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 Oricon Rankings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oricon Rankings. Show all posts
Hello there. I would have been happier if I'd had the list for the Oricon Top 10 Singles for July 1st 1967, which was the 100th birthday for Canada but I believe Oricon's lists hadn't started quite yet. Well, I guess we'll go with the list when Canada turned 101.
It's been one of those days where I was out for most of it (explanation next time) and so I'm doing my second of two postings as usual close to the midnight hour. Therefore, I'm not exactly filled with energy right now. I'll have to settle with putting up some rankings and since it's close enough to April 22nd, why not go with April 22nd 1968?
Usually I go straight to the list here but just to explain, I'm feeling rather exhausted this evening since my inadequate amount of sleep became even a little bit shorter this week which is why I'm finishing my three for Thursday with an Oricon Top 10. However, I also feel like giving out belated April Fool's headlines since I missed my chance yesterday.
"Momoe Yamaguchi to release her 1st single in 46 years!"
"Tatsuro Yamashita and Mariya Takeuchi in negotiations to host 2026 edition of Kohaku Utagassen!"
"Hiroshi Itsuki goes punk rock! Gets a Mohawk cut!"
Apparently, from my usual source for Oricon rankings, it's not possible to find rankings for New Year's Day, but then again, January 1st is a very hallowed day in Japan so most likely even the music industry is on hiatus (although I have come across singles being released on that day). Regardless, the closest that I've gotten is January 8th.
Ordinarily I wouldn't be putting up a simple Top 10 ranking list today, but for all this time that I was a bit worried about dwindling water supplies over what has been an unusually hot summer here, the bigger issue that hit my household today was micro-power outages. It looks like everybody and their dog have been activating their air conditioners along with their usual electronics to perhaps burden the electricity grid.
We got zapped a couple of times during the noon hour so I was frantically resetting the clocks and making sure that our television and Internet were back online. They are indeed back online but at this point, I won't be putting too much stress on the system by having both my Internet and TV on at the same time and I won't be playing any videos to help me write the KKP articles, so I'll just take it easy for the rest of the day and perhaps things will be better by tonight. Anyways, here is a list of what was up on the Top 10 Singles for August 12th 1985.
Feeling pretty tired all told to the extent that I don't even really want to write another article for the rest of the day today. Plus, I've got my student later tonight and some blog maintenance that I have to do, so I'm just gonna handle a Top Ten list for a date almost fifty years ago.
The photo above is the one that I took at our favourite izakaya in Toronto, Kingyo, back on Boxing Day 2018. That was indeed a pretty sumptuous tonkatsu dinner. I actually met up with an old friend there earlier today for lunch and in the intervening years which included those dealing with the pandemic, Kingyo has converted from a whole restaurant into a smaller restaurant with a store. I don't think we can have the year-end parties that we used to have there but it is still nice to go there for lunch once in a while.
Anyways, I still have my three articles (including the weekly ROY) to post up today as would usually be the case for a Thursday but I'm still digesting my mighty meal at Kingyo and therefore I'm not exactly overflowing with energy right now, so I'm starting with an Oricon Rankings article, and I was able to find a Top 10 from exactly thirty years ago.
1. Chisato Moritaka Suteki na Tanjoubi
2. Maki Ohguro Eien no Yume ni Mukatte
3. TUBE Melodies & Memories
4. Ryoko Shinohara Koishisa to Setsunasa to Kokorotsuyosa to
Over the past several months, I've been hearing and reporting about the rise of new developments within Tokyo such as Toranomon Hills. Well, this time, I've just heard about another place that's gonna get its long goodbye. This morning on NHK, it's been reported that Shinjuku ALTA（新宿アルタ）, a Shinjuku landmark that has been located across from JR Shinjuku Station since its completion on March 26th 1980, will be closing down for good at the end of February 2025 due to financial issues. It first got its fame for having Japan's first huge screen monitor and then a couple of years later, one of the facilities inside the building, Studio ALTA, housed the long-running Fuji-TV noon variety show "Waratte Ii Tomo"（笑っていいとも）starring comedian Tamori（タモリ）. One thing that I hadn't known until this morning was that the name of ALTA was derived from the word "alternative".
But for a lot of people including myself, ALTA was a famous meeting spot in Shinjuku. As much as the statue of Hachiko the faithful dog was the place to meet friends in Shibuya, ALTA was a similar spot in Shinjuku. I've done my share of waiting and meeting in front of the facility when I was in the Tokyo area and it'll be too bad to see the ol' building go. However, at least we get eleven months to say our farewells.
To commemorate, I'm putting up the Top 10 Singles list for March 24th 1980, just a couple of days before ALTA was completed.
"Happy Days Are Here Again" is an American standard that's been around since it first made its appearance in 1929 according to Wikipedia. Lots of interpretations have been done of it in its first century but the one that I've been most familiar with is the one by the Norman Luboff Choir that was a track on my parents' copy of "50 Years Of Hits In Stereo", the 5-LP set that we got with our RCA stereo. It's about as happy a version as I've ever heard from the Normal Luboff Choir which I usually associate with some of the more melancholy takes of standards. But here, the original by Milton Ager and Jack Yellen is given that 60s mambo-tinged martini-friendly lounge music touch which probably cheered up a lot of listeners (the vodka helped out, too, obviously).🍸
Well, as I've noted in the byline, I've watched the NHK coverage and read the "Japan Times" article "Japan's Nikkei index surpasses 40,000 points for first time", and the media has suddenly grabbed that old footage of the Bubble Boom era of the late 1980s in the nation. To be specific, the index closed today at 40,109.23 points. Is it time to be saying that happy days are here again in Japan? Hmmm...I'm sure stockholders are pretty buoyant along with exporting companies, and certainly depending on the country, tourists will be making their reservations for Japan. Not sure though about importers, Japanese tourists or even those supposed to be going to international conferences from Japan this year.
Mentioning that the mass media has started excavating the scenes of the bubbly times, I'm always going to be thinking about the famous Juliana's in Tokyo with all of those bodicon dancers and their plume fans. Supposedly, this new meteoric rise in the Nikkei is based on something far more stable than was the case in the late 1980s but...tongue-in-cheek...I keep wondering about gold flakes scattered on virtually every dish and million-dollar golf club entry fees once more.
The Nikkei record at the peak of the Bubble Era happened on December 29th 1989 with a close of 38,915.87 points. So I was left thinking about the music that was hot at the time, and strangely enough, I was actually in the nation back on that day...most likely, I was either in Osaka or Wakayama Prefecture with the relatives for the New Year's holidays. I couldn't find anything for that day exactly but I did find something for January 1st 1990 at this site. Therefore as such, here are just a few of the songs from the Top 10 on that auspicious day along with their rankings.
Hello there. I noticed that at this late hour, I currently have 89 entries for September 2023 and I really wanted to hit the 90 barrier. Therefore, I'm rushing this one in. I haven't done a rankings list in many a moon because I thought I pretty much exhausted the Oricon lists by year. However, I did find a listing for the Top 10 Singles for 1961 (and more) on this Hatena blog run by hitchartjapan based on a couple of pre-Oricon music journals, "Music Life" and "Music Monthly". I'm just surprised that Kyu Sakamoto's"Ue wo Muite Arukou" isn't in the Top 10 (it's down at No. 22!).
1. Yujiro Ishihara & Junko Makimura Ginza no Koi no Monogatari
