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.
Oh yes...I do remember that bus. It's the one that takes guests from the Toyoko Inn near Asakusa to Ueno Station. That was back in the autumn of 2014. We used it a fair bit as a short cut and then finally to head back to Haneda Airport.
It's kinda hard to imagine poignancy through a hotel bus but that final ride signified some wistfulness with the hoped-for reunion in the future. However, my next trip in 2017 had me staying at the R&B Hotel near Ikebukuro instead.
Well, the above was a fairly ham-fisted segue to the song "Itsuka Aeru made"(Until We Meet Again Someday) by Rie Miyazawa（宮沢りえ）. The track comes from her June 1993 3rd album"ROSEE" and that intro reminds me a lot of Alicia Bridges'"I Love The Nightlife". In fact, I'd say that the song whose melody was concocted by Chika Ueda（上田知華）has taken a lot of inspiration from Motown soul or the various themes from "Saturday Night Live" (especially when the beefy sax has its moment). I also have to say that Miyazawa's vocals have an appealing breathy quality here. Jun Kagemori（影森潤）was responsible for the lyrics.
Well, I gather that this is a first for the Toronto area. We've gotten our third snowstorm in nine days, and this one last night piled about half the season's total of snow accumulation in one fell swoop. There was even a very brief power outage in my neighbourhood so I was actually adjusting clocks at about 1 am this morning.
Getting outside this morning, I was greeted by lovely scenery of snow and ice on trees although a few of them ended up collapsing under the weight of that precipitation which blocked at least a couple of sidewalks that I usually walk upon. The trip to get the daily newspaper was far more arduous than usual, taking several times longer due to the foot-deep snow, unplowed sidewalks and tree blockage. I've got quite a few muscle aches in my neck and legs as I'm typing.
Anyways to the matter at hand, and so it's time for the weekly Gosanke（御三家）or Sannin Musume（三人娘）report. I'm just about done with the source of those singing trios at "idol.ne.jp" and it didn't contain this rather unusually named trio. I actually found this on J-Wiki under their own Sannin Musume article. Considering that I've covered other trios with names that reflected corporate sponsors, I'd initially thought that these three ladies were being named after the famous international conglomerate producing adhesives, health and safety products and the like.
Such wasn't the case at all. Popular thespians and singers Arisa Mizuki（観月ありさ）, Rie Miyazawa（宮沢りえ）and Riho Makise（牧瀬里穂）were joined together as 3M simply because their family names all being with the letter "M". But it's a cute and slightly mirthful name considering the connection with 3M the company. Mind you, I don't know if all of them have actually been on the stage in front of the camera at the same time (for that matter, I don't know whether any of them have ever advertised for the actual 3M). I was rather surprised to learn that Mizuki has been in show business since 1980 or 1981 since as a four-year-old, she got into her first commercial. I, and perhaps most of the world, got to know about her for the first time a decade later when she appeared as this willowy teenage model on television before breaking into acting and singing. I'm basically going with the year 1991 for Labels because both she and Makise released their debut singles then while Miyazawa had her first single come out in 1989.
I've been enjoying some of the old J-Dramas that JTM was kind enough to send over, and one of them is "Tokyo Elevator Girl"（東京エレベーターガール）starring Rie Miyazawa（宮沢りえ）. Although at the time of its broadcast in January 1992 on TBS, I'd been back in Toronto for over six months, even I heard of this show because of the immense popularity at the time of its star through TV, movies, that best-selling photo book of her, "Santa Fe", and then there would be her temporary engagement to the rising sumo superstar who had been known as Takahanada（貴花田）at the time.
Looking at the first episode, I was struck at how immediately melodramatic "Tokyo Elevator Girl" was right from the get-go. I'd actually expected it to be one of those light-hearted romantic comedies with that cheeky Miyazawa, but instead, she was quite subdued while surrounded by some sordidness in that department store her character worked in.
What was another striking thing was Miyazawa singing the theme song for "Tokyo Elevator Girl", "Kokoro kara Suki"(I Love You From My Heart). Now, the fact that the lead thespian is singing the theme song for their show in itself is not particularly surprising in the land of Japanese dramas, but "Kokoro kara Suki" isn't the usual aidoru-like ditty that I've expected from Miyazawa since tunes like "Dream Rush".
Instead, this Valentine's Day 1992 single by Miyazawa is one classy number done in the arrangement of City Pop in the 1990s with those certain keyboards in play. Although "Tokyo Elevator Girl" is actually set in a department store in the suburbs of Tokyo, "Kokoro kara Suki" is definitely set right in downtown within a more subdued and cooler atmosphere compared to the party-hearty paint-the-town-red sophisti-pop that was inhabiting the J-urban contemporary in the Bubble Era in the mid-to-late 1980s. The boom times might have been over for Japan but there was nothing said that pop music couldn't still have some of that polished class.
Miyazawa's vocals are still plenty light but they're also more self-assured and perhaps I can posit that the styling is such that I could even imagine Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）tackling "Kokoro kara Suki". I love the lushness of this chocolate fondue arrangement by keyboardist Tadashi Namba（難波正司）but along with Miyazawa, what makes the song even more velvety is the jazzy saxophone play by Takeshi Ito（伊東たけし）. It seems as if every site including J-Wiki that mentions the song also mentions the fact that Ito is involved, and deservedly so, because he's pretty much the other half of the duet with the singing lass.
Namba (who also produced the soundtrack to "Tokyo Elevator Girl") and Ito are both from the fusion group T-Square so I'm more than happy to include that band's name in the Labels, but accolades must be given to the composer Naoki Yamada（山田直毅）who also happens to be the husband of singer Hitomi Ishikawa（石川ひとみ）. The big surprise is the lyricist whose name is given as Kikuji but has another far more famous stage name: Beat Takeshi（ビートたけし）! Surprise No. 2 for me is that I only found out today that Miyazawa has been married to Go Morita（森田剛）of the Johnny's group V6 since 2018.
It’s something we all know, but let’s just say it again: Rie Miyazawa (宮沢りえ) is a really weak singer. Period. However, her debut album, “MU”, is one of my huge guilty pleasures, since it perfectly sounds like a 1989aidoru pop album should sound… at least in my mind. Released later in the aforementioned year, more specifically in November, the production is ridiculously dated for nowadays standards, but I can almost feel how fresh it sounded back then with all those sparkling synths and overall happy melodies. Also, the front cover, with the quirky-faced Miyazawa and strong pink background, is quite iconic and a great showcase of the excesses that permeated Japan’s bubble era. Only Chisato Moritaka (森高千里) and the cover of her “Hijitsuryokuha Sengen” (非実力派宣言) album, released in the same year, could possibly compete with “MU” in this department, if you ask me.
Talking about the songs, while “Dream Rush” is the well-known and catchy single produced by Tetsuya Komuro (小室哲哉), I like that the bright “Gokigen na Heart” (ごきげんなHeart) is the introduction to the album, since it’s easily my favorite from the whole collection. Another one of my favorites is third track “A.B.CD”, with its more laidback, gentle and even sophisticated vibe. Also, let’s not forget how the traditional-sounding synths are among the main charms of this song.
Yeah, I could totally live without the jazzy “Watashi wa Nani?” (わたしは何？) or the boring ballad “Waiting for You”, basically because Miyazawa needs the big, over-the-top production in order to mask her weak vocals, and those two songs are not good examples in this particular department. Instead of them, I like how cheerful the two euro-driven songs, “Yume Mite Goran yo” (夢見てごらんよ) and “Himitsu ga Ippai” (秘密がいっぱい), are. They unabashedly share their familiar sound with many songs released by other late 80s female aidoru singers, like Akiko Ikuina (生稲晃子) for example, but that’s probably why they’re so nostalgic and comforting in the first place.
(Unfortunately all other videos from the album were taken down.)
After “Yume Mite Goran yo” and “Himitsu ga Ippai”, I feel the album loses momentum, and that's because of some not great slower and mid-tempo songs (reasons stated above). Still, last song, “Most”, kinds of returns to the mildly upbeat euro sound that made the album work, but it's not on a par with the best songs offered by Miyazawa on “MU”.
Even though Miyazawa did find some success in her
singing career during her prime, I think, at least nowadays, she’s better
remembered as an actress. As for “MU”, although I can’t say it’s great, I
find it the perfect 1989 album, because it encapsulates the mainstream aidoru
pop side of the market really well with all the “plastic” excess it showcases
both in sound and image. For me, it’s a good reminder of how this particular
side of the music industry sounded back then, and, somehow, it becomes even
more valuable when we remember how Japan’s pop music was changing in the decade
shift.
I can't remember the article for it right now, but I did mention that after listening to a long-neglected album once more and being surprisingly more reasonable toward it now, I would probably be inclined to give the only album I have of Rie Miyazawa（宮沢りえ）, "Mu", another go of it. Admittedly, I was being a bit sarcastic about that.
And yet, I did play the album again last week for the first time in probably close to 25 years. Strangely enough, I'm still hitting 1.000. Not to say that "Mu", Miyazawa's debut album from 1989 is any classic. She didn't particularly possess a robust set of vocals but the songs and arrangement behind them are not too bad.
The opening track of the album "Gokigen na Heart" (Happy Heart) is a generically pleasant pop song of that time period with Rie-chan breezily singing away about waking up all cheerful and stuff and sending off the darling with a blown kiss. The lyrics were provided by Masami Tozawa（戸沢暢美）who's written a number of songs for Miki Imai（今井美樹）and the melody was whipped up by Takashi Tsushimi（都志見隆）who has often made music for Kiyoshi Maekawa and The Cool Five（前川清&クールファイブ）!
I don't know how the album did per se but I wonder how "Gokigen na Heart" would have fared under stronger singers such as Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）or Mariko Nagai（永井真里子）. Still, I can say that "Mu" can come back in from the cold.
As I said in Rie Miyazawa's（宮沢りえ）only other entry on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" (to date), the IT girl of the time didn't exactly inspire with her vocals. But she was poppy and sprightly enough to pull it off. However, there was that one time she appeared on the 1990 Kohaku Utagassen to sing a cover of David Bowie's"Game" from a bathtub which had my jaw dropping to the floor...and not in any good way. My relatives and I simply looked at each other and wondered whose bright idea it was for Miyazawa to assault the work of Ziggy Stardust like that. And then we asked each other to pass the mikan.
Y'know...it would have been somewhat better if the NHK producers for the Kohaku had simply asked Miyazawa to perform her 2nd single from February 1990, "NO TITLIST" (which still gets a few chuckles from me whenever I read it). At least, hearing the IT girl sing that one would have been more bearable.
Created by the same duo, Tetsuya Komuro and Masumi Kawamura（小室哲哉・川村真澄）, behind her hit first single"Dream Rush" which had come out half a year before, "NO TITLIST" has a melody that seems to evoke a call to action or at least a call to recognize the new current generation of the 1990s as one that shouldn't need a title. Everyone is their own person...no need for that generational identifier. I'm not sure if her anthem was heeded by the sociologists but with Komuro being Komuro, I could hear a bit of Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）and even the future TRF in the music.
"NO TITLIST" hit the top of the charts and finished 1990 as the 45th-ranked single. It was also a track in Miyazawa's 3rd album, "Game", and was even used as the theme song for one of her teen dramas "Itsumo Dareka ni Koishiteiru"（いつも誰かに恋してるッ...Always In Love With Someone）.
Aw, heck. Let's finish this off with another round of Rie-chan commercials!
At certain times in Japanese pop culture, there was an up-and-coming female celebrity who seemed to hit critical mass and ended up everywhere in dramas and commercials...perhaps even cut a few hits in the studios. Actresses Ryoko Hirosue (from the Oscar-winning Japanese film "Departures") and Makiko Esumi were two of those folks who I called the IT girls for their respective years. But even before them, there was Rie Miyazawa（宮沢りえ）.
During my 2 years in Gunma Prefecture, the half-Japanese half-Dutch Miyazawa was as much a fixture on the tube as the old-fashioned antenna. I used to wake up to her when she appeared on those Fujitsu computer ads while "Bad Communication" by B'z was playing away. There were also those Kit Kat commercials along with tons of other products she was helping to hawk. And she was a semi-regular cast member on my must-see Thursday TV comedy-variety program, "Tunnels no Minasan no Okage desu" as the sassy high school student (hard to imagine nowadays considering her waifish appearance and less frequent appearances). Things hit a peak when she posed nude for her photobook "Santa Fe" in 1991 and then was temporarily engaged to the wildly popular sumo wrestler Takahanada in late 1992 (who eventually was promoted to the top rank of yokozuna under the name Takanohana). Just let it be said that Miyazawa was on top of the world during the late 80s and early 90s.
Of course, being a Japanese IT girl at that time usually meant that fans would also get to hear her musical side. And in September 1989, Miyazawa debuted with "Dream Rush" which had been created by composer and future J-Pop Svengali Tetsuya Komuro （小室哲哉）and lyricist Masumi Kawamura（川村真澄）. They were the same duo behind Misato Watanabe's （渡辺美里）"My Revolution" a few years previously, and at a certain part in the song, there is an echo of melody which makes me wonder about how the stronger-voiced Misato would have handled "Dream Rush". Nope, Rie didn't have anything near the mighty vocals of Watanabe but the cute delivery and Komuro's catchy tune helped save the day. It peaked at No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies and became the 25th-ranked song of the year. Speaking of B'z, Takahiro Matsumoto （松本孝弘）helped out with the guitar on the song.
The above is a 12-year-old Miyazawa (1985) in a Kit Kat commercial along with another future IT girl, Kumiko Goto.
"Dream Rush" is also a track on
her debut album "MU" (1990).
