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.
Hello everyone. Today's articles will be started off by KKP contributor Fireminer with one of his favourite choices.
The popularity of Latino music in American pop ebbs and flows, but it never ceases to exist, only biding its time to wait for another boom. With that said, the Latin explosion of the late 90s was a particularly ebullient occasion. The last years of the first millennium were all about crossovers i.e. Daft Punks, The Wallflowers and Shania Twain. Latin music too found success on the main chart with Ricky Martin’s La Copa De La Vida and Jennifer Lopez’s If You Had My Love being two standouts. Moreover the impact of the Latin explosion continued to be felt long after those songs fell off the chart. They were one of the reasons why so many early 00s hip-hop and dance hits had some kind of world music beat.
Now, I’m not sure if the same thing happened in Japan, but listening to DA PUMP’s “CORAZON” sure gives me the impression. CORAZON was DA PUMP’s 14th single released on April 25th 2001. Front man ISSA (Hentona Issa, 辺土名 一茶) wrote the song based on one of his poems, while his bandmate KEN (Okumoto Ken, 奥本 健) did the rap part. CORAZON was a hit, and DA PUMP even got to perform it at the 52nd Kohaku Utagassen (第52回NHK紅白歌合戦). The song would later be packaged in DA PUMP’s 4th album “the NEXT EXIT” (ザ・ネクスト・イグジット) alongside their other hit “if...”.
This period was when DA PUMP really got into their stride, and CORAZON was no exception. It may not have the electricity of some of the most memorable Latino hits of the time, but it gets the sensuality down. It’s hard to put it into words, but if I have to, it’s something a bit both seedy and pitiable (in an endearing way). “Corazon” means “Heart” in Spanish. It’s an apt name considering how much heartbreak and heartbreak there is in the lyrics.
I was reminded of m.c.A-T's"Bomb A Head!" some days ago when commenter Fireminer brought the song to my attention.
The musician-producer-singer's debut single from November 1993 under the name m.c.A-T (he had released a previous single in July 1989, "Let's ABC", under his real name Akio Togashi/富樫明生) was a song that I'd heard at a karaoke bar in Toronto way back when. A couple of hip-hop dudes decided to take it on with all of the dance moves (I should actually say arm moves since space was pretty limited there), and though it was really active, I was trying to figure out what the expression "bomber head" was all about. I knew what a bomber jacket was, but...
In any case, according to J-Wiki, "Bomb A Head!" was not just m.c.A-T's first single but it was also his most successful and famous tune. Apparently, it had been first created by the Hokkaido native in 1992 as a theme song for a dance-action movie titled "Heartbreaker" with its director, Souichiro Komatsu（小松壮一郎）, asking m.c.A-T for some new Japanese dance music that one can actually dance to. Taking that image as well as listening to the music of Yoshiyuki Osawa（大沢誉志幸）for inspiration, he came up with "Bomb A Head!".
Although the movie itself didn't become a great hit, it did become a cult hit of sorts and helped establish the music-dance movie genre. Plus, its fame spread among the street dancer community across Asia, and "Bomb A Head!" with the choreography of a Hakata dance team named BE BOP CREW took things to a new level. Since then, the song has been used in a commercial and also as a theme song for a TV Asahi variety show "KISS X KISS".
"Bomb A Head!" peaked at No. 27 on Oricon. Although when I think of J-R&B, I often think of the late 1990s and early 2000s, I also have to remind myself that the genre was also popping up as early as the mid-1980s with folks like Toshinobu Kubota（久保田利伸）and of course m.c.A-T. I also recollect even seeing a breakdancing-and-singing group appear on an episode of Fuji-TV's long-running "Yoru no Hit Studio"（夜のヒットスタジオ）, but I have no idea whatever happened to those guys.
There was a re-broadcast of last week's "Uta Kon"（うたコン）where basically it was a clip show emceed by the two hosts from remote locations due to the pandemic.
One of the acts featured was good ol' DA PUMP. Now in the last couple of years, frontman ISSA and his new crew have become famous for "U.S.A.", but I also remember the original singing and dancing 5-man unit. DA PUMP had a couple of clips on the show. One was for their 30th single"Sakura"（桜）from last year, and then there was their 12th single, "if..." from September 2000. By the music video for the song was filmed in Aokigahara Forest, known ominously as the Suicide Forest.
Written by m.c.A-T and composed by Akio Togashi（富樫明生）who are actually the same fellow, remembering how he sounded in performance, there's that same combination of rap and heartfelt delivery against the R&B beats. Although I wasn't a huge DA PUMP fan back then, I remember hearing the song now and then through their commercials and TV appearances.
According to J-Wiki, although I think "U.S.A." did much better in the rankings, "if..." supposedly remains as the group's most successful hit after selling approximately 348,500 copies. It almost broke into the Top 10 by placing in at No. 11 but ended up outside of the Top 100 in the yearly rankings by scoring a No. 130 ranking in 2000 and then stubbornly holding at No. 123 a year later. "if..." is also a track on DA PUMP's first BEST compilation, "Da Best of Da Pump" which was released in February 2001. It became a million-seller as it hit No. 1 and became the 14th-ranked album of the year.
Last night entailed the final broadcast of NHK's "Uta Kon"（うたコン）for this year until January 15th, so the theme was the year-end party, although frankly, the show seemed to slightly resemble more like a 45-minute-long commercial for the upcoming Kohaku Utagassen in less than three weeks. Well, Marketing has gotta do what it's gotta do.
In any case, the first guest happened to be one of the confirmed participants in the Red-and-White, DA PUMP. Of course, it'll all be about "U.S.A." when Issa and the gang show up on the Shibuya stage. But for here and now, I'm going back into my nostalgic days...when DA PUMP did these commercials for various products such as the vaunted C.C. Lemon drink.
DA PUMP did a pretty rushed medley of their hits from way back when so the whole thing seemed to sound like one big amorphous dance beat, but my memory engrams did go into gear on seeing the title "Crazy Beat Goes On!". And when I checked the official music video a few minutes ago, my brain went "Natsukashii~!".
Wasn't a huge DA PUMP fan at the time but "Crazy Beat Goes On!" did jog my memory. This was the group's 8th single from June 1999 and was written and composed by rapper/music producer m.c.A・T. Mind you, my memories of the song mostly centered around the commercials and DA PUMP's appearances on shows such as "Music Station", so I was a little surprised while listening to the whole thing that despite it being a dance tune, there was a layer of cool groove beneath all of the crash-and-bang.
"Crazy Beat Goes On!" went Gold, getting as high as No. 5 on Oricon, and ending up as the 127th-ranked single of 1999. It sold about 172,000 copies and was a track on DA PUMP's 2nd album "Higher and Higher!" from July of that year. That album went to No. 2 and became the 54th-ranked album of 1999.
Perhaps spring is finally around the corner. Still cool but getting a bit warmer and the sun is peeking out more and more.
So it's time for the appropriately titled "Feelin' Good 〜It's PARADISE〜". It also makes for a nice slice of Ichikawa nostalgia since I was ensconced in my tiny apartment in my old Chiba city when I first saw the good fellows from DA PUMP hoof it up a notch with their debut. Let's kick it with some singing, dancing and rapping.
It came out in June 1997 under the Avex Tune label with musician-producer m.c.A・T as the lyricist and Akio Togashi（富樫明生）as the composer. Both lyricist and composer are one and the same person. I'm sure that DA PUMP was feelin' plenty good as "Feelin' Good" hit the peak of No. 15. The yearly rankings saw the song hit a much more modest No. 144, but it did go Gold, selling close to 200,000 copies. The song was also on the group's debut album"EXPRESSION" from July 1998 which peaked at No. 3 and became the 37th-ranked album for the year.
Just found out that the DA PUMP debut was actually a cover of the original single, his 13th to be exact, by m.c.A・T himself from September 1996. The subtitle was slightly different: "Koi no Paradise"（恋はパラダイス...Love is a Paradise）. It peaked at No. 85.
Up until the late 90s, "Rhapsody In Blue" meant to me the classic jazz composition by George Gershwin with that clarinet solo that seemed to rise up from bed as if to start a new day in Manhattan. I guess because of the movie "Manhattan", I've always treated the epic piece as the theme song for Woody Allen himself.
But then in my early years in Ichikawa, some group decided to come out with a vastly different animal under that very title. Good golly...in all these years of the blog, how could I forget DA PUMP? This was a song-and-dance boy band that came out from the Okinawa Actors School which seemed to pump out a ton of new hit acts back in the day such as SPEED and Namie Amuro. DA PUMP was the one male group I remember from that academy with Issa Hentona and his three mates bringing their brand of dance and hip-pop to the masses.
The one song I remember by DA PUMP is the aforementioned "Rhapsody In Blue" which was about as far away from a jazz hymn as one could get. Written and composed by musician/producer m.c.A・T as the group's 5th single in June 1998, it was a fairly catchy tune with Issa and the boys kicking and stepping all over the place. This was seen as their breakthrough song, and afterwards I recollect that the guys started making many more appearances on the music shows.
"Rhapsody In Blue" got as high as No. 9 on Oricon, and ended the year as the 151st-ranked song. It didn't break the Top 100 but DA PUMP's breakthrough still went Gold and the guys even got invited to the Kohaku Utagassen. The single was also a track on the group's debut album, "Expression" which came out in July 1998 and peaked at No. 3 on the charts. It eventually became the 37th-ranked album of the year.
Apparently, DA PUMP is still in business although Issa is the only original member with 6 current members.
