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.
In all the kerfuffle of putting up my Author's Pick on Tanabata yesterday, I was also informed that July 7th 2025 was World Chocolate Day because it was apparently the day that chocolate had been introduced to Europe in the 16th century. Now, I don't quite consider myself a chocoholic anymore but I still like the sweet stuff whether it be in cookies, bars, drinks and the like. I've had chocolate beer and chocolate-covered potato chips as the more extreme examples but I'm perfectly at home munching down a Hershey's Kiss or a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup (covered in chocolate, of course).
As such, although I'm a day late, I would like to commemorate World Chocolate Day with some of my own chocolate concoctions whether they be located in the song title or the artist name.
There are a number of reasons that I actually gained weight while living in Japan instead of the opposite and probably healthier direction. One is that the average convenience store held some scrumptious snacks including various forms of chocolate. The famous company Meiji（明治製菓）was also complicit by providing some of that cacao goodness including those chocolate-covered almonds. If the product being stated on this blog sounds familiar, then you must have read yesterday's article on Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Synchronicity ~ Suteki na Guuzen"（シンクロニシティ (素敵な偶然)）since the song was used for that particular Meiji confection.
From Amazon.jp
Yeah, that's right. YOU! Damn you, Meiji Almond Chocolates and your sultry chocolatey vixen ways! That might as well be a mug shot...a mug of hot chocolate!
I have no idea how many tens of millions of Meiji chocolate products get sold annually but I know that the marketing department for the company must have cleaning up the yen all these decades including the various commercial campaigns on television. And that includes the whimsical theme song for the chocolate which was one line repeated over and over like a hypnotic mantra:
Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate wa Meiji（チョコレート チョコレート チョコレイトはメイジ～ ...Chocolate is Meiji）
The first time I heard it was when the popular aidoru duo of the late 1980s going into the 1990s, Wink, sang it coquettishly for the company. My assumption had been that the jingle was made just for them.
Well, how wrong I was! The "Meiji Chocolate Theme", which is also known as "Chocolate wa Meiji"（チョコレートは明治） and "Meiji Chocolate no Uta"（明治チョコレートの歌...The Meiji Chocolate Song）, was first created by famed songwriter Taku Izumi（いずみたく）, who was also responsible for the theme song for the long-running interview show "Tetsuko no Heya"（徹子の部屋） starring Tetsuko Kuroyanagi（黒柳徹子）, in 1966. The above ads were supposedly from 1967 and it's interesting to see that the commercials feature a father and his daughter enjoying the chocolate; apparently, Mom would have stopped that habit dead in its tracks. The very first version as noted above was sung by the vocal trio The Three Graces（スリー・グレイセス）who also sang the theme song for beloved anime "Mahotsukai Sally"（魔法使いサリー）in the same year of the Meiji theme's debut.
Reading through the J-Wiki article for Meiji, the theme song has been covered over the past half-century by many singers in their individual way, and one such band who did so was none other than the Group Sounds bunch known as The Tigers（ザ・タイガーズ）with Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）at the fore.
80s aidoru Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）gave her own contributions to the "Meiji Chocolate Theme" and other songs connected with the company.
Jun Matsumoto（松本潤）of Arashi（嵐）wasn't the one singing here but the theme gets a circus-like arrangement while the lad himself and his surroundings are very reminiscent of Willy Wonka.
Welcome to another weekly Reminiscings of Youth article, and indeed, I was one of probably billions of people who managed to catch the real trailer for "Deadpool & Wolverine" a few days ago. Yep, it certainly was interesting alright; I only hope that the movie actually lives up to the hype. I've been burned by trailers from both the Marvel and DC universes recently since a few of their recent movies were somewhat less than what the trailers had been promising.
In any event, pop culture fans have been going ga-ga over the trailer and as a result of one song being used in there, they've also apparently been flocking to Madonna's"Like a Prayer" which was the Material Girl's title track from her March 1989 album. It isn't even one of my favourite Madonna songs but it fits unusually well in "Deadpool & Wolverine" for some reason and not just because one of the two anti-heroes dubbed himself Marvel Jesus (which I truly hope he is for the MCEU).
I still remember the fact that the video for "Like a Prayer" got a worldwide prime-time premiere on television as it dragged a lot of controversy behind it. It even got admonished by the Vatican and other religious organizations for some of the images although today, people would probably be shrugging about what all the tumult was about back then. And yet, the song hit No. 1 in many countries. In fact, it would be easier to list the nations where it didn't peak at No. 1...which included Japan where it only went as high as No. 30. 1989 was the year when I went overseas on the JET Programme and I don't really recall much news on "Like a Prayer" in the remaining half of the year when I was residing in Gunma Prefecture.
KKP mascot and aidoru Kayo Kyoku is back in front of a Christmas tree since the final Reminiscings of Youth article for November 2023 will also be the first ROY article for Xmas 2023 on KKP.
In terms of Canada and jazz, before I heard Michael Bublé, before I heard Diana Krall but after I learned about Oscar Petersen, it was jazz chanteuse Holly Cole. The first time I heard her may have been during my time on the JET Programme or when I got back to Canada. There was a music video (not the one above) where I first saw the Nova Scotia-born Cole but the one song that I've always associated her with is her wonderful cover of the haunting "Calling You" which came out in 1991. I was struck by her gamine beauty and it was like seeing a perfect combination of Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine.
But I did say that this was going to be a Yuletide-themed ROY article, so I'm going to go with "The Christmas Blues" by the Holly Cole Trio. The song came with the rest of the trio's album "Christmas Blues", their very first recording, in fact, in 1989. Aaron Davis was on the piano while David Piltch was plucking away on the wood bass. Meanwhile, Cole had her own fine instrument in the form of her voice as she playfully and seductively sang us into relaxation with our mug of cocoa. I was able to get my own copy of the song through an Xmas compilation.
For the longest time, I'd only known the Cole cover but I eventually found out that the original, which was created by Sammy Kahn and David Jack Holt, had been recorded by Dean Martin in October 1953. I'd say that "The Christmas Blues" could be given an honorary status as a typical Christmas kayo kyokuas the protagonist is going through a lonely and partner-less Holiday season while the rest of humanity is enjoying themselves as usual.
I just had to include this televised version of Dino singing "The Christmas Blues", and I think that may be Kahn himself on the piano. Not sure what it was about Kahn shaking Martin's head vigorously at the end, but I could have imagined Dino screaming "KAHNNNNNN!" years before William Shatner did on "Star Trek II" (sorry...I'll just see myself out there). 😁 Bad joke aside, during my near six decades here on Earth, I only caught the last few years of the musical-variety show era in America but I still have a fond memory of seeing scenes like these.
Anyways, since Wikipedia only mentioned the year that Cole's version of "The Christmas Blues" was released, I'll just go with some of the award winners at the 1989 Japan Record Awards for the comparison.
It's hard to write about Japanese music these days without a sense of distance. I started listening to K-pop about 3 months ago and it has been a very interesting experience. It's not an understatement to say it changed me as a person as I had felt connected to Japanese music, particularly idol music, to the point it felt like a personality trait.
I had listened to ClariS' cover of Wink's hit Sabishii Nettaigyo (淋しい熱帯魚) before I started getting into K-pop and today I discovered there was a new version rearranged by SCRAMBLES, the team of musicians behind idols affiliated with the agency WACK. I would have to be the person I am today to fully appreciate this: anime singers performing a Showa idol song with a modern idol arrangement. That was the order by which I experienced Japanese music over the years.
It was an emotional experience, especially at this point in time. I don't think it's fair to compare this version with the original but I liked this reinvention very much. It's comparable to what I felt while listening to BiSH's cover of Moon Revenge, but with an additional Showa idol component that makes it even more fascinating.
Things feel very different now, but I doubt I will ever stop loving Japanese music!
It’s Oliver Ebisuno, coming back to Kayo Kyoku Plus after a long break. For some time now, in spite of work and personal stuff, I wanted to make an update on the blog, but always felt either unmotivated or drained from strength when sitting in front of an open draft editor. I think the time is right for a special post; to be specific, an Author’s Pick text. Shamelessly, I admit that J-Canuck’s Driving to City Poptwo-parter provided me with much needed dosage of inspiration.
Evidently, I do not live in Japan and there are no prospects of me visiting the country in the nearest future, but I thought it would be fun to mix my love for Japanese music with my personal experience, that is, commuting to work.
The city I live in is such a hole in the middle of nowhere (and forgotten by the Almighty) that basically right after finishing high school I had to get used to commuting. I had to undergo a one-hour trip by bus while studying for 5 years, the same applied to PhD studies, and my first employment. Last year, I switched jobs and now I also commute by bus, but this time to a different city, which is located roughly an hour away from my place of residence.
Being on the bus for two hours per day (please bear in mind that this is a “there and back again” route) gives me a lot of time to do various sorts of stuff like reading, browning the web, but also listening. For years, I was never that keen on the idea of listening to music outside of the comfort zone of my home, but I warmed up to the idea after the pandemic.
Now, en route to work (and most importantly coming back from it) I can’t help but listen to Tomoko Aran. Her albums Fuyuu Kuukan and Last Good-bye really calm me down and put me in a positive mood, especially in the morning. The same also goes for Toshiki Kadomatsu’s After 5 Clash and Hitomitoi’s City Dive albums.
When I am in a more adventurous mood, then I reach for music that is more charged with Synth-Pop or Rock. In such instances, Yoko Oginome’s Route 246 Connexion and Chisato Moritaka’s Mi-ha prove to be invaluable. Very rarely, when I feel deeply melancholic, I decide to desperately turn to Wink’s Best of selection or Naomi Akimoto’s Poison 21. Please refer to the selection of my favourite songs from the aforementioned albums here:
That’s it for the moment, I sincerely hope that you enjoyed my list of suggestions. I should also add that apart from the aforemtioned songs/albums, I also tend to listen to either Pet Shop Boys or Animotion while commuting. Thank you for reading.
Image sources: The feature photograph at the top of the post was taken by me on a bus to work on wintery night at 5 AM. I usually sit at the back, so it was easier for me to make sure that the faces of other commuters won’t get caught by the phone camera. The image of Akina Nakamori next to Mercedes was found on Pinterest. All the hyperlinks lead to previous Kayo Kyoku Plus posts.
Happy Monday! It's been over five years since I put up a Wink article outside of any inclusions of their material within an Author's Pick or a ROY. So, definitely, long time no see.
Heading toward the mid-1990s, Sachiko Suzuki and Shoko Aida's（鈴木早智子・相田翔子）star as the porcelain doll aidoru duo was no longer in the ascendant. Being in Toronto in those years before heading off to Japan once more, I didn't really hear much from Wink so I only heard about this 17th single (February 1993) by them only recently. In their grand tradition of doing cover tunes, such as Bobby Caldwell's"Special to Me", Kylie Minogue's "Turn It Into Love" and Kool & The Gang's big hit "Joanna" (the last song that I wrote about Wink on KKP), Suzuki and Aida sang "Eien no Lady Doll ~ Voyage, Voyage".
What kinda stood out to me is that this No. 19-ranking song didn't have the usual Eurobeat sound that I had been accustomed to hearing by Wink in their heyday at the turn of the decade (although the feathery vocals were still intact). However it did possess some moody technopop rhythms thanks to Motoki Funayama's（船山基紀）arrangement accompanying Neko Oikawa's（及川ネコ）lyrics. And those were the responsibility of the original composers, Dominique Dubois and Jean-Michel Rivat.
Yes, indeed, from those names, "Voyage, Voyage" was originally a French synthpop song released by singer Desireless back in 1986. The song became a multinational hit across Europe for a couple of years following its release with No. 1 rankings in Norway, Austria, West Germany, and Spain (in France, it peaked at No. 2). The music video struck me as being an absinthe-fueled dream perfect for a case study in Psychology 200. If a biopic were ever made of the life and times of Desireless, then I want Cate Blanchett to be the star!
It's time for another Reminiscings of Youth session this week and for the second time, we have Pet Shop Boys following one of my very favourites of theirs, "Left to My Own Devices" from 1988.
As they say, timing is everything, and as it turns out, I had just arrived in Japan on the JET Programme when Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe put out a Japan-only short compilation album commemorating that country's part of their MCMLXXXIX Tour in 1989. Titled "In Depth" and released in July 1989, it contained their hits including "Always On My Mind" and the aforementioned "Left to My Own Devices" but it was Track 2 that got some new attention from me.
"One of the Crowd" is, as would usually be the case for a Pet Shop Boys song, immensely catchy and it was through "In Depth" that I first learned about this earworm by Tennant and Lowe, although I later read that it was a coupling song with the single "It's Alright" that was released the previous month. Still, it has remained the most notable song from "In Depth" for me because of those tribal rhythms, Lowe's vocoder intoning of fishing and my long wondering whether PSB was channeling either YMO or Kraftwerk when they came up with "One of the Crowd".
It's been over 30 years since this one came out but I certainly hope that some enterprising fellow might be able to put up some sort of computer graphics video based on the tune. All this time, I'd assumed that "One of the Crowd" had been placed in "In Depth" as a sorta/kinda comic admonishment against Japanese society's tendency to follow the crowd and fashion trends and so forth. But then, I went to the Pet Shop Boys Wiki where I found out that Tennant had once mentioned that "...Chris said in an interview on TV that he liked following fashion and that he didn't like to stand out, he liked to be one of the crowd" which became part of the lyrics for the song. It ended up that "One of the Crowd" was just Lowe goofing about, with his partner and the rest of the production staff having a belly laugh at the silliness of it all.
Nothing profound or philosophical at all. However, it says something that even when the Boys are taking the piss out of something, it still comes out great. "In Depth" peaked at No. 18 on Oricon. So, what were the Top 3 Oricon singlesin that hot and hazy month of July in 1989?
In the last few months, I realized that I was doing a disservice to arranger Motoki Funayama by not mentioning him in a large number of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" articles. Although I had long been mentioning lyricists and composers, I never really included arrangers for whatever reason. However, the fact that I kept seeing his name in the songwriting notes for songs and I was reacting with a "What?! He arranged THIS song?" much in the way that I had first reacted on seeing the late composerKyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）in a huge amount of kayo and J-Pop, I figured that the Tokyo-born Funayama had to get his due on KKP. The tipping point was when I was writing up "Oricon Top 5 Most Commercially Successful Arrangers", I discovered that he was the second-most prolific arranger after Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）. Keeping on the Tsutsumi connection, according to Funayama's J-Wiki biography, the arranger had the biggest association with Tsutsumi in terms of songs arranged.
Funayama was born in Meguro Ward, Tokyo in 1951 and from a young age, he had been interested in maps and sheet music, and on entering elementary school, he was on the bass drum in the school band. Jumping to his higher learning days, he attended the School of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University but kept his music connections by participating in the High Society Orchestra there where he was the concertmaster as he played the saxophone. However, according to the above video interview, Funayama mentions that he was absolutely horrible on the sax due to his inability to improvise...so I gather that jazz musician wasn't going to be one of his titles.
Once he became a junior at Waseda, he began working at the Yamaha Music Foundation including their Popular Song Contest where he learned the basics of music arrangement. Soon after, he dropped out of university and from 1974, he went on the path of a freelance composer and arranger.
(cover version)
According to J-Wiki, the first song that he arranged was "Azami-jou no Lullaby"（アザミ嬢のラライ）for singer-songwriter Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき）in 1975. Knowing Nakajima's distinct melodies and singing style, perhaps I can say that Funayama had a good hand in creating that style.
(short version)
Funayama's first big success was Kenji Sawada's（沢田研二）"Katte ni Shiyagare"（勝手にしやがれ）from 1977 for which the song earned a Japan Record Award Grand Prize. That dramatic bullfight intro probably has gone down as one of the more famous in kayo.
Ikue Sakakibara's（榊原郁恵）"Robot"（ロボット）from 1980 was one of those Tsutsumi/Funayama collaborations and it was another winner for both since Sakakibara ended up appearing on the Kohaku Utagassen because of its hit status. As such, Funayama was also willing to get into the synthpop craze of the time, and it's interesting in J-Wiki that following his stay between 1981 and 1983 in Los Angeles, he decided to purchase aFairlight CMI synthesizer. He then incorporated some of that computer technology into the music for some of his other clients later into the decade.
One of the songs mentioned taking on that synthpop style is "Romantic ga Tomaranai"（Romanticが止まらない）by C-C-B in 1985. This was another Tsutsumi/Funayama collaboration with Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）as the lyricist. It is one of the band's trademark tunes and the arrangement was impressive enough that techno group Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）adopted one riff from "Romantic ga Tomaranai" into their kakkoii "Nijuu-ichi Seiki mo Motetakute"（２１世紀もモテたくて）.
However, it wasn't all upbeat music with Funayama. He also arranged Mayumi Itsuwa's（五輪真弓）1980 hit "Koibito yo"（恋人よ） as this epic heartrending ballad dealing with an absolute end of an affair. The version above is fine, but I think the original recorded version with the strings hits the heart best. If there's an image created thanks to the arranger's work, it's that of the saddest person in the world lingering in a French café while the relentless rain represents the tracks of his tears. I wonder if an arranger comes up with those images as well when coming up with a way to illustrate a song to the finest degree.
There's no way that I could ever come close to totally encapsulating the oeuvre of Funayama's work no matter how grand I make this Creator article, so I will just include one more song here, and that would be Wink's "One Night in Heaven" from 1989. I have this one here because the arranger worked on so many of the duo's songs and I gather that his Fairlight CMI was helping out in the work behind this hit.
Anyways, more to search in the blog to see whether I have to put in the Motoki Funayama label. As of the 1990s, Funayama was also working on anison and commercial jingles along with songs by the various Johnny's groups. As of 2019, he has more than 2700 songs to his credit.
Now that we are all looking toward the final days of 2020, I was wondering what I could do in terms of a special KKP article, so of course, I was thinking about an Author's Pick. Then I remembered about the category of The First which had centered around 2017 and 2018 and invited some of the blog collaborators to write about what the first song to bring them into the world of kayo kyoku/J-Pop was.
Therefore, I've decided to combine the two categories of The First and Author's Picks together to provide a quick list of firsts so that you good folks can find out what some of the seminal songs in my kayo life have been. I have covered them individually over the past 9 years, so you can get a fuller picture through the links to them but here, I'm just gonna provide the bare bones. As well, you can get a look at my original The First article which has what I first heard during my summer trip in 1981, my first City Pop song and the first song that I'd heard on the radio program "Sounds of Japan".
Both in their own ways are melancholy and both have stuck in my heads for the past several decades. I also remember being right in front of the RCA stereo speaker as they were played. Not sure if sitting by something with a big magnet affected my brain.😱
Such a cute and schmaltzy song thanks to those muted trumpets. Too bad when I first heard this, I was in the process of barfing all over my good clothing in the taxi on the way from Haneda Airport in Tokyo. The driver seemed rather nonplussed...true professionalism.
Yes, it just had to be Seiko-chan that I first heard on landing in Tokyo for the 1981 summer trip, and what better ambassador to introduce me to the world of Japanese teenyboppers. I have to thank that Suntory commercial and that appearance on the 1981 Kohaku Utagassen to sear the image of idolatry into my brain forever.
Had to represent my country on the JET Programme and my pride in the karaoke bar so I went all Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and combined the two concepts to choose "Yukiguni" as my go-to karaoke song. Considering the number of times that I've sung this all over Gunma and Tokyo and all places in-between, the singer should have gotten quite a healthy royalty cheque from me.
My third landing in Japan at the end of the 1980s would be for my first post-university job as an English teacher in the Japanese educational system. The song that would line my welcome into Gunma was by a couple of newfangled aidoru at the time that had the distinction of presenting themselves as human porcelain dolls on a rotating stand with expressions that the Vulcan Science Academy would actually praise highly.
6. First J-Pop song while on my 17-year stint: "Try Me" by Namie Amuro with Super Monkey's
I arrived for my fourth landing to work at NOVA, once the English-teaching corporate beast of Japan, in early November 1994. This song didn't come out until January 1995. I can only assume that I was so focused and stressed out from my new job that I didn't really pay much attention to J-Pop for those two months. However, I do remember that rather racy commercial plugging the song and thinking "Well, there goes the kinjo".
7. First enka/Mood Kayo that I truly enjoyed: "Brandy Glass" by Yujiro Ishihara
Before this slice of traditional Japanese pop, I merely listened to the genres of enka and Mood Kayo simply because my parents were playing it on the stereo but after having returned from that 1981 trip, I somehow gained the ability to actually enjoy these genres. "Brandy Glass" by the Big Man was one of a string of genre kayo that I would begin to cherish from the early 1980s. I didn't particularly become a drinker even in drink-friendly Japan but the music was good enough for me to savor.
8. First Technopop song: "Firecracker" by Yellow Magic Orchestra
KKP readers might assume that it was "Rydeen" which was my first when it came to the music of YMO, but it was actually "Firecracker", and for that I would have to thank the local show "Japanese Panorama" for introducing the music video one night. I had heard "computer music" before through a record that I listened to in the junior high school library, but it was all an avant-garde mish-mash of bleeps and bloops. "Firecracker" proved to me that synthesizers and other musical technology named with a combination of letters and numbers (and the musicians behind them) could produce some truly magical and catchy songs.
Well, those are my eight Firsts. If any of you have your Firsts that you would like to share, I'm all eyes and ears.
Last week, when I did that L'Arc-en-Ciel article for the theme song of the 2012 live-action version of "Rurouni Kenshin"（るろうに剣心）, I noticed that the actor Takeru Sato and the veteran kayo composer Ken Sato shared the same kanji 「佐藤健」for their names. However, punching in the name into the search engine brought up mostly information on the young actor.
There is in fact not all that much information on Ken Sato. His J-Wiki profile only gave the description of him being a composer, an arranger, a keyboardist and the husband of singer Junko Ohashi（大橋純子）. Not even a date of birth or a place of birth or how he grew up to be enticed into the music business is given there, and looking beyond online only garnered the same information. J-Wiki did say that Sato had first met Ohashi at a Yamaha studio under the supervision of arranger Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）.
Sato may not have as high a profile as Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）or Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, but his works have popped up many a time on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" over the years. And just going through the list of works he's provided other singers on J-Wiki and the list of songs under his name on this blog, he has come up with songs ranging through a number of genres including aidoru and City Pop, kinda along the same lines as Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）. So why not Sato?
The earliest example that I'd had of his compositions on KKP was the proud "Crystal City" sung by Ohashi back in 1977. But to start off this Creator feature on Sato, I've gone further back in the Sato-Ohashi association with this track "Itsumo"（いつも...Always）that had been wholly made by the songwriter for Ohashi's debut album"Feeling Now", released in June 1974.
"Feeling Now" is an album that I would acquire simply for that dazzling cover of Ohashi with her hair flying all over the place. However, from hearing some of the tracks, there is also a lot of gold in the album with a mix of covers of tunes by Charles Aznavour and Bill Withers and original material. "Itsumo" is some splendid sunny Sunday soul that warms my heart and it's obvious to me and, I assume, to Sato and the others that Ohashi had some major talent in her vocal cords.
Sato had already provided songs for a number of aidoru singers, but I did find this one, "Amaryllis"（アマリリス）that he composed for the future hit-makers Wink as their 2nd single in September 1988. Although the synthesizers were in there, I think the Wink sound had still been getting defined with this early work which feels more like a country-pop song. With lyrics by Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）,"Amaryllis" peaked at No. 30.
Lyricist Ikki Matsumoto（松本一起）and Sato worked together to create Satoshi Ikeda's（池田聡）debut single"Monochrome Venus"（モノクローム・ヴィーナス）for release in August 1986. The above video has the 12-inch version so there are the usual dance remix bells and whistles. It's also the first time to have Ikeda on KKP so I bid him welcome. It's a pretty nice City Pop tune and I get a bit of Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）when I hear his voice. "Monochrome Venus" did well by Ikeda since it broke the Top 10 at No. 9.
"Hometown Express"（ホームタウン急行）was the B-side to vocal group Circus'（サーカス）"American Feeling" single that has become a staple of any high school chorus performance. A very jaunty country tune with visions of Carpenters, this was the theme song for the TV Asahi drama "Tetsudo Kouankan"（鉄道公安官...Railway Police）. I love the harmonies here and although the show was categorized as an action-suspense program, I can't help but feel that "Hometown Express" could also be a theme song for any sort of train-based travel series. Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）wrote the lyrics with Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）arranging everything.
Well, speaking about trains, I geeked out a bit when I came across this video. Being an old Leiji Matsumoto（松本零士）fan from way back with "Uchuusenkan Yamato"（宇宙戦艦ヤマト）and "Galaxy Express 999"（銀河鉄道999）, I had no idea about this 2003 show "Ginga Tetsudo Monogatari"（銀河鉄道物語...The Galaxy Railways） that had been broadcast on Fuji-TV. So, that wily old fox Matsumoto launched an anime in the "Galaxy Express 999" universe, eh?
And the show even brought back the veteran anime singer Isao Sasaki（ささきいさお）to do the themes including the opening "Ginga Tetsudo wa Haruka nari"（銀河鉄道は遥かなり...The Galaxy Railways Head Off Into the Distance）. Just like the theme for "Yamato", this tune begs me to salute it each time it's played. Along with its epic nature, there's even something of the old-fashioned disco as well. Sato worked with lyricist Shiho Aiyoshi（相吉志保）.
To wrap up, let's get back to the beginning while still retaining the theme of trains, so I'm finishing up the works of Ken Sato with Junko Ohashi and Minowa Central Station（美乃家セントラル・ステイション）. Sato was the one who helped set up his wife's backup band in 1976 with guitarist Masami Tsuchiya（土屋昌巳）, later of Ippu-Do（一風堂）fame, joining. Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）provided the lyrics for Sato's spacey funk fest, "Star-light Train" which was Ohashi's 9th single from 1978. Young John Travolta can strut down that New York avenue proudly to this one.
As I write this, Japan is now in the last 24 hours of the Heisei Era, a period of time that I was happy to have spent much of in Gunma and then Tokyo/Chiba. Of course, being the sentimental and nostalgic guy I am, I've decided to put out a small list of the singers and bands which fairly screamed "HEISEI" to me. I'm not going to so much highlight any particular songs but rather put them up as representatives in this Author's Picks this time around...just the artists themselves. Moreover, this is a personal list; I'm not basing this on Oricon charts and numbers of albums sold. It's all about the affection for certain folks that hit the big time during this time, and to be honest, my picks will mostly be in the 1990s.
1. Wink
"Samishii Nettaigyo" was a title that I couldn't remember or say at all even though this was a Wink single that had just gone gangbusters when it was released in July 1989, a few weeks before my arrival in Gunma Prefecture to teach at the junior high schools there. All I could say was "that WINK song"! With expressions and movements reminiscent of porcelain dolls, Sachiko Suzuki and Shoko Aida struck me as being the anti-aidoru: no smiling and no skipping around. Their time at the top was relatively brief but boy, did they pack their hits in.
2. B'z
As I mentioned in the actual article for "Bad Communication", this was the song that woke me up during my mornings in the first year of my Gunma stay because of Rie Miyazawa in those computer commercials. Takahiro Matsumoto and Koshi Inaba did it fun and did it loud and have continued to do so right to the end of Heisei with other rockers such as "Be There" and "Love Phantom". I always wondered which would win the ultimate battle between Inaba's voice and Matsumoto's guitar.
3. Kazumasa Oda
(covered by Chris Hart)
Still awfully hard to find any of his original solo songs on YouTube but that hasn't deterred me to include the former member of Off-Course on the list since this was an artist who managed to come up with his own sound separate from the one that he and his bandmates created back in the 70s and 80s."Love Story wa Totsuzen ni" was just one example of how he put together those synthesizers and those other instruments to come up with tunes for himself and other singers that would put him up as an urban contemporary balladeer in the last decade of the 20th century.
4. Namie Amuro
I guess for a lot of people that when Namie Amuro announced her retirement from the music business a couple of years ago, they figured that the Heisei Era really was heading for its end. She was one of the first singers that I heard on landing at Narita to start my second stint as an English teacher, this time in Tokyo. She wasn't just dynamic, she was a dynamo! Dancing, singing, showing off her fashion, Amuro started off a pop cultural trend all her own for a few years and I think she was one of the factors in the Komuro Boom that took over J-Pop for the middle years in the 90s. In fact, I still remember being in an Ikebukuro game centre one Saturday night and while my friend was doing his games, I was in a music video capsule watching her "a walk in the park".
5. Ayumi Hamasaki
I wasn't ever a huge fan of Ayumi Hamasaki but as much as Amuro had taken the Japanese pop world by storm around the middle of the 1990s, Hamasaki carved her huge slice of the pop culture pie by the end of that decade and into the new century. There isn't too much exaggeration involved here when I say that ads plugging her next big single and her appearances on "Countdown TV" were basically everywhere.
6. Dreams Come True
This was another band that was making its mark especially in the early 1990s. When I saw that "Music Station" episode on my host family's TV back in 1989 and Dreams Come True make that introduction with a beaming ear-to-ear Miwa Yoshida declaring herself in English, I felt that there was a seismic shift in pop music. I had equated Dreams Come True as a Japanese version of Swingout Sister but that wasn't quite accurate. They also had their own unique voice of sunny uptempo songs and heartbreak ballads.
7. Sing Like Talking
These guys may not have become hugely known on television per se, but I am so glad that I found out about Chikuzen Sato's amazing band and purely by mistaken identity. Cool and urban with plenty of soul, Sing Like Talking was a group that I had thought was another band whose name and output have largely disappeared from my memory. SLT, on the other hand, has stuck with me all these years and I've got a number of their albums to show for it.
8. Misia
It was through the above video that I first got to know Misia. She among a few others symbolized my opinion that good ol' soul was coming back into Japanese popular music for a while from the late 90s, and that voice of hers was just incredible. One of my wishes that she will participate in the Opening Ceremonies for next year's Olympics...preferably to do a cover of Minako Yoshida's "TOWN".
9. Morning Musume
Just when I thought that the concept of female aidoru had gone onto the pop culture heap of history, Tsunku from Sharam Q took this group of runners-up in a television show singing contest and molded them into the core for Hello! Project. Morning Musume had some successes in their early years, but "Love Machine" in 1999 was the booster rocket that sent them soaring, and for a few years, the hits and the TV shows and the new members kept rolling in. It might be all about the alphabet teams now but for me and some of my contemporaries, Morning Musume was our beloved girl group.
10. SMAP
As was the case with Hamasaki, I was never a dedicated fan of SMAP's music although I did buy a few of their singles such as "Celery" and the super-catchy "Shake". But again, for many years, it just seemed that every one of their songs was destined to reach the top of the Oricon charts or at least hover in the Top 10 for several weeks. It didn't hurt either that all of the members achieved fame in other facets of mass media as well through dramas, variety shows, specials and commercials. I did enjoy my "Bistro SMAP", and wouldn't it have been something if it had still stayed on the air to host The Avengers?
My list is not a complete one by any means but I did want to keep things at 10, and obviously any music memories that you might have of the Heisei Era may be vastly different from mine. So I offer the invitation to commenters and fellow contributors alike...if you have your own Heisei list, by all means, let us know! Meanwhile, let's get ready for Reiwa.
I
don’t really know why, and it probably don’t even have a reason, but Wink
became somewhat trendy nowadays among aidoru acts paying tribute to the long
gone 80s aidoru era. Initially, I was planning to write a bigger post about this,
commenting every act who payed homage to them this year (well, three acts, but
that’s already a good number), but one of them, which is Avex’s doll-like duo FEMM,
just recorded an updated cover of “Samishii Nettaigyo” (淋しい熱帯魚), and
the other, lovely and trashy aidoru duo Bed In (ベッド・イン),
didn’t quite succeed in making a good impression on me with their Wink tribute,
“CO.CO.RO Gradation” (CO・CO・RO グラデーション). Last but not least, there was
fairy w!ink, an HKT48 subunit comprised of Misaki Aramaki (荒巻美咲) and
Hirona Unjo (運上弘菜) that ended inspiring me to write about this subject
in the first place.
When
I was looking for some random stuff, I came across the cover of fairy w!ink’s
single “Tenshi wa Doko ni Iru?” and thought I was hallucinating while seeing a
Wink single I didn’t know in front of my eyes. Soon I realized it was a tribute
done right, but I’d never expect it to come from the AKB48 factory. While I
remember they’ve already done something similar with Seiko Matsuda before, I
didn’t think Wink was quite as iconic as Seiko-chan. Now I see they are probably
iconic enough, since three acts decided to pay tribute to them on the same
year.
“Tenshi
wa Doko ni Iru?”, which was released in December 2017, is a good mashup of Wink
and AKB48, both in the visuals and the sonority. We can hear the melodrama
that’s typical Wink, with the piano and all the classic European flourishes
backed by dance beats, while childish vocals coming from the two HKT48 members
just makes the whole thing more tender. As for the visuals, they emulate Wink’s seriousness and porcelain doll-like
expressions, but with some cheesy and cheap outfits… which, I think, is
something AKB48 and its sister groups could do better at this point (I do realize that they release a video for each song on their singles, but Wink was never that cheap-looking, even
if they wore some plastic accessories and over-the-top outfits all the time).
Overall,
I liked how the melody and arrangement were done in pure Wink fashion, while
still sounding somewhat modern (at least for AKB48 and J-Pop’s overall
standards nowadays). In the end, I kept thinking about some of Wink’s own
songs, like “Kitto Atsui Kuchibiru ~Remain~” (きっと熱いくちびる ～リメイン～) for example – and that’s a great
accomplishment since we’re talking about a tribute song –, but also meltia’s
“Shirobana no Corsage” (白薔薇のコサージュ).
Lyrics
were written by Yasushi Akimoto (秋元康), while music was composed by Daisuke Toyama (外山大輔). As
for the arrangement, APAZZI was the responsible.
I had breakfast with the parents at a nearby Eggsmart this morning, a local diner chain which has a pretty sumptuous Classic of eggs, sausages, potatoes and toast with bottomless cups of coffee (of course). My doctor doesn't like me having the stuff, but I like it. And didn't I say last week that my bad cholesterol went out a tad? I'll take any points I can get.
My intro here is to talk about the old Kool & The Gang song, "Joanna" from 1983. It was about as warm and sweet as the maple syrup that my Dad used to pour on his buttermilk pancakes, and the official music video took place in an old-fashioned diner where the titular Joanna, beloved owner, was serving the band and her favourite customers. "Joanna" also got lots of love from listeners (hit No. 1 with a bullet on the US Billboard R&B charts) and it was so very nice to hear that mellow trombone near the end again. I remember the video being shown over and over again on the local channels.
Well, hello Wink! It's been a while. I was surprised many years later when I bought my copy of their "Twin Memories" album and found out that the duo did a cover of "Joanna". Although Kool & The Gang will always corner the market with their hit, I think Wink...specifically Sachiko Suzuki（鈴木早智子）who handled the main vocal part...did a pretty nice job with the song. And I gotta give some respect to Neko Oikawa（及川眠子）who provided the Japanese lyrics. Suzuki sounded quite smooth singing them.
"Twin Memories" came out in December 1989. If I'm not mistaken, it was the first Wink album that I ever purchased while I was in my little town of Tsukiyono. It peaked at No. 2 on Oricon.
Y'know, here in Toronto, we could do with some rainy pavement right now. Perhaps my wish will come true overnight...it's getting darned parched in the city. Now I am truly getting reminded of how summers were like in Tokyo.
I decided to pull out an old Wink CD, "Velvet" which came out in July 1990. Perhaps I got one of the discs from the first edition since it came in that rather large sleeve with a relatively thick booklet, to boot. The ladies' 4th album had the catchy single "Sexy Music" which my Brazilian collaborator, Marcos V., wrote about a couple of years ago.
Listening to it again, I realized again that out of the 10 tracks, only 4 were original compositions. One of these originals which caught my ear was "Rainy Lonely Pavement" about an unhappy breakup in the rain (good for your typical J-Drama), although the music by Hitoshi Haba（羽場仁志）sounds like an urgent downtown cruise by a car on a Saturday night. Kinda hard for me to imagine the Wink girls in a convertible cruising for studs, though. Still that electric guitar which anchors the music was the hook for me. Sayoko Morimoto（森本抄夜子）came up with the lyrics. As for "Velvet", it peaked at No. 4.
I did put up the category of Eurobeat for "Rainy Lonely Pavement" but I'm not quite sure if the music fits it. Perhaps Marcos or one of the readers can enlighten me. :)
Although my excitement at the time was understandably all focused on starting my very first post-university job in a foreign country and finally living life on my own, my bona fide collection of Japanese pop music started with my arrival in Gunma Prefecture for the JET Programme. I wasn't aware of it at the time, but years of owning a few LPs and tapes bought in Chinatown and taping episodes of "Sounds of Japan" would transition into a ravenous habit of purchasing tons of CDs in Tsukiyono-machi, the regional capital of Maebashi and the megalopolis of Tokyo over the next two years.
Looking back on those years and then comparing them to that July 1981 trip which launched my musical journey in the first place, I find it fascinating at how different music was between the beginning of the 80s and the end of that decade. The scene of fluffy-cute aidoru in frilly dresses and questionable bridgework had changed into a small cadre of mellow singer-songwriters in tandem with girl bands who wanted to rock out with their guitars or their voices. Plus, there was even more synth work but not to show off any blippity-bloppity technopop but to anchor songs in a somewhat more mature style.
When I moved into my room atop my host family's chiropractic practice, I turned on my TV and saw Yoko Oginome（荻野目洋子）, the super-dynamic aidoru of the mid-80s simply acting away in a drama. Things were indeed a-changing. In any case, I welcome you to Part III of the series.
1. B'z
Being blasted awake every morning by "Bad Communication" by B'z made sure I was aware of this band. B'z was part of the realization that I was no longer in kayo Kansas. Koshi Inaba and Takahiro Matsumoto（稲葉浩志・松本孝弘）were the introduction to the part of J-Pop that was now in full thrall to more eclectic bands.
2. Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）
(cover version)
I had to find out from one of my English teachers in class about who Kazumasa Oda really was. On finding out that he was that distinctly mellow voice on many an Off Course (オフコース) ballad, it was a revelation on how urban contemporary he became as a soloist. "Little Tokyo" was the template sound to me for this new Oda who was already turning out to be one of the coolest middle-aged guys in music.
3. Wink
My impression between 1989-1991 was that the old-style aidoru phenomenon was finally starting to peter out. And yet, when I arrived, the Wink duo of Sachiko Suzuki and Shoko Aida（鈴木早智子・相田翔子）had already made a huge splash with a style that seemed anti-aidoru: no bopping about and no emotion. Just near-robotic moves and expressions reminiscent of exquisitely handmade dolls. "Samishii Nettaigyo"（淋しい熱帯魚）is the song that I will always remember them for.
4. Mariko Nagai（永井真理子）
Speaking about anti-aidoru, Mariko Nagai may have had plenty of bopping dance style but I couldn't ever see her as an aidoru. There was a cuteness to her, to be sure, but not of the early 80s calculated variety but something that was far more girl-next-door and down-to-earth. In many ways, "Miracle Girl"（ミラクル・ガール）is the one representative song that symbolized the female pop sound of those years in Gunma.
5. Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）
I already knew about Misato Watanabe while I was still an undergrad at U of T but spending the turn of the decade in Japan, I got to know far more about her thanks to the hit singles (such as "Summertime Blues") and albums that came out during my time there. And "Summertime Blues" was another one of those happy songs that also signified my 1989-1991 period.
6. Miki Imai（今井美樹）
(karaoke version)
If it hadn't been for that stopover at that comfortable lodge cafe between Maebashi and Tsukiyono, I may not have been able to discover the wonders of Miki Imai. Well, that's not true...the lady with the mile-wide smile was already gaining so much popularity that I would have found about her eventually. But that cafe setting while hearing the relaxing sounds of her "Natsu wo Kasanete"（夏をかさねて）pretty much imprinted my falling for the lass. A lot of girl spunk out there but Imai was lovely and mellow.
7. Princess Princess
There was no place to avoid Princess Princess and the band's megahit "Diamonds". The very happy song was all over media and it was already a favourite tune to play during the schools' Sports Day outings. Girl pop/rock was all the rage at the time I arrived in Japan and Princess Princess was the band to beat.
8. Noriyuki Makihara（槇原敬之）
Noriyuki Makihara broke out just a month before I was to leave Japan for home. But his "Donna Toki mo"（どんなときも）was so infectious and positive that I simply had to obtain the CD single before getting on that last plane home for Canada. And I finally got it in a department store in Kumamoto City. It may have been the first disc that I ripped open on getting back to my family's condo.
Although the above are my standout singers, there were so many others who together with those above trailblazed a new path into Japanese popular music, and things got more interesting when I returned to Japan a few years later for a far longer stay.
