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 was at the end of April when I first introduced the girl group Kit Cat as they recorded a collaborative effort alongside (M)otocompo titled "FLASHBACK 50".
As I mentioned in that article, Kit Cat had their run supposedly from 2013 to 2018 with the members being Jose, Asuka and Eve. One single that they released was "Hang Around" in 2015 which kinda has more of a surf rock vibe rather than the synthpop that they have been associated with. The music video has the lasses enjoying a slumber party at one of the ladies' houses.
Two points I'd like to make here: 1) I've been a sucker for old-time diner décor and food and 2) I don't think Japanese pop culture ever fell out of love with the aesthetics of 1950s Americana. As for the first point, I love having my meat loaf sandwich with gravy along with a tall cold strawberry milkshake in any place that looks like Arnold's from "Happy Days" (and there have been a few places over my life here in Toronto and Tokyo that tried to emulate that style like Toronto's Lick's). Point Two has me remembering all of that 1970s and 1980s weekend Harajuku phenomenon of girls dressing up like teenaged bobbysoxers in poodle skirts and guys decking on the leather and pompadour haircuts as they twisted again.
And though that Harajuku scene has largely disappeared from the pop culture zeitgeist, the 1950s style has still popped up in Japan here and there on occasion. I encountered one very florid example only recently when I saw this music video of "FLASHBACK 50" by the collaboration between (M)otocompo and now-defunct synthpop unit Kit Cat. A track from the former's one-and-only album thus far "POPLOT TIMES 2016" released in September 2016, although both groups have enjoyed their synthesizers, "FLASHBACK 50" dives headfirst into the good old mid-century rock and roll and pop with some fine harmonies and a catchy arrangement that had me thinking about those Formica counters, jukeboxes and gingham table covers.
(M)otocompo is indeed a spinoff unit from the former MOTOCOMPO electropop group consisting of Dr. Usui and chiho which had its time between 1997 and 2010. From 2010, chiho left while Dr. Usui dropped most of the all-caps and added brackets along with several other musicians. He also opted for a bit more ska and New Wave to his electro. As for Kit Cat, they'd been around since at least 2013 when they had their first live event until they called it a day in 2018. The three members were Jose, Asuka and Eve.
