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.
Yes, nothing says Christmas in Japan more than Sylvester Stallone and Ito Ham. My goodness...that glorious mane of hair back in the day could rival anything on KKP AI representative Kayo Grace Kyoku's head.
But just to get away from the weirdness of Hollywood celebrities in Japanese commercials, let's think about some of those other wholesome ads promising things like chicken covered in eleven herbs and spices and ten thousand calories (that was certainly the case when I was living in Chiba) when it comes to J-Xmas. Consider this special Yuletide Author's Pick a summary of those J-Xmas tunes for ads that I've already covered over the past dozen years.
(1983) Tatsuro Yamashita -- Christmas Eve for Japan Railways
(2000) Mariya Takeuchi -- Suteki na Holiday（すてきなホリデイ）for Kentucky Fried Chicken
Happy Christmas Eve! Yup, I'm getting into the final touches before the annual family Xmas get-together tomorrow, but of course, I have to do my usual duty and provide some more J-Christmas tunes here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus".
Thanks to Scott's "Holly Jolly X'masu" podcast, I have here a song from the 2010 compilation "We Wish You a Merry" that he spotlighted back in the fall of 2022. The Keys'"The Land of Celebration" is a happy jangly pop tune that reminds me of some of the sunny side pop of the late 1960s and according to Scott, the lyrics talk of a guy who meets up with a lady during a snowy Yuletide every year with the promise of showing up the next day for a further development in their relationship, only for him to pull a no-show due to short-term memory issues. It sounds like an old Adam Sandler movie, and how the woman puts up with getting ditched annually is beyond me. But the music is fun and should get folks in a good mood.
I could find absolutely nothing on The Keys online, and all that I know has been from Scott's narration from a little after the 23-minute mark on the podcast. So I urge to you to have a listen. The band apparently didn't last all that long after their beginnings in the mid-2000s although all three members are still in the music industry.
As I was mentioning in my first post tonight, I got to see "Godzilla Minus One" with my friends tonight. Following the surprisingly heartful movie, most of us went out for some dinner at a Turkish restaurant and then one of my friends was very kind in giving two of us, me and D, a lift home. Indeed, he was downright magnanimous since the two of us were on opposite ends of the city. D was the first to be taken home so it would be about an hour in the car for me. Not that I minded at all. It was nice talking up a storm and we hadn't spoken in many months.
The above preamble ramble has a connection with the song of note here, specifically with the official music video below. But first, let's talk about "Nodobotoke no Christmas"(Adam's Apple's Christmas) itself. As I've mentioned in the past, my general rule or guideline is that I usually wait a month at least before I post a song by the same singer or band, and actually, it was just a little over a couple of weeks ago that I first introduced singer-songwriter Kan Sano onto KKP with his jazzy 2019 "My Girl".
Well, I've decided to break my rule by bringing in a song that he only released in the last couple of months because 1) it's a timely Christmas ditty and 2) Sano sounds so good. Yes, I did note his comfy shower loofah vocals in that first article for him. He took care of everything for the unusually-titled but just-as-jazzy and poppy "Nodobotoke no Christmas" which has a guy marvel at how trusting his girlfriend is in a lot of things such as Santa Claus...which is probably why he loves her so much.
Ahhh...that video. Looks like Sano was having as much fun as we three were having in my friend's car tonight, although of course, none of us were in any Santa gear. But may I say that I was getting some mighty "Carpool Karaoke" and "Cash Cab" vibes seeing this? Uber customers in Tokyo would be very happy having him pick them up for a nice roundabout drive in the megalopolis.
OK, first off. This has nothing to do with Takako Mamiya's（間宮貴子）magnum opus. Truly.
In fact, I wouldn't classify Miki Asakura's（麻倉未稀）"Love Trip" a City Pop song at all, although Asakura has done her fair share of music from that realm including its track mate, "Forum", from her June 1983 4th album"Hip City". Instead, "Love Trip" is a bouncy feel-good pop song faintly reminiscent of 1960s girl pop and it's all about that young lady in head-over-heels love. She's practically bouncing her way on the pavement to the chapel.
"Love Trip" has got some pedigree as well. While Asakura provided the lyrics, Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）composed the happy-happy-joy-joy tune and Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）arranged the whole kit-and-caboodle. And dang, doesn't that electric organ solo sound sweet. To add even more brass to the proceedings, a frequent collaborator of Shimizu, EPO, lends her voice to the background vocals.
"Music hath charms to sooth a savage breast" by poet William Congreve, 1697
I guess KKP icon Kayo Grace Kyoku did do a number on Japanese pop culture icon Godzilla, even getting the big guy to flash a peace sign. If only it had been as easy in the movie I saw earlier this afternoon.
Yup, my friends and I caught "Godzilla Minus One". It's been getting rave reviews and we've been hearing that there was a very emotional core in this latest of the long-running kaiju franchise which surprised the heck out of me. All these decades, I've been accustomed to the Big G trampling the heck out of Tokyo with a mixture of clumsiness and goofiness while battling some odd monster in B-movie trappings.
No such thing in this movie at all. And for that matter, there's no fantastical super-weapon or a couple of tiny princesses giving advice. In fact, I actually had to reach for my Kleenex near the end of the movie. Good golly...there is a beating heart under all that sci-fi.
On the music (since this is a music blog, after all), my friends and I agreed that it was a thrill to hear the original Akira Ifukube（伊福部昭）theme from "Godzilla" (1954) during the final battle. But then there was another overarching song in the score by composer Naoki Sato（佐藤直紀）called "Resolution". When I heard it in the movie, those squealing strings which reminded me of the iconic score from "Psycho", I had thought it was meant as a warning that Godzilla was on the way. Now I realize that it was more of an exhortation for the protagonist to get out of his funk and get rid of the lizard and seeing it come to full orchestral epicness in the final part of the battle, it was glorious.
Sato actually already has representation on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". He's worked in the anime realm including the "Precure" franchise, providing the scores for the first five series. He also arranged the first opening theme song "DANZEN! Futari wa Precure" （DANZEN！ ふたりはプリキュア）for the first series "Futari wa Pretty Cure"(ふたりはプリキュア), and he came up with my favourite theme song for a henshin sequence for any of the characters in the nearly 20-year history of the franchise, Shiny Luminous. From a cute little magical girl with mammoth pigtails to a gigantic green dinosaur with atomic breath...yeah, that's entertainment!
From Soryo's 1977 album "City Lights by the Moonlight"
"City Lights by the Moonlight" took me by surprise once more in light of the fact that it had first made its appearance about 40 years ago. Its timeless sophistication makes it stand out within the history of City Pop and this is a masterpiece starlight tune showing off the ability of composer and arranger Yasunori Soryo（惣領泰則）. He may have created something that was a little ahead of its time.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).
Jeans are probably one of the toughest articles of clothing known to Man. They would have to be, considering they have to miraculously hold in my girth and they do...remarkably so. 😹 Arguably the most famous denim makers out there, Levi's, collaborated with the currently on-hiatus (?) band Suchmos back in 2016 through a music video.
From their 3rd EP released in July 2016, "Mint Condition", I show you "MINT", a groovy tune that escapes easy categorization which is never a bad thing in my books. There is the rock guitar, some Neo-City Pop and some mellow hip-hop. Vocalist YONCE and the gang do love their walks through the city, but I think that "MINT" can also make for some fine accompaniment while driving on the roads of the city at night.
YONCE and DJ KCEE came up with the lyrics while the entire band worked on the music for "MINT" and the rest of the tracks on "Mint Condition". The EP managed to hit No. 14 on the charts. I wonder how everyone is doing now.
