Listen In!
Stereotypes about Japanese culture persist in the Western consciousness, in spite, or perhaps as a result of our increased exposure to it. Blogs, magazines, and TV shows love to say, “OH LOOK AT HOW WEIRD AND FUCKED UP JAPAN IS,” and that’s because people who don’t live in Japan only want to see only the bizarre things that come out of Japan. This is true chiefly in two areas: porn and music. But this isn’t Fleshbot or whatever, so LET’S MUSIC BLOG!!
I co-host an occasional radio show on KSFR. It’s a graveyard shift show, which is great for all the insomniac tweaker types because they probably actually like shiny, hyperactive animé tunes. But there’s that stereotype again: not all Japanese music is cute girls with 20,000 sailor outfits singing about love, burning spirit, and food. Mainstream pop in Japan, like mainstream pop everywhere else, is pretty much the same overproduced, slick nonsense. Of course, Japan has great bands of all types right below the sugary pop frosting. This entry is intended to serve as a brief guide to some of the acts that make up the cake below the frosting (see Rohin’s guide below if you’re more of a just-give-me-the-sweets type).
I’m going to start with “modern Japanese folk rock music,” a term I pretty much despise–so let’s just call it “rock” for now. For English-speaking listeners, it almost doesn’t make sense to listen to it, since rock music in the style of Bob Dylan or Joni Mitchell has as much lyrical weight as musical. If you’re listening to the Japanese equivalent of Lady Gaga, the lyrics may not matter so much, right? That shouldn’t be the case for the Japanese equivalent of Leonard Cohen.
Actually, it is the case, since a rock singer worth anything will be singing like they’re about to pushed off a cliff: desperate or defiant, or even both. With this in mind, you don’t need to know Japanese to like Kazuki Tomokawa and Morita Doji. Kazuki is a dude, and Morita is a lady, by the way. Both sing like they go way beyond giving a shit, into the realms of various other kinds of bodily distress.
This video by Tomokawa should make it clear he is not singing about candy and first kisses. Or maybe he is, but he’s very upset about those things. Whatever, I’m basically learning Japanese solely so I can translate this dude’s lyrics (which will take a long time). He’s been performing since the late 70s, variously writing his own lyrics and adapting those of other poets like Nakahara Chūya. He’s often compared to Kan Mikami, who also sings with no remorse or fear, but I like Tomokawa’s furious, punkish intensity a little more. Both are still active and performing in Japan, and neither have lost their style. Listening to his recordings from the 70s and 80s, Kazuki, lovingly referred to as the “screaming philosopher,” seems to have lost none of his vigor and voice, and remains more a force of music than just another singer-songwriter.
Morita Doji is on the other end of the rock-singer spectrum. She’s a suicidal Joni Mitchell. She has nothing to rail against, except her own withering disappointment with reality. In short, she is my dream girl. Her most famous song is “Bokutachi no Shippai,” which can be translated as “Our Failure.” This is fucking weird as hell, since Japanese titles and lyrics are almost never this direct. Regardless of what the lyrics are (and they’re pretty depressing, according to what I remember of a translation I can no longer find), you know she’s singing about something she can’t change. The music tries to be wistful and warm, but it doesn’t really help. This singer is falling a long way off her cliff and she doesn’t really care. Pretty much all her songs are like this; songs that seem like echoes of someone who’s no longer there.
In fact, no one has heard from her in more than 27 years. Some people think “Morita Doji” isn’t even her real name. Her songs became popular in the 90s when “Our Failure” was used as the theme for a popular TV show, which led to the recording of many ill-conceived cover versions. In the mid-90s a psych-rock group formed to exclusively cover her songs, but they didn’t get permission to do so, so their album got pulled from shelves almost as quickly as it was released. These songs are pretty much the only good covers of Morita Doji you will ever hear.
I’m passing over plenty of good Japanese rock music here, but this is just a sampler. This album is a great introduction to the rock scene of Japan in the seventies, but it focuses on folk rock and doesn’t get to the great Kraftwerk and Talking Heads inspired stuff that rose up later in the decade. Hey, what a great subject for a future blog here, huh?
Scott White works with computers, cats, food, bikes, cars, electronics, guitars, friends, words, and deep and important feelings in New Mexico. He plays a 5th-level half-elf female rogue in Dungeons and Dragons. You might hear more from him in the future, but man, who even knows?
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