Friday Night Jukebox: Japan Edition
I figured the readership might enjoy a sampling of Japanese music in the spirit of Rufus’s enlightening seminar on music France. Here is X-Japan, commonly referred to as “X”. X’s music is one quarter metal, one quarter punk, one quarter Ziggy Stardust, one quarter Japan-as-number-one, Rising Sun, world-takeover, 1980s bubble-machismo; one quarter pure awesome, guy:
Another X for good measure – from the band’s last concert:
I love X-Japan. Nothing compares to being surrounded by blinding neon at 3:30 in the morning with an X concert DVD on three big-screen televisions that no one is trying to steal; no liquor laws, no cops, and bustling, friendly streets at a freezing cold outside bar with no chairs (but plenty of hot sake) (emphasis Japan-as-number-one, Rising Sun, world-takeover, 1980s bubble-machismo). Just neuralizing its awesomeness makes me want to stay up all night hoping America adopts a robust social safety net to prevent petty crime and destituteness plus total lack of restrictions whatsoever for starting a new business.
God bless freedom, and God bless Japan!
The Yoshida Brothers play the Shamisen, a traditional Japanese instrument, although the brothers experiment wildly:
This is Ikimono Gakari’s “Yell”. I remember hearing this song blasting from the speakers in minus-twenty-five-degree frigid winds at a ski resort in Hokkaido. The irresistible crack-rock that is mainstream Jpop reaches its hands into the pockets of even the most remote and inaccessible locales:
EXILE is a Japanese boy band that makes the Backstreet Boys look like George Clinton. Around 2008 or so, Japanese music producers decided like four or five dudes wasn’t enough and that it needed to be like eighty dudes so the kids could collect trading cards. All the other bands copied this, so now every music boy-group in Japan has like fifty dude-members:
Indeed, we’ve come a long way since X.
More at my blog, which I really ought to get back to updating.
Also! Yutaka Ozaki’s “Tainted Bond.”Report
Japanese music really is expansive. I felt bad leaving out AKB48, The Blue Hearts, enka, etc. Your site is quite a resource.Report
Wow, I’m totally going to track down X Japan. One of the best bands I saw play in the 90s was Guitar Wolf, who eventually stopped playing the states because they’re so much more successful in Japan. If you ever get a chance to see the movie Wild Zero, starring Guitar Wolf, it’s worth a viewing. They save Japan from zombies, if I remember right. And, I’ll note that my favorite band in the 90s was Teengenerate from Tokyo, who my band just totally worshiped. I just bought one of their records (to ‘update’ from CD to vinyl) on Tuesday.Report
Nice. I’m watching Wild Zero right now on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zczDR9Dps8Y&feature=related), and my chin is on the floor.
I had a really straight-laced private student who was into the Japanese punk scene. She worked for one of the major Japanese cell phone companies repairing defective phones. All day every day she’s look through a magnifying glass and use these tiny tools to discover and fix tiny problems. On weekends she’d let loose.Report