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.
Showing posts with label Makoto Kawamoto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Makoto Kawamoto. Show all posts
When it comes to singer-songwriter Makoto Kawamoto（川本真琴）, her image to me has always been that of a down-home girl-next-door type from the countryside. She struck me more along the lines of fellow pop singer aiko with songs like her big hit "1/2" back in 1997.
But times change and occasionally so does a singer's image. And thus we have Kawamoto and her 8th single from March 2001, "Gimme Shelter". It has nothing to do with the Rolling Stones song, just to make that clear. Written and composed by the singer, Kawamoto certainly glammed up her image with the hair dye among other things, and "Gimme Shelter" is her journey into rock music with a bit of psychedelia thrown in, to boot, and maybe even some Nanase Aikawa（相川七瀬）.
"Gimme Shelter" peaked at No. 50 on Oricon and was a track on Kawamoto's 2nd album, "gobbledygook" which was released in the same month as the single. It did much better by getting up to No. 13. Intriguingly enough, "Gimme Shelter" was used as the campaign song for Manpower Japan offering career management, recruitment and other professional services.
Yes, I already have one article up today, but I still wanted to point out that we're in November now. Hard to believe that we're in the penultimate month. At least for the next couple of weeks, we'll be in that holding pattern between Halloween and all of the Xmas festivities, although department stores have already signified that the Holiday shopping season is once more upon us. Right by Lake Ontario, Toronto is getting its Christmas market up and ready by bringing in the traditional tall pine.
Speaking of the Yuletide, I found this one scene from the second season of "Komi-san wa, Komyu-sho desu."（古見さんは、コミュ症です。...Komi Can't Communicate） which has the gang getting together at Komi's house for a simultaneous celebration of Xmas and Komi's birthday. Yep, I've been catching up on that second season for the past several weeks. Since I've got about six past anime to go through during the week, "Komi-san" has been in the Monday slot. It's been fun as usual; despite all of the characters having their quirks, including psychotic Ren, just about everybody in that high school are decent sorts (even Ren can be nice...occasionally and just to Komi).
The opening credit sequence for the second season is as heartwarming as ever. One commenter has sagely posited that whereas the opening for Season 1 seemed to have been kindhearted if average guy Tadano's view of things with the accompaniment of Cider Girl's"Cinderella"（シンデレラ）, the sequence for Season 2 is through Komi's eyes as she slowly but assuredly gains those one hundred friends as promised at the beginning of the series.
Singer-seiyuu Miku Ito（伊藤美来）is behind the homier and poppier second season opening theme "Ao Hyaku Shoku" (Blue 100 Colours) whose melody and arrangement looks to match Komi's personality deep inside although she's still struggling at this point to make her point clear. Singer-songwriter Makoto Kawamoto（川本真琴）was responsible for the words and music with Maruko Hiyoshi（日吉円子）also helping out on the lyrics. It was a surprise seeing Kawamoto's name in there since I had always envisioned her as that rapid-fire vocalist behind the guitar all the way back in the 1990s with her big hit "1/2", but then I realized after the fact that Ito does race through a couple of the verses just like her songwriter did.
"Ao Hyaku Shoku" is Ito's 10th single from April 2022 which hit No. 12 on Oricon. Also, this is her first entry on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" but I have seen her name bandied about in various anime, a few of which I have seen over the years. One is the notorious "Mangaka-san to Ashisutanto-san to"（マンガ家さんとアシスタントさんと...The Manga Artist and His Assistants） from 2014 where she played impish younger sister Sahono Ashisu.
Getting back to the more wholesome "Komi-san", I guess that I can put in that Komi-san category in Labels, so you can also take a look at the first season ending theme "Hikare Inochi"（ヒカルイノチ）by Kitri.
Y'know...when it comes to this song "Ai no Sainou" (Sense of Love),the debut single by Makoto Kawamoto（川本真琴）from May 1996, it's been something that I have heard a number of times before...by several other celebrities on that "Yoru mo Hippare"（夜もヒッパレ）karaoke show on Saturday nights on NTV. Maybe I have heard it done by the original singer but if so, I can't remember when or where. In addition, I only caught the official music video just within the last few weeks, thanks to YouTube.
The song that I will always associate with the Fukui Prefecture-born Kawamoto is "1/2", her big hit 3rd single the following year, and my image of her is that of her dynamic self, her big guitar that she's furiously strumming away on and the mike. So it was surprising to see her cutting up a rug at a party filled with all-too-cool people in sunglasses, and I thought that although Kawamoto was the one behind the lyrics, the song and the video really belonged to the composer of "Ai no Sainou", the one-and-only Yasuyuki Okamura (岡村靖幸...you can hear him at the end of the video). He's the man behind one of the most funkalicious anison of recent times, "Viva Namida"（ビバナミダ）and someone who had also provided Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）with a cool tune as well, "Niji wo Mitakai"（虹をみたかい）some years before. I don't think that this particular song fit perfectly with Kawamoto's style, but that's just my opinion.
"Ai no Sainou" did pretty well on the charts for a debut single by coming in at No. 17 and finishing 1996 as the 94th-ranked single. It's also included in Kawamoto's debut album"Kawamoto Makoto" which came out in June 1997. That release hit No. 1 and sold over a million copies.
From 2:05 above, Okamura does his own cover of "Ai no Sainou" at a concert which was recorded for his 2013 DVD "Mukou Mizu de Ijirashikute"（むこうみずでいじらしくて...Messy Over There）. However, a cover was never recorded for CD, LP, etc. It definitely has a lot more funk.
Still love this anime by the dickens! "Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun"（月刊少女野崎くん...Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun）is still one of the more hilarious shows that I've been presented by my anime buddy and I'm still holding out some hope that a second season may make its presence known. In the video of the debut episode above, there is a scene at about 1:58 where Chiyo Sakura wages an internal war about her confession of love to the titular and dense Nozaki-kun.
It was that scene that came to mind while listening to Makoto Kawamoto's（川本真琴）4th single, coincidentally called "Sakura"(Cherry Blossoms). Released in April 1998, Written and composed by the singer, "Sakura" seems to also be about the turmoil of one girl's love for somebody.
A few years ago, I also wrote about Kawamoto's past hit from 1997, "Ni-bun no Ichi"(1/2), and when I compare the two songs, I see a couple of commonalities. One is the high-pitched and fairly fast delivery of her lyrics while the other is her love of repetition. In "Ni-bun no Ichi", it's "Aishiteiru, aishiteiru..." (I love you, I love you) while in "Sakura", it's "Dekinai, dekinai, dekinai" (Can't do it, can't do it, can't do it). The technique probably worked well in terms of recognition; at least, it has worked with me all these years since that is the one lyric that has helped me remember "Sakura".
(from 2:12)
Going back to this song that I used to also hear in heavy rotation on shows like "Music Station" and "Countdown TV" while living in Ichikawa, I realized that Kawamoto was playing some pretty lush piano in the official music video. It almost sounds like something that I've heard on old 50s movies. Perhaps it was meant to reflect a certain idealized version of romance. In any case, it wasn't just Kawamoto getting a lot of presence on the music shows. I remember that it was getting a lot of love on episodes of "Yoru mo Hippare"（夜もヒッパレ）, that favourite Saturday-night karaoke variety show on NTV.
Like "Ni-bun no Ichi", "Sakura" also got as high as No. 2 on Oricon, and it was a track on Kawamoto's 2nd album"gobbledygook" from March 2001 which peaked at No. 13.
Once again, I will be coming at a song from perhaps a different way that a lot of other people...namely, anime fans...got to know it.
I didn't know that Makoto Kawamoto's（川本真琴）"Ni-bun no Ichi" was the 2nd opening theme song for a popular anime "Rurouni Kenshin"（るろうに剣心）. Although with Kawamoto's high-pitched voice, I could see it as an anison.
Actually, during my time in Japan, I got to know "Ni-bun no Ichi" through the heavy-rotation music video of the Fukui Prefecture-born singer-songwriter singing away on a roof. That lyric of hers "Aishiteiru, aishiteiru..." (I love you, I love you) and the rapid-fire delivery are the two things that I've remembered all these years.
"Ni-bun no Ichi" was Kawamoto's 3rd single from March 1997. She wrote and composed the song, and it peaked at No. 2 on Oricon. It actually went Triple Platinum, selling close to 800,000 copies, becoming the singer's most successful hit. It would end the year as the 29th-ranked tune on the charts. The single was also on her debut album"Makoto Kawamoto" which actually hit No. 1 and broke the million barrier. I was a bit surprised that Kawamoto has only released 3 original albums and 13 singles to date.
Seeing her perform, I've placed her in my mind alongside girl-next-door types such as aiko and Mariko Nagai（永井真理子）. I guess it was probably the guitar but I could see her as one active busker by the subway station.
To give credit where credit is due:
http://laughy.jp/1435703741578148299
