRappa and Sunny Funny, that might take things into a far more disturbing fetishistic situation, I will just leave it there.
Anyways, the game apparently did have its fans and I remember a couple of things the best about "PaRappa the Rapper". One was the above beginning stage featuring PaRappa being trained by Chop Chop Master Onion. I even gave it a shot myself and barely passed...unlike Gene Kelly, I got no rhythm. The other thing was the darn humourous part in the story when PaRappa really needed to hit a washroom and he was making all sorts of grimacing faces which had Sunny Funny mistakenly thinking that her dog buddy was looking especially kakkoii for her.
Well, "PaRappa the Rapper" had its time in the sun before rappers and players decided to move onto games. What I hadn't known was that Fuji-TV actually had an anime version of the game produced and broadcast for almost a year beginning in April 2001. There were some pretty nice opening credits adorned with a catchy theme by the band Nona Reeves（ノーナ・リーヴス）, "Love Together". Hey, bring back that crazy disco beat!
Written and composed by Nona Reeves' vocalist, Gota Nishidera（西寺郷太）, "Love Together ~ PaRappa Mix" was released in May 2001 as their 8th single. It reached No. 67 on the Oricon charts. The results may have been rather modest, but I think the song is still good fun and perhaps it could have been used in a revival of the game.
"Love Together" actually had a prior release as Nona Reeves' 6th single in March 2000 and there isn't too much difference that I heard between the two versions aside from the fact that the DJ scratching was only included in the "PaRappa Mix".
It has been a while since I wrote something for the blog. I have been missing it, honestly, but for a few months, college took a lot of my time and now I am finally feeling more free. Still, I keep updating my Twitter regularly: it is easier to consume bite-sized information and I have begun to use it a lot more in the last few months.
I have been listening to a lot of music lately, due to getting Spotify Premium in a Christmas deal and installing a rhythm mobile game called Girls Beat Stage. I have already spent some money in there as the "gacha" gods have been blessing me... Lol. It is a lot of fun, so I don't regret it!
The game has opened my eyes to both songs I have listened before without paying that much attention, both new songs I have come to love. Today, I would like to talk about one of them.
Twitter @yufu_0708
I have known Yufu Terashima (寺嶋由芙) for a long time, but I have never properly listened to her discography. I think the first time I heard about her was when I saw the MV for "Neko ni Naritai" (猫になりたい). At the time, I didn't even know she had been a member of BiS, the alternative idol group I now love very much. Well, it's a fact Yufu herself doesn't really like reminiscing as well...
The aforementioned Girls Beat Stage includes several idols tied with DEARSTAGE Inc., the idol agency that manages most notably Dempagumi.inc. Yuffie (as she's also called by fans) is also one of their artists. Her first song featured in the game is "Kimi ni Toropitaina" (君にトロピタイナ), her latest single as of this day, released October 17th, 2018.
I like this song very much because the synths and the overall mood remind me of Showa era songs. Both lyrics, composition and arrangement are the work of Gota Nishidera, the main singer, songwriter and producer of the band NONA REEVES. In the official Teichiku Records website for the single, he states he had been studying the concept of idol along with Yufu and came to the conclusion of basing the song off the genre of "Tropical Minneapolis Euro Kayo" - which is how I assume the term "Toropitaina" came to mind.
Interesting, huh? It's pretty nice to see how much thought still goes to modern idol songs in order to conduct a well-thought, well-balanced, nostalgic-sounding music that still has a modern feel to it and sounds like idol music - mainly because of Yufu's vocals, which are technically not too good, but are pleasant and very characteristic.
I have definitely woken up to Yuffie's music and one of this days I'd like to write about "Kimi ga Chiru" (きみが散る), another very good and nostalgic pop tune.
