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.
Early last year, I came across this book at the Shinjuku Station Tower Records. Now, my ability to read Japanese isn't exactly up to what is required of most Japanese people...around 2,500 kanji. But I was interested enough in the contents to invest my 1,890 yen, and I haven't regretted it. "Japanese City Pop" is a catalogue of 500 selected albums which fit the category from 1970 to 2002. So, the names are a who's who from the Japanese music industry such as Yumi Matsutoya(松任谷由実） to Mr. Children, and they also include artists who never really registered into mainstream pop. I came across a large number of names whose CDs I was able to track down, such as Yasuhiro Abe(安部恭弘), for whom I've already written one entry, and Hitomi Tohyama(当山ひとみ） (to be listed later). Provided that you can read Japanese, this is a must for not just the City Pop fans but for any J-Pop fans who want to get a bit of history and know something outside of the usual aidoru or J-Rock/J-R&B circles. And if you can't read a certain entry, you can always send me a request since I do translate Japanese-to-English on the side.
My book is the first issue from 2002, but last October, Tower Records started selling the revised edition. And of course, you can always check out www.amazon.jp
Continuing on with YMO, "Absolute Ego Dance"was never released as a single but was part of the album "Solid State Survivor" when it was released in late 1979. A five-minute blast of techno fun, it mixes in Okinawan and Indian influences (according to the J-Wikipedia write up), and even has a bit of R2-D2. Sandii (of Sandii & The Sunsetz) contributes her speaking-in-tongues.
"Taiso" (Exercise) was a single from the "Technodelic" LP released in late 1981. I think the video helps out with the song since it's so whacked out. If you have ever dreamed of the YMO boys in an exercise informercial...then you've come to the right place. As actors, YMO make great musicians, but at least they're having fun. As for the young lady, I think she was having more than vitamins coursing through her veins. Apparently, the video was influenced by a Talking Heads video, most likely "Once In A Lifetime".
Techno, for me, started with The Yellow Magic Orchestra. Until they came along, the only computer music I had heard was from this album of experimental avant-garde stuff at my junior high school library. My first thought was, "Heck, I can do that torturing my radio!"
Then, Messrs. Yukihiro Takahashi (高橋幸宏), Ryuichi Sakamoto (坂本龍一)and Harry Hosono (細野晴臣）blew my mind out along with millions of others with their TECHNOlogical onslaught in the late 70s. My first sight of them was in a newspaper picture back in 1978 with the three lads all dressed in red uniforms holding drum sticks. The only thing they were missing was a "Kick me" sign on their backs. No, I wasn't particularly impressed but then again it would literally be decades before I found out about their pedigree from the early 70s.
The only musical purchase I'd made during that trip to Japan in 1981 was YMO's first self-titled release in 1978 which had the hits "Firecracker" and "Tong Poo". But it was at my friend's place that I heard the amazing "Rydeen" which I think is the band's theme song...and perhaps the theme song of the early 80s for Japanese popular music. The single itself was released in June 1980 and ultimately reached No. 15 on the Oricon charts, while the album it was placed on, "Solid State Survivor" was the No. 1 album for all of 1980.
From J-Wikipedia's entry on "Rydeen", I found out the following: 1) the title itself had its first origins from the name of an 18th-century legendary sumo wrestler named Raiden Tame-e-mon(雷電為右エ門）.Sakamoto felt that, like Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints, he wanted YMO's music to have a similar effect on the world at large, and that a picture of Raiden had that image. 2) later on, Hosono remarked that the anime "Brave Raideen" (勇者ライディーン）was a hit in America...which sealed the deal as far as the title of the song was concerned.
Yukihiro Takahashi composed the song with "The Seven Samurai" (七人の侍) and "Star Wars" in mind. From the latter movie, the laser sounds emitted in the latter half of the song were the obvious contribution. "The Seven Samurai" gave its influence via the clicks at the beginning and the digital hoofbeats throughout the song.
BTW, the three lads also had quite the effect on fashion as well. They liked the stylist who cut their hair, Mikio Honda. The fans felt the same and thus, the "techno cut was born.
Well, we talked about Seiko Matsuda(松田聖子) the night before...let's talk about her legendary predecessor, Momoe Yamaguchi(山口百恵）. Born in Ebisu, Tokyo (now a pretty trendy area) in 1959, she tried out for a TV talent show called...prophetically, as it were..."A Star Is Born"(スター誕生....Star Tanjou) in 1972, and from there was launched her 8-year career in show business. Her earlier hits were infamous for some very suggestive lyrics but by the time the above song came out, her voice had deepened dramatically and she was going for some more complexity in her musical choices in terms of both lyrics and melody.
The very first time I'd heard about Momoe-chan was when she sang the sultry "Imitation Gold". However, the tune that got my attention was "Ii Hi Tabidachi" (A Trip on a Fine Day) when I heard it as the first tune on "Sounds of Japan", that Toronto radio show on CHIN-FM. It's memorable for the trumpet solos at the beginning and in the middle, and Momoe's singing is wistful and lonely. According to the writeup on J-Wikipedia, the song, which deals with a woman taking a solo journey, presumably post-breakup, has become a favorite at graduations and weddings for some reason! Even the composer/lyricist of the song, Shinji Tanimura (谷村新司)of Alice(アリス) fame, once scratched his head about its popular usage in supposedly celebratory events. Since my comprehension of Japanese lyrics at the time was basically negligible, I blissfully enjoyed the song.
Released in November 1978, it rose as high as No. 3 on the Oricon charts. And its legacy is strong; it has been covered by many J-Pop artists up to the present day.
1. Dancing All Night Monta & Brothers
2. Aishuu Date Toshihiko Tahara
3. Subaru Shinji Tanimura
4. Tonight The Chanels
5. Koi no Tsunawatari Akiko Nakamura
6. Ride On Time Tatsuro Yamashita
7. Rock N' Roll Widow Momoe Yamaguchi
8. Wakaretemo, Los Indios & Sylvia
Suki na Hito
9. Minamikai Kisen Takao Horiuchi & Tomohiro Taki
10. Yes-No Off-Course
"Dancing All Night"（ダンシング・オール・ナイト）ended up being the top-rated song for the entire year...not bad for a debut single. Meanwhile, the singers for the No. 3 and No. 9 slots, Tanimura and Horiuchi, were the duo Alice in the 1970s. Shinji Tanimura's（谷村新司） "Subaru"(昴)is a perennial karaoke favourite sung like an anthem or a Japanese version of "My Way", by Frank Sinatra.
As for The Chanels, they were a retro-doo-wop group which reflected the inexplicable love for 50s kitsch fashion back in those years. Several of the members, including lead singer Masayuki Suzuki(鈴木雅之), wore blackface during their performances (please do not kill me, NAACP). In another inexplicable move, the group changed their name into the "roll-off-the-tongue"Rats & Star. Still, they had a lot of catchy numbers, and Suzuki later went solo to become a fine soul singer.
Now, where would a self-respecting kayo kyoku blogger like me be without mentioning the Queen Aidoru herself, Seiko Matsuda(松田聖子）? If I hadn't made any tribute to her, I would've had to hand in my Myojo （明星）magazines (J-equivalent of Teen Beat in America) and my Seiko-chan posters.
Actually, I thought a good bit about which song to start her story with. Do I start with "Natsu no Tobira"(the first time I saw her perform on TV)? "Akai Sweet Pea" (one of her signature tunes from her early period)? But I decided to go with "Aoi Sangoshou"(Blue Coral Reef) since this was the single that catapulted the former Ms. Noriko Kamachi into super-aidoru status back in July 1980. This was her 2nd single which gradually earned her a ranking of No. 2 on Oricon and won her The Best Newcomer Prize on The Japan Record Awards, and her first appearance on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen. The single was also on Seiko's debut album"Squall".
"Aoi Sangoshou"was written by copywriter-turned-prolific songwriter Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）, who pretty much wrote for just about every singer from the late 70s and well into the 80s. Composed by Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）, it's a very upbeat tune which evokes a good deal of summery nostalgia. The cover shows an 18-year-old Seiko with the haircut that launched a lot of stylists' careers for the next year or two.
The B-side features "True Love", a non-hit but a personal favourite of mine nonetheless. Unlike its more famous sister tune, "True Love", which was also created by the same duo from "Aoi Sangousho", does go for the more conventional boyfriend-based lyrics. It's also interesting for the fact that Seiko had a slightly more amateurish and deeper voice (not that she sounded like Hulk Hogan or anything like that) here, which might signify that this song had been recorded some time before "Aoi Sangoshou".
The record, though, may have arguably not only launched Seiko-chan's meteoric rise but also the 2nd Aidoru Wave with the cute frilly dresses and tonsorial waves and bobs of the early 80s. Musically as well, the new 80s aidoru songs had little of the studio orchestra horn sections and the arrival of the synths.
There was also a passing of the baton as well during this time. A few months after the release of this single, the Queen Aidoru of the 70s, Momoe Yamaguchi （山口百恵）, who had cut a far different figure from Seiko, would get married and retire from show business for good.
As a postscript, although Seiko hails from Kurume City in Fukuoka Prefecture, she attended Horikoshi High School, kinda like Hollywood High in Los Angeles, less than a kilometre where I used to teach English in Nakano Ward, Tokyo.
Like jazz and blues, a lot of the tunes in enka （演歌）and Mood Kayo music often pay tribute to certain cities and regions in the country. A couple of the first examples of the latter that I'd ever heard centered around the port city of Yokohama...and they go way back to the late 60s and early 70s. "Blue Light Yokohama"（ブルーライト・ヨコハマ）is a classic first released on Christmas Day, 1968 and sung by singer/actress Ayumi Ishida（いしだあゆみ）. The horn intro is probably one of the most recognized beginnings to a kayo. The lyrics themselves don't make any strong references to the metropolis aside from the title, but talks of a girl and a guy taking a nice stroll through the big city. "Blue Light Yokohama" hit No. 1 on the Oricon charts and got Ishida a slot on the following year's Red-and-White Song Festival. Prolific composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）took care of the classic melody while Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）wrote the lyrics.
A few years later, another Yokohama-based song also made another singer's career. Hiroshi Itsuki （五木ひろし）was only 23 when he crooned a tune whose lyrics were more lurid than Ishida's innocent walk along the port. "Yokohama Tasogare"（よこはま・たそがれ）、translated as "Yokohama Sunset". illustrated vignettes from a one-night stand, another enka theme. However, like the first song, it also garnered a No. 1 posting on Oricon for Itsuki (real name: Kazuo Matsuyama) and a spot on the "Kohaku Utagassen"(紅白歌合戦）. The song was written by Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）and composed by Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）.
In a way, both songs could also qualify as City Pop, but this category includes songs with a more overtly Western AOR melody.
