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.
Another one of my purchases was the above CD, "Cologne" by Kaoru Akimoto（秋元薫）. I had already written about one famous track, "Dress Down" , late last year and at the time, I mentioned that "Cologne" would probably be another one of those rarest-of-the-rare discs to track down. Well, strangely enough, the album was re-mastered into CD format and started selling not too long ago. Opportunity not only knocked but threw a battering ram into my door.
I took an initial listen to "Cologne" a couple of days ago and though my first impressions were of the "wait and keep listening" variety, the tracks were pleasant enough so that I haven't regretted plunking down the yen for this one. Case in point: the first full track of "Narcissist". The first half of this fairly urgent and urban song was rather run-of-the-mill until the guitar came in midway and Akimoto did a nice change in key for some seconds.
Akimoto wrote the lyrics for "Narcissist" (as she did for all of the tracks on "Cologne") about a young woman who is always painting her face and the town red but feels hollow and scared inside. Singer-songwriter Kenjiro Sakiya（崎谷健次郎）came up with the nighttime melody. It's not quite as champagne synth-happy as "Dress Down" but considering the lyrics, perhaps happy synths were not the thing here. Sakiya also provided backing vocals on the album along with one other fellow whose star was about to ascend, Toshinobu Kubota（久保田利伸）.
I've got to say that Tomoko Kawase（川瀬智子）is probably one of the most imaginative artists that I had ever seen. She and her band the brilliant green made inroads as this indie-poppish group at the end of the 20th century with hits such as "There Will Be Love There", and I felt that BuriGuri had tapped into a musical niche that I hadn't heard in Japan up to that point...a mellow shoegazing type of music.
But then a few years later, Kawase decided to take a break from the brilliant green and came up with a new chic geek persona, dubbing herself asTommy february6. The name was derived from her nickname and her birthday, and the persona decided to sing 80s synthpop complete with those twee synthesizers.
Tommy february6's debut single was "Everyday at the bus stop" released in July 2001. I couldn't find the official music video unfortunately but from what I remember, I saw Tommy walk on down onto a stage in a cute dress and glasses carrying a big mike as she sang this song that reminded me a lot of some British pop stuff when I was a high school kid. It was about as far from a BuriGuri tune as I could imagine. And I have yet to talk about another persona of hers, Tommy heavenly6.
As I said, I couldn't find the official video but here is the making-of video for that video. Tommy took care of the lyrics while Malibu Convertible took care of the music and overall arrangement. "Everyday at the bus stop" got as high as No. 12 on Oricon.
Candies（キャンディーズ）were always a group that I had associated with the season of spring due to their huge hit "Haru Ichiban"（春一番）from March 1976. However, just a couple of months after that single came their 10th release, "Natsu ga Kita!" (Summer Has Come).
With the same sort of bubbly energy that inhabited many a Candies song, Ran, Su & Miki decided to give tribute to the hot season as well thanks to Yusuke Hoguchi's（穂口雄右）music and lyrics. And it was also another Top 10 hit for the trio as it peaked at No. 5 and ended the year as the 72nd-ranked song. Selling about 176,000 copies in its initial release, the sales went up even further to about 260,000 when Candies had their final concert in 1978. "Natsu ga Kita!" would also be Hoguchi's final contribution to their discography after providing a number of hit singles for the ladies including the aforementioned "Haru Ichiban".
Still, listening to "Natsu ga Kita!", there is a certain relaxed feeling to the song when compared to the near-anthemic "Haru Ichiban" despite the horns that are blaring away in the live versions performed on the TV shows.
Of course, this song is not to be confused with its namesake by Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）which was created later in the century.
Nana Tanimura (谷村奈南)
is a gravure model-turned-into-singer
from Avex who was mildly popular in the late 00s. Unfortunately, she was more
well known because of her sexy body, while the talent was probably considered
something secondary (she’s a good singer, though). From her not very big
discography, “JUNGLE DANCE” was a
song I listened to a lot during my college years.
With
all the respect I have for Nana Tanimura, I’ll not even try to defend “JUNGLE
DANCE”... because I’m counsious of its dubious quality. Not only, I confess
that I only listened to it – and watched the video, of course – due to the
wrong reasons (she’s pure fire in the video). In my defense, though, I was just
a young man at the time.
“JUNGLE
DANCE’s” Latin sound is not bad per
se, and I truly like Nana Tanimura’s voice
(she has much better songs, by the way), but there’s probably nothing more I
can talk about the song in a positive way. Other than that, I agree it’s
disposable pop with some R&B touches,
which was something common in Japan when the song was released back in May 2008 (Jennifer Lopez would be more than
happy to record “JUNGLE DANCE” and “SEXY SENORITA”, another Latin-inspired song
released by Nana).
Unfortunately
for Nana Tanimura, R&B was declining
in the Japanese mainstream media and a new era of cute aidoru groups was borning. Based on that, her in-your-face sexy
image, alongside her American-inspired dance songs, weren’t going to take her
anywhere in the Japanese music industry.
After
the release of a compilation called “NANA BEST” in 2011, she disappeared from
public eye (at least in the music scene), but made a return earlier this year
with a solid digital single called “DESTINY STAR”. In the end, it was good to
hear her voice again (her debut single, the R&B ballad “Again”, is a good example of her talent), so I hope she makes a
full come back later.
“JUNGLE DANCE”
reached #15 on the Oricon charts,
selling 28,302 copies. Lyrics were
written by Nana Tanimura herself, while music and arrangement were done by PJ
and Lee Jong Hoon.
Recently,
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu (きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ) released her first best of compilation,
titled “KPP BEST” (May 2016),
featuring all her a-sides, some b-sides, a couple of album tracks and even new
songs. It’s a good collection to see how Yasutaka
Nakata (中田ヤスタカ) managed to put this girl in the
spotlight with his quirky electronic music tricks over five years since her
debut with the magical “Pon Pon Pon”
in 2011. On the other side, it also shows how he kind of lost the magic touch
in her latest singles, which is a pity considering Kyary, alongside BABYMETAL,
is Japan’s most famous act oversea. Let’s see if he’ll be able to create great
songs for Kyary – and even Perfume – again.
“CANDY CANDY”, which was Kyary’s second single, from April
2012, is obviously part of “KPP BEST”.
Not only, it’s a great reminder of how
good Kyary and Nakata’s partnership used to be until around 2014. In fact,
it was with “CANDY CANDY” that Kyary truly won my heart.
Kyary
starts the video running around with a toaste in her mouth, just like a typical anime
character who is late for some important appointment (in Kyary’s case, it’s
a performence in a The Best Ten-like
music show, which is a nice homage to Japan’s classic 80s). Then, at some
point, we meet a masked male dancer
dressed like Kyary who likes to do some break
dance. Finally, there are the great sequences where Kyary dances along the big onion and even shoots it with a pink riflewhile doing a crazy face (all this
in a very pink and fluffy world, of course). Rounding everything, there’s “CANDY
CANDY” playing in the background with its bubblegum-like
synth melody and the repetitive
chorus, which just adds to this kind of psychotic scenario. And I can’t even say it’s Kyary’s most
psychotic video ever.
As a side note, here’s a
good eurodisco song with candy in
the title that don’t have nothing to do with Kyary, but I love it anyway and
wanted to put it here without proper reason. It’s called “Candy Love” (1986) and is sung by Swedish duo Lili & Susie.
Kyary’s “CANDY CANDY” reached #8
on the Oricon charts, selling 16,688
copies. It was later included in her first album, “Pamyu Pamyu Revolution” (ぱみゅぱみゅレボリューション). As always, Nakata was responsible for lyrics, music and arrangement.
For all those city lovers out there, I give you Junko Yagami's（八神純子）"Wonderful City", a track from her 3rd original album"Mr. Metropolis"（Mr.メトロポリス）in April 1980. Written and composed by Yagami, I really love the keyboards especially in the intro which starts things off dramatically but the song turns into an ode to the metropolis...whether it be New York, Los Angeles or Tokyo...right from drawing open the curtains on a sunny morning.
It's listening to this song that has me hankering for another visit to my old stomping grounds. If I could pull off another 2-week vacation in Japan's capital, I will endeavour to check out all of my old areas such as Ginza, Shinjuku, Shibuya and Omotesando among other neighbourhoods. However, the megalopolis is so big that even after 17 years of life in the area, I think there are still districts that I have yet to enter. It's one thing to be a resident and teacher but it's another thing to be the free and happy tourist in one of the world's biggest cities.
Anyways, "Mr. Metropolis" peaked at No. 2 on Oricon and the album finished the year as the 27th-ranked release for 1980.
For one of my articles on the many theme songs in the anime "Shirokuma Cafe"（しろくまカフェ...Polar Bear Cafe）, I started to write half-jokingly that the way things were going, I would end up making the show its own category on the blog. Well, it's no joke anymore. I've actually upgraded one of my favourite shows to Labels status. Considering the three opening themes and the myriad of ending themes during its year (2012-2013), I figured it was going to happen. And the last straw was when I purchased the actual soundtrack for the show by Fukuoka-born composer Kenji Kondo（近藤研二）.
Compared to the tons of regular pop CDs I've bought over the years, soundtracks have been more in the minority and anime soundtracks are even fewer on my shelves. So "Shirokuma Cafe Music Playlist" is pretty special to me. I thought the background music accompanying the overall slice-of-life mellowness was just perfect with its mix of whimsical pop and light jazz...perhaps something along the lines of that clarinet jazz which got interspersed between scenes of "Cheers", the classic US sitcom that I associate "Shirokuma Cafe" most with.
The 53-track disc starts with the TV cuts of the first two opening themes"Boku ni Invitation"（ボクにインビテーション）by JP and "Rough & Laugh" by Clammbon. Then comes the overall instrumental theme for the show, appropriately named "Shirokuma Cafe Eigyochuu"（しろくまカフェ営業中...Shirokuma Cafe Open For Business）. It's not an epic welcome on the order of "Be Our Guest" on "Beauty & The Beast" but a cute little old-style jazz number illustrating the usual day in the life of the place where every animal and human know your name. Shirokuma is your congenial host with Sasako kindly guiding you to your table and taking your order. Meanwhile, Panda, Penguin, Llama and the rest of the gang banter on while trying not to fall into Shirokuma's pun trap.
Of course, if you are looking for the harder stuff, then a trip to The Grizzly is in order. "Grizzly's Bar" has so much of a Southern Comfort sort of feeling that the track ought to be served in a tumbler on the rocks. I can even imagine gruff Grizzly smoothly narrating the lines of a Dodge Ram commercial while this song is playing.
But as fellow fans of "Shirokuma Café" already know, the music wasn't always in the comical jazz category. There were also some wistful pieces such as "Oyasumi, Arigato"（おやすみ、ありがとう...Good Night, Thank You）which was used during some of the quieter and more introspective scenes including the above montage of Shirokuma and Grizzly getting to know each other as cubs. It was one of my favourite numbers.
"Panda wa Yawaraka ni Sasa wo Hami"（パンダはやわらかに笹を食み...Panda Chews The Bamboo Softly）was the very sad song played on THAT episode. The fans know....Episode 44 when Panda went into a major downward spiral on the news that his friend and zoomate, Jougin Panda（常勤パンダ...Full-Time Panda）, was suddenly transferred to Singapore. This was truly the one dramatic episode on the series that had folks grabbing for the Kleenex or a nearby bamboo leaf. If there had been a promotion for this episode on prime time American TV, it would have had a basso profundo announcer's voice going "And on a very special episode of Shirokuma Cafe....". I have gone through the show twice now but have only seen Episode 44 once....just not ready to see it again....excuse me, I've got something in my eye...
I tried to search for any information about the making of 44 but the only tidbit that I could find was that the episode was something made solely for the anime and was never in the original manga. I got the information from the "TV Tropes" entry for "Shirokuma Cafe" under the heading of "Pragmatic Adaptation".
I read one YouTube commenter stating that he couldn't find the slightly jazzier version of "Shirokuma Cafe Eigyochuu". Well, here it is..."Shirokuma Cafe Junbichuu"（しろくまカフェ準備中）. As with any other real-life cafe sign, I would have translated it as Shirokuma Cafe Getting Ready but considering that the piece was always used during the post-credits "Next Episode" sequence, I would probably say that Shirokuma Cafe Stay Tuned is the more appropriate way to title it. In any case, I always looked forward to this part of the show since the main characters enjoyed throwing around the shtick while on location somewhere in Japan. I rather wonder whether the anime producers and directors had watched early American variety shows for research.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find any video containing the track of Penguin falling in love which has these soaring jazzy violins at the climax but perhaps someday. In any case, there are a couple of vocal tracks from the album that I will have to cover at a future date. But for those folks who continue to enjoy "Shirokuma Cafe" on sites like Crunchyroll or on their own DVDs, I can recommend "Shirokuma Cafe Music Playlist".
