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 Masayuki Sakamoto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Masayuki Sakamoto. Show all posts
On the cusp of her 60th anniversary in show business, veteran singer Saori Yuki（由紀さおり）appeared on one of the last episodes of "Uta Con"（うたコン）for 2024 and performed this song.
"Jinsei wa Subarashii"(Life is Wonderful) is her 66th single from April 2024 and it seems to absorb a number of musical styles: a bit of bossa here, a bit of AOR there and some sweet orchestral pop. The title is a big hint but I gather that this is a song of reassurance for everyone which encourages folks to stop and smell the roses once in a while. It was written by Goro Matsui（松井五郎）, composed by Gioacchino Maurici and arranged by Masayuki Sakamoto（坂本昌之）.
Enka singer Toshimi Tagawa（田川寿美）has been a regular presence on the kayo kyoku-based programs such as "Uta Con"（うたコン）and "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新・BS日本のうた）, and yet I'm a little embarrassed to state that she's only appeared on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" in just a couple of songs, neither of which has her on the byline. Well, it's time for me to eradicate that glaring omission.
Interestingly enough, I saw her sing her latest single "Kanashii Meguriai" (Sad Encounter) from May 2024 on the latter NHK show, and I wouldn't say that it was purely an enka tune. I would place it in that hybridized genre that I've called New Adult Music since there's quite a bit of soul in there to the extent that I had also considered City Pop in its roots. The urbane melody by Kohei Miyuki（幸耕平）under the arrangement of Masayuki Sakamoto（坂本昌之）even had me thinking that it could almost be something that the God of Love Songs, Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）, would possibly tackle. Daizo Saito（さいとう大三）handled the lyrics.
"Kanashii Meguriai" is the 38th of her singles in a career that began in 1992 for the Wakayama Prefecture-born singer. Tagawa has also put out eight studio albums along with other releases.
Along with Ryokuoushoku Shakai（緑黄色社会）, Hiroshi Takeshima（竹島宏）appeared on "Uta Con"（うたコン）last night to perform his own recent single, his 29th to be specific, "Santa Maria no Kane" (The Bells of Santa Maria) which hit the shelves in March 2023.
The enka and Mood Kayo singer kinda hovers in that area between his two chosen genres and regular pop music so I guess that he might have that amorphous label of New Adult Music which had attempted to stick onto certain songs in that gray area a few decades ago. Alternately, "Santa Maria no Kane" could be Neo-enka or Neo-Mood Kayo.
In any case, the Fukui Prefecture native sings this rather lush and dramatic ballad about a love lost in Florence, Italy which is pretty far from Japan for a Mood Kayo. Regardless, when I look at that title, I was wondering which church the singer, lyricist Hiroshi Yamada（山田ひろし）, composer Kohei Miyuki（幸耕平）and arranger Masayuki Sakamoto（坂本昌之）had been referring to. According to Wikipedia, there are five religious establishments in Florence which have a connection to that Santa Maria name, so I just went with Florence Cathedral which is known officially as Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore. "Santa Maria no Kane" broke the Top 10 by scoring a No. 8.
I can consider the name Masayuki Sakamoto a fairly common one with different kanji representing it. For example, in the Japanese entertainment industry, there is the member of the Johnny's Entertainment group V6 with that name（坂本昌行）.
Not too long ago, I also found another Masayuki Sakamoto but with a differing kanji at the very end of his name（坂本昌之）. According to his J-Wiki file, he is a keyboardist, arranger, composer and music producer who comes from Sapporo, and his data only begins from the late 1990s. Therefore, I was wondering whether this was the same Masayuki Sakamoto who came up with the 1987 album "PSYCHE" although in katakana, it's pronounced as "pushuke"（プシュケ）. But apparently according to Discogs, this is indeed the same fellow.
Discogs also notes that his "PSYCHE" delves into technopop, New Age and classical music. I think that the track that I have for you here, "High Tide", covers the first two genres. It's a very cheerful instrumental that rather straddles the fence between the synthy works of another Sakamoto and the Japanese-American band Hiroshima. There is also the contemporary technopop side paired with a traditional side that makes me feel as if I were taking a walk through the older neighbourhoods of Kyoto. Going back to that incomplete Sakamoto article on J-Wiki, the fellow has worked with many other artists including Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき）, Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）, Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）and Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）.
