Old School J-Pop!

[MHtrStevie]

I don't doubt that one day the biggest popstars of today will probably be considered "old school"... though I think the environment in music, all across the world, will probably make it impossible to be as popular as Pink Lady...

It has much to do with access to more and varied artists, which ends up fractioning the audience to a greater extent... in Japan, this seemed to start in the later '80s. In PL's heyday (1977-78), their latest single would hold the #1 position on the Oricon charts for months at a time... "Wanted" or "Monster" may have held that #1 position for as long as 12 straight weeks!

But look at things today... even the most popular of all artists are lucky to hold that #1 position for even two weeks in a row. A month straight at #1 is an almost impossible feat! With so many artists, each with their own large fanbases, the market is much more crowded... so I don't think a group could ever be quite the phenomenon that PL was.

Looking pre-PL, though, and you'll see that it wasn't uncommon for a song to hold the Oricon #1 for months at a time... some years, you might see as little as twelve #1 songs. You want to speak of Beatlemania? Check out the Group Sounds era of the late '60s in Japan... there was some Beatles-level craziness surrounding the most popular of GS bands like The Tigers and The Spiders... but again, the market was wide open. Even with as many GS bands as there were, it was nothing compared to the diverse and packed music marketplace of today...

But as you can tell, I've had a lot of fun researching into the history of J-Pop... many great bands to discover! So for those of you just picking up on J-Pop, take my advice... check out the old with the new!

 

[Old School]

Originally posted by MHtrStevie
I don't doubt that one day the biggest popstars of today will probably be considered "old school"... though I think the environment in music, all across the world, will probably make it impossible to be as popular as Pink Lady...

I especially agree with the second part of that. Pink Lady are now Japanese icons - just like Gojira, Ultraman, Doraemon, Tetsujin 28go, Mach Go Go Go, Tetsuwan Atom and Ultraman. No new idol will ever achieve that level, no matter what their fans might think. Most people are already forgetting about Amuro Namie and she was supposed to be the biggest thing a few years ago. Fickle, fickle.

Originally posted by MHtrStevie
It has much to do with access to more and varied artists, which ends up fractioning the audience to a greater extent... in Japan, this seemed to start in the later '80s. In PL's heyday (1977-78), their latest single would hold the #1 position on the Oricon charts for months at a time... "Wanted" or "Monster" may have held that #1 position for as long as 12 straight weeks!

But look at things today... even the most popular of all artists are lucky to hold that #1 position for even two weeks in a row. A month straight at #1 is an almost impossible feat!

The last people to come close to that were Nakamori Akina, Seiko Matsuda and Wink. Asaka Yui's "C-Girl" was in the top ten for over 2 months I think. (I recorded all the music TV shows in the late 80s).

Originally posted by MHtrStevie
Looking pre-PL, though, and you'll see that it wasn't uncommon for a song to hold the Oricon #1 for months at a time... some years, you might see as little as twelve #1 songs. You want to speak of Beatlemania? Check out the Group Sounds era of the late '60s in Japan... there was some Beatles-level craziness surrounding the most popular of GS bands like The Tigers and The Spiders... but again, the market was wide open. Even with as many GS bands as there were, it was nothing compared to the diverse and packed music marketplace of today...

Don't forget late 70s and early 80s groups like Finger Five and Godeigo. Finger Five were Japan's answer to the Jackson Five. Godeigo stood out in part because they had a couple of gaijin in there.

Originally posted by MHtrStevie
So for those of you just picking up on J-Pop, take my advice... check out the old with the new!

Couldn't agree more. Look past the last 4 years kiddies!

 

[MHtrStevie]

Greetings!

Originally posted by Old School
The last people to come close to that were Nakamori Akina, Seiko Matsuda and Wink. Asaka Yui's "C-Girl" was in the top ten for over 2 months I think. (I recorded all the music TV shows in the late 80s).

There were some notable exceptions during the early '90s, such as Chage & Aska's "Say Yes" from 101st Marriage Proposal and Kazumasa Oda's double single "Oh! Yeah! / Love Story wa totsuzen ni". But before around 1986, it seemed like it was standard for a song to remain #1 for at least three or four weeks... after that multiple weeks at #1 became the exception rather than the rule.

Don't forget late 70s and early 80s groups like Finger Five and Godeigo. Finger Five were Japan's answer to the Jackson Five. Godeigo stood out in part because they had a couple of gaijin in there.

Thanks for the info on those groups... I knew of Finger Five, and I primarily knew Godeigo from the song they did for the Galaxy Express 999 anime movie. But again, it seems like once you pass beyond the mid 1980s the music market begins to become more flooded with groups diverse enough to start splitting once united audiences... thus creating an environment where a super-sensation like Pink Lady really couldn't form again. Hikaru Utada may have sold more albums, but she will probably never be as iconic to the music culture as PL was. She'll always be just one popular artist among many...

All right... we should talk about more "old school" groups and keep this thread alive! Hopefully, we can start tuning some new fans into this great music... for me as well as for many fans, a classic Pink Lady hit is as new to me as the latest Ayumi Hamasaki single!

 

[Flashjeff]

This thread continues to be utterly fascinating!!

I was never aware of Finger Five! Wow! That's incredible stuff! I remember the music scene in Japan in the mid to late 70's as being fresh and peppy with all those cool pop songs and tunes about love. In short, the songs had a beat and made you feel good while listening to them.

While there were a goodly number of male idols, it was the girls who were running the show. Along with Pink Lady, there was Momoe Yamaguchi, The Candies, Junko Sakurada and Masako Mori, just to name a few. I'd see them on TV almost all the time, they were engaging, friendly, cheerful and magnetic in terms of personality.

On his website, Old School calls this period of J-Pop its "golden age", the likes of which has never been repeated, or equalled since. Makes me wish I had the chance to spend more time over in Japan back then. In retrospect, it was all so magical to me, just like the idols themselves were. I doubt that holds true today.

 

[bogey]

Early J-POP

Hi all of you youngsters. (ha ha)
I was also in Japan, from June 1966 thru December 1968. One of my favorite groups was the "Spiders". I enjoyed the "Peanuts" also (twin girls). I was stationed with the U.S. Air Force at "Fuchu Air Station". It was a communications site. I met my wife of 37 years working at Yokosuka Naval base as a telephone operator. I have many fond memories of that time. My wife has been back to visit a few times but I have not. By the way, I still have all the 45 rpms and small 33 rpms that I purchased way back then. I am totally enjoying this forum!

 

[Flashjeff]

Welcome aboard, bogey! Glad to hear from another fan of old school J-Pop. Clearly, you go back further than most of here with mentions of The Spiders and Peanuts. I think that's cool! Who knows? Perhaps Pink Lady, The Candies, Momoe Yamaguchi and other singers from the 70's were inspired by stars of the 60's to become idols themselves. Hope to hear more from you, bogey!

 

[MHtrStevie]

Welcome, bogey!

Thanks for unearthing a couple of good old threads again... I noticed your comments on the Kazumasa Oda thread as well! It's always good to get some more input regarding the classics of J-Pop here... I've enjoyed the many perspectives on the development of the modern Japanese music sound you can find here on this forum!

In certain ways, The Peanuts could be the progenitors of future groups such as Pink Lady and later Wink. In case people don't know, they're the duo of girls who accompany Mothra's appearances in the early Gojira/Godzilla movies... and I know Wink defintely was influenced by The Peanuts, considering a BIG hit of theirs was actually a remake of a Peanuts song, "Furimukianaide" (I knew it as a Wink song first, and leanred more as I did more research)...

I love The Spiders, much like I enjoy many of the big Group Sounds combos of that era... but The Spiders IMHO made some of the most unique music of that period. One of my particular favorites is "Etenraku-Go-Go", where they actually turned one of the most famous pieces of gagaku classical court music into a surf-style instrumental! Also among my faves is "Narebaii"... while a B-side for one of their singles, it could be considered the first Japanese single in the San Francisco "psychodelic" style pioneered by groups like Jefferson Airplane and The Doors.

Nice to meet you, bogey! As you can see, there are at least a few of us here who'd love to talk more about the great J-Pop groups of the '60s and '70s!

 

[bogey]

I love old music

Thanks for the kind words Stevie & Jeff. I have nearly every record or cassette tape that I ever purchased. I am known as a "hoarder". I have thousands of LPs and 45 rpms ,small 331/3 in boxes, on shelves and in places that I haven't been too in a long time. Unfortunately I never took the time to catalog them so it would take a while to locate them. I did just find an original copy of "Sukiyaki" by Kou Sokamoto on a Capitol label a few minutes ago. Someday I will get them all out and put them in some kind of order. I just remembered, I have the Beatles "Magical Mistery Tour" that I purchased in a Japanese record shop. It came in a folder with multiple 33 1/3 small records. Gosh, I haven't thought about that in a long time. Oh, if you seen my rantings in the "Kazumasa Oda" thread, you might want to down-load the MV that I posted there. It is the hit "Sayonara" by him & his band "Off-Course". It is pretty good quality recording. Catch you all later... bogey (Jim).

 

[Camui]

I've heard sone of the Johnnies jpop bands for back then and they sounded really good..I really like they're songs...I'll try and find out the names of the groups..maybe I should start listening to old school jpop more often..^^

 

[MHtrStevie]

I've heard sone of the Johnnies jpop bands for back then and they sounded really good..I really like they're songs...I'll try and find out the names of the groups..maybe I should start listening to old school jpop more often..^^

It's definitely worth it to check out some of the classic J-Pop artists... like I think I mentioned earlier in the thread (about a year ago), to me these older songs are as new as the latest releases, so why not check them out?

Hmmm... older Johnnies stuff... are you talking about the '80s male idol artists like Hikaru Genji and Shonentai? Also, I think there were two big solo artists associated with Johnnies then, Masahiko Kondo and Toshihiko Tahara... but I could be way off here. I just remember hearing those artists being part of the Johnny's fold... unless you're talking about before that time, in which case I wouldn't know who you might be talking about...

There are definite strings connecting the J-Pop artists of today to the artists of yesteryear... I just recently got a videotape of a Music Station special from October '04 which counts down the top 100 love songs. The live guests (all current stars) get to talk about their favorite love songs too... and I just saw Koichi Domoto of KinKi Kids list Shonentai's "ABC" as his favorite tune. So probably every current artists would list songs by the artists we're discussing here amongst their favorites, or perhaps as their inspirations...

 

[bogey]

Hello again,
I would like to invite you to watch this music video and tell me if it doesn't make the hair on the back of your neck stand-up and make your skin all *****ly! Cut & paste..
http://s24.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=...2R2WN930FDT4K40

 

[Sally_Hawn]

Am going to get the same hair style as 窶彡ﾅ陳ｴﾂ俊彥 's !

Wow Wow Wow! I just stumbled across this page

vinylparadise.com

Jeeze 窶價窶伉ｺﾂ新ﾅｽi still looks the same all these years.

Akina once looked so young and pure

vinylparadise.com

F@ck!!!! Why don't some of the links work? This is no fun!!!!!

 

[Sally_Hawn]

Okay.... I think we can look at Akina's innocent face in here
窶吮??ﾂ森窶督ｾﾂ催 vinylparadise.com

窶敖税陳ｴ窶擢ﾅ督ｨ is among one of these vinylparadise.com

 

[Flashjeff]

Hiya, Sally! Many thanks for the way cool record covers of all those J-Pop stars! That was great to ogle over! I recognized Akina right away along with the likes of Momoe Yamaguchi and Junko Sakurada. Like I said, way cool!

 

[Sally_Hawn]

I'm glad you like it TOO!!!

You are very welcome, flashjeff.

They were so pretty... I keep coming back for more. I mean I can't help myself going back to that page just to look at their faces.

 

[Flashjeff]

Hiya, Sally!
I don't know if you're aware of this website, but I thought you might find it interesting:

http://www.idollica.com

This is a wonderful, well deisgned and highly informative website devoted to J-Pop performers from the mid-80's to the early 90's, including Akina and dozens more insanely cute singers and groups from the period the webmaster calls J-Pop's "silver age" which followed the ultra popular period (early-70's to early 80's) that produced legends like Pink Lady, The Candies and Momoe Yamaguchi.

Check it out when you can. I think you'll enjoy it!

 

[Sally_Hawn]

Whoa! Mayazawa Rie is one of the most beautiful women in the world! Nice website indeed. Thank you fairy muchi !

 

[Flashjeff]

Glad to have been of service, Sally! A penpal turned me on to Encyclopedia Idollica after I developed a fondness for Wink, said to be the 800 pound gorilla of the J-Pop scene back in the late 80's to early 90's. I have a few of their CD's and they had a great sound.