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.
For me, the entertainment district of Roppongi in Tokyo consists of the still-somewhat grimy and original Roppongi Avenue and the two modern complexes of Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Midtown. It's quite the neighbourhood but I never saw it as an island unto itself.
Well, Pearl Kyodai（パール兄弟...The Pearl Brothers） apparently did...at least enough to create a song that was the title track to the band's June 1990 5th album, "Roppongi Tou" (Roppongi Island). I first wrote about Pearl Kyodai back in 2017 when Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）and his group came up with the New Wave-y"Sugar Sugar Tengoku"（シュガシュガ天国 ）for their 4th album"TOYVOX" in 1989.
Music genre-wise, Roppongi has in the past evoked Mood Kayo and jazz. With "Roppongi Tou", a breezy description of life on the island, it's actually showing some refreshing tropical jazz. I don't really see Roppongi at night here (as I would usually do); instead, it's bright daylight in Roppongi (despite the repeated mentions of "midnight") with some different attractions, thanks to the fervent Latin jazz rhythms and the crystalline synths. Saeki provided the lyrics while fellow Pearl BrotherHaruo Kubota（窪田晴男）took care of the music.
So far, singer-songwriter Miyuki Kajitani（梶谷美由紀）has been represented on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for her contribution to the "Sailor Moon" franchise with the happy-go-lucky ""Rashiku" Ikimasho"（”らしく” いきましょ）ending theme. And on her J-Wiki page, it's been said that she's been mostly known for her anison.
However, Kajitani did release her 5th single in November 1996, "Kiss The Sunlight", which apparently didn't have any anime connections (although it was used as the ending theme for a weekly animal documentary program on TBS). It's also quite the peppy bossa-pop number that starts with a rollicking keyboard sequence that I quite like. For a while, I thought maybe it could also qualify as a Shibuya-kei piece but ultimately I went with Latin and Pop. Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）and Kajitani were the lyricists here while Hirofumi Suzuki（鈴木博文）took care of the amiable melody.
Today is a rather drab and dreary November day which is often par for the course here as the season starts changing. Quite appropriate for Hump Day, I imagine.
Let's go with something a bit off the beaten path, especially for singer Rie Nakahara（中原理恵）. When the name is mentioned, I usually get thoughts of City Pop by songs such as "Disco Lady"(ディスコ・レディー) back in 1978.
However, her final original album to date was "Un Art de Vivre" from September 1985 and judging from that title and this particular track from it, perhaps she was trying for something quite different. "Kon'ya Escape"(Escape Tonight) is a bit more avant-pop and New Wave. Written by Kenzo Saeki（佐伯健三） and composed by Saeki Suzuki（鈴木さえ子）, it almost sounds like a slower take on Little Eva's "The Loco-Motion" with some synths and weird horns that might have popped out of a David Bowie production. The desired effect has definitely been reached, though; this is no City Pop song. It's something that could have popped from the country that came up with the words "Un Art de Vivre".
Welcome to the final week in October 2025. Folks are probably getting ready for Halloween at the end of this week; they should be happy that October 31st falls right on Friday this year. Plus, I'm pretty sure that Shibuya Scramble Crossing in Tokyo should be plenty packed with cosplayers and other Halloween celebrants if I check those live cameras on YouTube.
The above video has a few promos including the last one at about 45 seconds for the TV Asahi show "Sports Frontier" that had its run in the early 1990s. If I'm not mistaken, late-night sports wrap-ups are still one of the mainstays around the midnight hour in Japan.
"Sports Frontier" had a plethora of songs act as the ending theme for the Sunday night 55-minute broadcast including one that I hadn't realized was part of the list. Well, right after that one came this July 1991 third single by Mayo Nagata（永田真代）titled "Namida no Splash" (Splash of Tears). Written by Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）and composed by Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）as they did for the coupling song, "Uwasa"（う・わ・さ）, which turned out to be the previous Nagata song that I wrote about, this one is a bit different in that it isn't a City Pop tune. It's a straight pop song but it also seems to incorporate an underlying rhythm in its chorus that reminds me of the disco classic "Love's Theme" by The Love Unlimited Orchestra all the way back in 1973 along with a bit of reggae.
Man, this is a pretty fine song but it's been difficult for me to classify in terms of genre...although that's no reason to not enjoy it, of course.
Mayo Nagata's（永田真代）"Uwasa"(Rumours) is the coupling song to her July 1991 third single"Namida no Splash"（涙のスプラッシュ...Splash of Tears） and what I can say definitively is that it's a nocturnal urban contemporary tune. Composed by Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）and written by Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）, it starts off with some kakkoii percussion before we get some grumbly French phrases and the launch into a dark yet cool melody that feels exotic and James Bond-like; maybe there's even a touch of House in there, too. I wouldn't classify it as late-era Fashion Music because it's just so propulsive but it's not straight soul either. But my compliments to the singer and songwriters. A song like this will always have a place on my shelf.
Happy Tuesday! And we're in our first heat wave in Toronto for Summer 2024...even though we're still a couple of days away from official Summer. I had been showing my sympathy for Tokyoites the week before due to the heat that was already swallowing them up but now we Torontonians will be relying heavily on the air conditioning and cool drinks for the rest of this week.
Anyways, just wanted to bring in another spritely song by relatively short-careered aidoru Ayumi Shirota（白田あゆみ）. I had posted her second KKP article back in January, and my impression is that though she didn't too long a time in the geinokai(1983-1989), her music seemed quite refined, thereby further illustrating how aidoru music in the late 1980s did have some wonderfully classy arrangements.
From her debut album "Anata no Hitomi ni Utsuritai"（あなたの瞳に映りたい...I Want to See Myself in Your Eyes） released in February 1988, I give you the track "Call Me" that throws in hints of Latin and perhaps even Eurobeat but perhaps not in enough amounts to earn those labels in Labels. Still, they're enough to give Shirota's song some pretty nice pizzazz. "Call Me" was written by Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）and composed Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）. Incidentally, I should post something up on Blondie's "Call Me" in a ROY article sometime soon.
It's only been since I started on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" that I got to know Reiko Kato's（かとうれいこ）role as a singer in show business. Before that, I had seen her on television as a tarento and then I found out that she was also a model. However, Marcos and I have been able to unravel some of the musical side of her career.
Kato has been an aidoru but according to the J-Wiki article on her November 1995 7th album"itch", she was going for a more mature approach to the songs here. The first track lays that out plainly as "Walkin' Down The Love" struts out the high-heel shoes on the pavement of the big city. Written by Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）and composed/arranged by Tomofumi Suzuki（鈴木智文）, the synth-brass and the groove bring out some sophisticated pop this side of Swingout Sister while straddling the line between 1990s City Pop and Shibuya-kei via some Motown rhythm. This might be the ideal song after getting the monthly pay packet and someone deciding that it's Miller Time!🍻
Just a humble observation from me, but perhaps one of the Western songs that Japanese songwriters may have been looking up to for a few decades is Elbow Bones and the Racketeers'"A Night in New York" from 1984. It's one of my happy memories from 1980s music and I recall comparing microstar's "Yuugure Girl"（夕暮れガール）from 2011 to it.
The thing is that one singer probably beat microstar to the punch by twenty years. Mayo Nagata（永田真代）, a singer that I discovered relatively recently as a City Pop chanteuse for songs such as "Twilight in the Memories" from 1990, actually tried her hand at some swing jazz and pop with the first track from her October 1991 album"Sexism". "Gambler" is arguably even more similar to "A Night in New York", mainly through the underlying rhythm, so I gather that folks in the music industry in Japan must like swing while painting the town red. Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）came up with the lyrics while Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）provided the melody to throw that couple of dice in a Las Vegas casino.
"Gambler" was also the coupling song to Nagata's 4th single"Seikimatsu no Rap Zoku"（世紀末RAP族...The Rap Tribe at Century's End） which was released on the same day as "Sexism".
We're on the verge of completing our first weekend of 2024 and the coming week ought to be giving us the financial version of a hangover following the usual Holiday spending spree: the bill for the credit card. Let's all prepare some aspirin in advance here. At the same time, though, let's also savor the presents that we have gotten (unless you've already exchanged them). In my case, I did the usual beneficial exchange between myself and KKP old hand JTM with me sending over a City Pop compilation CD and a book while I got some albums from him including this one that you see above.
Yasushi Akimoto's（秋元康）first gigantic aidoru group a couple of decades before AKB48 was Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）, whose file is also fairly big here on KKP. Along with postings of songs by the main group including for the surprising album "KICK OFF", there are articles for the individual singers and two of the subgroups. My initial assumption had been that Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi（うしろゆびさされ組）and Ushirogami Hikaretai（うしろ髪ひかれ隊）were twin groups in existence at the same time, but actually with one of the members of the former team graduating from Onyanko Club, Ushirogami Hikaretai was formed in 1987 in response with Shizuka Kudo（工藤静香）, Akiko Ikuina (生稲晃子) and Makiko Saito (斉藤満喜子). Marcos V. in fact provided an article on their 2nd single"Anata wo Shiritai"(あなたを知りたい) almost a decade ago (man, time flies).
Anyways, I wanted to take this time and space then to post about some of the songs on Ushirogami Hikaretai's 2nd album"BAB" which was released in March 1988. Now my theory on how that name came about had been that when "BAB" is said in katakana, it sounds like what a cute Japanese baby might say or what an adult might say to that baby to amuse him/her. However, according to J-Wiki, the letters stand for the members' blood types: Kudo=Type B, Saito=Type A, Ikuina=Type B.
The first track is "Honey", a pretty muscular aidoru tune written by the late Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed/arranged by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, and yep that bass of his is powering it. The rest of those instruments are also conspiring to weave a tale of intrigue, desire and confrontation on a dance party night.
"Hora ne, Haru ga Kita"（ほらね、春が来た...You See, Spring is Here） which is Track 2 on "BAB" is also the trio's 4th single from February 1988. All of those synthy sounds have had me placing this as a techno aidoru tune by lyricist Akimoto and composer Goto. It really is quite catchy with the warp speed tempo and there are riffs galore with the keyboards and percussion racing for the border. All that excitement for the arrival of spring. Then again, Torontonians ache with that feeling every year. The single peaked at No. 6 and it also became the 90th-ranked single for 1988. It also was used as the second opening theme for the anime "Tsuide ni Tonchinkan"（ついでにとんちんかん...Miraculous Tonchinkan） that had its run from 1987 to 1988. There are also a couple of other themes for this anime included in the album.
There's a bit of 1960s "Georgy Girl" pop in the arrangement of "Bab Call" by lyricist Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）and composer Yuuji Okiyama（沖山優司）. Reading the lyrics, apparently the BAB girls are inviting the listener for a bit of an innocent bath together. Innocent....right.😨
Kudo was already carving out her path to superstardom in her solo career at the time of "BAB", and here she is with her own solo song on "BAB", "Hikishio"（引き潮...Ebb Tide）. Goto was behind the mellow travel-friendly melody while Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）provided the lyrics of a woman walking alongside the beach while on a trip reminiscing or trying to forget a just-ended romance. I think it just about enters Resort Pop range with its languid pace in demand of a cocktail.
My final contribution here is the final track which is a dance remix version of "Hora ne, Haru ga Kita" known as "The Turntable Mix", and you know back in the 1980s, it was basically de rigueur for a whole bunch of songs to have adaptations ready for the dance floor. Mind you, it's hard to imagine a Ushirogami Hikaretai song up with "Boom Boom" and "Bizarre Love Triangle" in the disco, but you never know...maybe at a ComiCon perhaps.
Anyways, "BAB" peaked at No. 6 on Oricon. I'll have to cover the remaining tracks in a separate article or even cover a few of them on their own.
I can probably say that tarentoMami Yamase（山瀬まみ）may be the Queen of Variety Shows considering the lineup of programs that she's been on in Japanese TV. She used to be the regular panelist on the currently running NHK information variety program "Tameshite Gatten"（ためしてガッテン）, and at the time I wrote my first article on her, she had still been on the show but a couple of years ago, she decided to call it a day and "graduated". And unfortunately, none of the other programs that she appears on are provided by TV Japan, so she's been missing on my family's screen since 2017. Incidentally, she may still be the Icon of Insect Repellent since she's been the spokesperson for Kincho for the longest time as you can see above.
When I was still in my first stint at university in the 1980s, I had heard about Yamase as that squeaky-voiced aidoru but never heard her songs. However, when I was in Gunma at the turn of the decade, I was watching the late-night show "MTV Japan" early on Saturday morning and finally caught this bizarre video featuring her. At the time, I would have said that this belonged to any of those music channel programs which specialized in the weird and wonderful music videos.
This was indeed my first encounter with Yamase singing a song, and it happened to be "Go!", a tour-de-force tune that may have been inspired by a demented circus. I really couldn't say that it was an aidoru song...at least, not a run-of-the-mill one, anyways. Bringing in pop, rock and ska into a whirling dervish of an arrangement, I also had the opportunity to see the music video in my darkened room. Whatever you do, don't watch this in a darkened room.
Discovering her earliest tunes much later on, I realized that Yamase had a pretty nice and light voice, and I've realized that the squeaky delivery she's shown all these years whenever she's been on TV is a stage thing and not really how she sounds in "civilian" life. Therefore, I would say that "Go!" is more of her tarento voice gone haywire in a mad opera.
"Go!" was the first track on Yamase's 3rd album"Oyayubi Hime"（親指姫...Thumbelina） which was released back in November 1989. It was written by Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）or Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）depending on whether you look at J-Wiki or YouTube, but it was definitely composed by Tamio Okuda（奥田民生）of the band Unicorn. The album peaked at No. 39.
Speaking of "MTV Japan", seeing this video of Kenta Hagiwara and Dionne Mitsuoka simply brought back all those memories of watching late-night Japanese telly again. It was a rather odd experience in that I had known about MTV in America as the premier music video channel (yes, believe it or not, kids, it used to show only music videos), but in Japan, it was represented as an overnight show on TBS televised for a few hours going into the weekend.
Coming from a time when I first knew Archie Andrews, Veronica Lodge, Jughead Jones and friends as a Saturday morning cartoon in the 1970s, I remember listening to "Sugar, Sugar", a song that went down in music history as one of the few hit tunes from a fictional band, The Archies, to hit No. 1 on Billboard. It became a staple on radio and also on those K-Tel compilation LPs (do I need to explain what an LP is?).
So you can imagine some of the memories that came when I first encountered the title for this song by the band called Pearl Kyodai (パール兄弟...The Pearl Brothers). "Sugar Sugar Tengoku"(Sugar Sugar Heaven) doesn't sound anything like "Sugar, Sugar", mind you. It's a bit of light New Wave-y music that sounds like it could have come out a decade earlier instead of the late 1980s. It was indeed a track from Pearl Kyodai's 4th album"Toyvox" released in April 1989, and along with the New Wave, I could hear a bit of PSY-S in there, too.
The band was actually formed in 1983 with the five "brothers" being led by Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）as main songwriter and vocalist. In their initial run between 1983 and 1994, it released 8 singles and a little over 10 albums. There was a hiatus lasting about a decade before Pearl Kyodai got back together in 2003 and they've apparently been performing ever since.
One reason that I've put this one up is that Saeki has already been mentioned in this blog due to his contribution in the creation of one of the cooler anison that I've heard "TRY UNITE!" by Megumi Nakajima（中島愛）.
Tons of sugar sugar in this Cinnabon and Iced Milk Tea.
Happy Saturday! However it's pretty darn cold here in my neck of the woods. I think if we are very lucky today, we may just reach a high of -7 degrees Celsius...and that's not taking into consideration the wind chill factor.
It's been a long time since I spoke about PSY-S. I did like the way that the Wikipedia writer for their article described the music of Chaka and Masaya Matsuura（松浦雅也）as progressive pop. It's not an expression that I've ever used for them; I've been content enough to describe their brand of music as a unique and bright form of technopop that set them apart from acts such as Yellow Magic Orchestra. But progressive pop is appropriate since the duo did stand apart from just about every musical act that existed at that time in the late 1980s.
Apparently, PSY-S is most famous among the collective fandom of anime and J-Pop for their 6th single"Lemon no Yuuki" (Lemon Courage). Written by Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）and composed by Matsuura for release in September 1987, it was made as the image song for the anime OVA that has supposedly become a cult favourite (although the fellow who provided the English translation of the lyrics here wrote a more backhanded compliment), "TO-Y".
In the J-Wiki article for "Lemon no Yuuki", I read that the song was never the official theme song due to some contractual issues (although Matsuura was in charge of the music for the anime) but the official music video was able to use a few scenes from the OVA. However from the opening of the actual movie at the top, about a minute or so of the song is right in there. I did think it kinda strange that something as progressive pop as this tune would be used for an anime about the trials and tribulations of the title character, Toi Fujii（藤井冬威）, trying to get his punk band, GASP, to fame and fortune.
Still it's a typically eclectic PSY-S song with Chaka's high vocals leading an interesting arrangement of guitar, bass, drums, electronics and even flute. There is something contemporary and old-world about it at the same time. Saeki's lyrics are pretty atmospheric but the basic gist is about holding onto love and hopes for the future.
The B-side to "Lemon no Yuuki" is "Cubic Lovers" which is a more introspective ballad about the wonder of waking up in the big city the next day next to your lover. I was half expecting some sort of sad breakup to happen by the end of the song but, nope, it's all quite hopeful. Everyone is content and happy. Apparently, "Cubic Lovers" is also present at the end of "TO-Y" with Matsuura taking care of the music here while Yukio Matsuo（松尾由紀夫）provided the lyrics.
Both songs originally appeared on PSY-S' 3rd album"Mint-Electric" from August 1987 but I first heard both of them on the BEST compilation, "Two Hearts" from 1991.
Ahhh...80s music video sensibilities with added Chromakey! It's time to bring back some of that PSY-S technopop via their 2nd single from November 1985, "Brand-New Menu". I hadn't known that it was an actual single from the duo; I actually found out about it through a slightly different version of the song on their 1st BEST compilation, "Two Hearts" from April 1991 that I purchased in Chinatown one day.
Written by Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）and composed by PSY-S instrumentalist Masaya Matsuura（松浦雅也）, it's a tinkly and twinkly tune that sounds somewhat like a jingle for some new service:
You will see my L-O-V-E I will make you L-O-V-E Can we save your V-I-R-G-I-N-I-T-Y?
That must be some service. Anyways, the original single version is portrayed in the video above. Powerhouse vocalist CHAKA doesn't push her voice too hard here but she and Matsuura did seem to enjoy hamming it up in the video as two mad scientists trying to corrupt two young souls in a supermarket.
"Brand-New Menu" also showed up as a track in PSY-S' 2nd album"Pic-Nic" from July 1986 in its "folk rock" version with a strummy guitar replacing one of the synths. Actually for me, I prefer the new version in "Two Hearts".
It's been a few months since anyone has put up a BEST article. And as we were entering the New Year, I figured that it was high time that I covered what is arguably the representative group from Tsunku's umbrella of Hello Project, Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）. Mind you, my window for Morning Musume love was relatively brief considering the 17-years-and-counting life of the group, but boy, it was a pretty intense time for me and a lot of other folks nationwide and abroad when their first BEST album was released at the end of January 2001.
The window was about 2 years long (1999-2001) and spanned from their 7th single (Love Machine) to their 13th (Mr. Moonlight). And to add further specificity, that period encompassed the introduction of the 3rd generation, Maki Goto（後藤真希）, up to and including the 5th generation ofAi Takahashi（高橋愛）, Asami Konno（紺野あさ美）, Makoto Ogawa（小川麻琴）and Risa Niigaki（新垣里沙）. However, it wasn't just about the music. The ladies also had their high time on TV with at least three weekly programs on air at the time, including their flagship show on Sunday mornings on TV Tokyo, "Hello! Morning"(2000-2007) which I saw longer than I listened to their singles.
Yup, brings back the memories for me. But this isn't about the variety show. This is about the first of MM's BEST albums, "BEST Morning Musume ONE". And here is the lineup:
Of course, I gotta start with the song that broke Morning Musume out from pretty successful aidoru group territory onto the nationwide superstar category, "Love Machine". Single No. 7 went absolutely nuts on the Oricon charts and in the karaoke boxes, and the September 1999 release didn't hurt as bonenkai season wasn't too far off. Always love a good retro-disco.
Now, instead of the love machine, let's take the time machine back a few years to November 1997. The lineup of Morning Musume has varied a fair bit over its time but in the beginning, there were only five members: Yuko Nakazawa（中澤裕子）, Kaori Iida（飯田圭織）, Asuka Fukuda（福田明日香）, Aya Ishiguro（石黒彩）and Natsumi Abe（安倍なつみ）. And they were all losers. Well, that's a bit harsh but they did lose out in the "Sharam Q Rock Vocalist Auditions" that would eventually be won by singer-songwriter Michiyo Heike（平家みちよ）. However, a light went off in the head of Tsunku（つんく）, the leader of Sharam Q（シャ乱Q）and future Svengali for Hello Project, and he decided that he would give five of the runners-up another chance to get into show business. They would have to band together and sell 50,000 copies of their own single. The challenge was televised via the TV Tokyo show, "ASAYAN", and I remember seeing some scenes of the proto-MM setting up shop on a street somewhere in Japan and gratefully shaking hands with folks who lined up to buy the single.
That single was "Ai no Tane" (Seeds of Love), a cute, soft and cheerful aidoru song with the video showing the five doing their own individual thing in the city. Written by Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）and composed by Tetsutaro Sakurai（桜井鉄太郎）from Shibuya-kei band Cosa Nostra, I think the song even had a bit of Shibuya-kei swimming in there. I saw the video once before and then on seeing it again tonight, I just thought, "Wow! Kaorin has got short hair and there is Asuka! Wonder what she has been up to."
Obviously, the proto-single made its quota and Morning Musume was on its way. By the way, unless otherwise noted, just assume that the songs profiled today were written and composed by Tsunku.
"Morning Coffee" was the official debut for the five released in January 1998. The four girls and one former office lady were now decked in a uniform of sorts (according to the video) and they tackled something sounding a bit more Beatlesque. With Abe taking on the lead vocal position, the single was able to get as high as No. 6 on Oricon. "Ai no Tane" would also be included on the CD. The first two songs would be the last time that the five would be featured alone since Tsunku decided that the group needed a next generation.
Just before their 2nd single, "Summer Night Town", three more girls would join the flock, Mari Yaguchi（矢口真理）, Kei Yasuda（保田圭）and Sayaka Ichii（市井紗耶香）. Wow! Ichii....natsukashii! Coming out in May 1998, along with the increased membership, Morning Musume decided to go into more nocturnal and sultry territory, and they explored a bit more choreography according to the video. The song went even a bit higher in the rankings, peaking at No. 4.
Seeing the tiny Yaguchi on screen here, it's hard to imagine considering how gabby she could be on TV through "Hello! Morning" and the load of other variety shows she's appeared on, but she used to be soooo quiet....I guess, perhaps in deference to her sempai who did the talking. And Leader Yuko always struck me as someone who ran a pretty tight ship.
I remember seeing bits and pieces of the video for 3rd single, "Daite Hold On Me!"(Hold Me, Hold On Me! [?!]) on the late-night ranking show "CD Countdown". At the time, I was still not really a fan of the group so I didn't really push myself into seeing the whole video. Now that I have been able to finally do so, I just gotta say that one shouldn't watch it in a dark room....the director really must have loved MTV jump cuts. Plus, the nighttime sultriness continued. I also realized that in a decade in which the female aidoru had been assumed to be basically extinct, Tsunku had launched the latest wave in a more dynamic and frill-less form of aidoru. The vocals were still not all that polished as would usually be the case for the genre but the members seemed a bit more down-to-earth instead of residing on some sort of cloud.
"Daite Hold On Me!" (September 1998) was the first break for the 8-strong group. It was their firstNo. 1 which got them their first invitation to the Kohaku Utagassen. It also earned Morning Musumea Newcomer Prize at the Japan Record Awards, and was a big success on the Oricon Karaoke charts, staying at No. 1 for 8 consecutive weeks. It eventually landed at No. 53 for the year.
Cue ahead about 18 months. A few of the originals have left (Fukuda, Ishiguro and maybe Ichii) but the 3rd and 4th generations have arrived. Goto is there along with Hitomi Ishizawa（石澤ひとみ）, Rika Ishikawa（石川梨華）, Ai Kago（加護亜依）and Nozomi Tsuji（辻希美）. My heyday with them was in full swing, and my favourite new song was "Dance suru no da!"(You Will Dance!) Well, no I won't and no I didn't. But it was still fun to listen to. I kept hearing excerpts of this one on "Hello! Morning" but got a bit frustrated that it never came out as a single. Fortunately, I was able to get it on the BEST album along with the music video on the VHS of the group's music videos. Tsunku wrote and composed it but it was the arrangement of Dance Man (ダンス☆マン...the man who brought the disco beat to Morning Musume) that made that special combination of disco and aidoru(just looking at the video, perhaps I was a bit hasty about them not living on a cloud). I mean, the yells of "Get on up!" (transcribed often as Geronppa) and "Check it out, yo!" were almost cringeworthy, but it was such a happy skippy song and quite a change from the above two singles. The song originally appeared on MM's 3rd album, "3rd - Love Paradise" (March 2000).
Man, it's been a long time since I heard this one. "I Wish" was Morning Musume's 10th single from September 2000. Maki Goto was lead vocal and there was a noticeable difference in tone between it and the disco songs that Dance Man had been arranging. Shin Konno（河野伸）was responsible for the arrangement here, and the song had a more heroic feel to it. It was less boogie and more triumphant. And there was a reason for that since it was used as the theme song for TBS' coverage of the Sydney Olympics, but there was still a bit of that gospel in the intro and hip-hop in the main body of the song itself. "I Wish" was another No. 1 for the group and was the 33rd-ranked song of the year.
Yup, for those Morning Musume fans out there, I realize that there are still quite a few left to cover, but heck, I'm exhausted. And I will be able to cover some of those in future entries as singles. Besides, I've only covered the very early years...lots of material out there. And as for how "BEST Morning Musume ONE" did on the charts, it hit No. 1 and became the 5th-ranked album for 2001.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled "Hello! Morning".
"Earworm" has been the word of the day to describe an infectiously popular song. One of those little bugs that has been tunneling through the windmills of my mind of late is Megumi Nakajima's （中島愛） 6th single"TRY UNITE!" which was also the opening theme for Season 1 of the 2012 anime, "Rinne no LaGrange"（輪廻.のラグランジェ....LaGrange: The Flower of Rin-ne).
I only caught the pilot episode of the show involving some young women and their mecha, but "TRY UNITE!" has lasted far longer for me. Since my anime buddy was kind enough to give me a nice grouping of anison, this song has been getting the heavy rotation treatment on my computer. It's that cool dance club beat and Nakajima's soaring vocals that spawned the worm. Even more than it being a theme for an anime, I think it would be great to hear in a car roaring down a Tokyo expressway at night heading down for the bright lights of Shinjuku, Shibuya or Odaiba....it's why I chose the above video in particular which has the full version of the song. Below is the opening of Season 1 from "Rinne no LaGrange".
After listening to this for the first time, my impression had been that it was created by a Shibuya-kei artist like Fantastic Plastic Machine. But it was actually written by Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう） and composed by Rasmus Faber. Faber, who hails from Sweden and wears many hats including those of pianist, DJ and composer. He's also an anime fan who created a series of albums titled "Rasmus Faber Presents Platina Jazz" from 2009 which has covered anime songs performed in a jazz style with the help of Swedish musicians. This project eventually led to Faber writing his own tunes for Japanese singers, and then "TRY UNITE!" for Nakajima. The single was released in February 2012 and managed to go as high as No. 11 on Oricon.
This is the introspective ballad version of the song, again with Nakajima on vocals.
And just to show a bit of that "Platina Jazz", here is a special treatment of "Sailor Moon", since after all....she's the one.
And here is Faber introducing his tribute to the classic "Galaxy Express 999".
Another quirky electronic happy song by the good people at PSY-S. After the Yellow Magic Orchestra went into the historical ether for a little while, I was always looking forward to some fun technopop. PSY-S helped fill the void along with some of the works of Denki Groove later on.
"Woman-S" has vocalist CHAKA singing that instead of the usual trappings of brand names and heavy lines, she wants her love straight up. The original version had a heavier percussion and pluckier arrangements, and was part of the band's 2nd album, "PIC-NIC", released in July 1986. However, it was released as a 4th single in November 1986.
A slightly less frenetic version was released in PSY-S' first Best album, "Two Hearts" in 1991. But the percussion is still fun to hear as well. "Two Hearts" was the first of the band's albums that I'd gotten...actually here in Toronto, strangely enough. "Woman-S" is the first track, so the album grabbed me right from the start. A bossa nova version of the song was also released in the same year as the original as part of the band's collaborative CD, "Collection" in February 1987. And the above video is for that version.
And since I had yet to put in the bossa nova version, here is one from YouTube of the band.
