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.
I'd assumed that this would be the first entry for bassist and singer-songwriter Yasushi Sasamoto（笹本安詞）, but I was wrong there. I had written about him before albeit he was under the name DeVoice for a duet with Masami Yoshimoto（吉村まさみ）for the song "Delight of my love" which was released in 2002.
However, we're going further back in time by about a decade. According to one bio on him, Sasamoto had helped form a rap unit in the mid 1990s known as Shitamachi Kyoudai（下町兄弟...The Downtown Brothers）, but earlier on, he had also been doing his solo work with a self-produced album "Never Give Up" coming out in 1992 as his debut. In 1993, he released a full album "Wish" and from this, I offer the ballad "Ai wa Tasogare no Naka ni ~ I can't stop lovin' you" with the direct translation being "Love is in the Sunset". With lyrics by Yumi Yoshimoto（吉元由美）and melody by Sasamoto, the strings add further poignancy to this soulful love song and of course, we just gotta have that mellow flugelhorn in there as well.
A few days ago, I caught the teaser for "TRON: Ares" and was intrigued enough by it that I actually and finally watched a copy of the original 1982 film "TRON".
Yep, that's right. I never saw "TRON" in its entirety although of course, the scenes of the light cycles are absolutely iconic. Having lived through that time, I can understand how mind-blowing the concept of a movie that has a good chunk of its running time take place within a computer program was back then, but I was still surprised at how much of the real world was still shown before Flynn got sucked into Digital Wonderland.
Back in late 2010, when I made what would be my final Xmas trip back to Toronto before returning for good, I caught "TRON: Legacy" at the theatre during its first run. To be honest, a combination of confusion since I hadn't seen the first movie and major jet lag had me sleeping for a lot of the movie. I felt a bit less guilty when some of my other friends told me that they hadn't been too impressed by "Legacy". But now here comes "Ares", so let's see how this one turns out. The amazing thing is that Jeff Bridges is back once more in a sequel whose original movie he had starred in 43 years ago.
Well, why don't we start this new business week with something appropriately blippity-bloppity technoppy? I found just the tune. I posted about techno aidoru Emiri Kanou（加納エミリ）for the first time last week via her debut single "Gomen ne"（ごめんね）.
A few years later in 2023, Kanou collaborated with DJ and self-professed New Wave dandy Makoto Francis Ori（小里誠）to release a scintillating single called "Sabakaru Emiri" which could mean "Emiri Under Judgement". Well, I've made my judgement...I like it. I like it for its old-style technopop feeling which had me reminiscing ofKyary Pamyu Pamyu（きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ）and the collaborations between Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）and Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）in the early 1980s. While Francis took care of the music and arrangement, Yasuharu Konishi（小西泰治）came up with the lyrics.
Not sure what Emiri is under judgment for, but she looks to be battle ready...like a Kanou of Arc!😤
The above is a shot of the Hotel Monterey Osaka. I've never heard of it let alone been there but it's quite close to JR Osaka Station. The website certainly depicts it as one of the more luxurious accommodations in Osaka.
It was just last week when I posted my Author's Pick on hotel-titled kayo, and perhaps if I had remembered that this song was in the backlog, I would have included it in the list. But as it is, this is Chie Kobayashi's（小林千絵）7th single "Hotel Osaka" from May 1985. Last week's list showed that a number of genres can be used to reflect those hotel tunes but this time, "Hotel Osaka" has more of a bouncy folksy nature in its pop...not really Mood Kayo or City Pop at all. Written by Toshihiro Ito（伊藤敏博）, composed by Yukio Sasaki（佐々木幸男）and arranged by Tatsushi Umegaki（梅垣達志）, the hotel in question (and this isn't to say that the Monterey was the site of trysting here) is in all likelihood the final stop in a relationship that has to come to its end much to the lady's chagrin.
With the common first name of Chie and common family name of Kobayashi in there, I'd assumed that Chie Kobayashi was a regular part of KKP. However as it turns out, this is the first time for this singer, actress and TV personality to appear on the blog. Many welcomes to her then! Hailing from Osaka itself, the celebrity's path to an entertainment career apparently began when she won a championship on a TV show specializing in celebrity impressions; her winning stint was one of doing a Junko Sakurada（桜田淳子）song. According to her J-Wiki profile, the singing part of her geinokai career was the one that got things started for her professionally when she debuted in 1983 with the single "Itsumo Kataomoi"（いつも片想い...Always One-Sided Love）.
Uh...no. This article has nothing to do with Anri's（杏里）classic "Cat's Eye"or the famous manga-turned-anime from the 1980s. But in fact, there was a brief time when this duo existed in the late 1970s known as Cats★Eye（キャッツ★アイ）.
It was somewhat providential then that I had written a Pink Lady article yesterday afternoon since Cats★Eye was born in the throes of the Pink Lady boom starting from the mid-1970s. Consisting of Chikae "Non" Ohtani（大谷親江）and Nana Yamanaka（山中奈奈）, the duo made their debut around mid-1977 and released a mere four singles and an album before the show was all over for them sometime in 1978.
Their second single was "Mekkiri Tsumetaku Narimashita" (It's Become Really Cold) which was released in September 1977. Just judging from their performance above on what I think is "Yoru no Hit Studio"（夜のヒットスタジオ）, I gather that they were going for some of that Pink Lady choreography although their singing style was more akin to Candies. Written by Akira Ito（伊藤アキラ）and composed by Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）, it's one upbeat tune that sounds a bit reminiscent of those 1950s pop ditties, specifically "Please, Mr. Postman", although Ito's lyrics are a woman not just describing the coming cold of an autumn turning into winter but also the same thing happening with a romantic relationship.
Speaking of things going cold, according to the J-Wiki article on Cats★Eye, apparently Non went no-no to the rest of her singing career and basically fled the geinokai. Yamanaka tried to hold the fort as best as she could, but as I said above, the duo was done like dinner later in 1978.
As is the case in English, the Japanese language is chock-filled with portmanteaus. There is kopipe（コピペ）for "copy-and-paste" and the now-extinct pokeberu（ポケベル）which used to represent the pre-cellphone technology of a pocket bell or as it was properly called, the pager. This morning, I learned a new Japanese portmanteau via NHK: supepa（スぺパ）which stands for space performance...along the same lines as cost performance. Basically, it's the economization and more efficient use of limited space in the big cities of Japan due to the lack of it in houses and apartments. The above video by the YouTube channel "Never Too Small" gives a fine example.
The video is actually a couple of years old and I don't think the concept of supepa is a new one since cities like Tokyo have always had a battle within for space for domiciles. Plus, a few years ago, I used to subscribe to a Japanese YouTube channel which focused on the more unusual residences for rent within the nation, so I used to see my fair share of supepa places. By the way, supepa can also extend to the furnishings and appliances that could go into such a residence. I used to have a rather cute and petite fridge for my own Ichikawa 2K apartment although in comparison to some of these supepa apartments, my abode was absolutely massive.
Anyways, being a perverted fan of the terrible pun in both English and Japanese, I would have taken this opportunity to segue masterfully to the Pink Lady hit "Pepper Keibu"(ペッパー・警部) by referring to a supepa advisor as a "supepa keibu", but I will save you from that monstrosity because I had already written about "Pepper Keibu" all the way back in May 2012. In fact, it was the second Pink Lady KKP article that I posted.
However, I can go on ahead with the B-side to this No. 4-ranking success for Mie and Kei, "Kanpai! Ojou-san" (Here's To You, My Lady!). Created by the same duo behind "Pepper Keibu", lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composer Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）, the melody and arrangement have that very familiar Pink Lady disco aidorusheen but Aku's lyrics are notable in that they actually treat the autumn as the perfect opportunity for love to bloom and continue forth. Usually in the kayo kyoku realm, the fall is the time for love to fall and break into a thousand pieces, but apparently such isn't the case in the Pink Lady universe. Good for them!
I saw and heard the news on NHK a couple of days ago, but comedian Takaaki Ishibashi (the taller, louder and even crazier one) of the duo Tunnels（とんねるず）announced that he was suffering from esophageal cancer and would be leaving the entertainment industry for a little while to get it treated. He mentioned that it was in the early stages so it's still very treatable and here's hoping that he makes a full recovery.
Still remember this outtake from their Thursday night Fuji-TV variety show "Tunnels no Minasan no Okage desu"（とんねるずのみなさんのおかげです）from the turn of the decade (80s to 90s). I gotta say that as outrageous as the duo could be, they did suffer for their art.
Also, I've had to remind myself that the Tunnels had their time in the recording booth cutting some raunchy records. The first time I even heard their name was through an "Eye-Ai" issue in which one of their records was being sold. I think it could have been their 1985 "Ame No Nishi Azabu" (雨の西麻布) which was their parodic take on the enka genre. Supposedly, the boys hated enka but I think they certainly did a nice job with that one.
But their 7th single from May 1986,"Yabusakadenai", was definitely not from the traditional Japanese genre. No, this was a rockin' boogie stomp by Takaaki and his partner Noritake Kinashi（木梨憲武）. Written and composed by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）with arrangement by Akira Mitake（見岳章）, I couldn't find the lyrics but from what I could hear, I don't think I can really describe the situation in a family-oriented blog, but let's say that Nori was feeling really randy.
As for the translation of the title, I found out that there had been an original meaning of doing something with gusto but in recent years, that meaning of yabusakadenai has been considerably watered down to mean "Well, I'm not opposed to doing it, but...", and apparently it was jargon within the business world. In any case, "Yabusakadenai" reached No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies and ended up as the No. 59-ranked single of the year. The song was also used as the theme for the TBS drama (well, comedy really) "O-Bocchama ni wa Wakarumai!"（お坊っチャマにはわかるまい!...You Wouldn't Understand, Kid!）which starred the Tunnels.
Eiichi Ohtaki's Niagara sound, based on American pop music of the 1960s, was created from his own unique viewpoint of well-versed pop music historical knowledge, irrespective of whether it was Japanese or Western. The culmination of all that was his timeless masterpiece "A Long Vacation". The success of that album was especially due to the lyrics of Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, I believe. When Matsumoto's prose, which came straight out of a page of vibrant youth like a watercolour painting, was layered onto Ohtaki's one-and-only Niagara sound, truly evergreen pop music was born.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).
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