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.
After answering that inquiry on what aspiring singer-turned-teen aidoru Yukiko Okada（岡田有希子）sang in the audition phase of her career, I felt that I couldn't really let things go until I added another official Okada article onto the blog.
"Little Princess" was Okada's 2nd single from July 1984, and like her debut single"First Date"（ファースト・デイト）from a few months earlier, it too was written and composed by Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）. As would be the case for a Mariya-penned song, the melody is gently swinging away as if Okada were riding it like a playground swing with that hint of old-style American pop. Watching the video above and listening to "Little Princess", I can understand why Okada had been referred to as the "post-Seiko Matsuda"; there was something about the way she looked and sang that reminded me of the Seiko-chan of 1980, and as I've probably mentioned before, she seemed to have that It quality which may have resulted in a number of the big songwriters such as Takeuchi being attracted to her.
The song managed to peak at No. 14 on Oricon. The song earned her a couple of awards as well in the Best New Artist category at the 10th Annual Nippon Television Music Festival and the 3rd Metropolis Kayo Festival. For all those Yukko fans, considering the importance of April 8th, perhaps you can also take a gander at my own BEST article for her as well as JTM's "Premium Best" article.
A few hours ago, I received an e-mail via the Contact Form regarding the late aidoru Yukiko Okada（岡田有希子）who had committed suicide back on this day in 1986. The person was inquiring about the "Star Tanjo"（スター誕生!...A Star Is Born!）audition program on NTV in which Okada, under her real name of Kayo Sato（佐藤佳代）, entered the singing contest on the show. The question was that although Sato had sung Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）"Slow Motion"（スローモーション）at the national level at the March 30 1983 competition, the inquirer wanted to know the other song she had performed in the preliminaries to get to the nationals.
Well, it was a lucky thing that I got the question on a day in which 1) I wasn't off to see my anime buddy and 2) there were no translation tasks miring me down, so I was quite free to do some investigative work. Doing a bit of digging into the J-Wiki article for Okada through her quite voluminous history, I was able to find out that the Aichi Prefecture-raised teenager had skipped school to try out for the the Nagoya preliminaries of the contest. The song she sang was "My Boyfriend" by aidoru/actress Sawako Kitahara（北原佐和子）which you can see from 0:22 of the above video.
For some reason, the footage above states that this was an October 1983 broadcast so I'm not sure whether there was some long delay between the actual taping and the broadcast (doubtful) or whether the October show was some sort of retrospective showing past auditions. In any case, Okada had done well enough to receive her invitation to the nationals albeit not without some major conflict with her family and homeroom teacher, according to the book "Yukiko Okada ~ Ai wo Kudasai"（岡田有希子 愛をください...Yukiko Okada - Love Please）via that J-Wiki article.
As for Sawako Kitahara, she was born in Saitama Prefecture in 1964 and made her debut as an actress and as an aidoru around 1982. Just before that, she had been in a 1981 aidoru group called Pansy（パンジー）before going solo. "My Boyfriend" was her debut single from March 1982 with lyrics by Mari Horikawa（堀川マリ）and music by Tatsushi Umegaki（梅垣達志）. From that year to 1986, Kitahara would release 10 singles and 6 original albums.
Although she has long finished her singing career, her acting career has been continuing and she is also a certified care worker. In any case, I hope this article has answered that one question.
The above photo is one I took on Tokyo's Yurikamome Line going through the bayside Odaiba district back in 2014. Odaiba has remained one of my favourite places in the capital and I'm proud to say that I was one of the earliest visitors to the area when it was being built in the mid to late 1990s. The Yurikamome was already running but the only thing that was erected at the time was the humongous Meccano set that would become the new headquarters for Fuji-TV. Everything else was sand quarry.
Now the area is just chock-filled with shopping malls, hotels, convention facilities, restaurants and a Gundam robot with the Yurikamome coursing through the area like an aorta. Plus, it will be getting the Olympic Village constructed nearby in the next year (I hope). All of it is on a combination of reclaimed land and garbage which, as signs everywhere tell visitors, will liquefy in the event of a major earthquake. Basically, the government is telling us that we have been warned. Lovely.
Anyways, I just want to devote this space to the lovely vocals of Yuiko Tsubokura（坪倉唯子）via "San-byaku-rokujuu-go no Yoru to Hiru" (365 Nights & Days). It's not the cool City Pop that a lot of us have heard her sing on "Tsukanoma Yotogi Bito"（一瞬夜伽伴侶）which has garnered a lot of popularity on YouTube, but it is reflective of the urban contemporary music which was coming out during the turn of the decade from the 80s into the 90s. Perhaps it can be an example of that Quiet Storm that I was talking about last night.
"365 no Yoru to Hiru" was used as one of the many ending themes for the TV Asahi midnight news and information show, "Tonight"（トゥナイト）. From my more-than-occasional viewings of the show from my futon, it seemed to enjoy placing these mellow numbers at the end, I guess, to act as a lullaby for those late sleepers. The song was also the coupling tune for her 3rd single"Koufuku Game"（幸福ゲーム）which came out in June 1990. As with that song, "365 no Yoru to Hiru" was composed by Hiroshi Terao（寺尾広）but the lyrics were provided by none other than Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき）. I realize that Nakajima didn't have anything to do with the melody but still the song struck me as being of a type that I wouldn't have usually imagined as one of hers.
If you like, you can enjoy this before you head off for slumberland yourself.
Hello and good weekend to you! It's been a good long time...perhaps around 4 years since I put up the last original H2O article onto "Kayo Kyoku Plus". That's because when it comes to seeing any of the duo's presence on places like YouTube, it's almost always centered on their most famous song "Omoide ga Ippai"（思い出がいっぱい）, a song for graduation ceremonies everywhere in Japan.
Well, last night, I was able to find something different by Kenji Nakazawa and Masaki Akashio（中沢賢司・赤塩正樹）at last in the form of "HELLO VIBRATION" from July 1982. This was their 4th single and the one preceding their hit "Omoide ga Ippai", and it's an interesting one since it starts out sounding almost like a contemplative number on the level of Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）from the same period. But then, it breaks out into a mellower quasi-Beach Boys pop song out on the surf.
If you are well-versed on the Beach Boys' oeuvre, half the title for this song pretty much gives away the game about what the songwriters were going for, and they were not Nakazawa or Akashio. Actually it was Tetsuya Chiaki（ちあき哲也）on words with Katsu Hoshi（星勝）coming out with the music. "HELLO VIBRATION" was also a track on their 4th album"Pool" from October 1983. And although it wasn't used as one of the theme songs, it was inserted in one of the episodes from the 80s anime "Miyuki"（みゆき）, a show that was quite happy to have H2O's presence in there.
These lines right here are apparently from one of the most iconic scenes from Kawatake Mokuami's (河竹黙阿弥) famous play called "Aoto Zoshi Hana no Nishiki-e" (青砥稿花紅彩画), also known simply as "Benten Kozo". This proud declaration was announced by Benten Kozo Kikunosuke (弁天小僧 菊之助), one of a group of five (as I quote from the Wiki) gizoku/honorable thieves, when his plot to rob a kimono store in drag was revealed - well, now, that's one way to go about doing that, alright.
I'm not all that well-versed in kabuki theater, so as usual enka served as my introduction to the aforementioned play via the song with the same name. I had seen that the original singer of "Benten Kozo" was Koichi Miura (三浦洸一), though I only got fully acquainted with it through Kiyoshi Hikawa's "Shin Enka Meikyoku Collection 2" (新・演歌名曲コレクション2 −愛しのテキーロ／男花−) as a cover. With such a romping score, courtesy of renowned songwriter Tadashi Yoshida (吉田正), and Hikawa's expressive delivery, this catchy tune from 1955 quickly grew on me and eventually piqued my interest on Kikunosuke enough to read up about his story on the J-Wiki.
Miura's version
From there, I learnt that Takao Saeki's (佐伯孝夫) lyrics are actually based on the aforementioned lines (plus everything in between) and some of the young thief's other exploits from the original play itself. It definitely brings to mind Hachiro Kasuga's own kabuki-themed hit "Otomi-san" (お富さん), and it seems like Miura's "Benten Kozo" was created when Victor Records saw how warmly the former (from King Records) was received about a year before. Not surprisingly, it became one of Miura's biggest successes.
As with other popular plays, besides being adapted into mainstream music, "Benten Kozo" the play had its fair share of movie renditions, one of which titled "Hibari Juu-hachi Ban Benten Kozo" (ひばり十八番 弁天小僧) from 1960 starred Hibari Misora (美空ひばり) as the thief himself. That initially took me by surprise, but on second thought, with Misora's ability to bring out a gruff and masculine persona, her role there did not seem as strange anymore. Hmm, I wonder how she found having to act as a man trying to act as a woman during the kimono shop scene. But anyway, you can check out excerpts of the this movie from the video above with Miura singing away, and listen to Misora's own take of the song in the video immediately above this paragraph.
Comparing all three renditions of "Benten Kozo" the song, I have to admit that I prefer the covers to the original for I find that in the latter, both Hikawa and Misora make it sound as if they were the character themselves, whereas Miura sounds like he's just narrating the story. With that being said, I think Hikawa could play a convincing Kikunosuke.
Hello there, how's everyone doing today? Good, I hope. :)
Recently I had been revisiting my ASKA playlist fairly often and, finally being adventurous enough, sampled some of the tracks I hadn't bothered to listen to when I got the albums... 5 years ago. Better late than never, I suppose. One such song was "HELLO".
From the medleys I had seen on YouTube, I was very aware that "HELLO" is one of the most well-liked songs in ASKA's3rd album "NEVER END" from 1995, and in a fan-favourite poll ASKA held in 2017, it even managed to emerge as one of the top 20 out of all his solo works. But strangely, I couldn't get its appeal and was quite averse to listening to it for the longest time and would always skip it without much hesitation. However, this time round, while stuck in traffic in Hong Kong a few weeks back and thinking that enka didn't fit the environment all that much, I decided to give it a second chance and let it run its course after listening to my personal favourite, "Senten wo Homeru nara Yugure wo Mate" (晴天を誉めるなら夕暮れを待て). And by golly, the thought of, "Hey..., this song is actually great!" felt like a hard flick to the forehead.
(50:55)
Besides its chorus, "HELLO" has got the tropes I like most from ASKA's songs: A melody with a nice light rhythm, church bells clanging away, and synths that are reminiscent of horns and strings that create a western flavour - this sound is most notable in the "NEVER END" album. Upon hindsight, I think the only reason that kept me away from "HELLO" was that I did not like its intro. With rolling drums and crashing cymbals, I found it way too loud and overly dramatic, and I couldn't get over that. Right now, can't say that I've fallen in love with it in the same way as the rest of the song, but I'm getting used to it. Actually, with a more positive look at the opening and the constant "Hello-s", the first thing that came to mind was the image of parents introducing their little kid to a whole new world and its wide array of characters.
Moving on, in terms of what the lyrics in "HELLO" are all about, I don't exactly know, but my guess is that it could be about how the titular greeting is the first step to getting to know someone and that it can be quite a daunting task to do just that in the beginning. As a victim of social awkwardness myself, I can attest to that.
Well, as I continue to (slowly) sift through the portion of ASKA's discography I've yet to touch, I wonder what other songs will turn out to be the same case as "HELLO" - I have a feeling that there are many more to come.
Although the genre of Quiet Storm has been around since the mid-1970s, I only became aware of it when Anita Baker perked up my ears with "Sweet Love" in 1986. I had assumed that it was a sub-genre within the larger one of R&B, but according to Wikipedia, it's considered to be a "super-genre" enveloping "... contemporary R&B, jazz fusion and pop music that is characterized by understated, mellow dynamics, slow tempos, and relaxed rhythms".
If that is indeed the case, then I would consider City Pop in Japan to be along the same lines since it brings together genres such as soul, disco, jazz, sophisticated pop, etc. Getting back to America, though, Quiet Storm has a lot of singers included such as Sade, Luther Vandross and Smokey Robinson, but for me, I think my ambassador will always remain the divine Ms. Baker.
Various aspects of R&B have popped up within Japanese music over the decades. Of course, there was City Pop in the 70s and 80s, and then the parallel rise of hip-hop and soul in the late 90s going into the 00s. However, I don't think Quiet Storm ever got its representation through a large number of singers and/or groups. Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）is perhaps one crooner who can be considered to be a Quiet Storm singer. As for a band, I often think of Sing Like Talking.
The other one who comes closest in reminding me of Anita Baker is singer-songwriter Toko Furuuchi（古内東子）who is celebrating her 25th anniversary since she released her debut single in 1993. Whenever I want to relax to the sounds of light soul and pop, Furuuchi would be the one to head for. And what better song title than "Daijoubu" (It's Alright) to provide solace?
This was her 10th single which came out in July 1997. I was actually viewing her collection of videos last night on the computer when "Daijoubu" popped up; I had completely forgotten about this one and all of the nostalgia juices started flowing again. Those strings and horns put me quite at ease. Furuuchi may not really get out of a certain range of music (can't really see her tackling rock or straight-ahead pop), but when one of her songs crops up once in a while through a compilation or on YouTube, it's enough for me to sit back and enjoy.
"Daijoubu" was also a track on her 6th album"Koi"（恋...Love） from August 1997. It peaked at No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies. Furuuchi hasn't really released anything since the earlier years of this decade, and it's understandable since she is now enjoying motherhood with her son. But according to her J-Wiki article, she did release a live album and cover album in 2016.
Not sure if it will happen but it would be really nice if an equivalent of a Quiet Storm arrived on Japanese shores. Perhaps one really subtle version has already landed through groups such as microstar, Blue Peppers and Blu-Swing in the past few years.
