Old School J-Pop! [Archive]

Flashjeff

Dec 29, 2003, 23:48

Greetings! I'm new to the board (and, at almost 45, somewhat ancient) and I'm curious to find out if there's any old school J-Pop fans out there, I'm talking about fans of acts from the 70's and 80's.

I was in the U.S. Navy and was lucky enough to have been stationed in Japan in the late 70's during the height of Pink Lady mania when Mie and Kei were insanely popular. Just as Hikaru Utada and Ayami Hamasaki are beloved by today's J-Pop fans, Mie and Kei equally were (and still are) to people of my generation. They quickly became favorites of mine along with the likes of Candies and Momoe Yamaguchi. As for the 80's, I'd gotten hooked on Wink who pretty much ruled the latter half of the decade with their cool sounds and stylish looks.

Back in August of this year, I got to live a dream when I returned to Japan after an absence of 25 years to see Pink Lady live in concert for the very first time, and it was quite an unforgettable experience for me. So, if there's any old school J-Pop fans here, chime in with your memories! I'd love to hear from you!
:)

Uncle Frank

Dec 30, 2003, 00:35

Sasabo or Yokohama ?? I spent 2 yrs in Fukuoka(Hakata Base) in Kyushu 1971&72. Funny, I lived off base with Japanese friends who were totally into American bands. I don't recall anyone interested in J-pop or hearing any that I paid attention to.The Japanese bar where I worked part time had a jukebox with over 100 45 records and all were non-Japanese. My Japanese girlfriend and I had "Our Song" which was Japanese called "Yuki Wa Furo"; a love song.

Frank

:bow:

MHtrStevie

Dec 30, 2003, 03:35

Greetings!

Though I'm not as old (still ancient for the board at 32) nor have I ever lived in Japan, I'm still very interested in talking about older J-Pop artists... I originally started listening to anime themes and then the most recent and trendy J-Pop. I even got a radio show going on a small college station in my town...

Then I started asking myself, "I know what music is considered 'classic rock' from an American or British point of view... I wonder what the Japanese people consider 'classics'." So I've been striving hard to collect music from the early post-war era through the present...

I've really enjoyed the work of Kazumasa Oda and the group Off Course in the '70s and early '80s... and recently I've been enjoying a popular song from the same era as Pink Lady, Chiharu Matsuyama's "Kisetsu no naka de". As far as later '80s goes, Wink is definitely good stuff but I've recently discovered the group Rebecca... "Friends" is an awsome song!

Any other favorites you have?

Nice to meet you, by the way...

:wave:

Flashjeff

Dec 30, 2003, 03:49

Greetings! Way cool! Didn't think I'd hear from anyone! This is great!

To Frank: I was stationed at Yokosuka from August 1977 to December 1978. I still have fond memories of my experience there, the sights I had seen, I people I had met, and of course, Pink Lady who I was hooked on almost immediately. To this day, 25 years later, I still can't explain why, nor do I bother trying anymore, I just enjoy it.

To Stevie: It's been said that the mid 70's to mid 80's were considered as being the "golden age" of J-Pop, dominated by the likes of Pink Lady, Candies, Momoe Yamaguchi, Junko Sakurada and male stars like Hiromi Go, Goro Naguchi and Kenji Sawada, but, in my opinion, the ladies ruled the scene back then. All those stars, male and female, were fixtures on TV, performing their hit songs long before the concept of the music video.

A friend had turned me onto Wink, and they were sensational, my favorite song of theirs was "One Night In Heaven". I must say it was fun to hear from people who enjoy the old stuff. Oh, and before I go, it might interest you to know that I have an all-English Pink Lady website, my Internet shrine to Mie and Kei. Here's the address:

http://www.pinkladyamerica.com

Check it out when you can and let me know what you think!

Winter

Dec 30, 2003, 04:05

Acha, I was in the Navy too, but they never stationed me anywhere outside of the friggen San Francisco bay area...

zombiepanda

Dec 30, 2003, 04:31

I know some J-music bands from the 70's and 80's. :) YMO (Yellow Magic Orchestra) was pretty big back then, I've heard. They started the whole 'electronical' (is that the right word?) music in Japan. As with 米米クラブ (Kome Kome Club) and another popular band, Boowy. The well-known website SONGJAPAN.COM has Boowy's song B.Blue on their site. It's my favorite by them, out of what I heard. Here's the link if you want to hear it: http://www.songjapan.com/listen.php?id=1870. And of course the legendary X Japan started in the late 80's :) The 80's J-music I've heard sounds very much alike to American 80's music.

MHtrStevie

Dec 30, 2003, 04:54

Excellent! I'm very interested in seeing where this thread goes, as I'd love to get some perspectives on these groups we're discussing...

zombiepanda: YMO and BOOWY were both great groups, and really interesting in that the member of each group went on to become major solo artists as well. BOOWY featured two of Japan's most well-known guitarists, Kyosuke Himuro and Tomoyasu Hotei... Hotei especially has great international clout, as I know he was in one of the later incarnations of the supergroup Asia and most recently he was involved in the soundtrack to the movie "Kill Bill Vol. 1".

YMO, of course, was the combination of three of the most innovative artists in Japan. Both Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi have been very active in the world of music composition and production, and are currently together in the project Sketch Show. Ryuichi Sakamoto, obviously, is a major force in international music and an Oscar winner for movie soundttrack work, such as "The Last Emperor".

As far as Japanese '80s music sounding a lot like American '80s music, that could really be said for most eras of J-Pop... for me, there are definite similarities but also definite differences. It's hard to define, but there's always something unique about J-Pop to my ear which is why I've been following it as much as I have...

For everyone, you might want to check out the latest album by Tak Matsumoto called "The Hit Parade". Tak is the guitarist from the hugely popular rock group B'z, but recently he's been collaborating with the big stars of J-Pop currently to do some remakes of classic songs of the '70s and '80s. The big singles were a remake of Saki Kubota's hit "Ihoujin" featuring the voice of Zard, and a remake of Momoe Yamaguchi's classic "Imitation Gold" with Mai Kuraki... very neat stuff!

:cool:

Old School

Dec 30, 2003, 05:55

Hey Jeff!

Guess who this is? I was just emailing you about Pink Lady, Candies and Wink. Yeah, that guy.

When I lived in Japan (a civilian), I used to watch all the music TV shows (Lotte Music Cafe, Uta no Top Ten, The Best Ten, etc.) and once in a while, they'd have the special guests like members of Candies or Pink Lady (Kei appeared a lot). Even the heavy hitters of the time - Seiko and Akina - would pay their tributes to people like Momoe Yamaguchi. Then they'd have the "Idol History" clips and show idols like Judy Ong, Warabe, Amin and Teresa Teng. For some reason, my brain would tune out the guys. =)

Now I wanna go home and put some classic idol stuff on the turntable (yeah, you kids heard me! Vinyl!)

zombiepanda

Dec 30, 2003, 06:57

@ MHtrStevie: Yes, Hotei is one of my favorite artists. He's the only reason I watched Kill Bill really (I already had the song on my computer, but knowing a Hotei song was in the movie made me want to see it :p ) He has good English too IMO. Wasn't his first solo CD Guitarhythm in either all or mostly English? The only Himuro solo song I've heard though was "Kiss Me."

I agree with the statement about Japanese and American sounding alike, but different. It's like, the 80's music sounds almost identical to certain American music but today's J-pop... well, it's like some of the songs are played in a way that you COULD hear by an American group, but it's never been done by an American group. Mai Kuraki's music, for example, is pretty American sounding but it still doesn't sound similar to any American music I've heard on the radio.

B'z is a great band as well. Hmm, and wasn't Buck-Tick around in the 80's? They're still making music too.

Flashjeff

Dec 30, 2003, 19:54

My, my! This is delightful! I had no idea this thread would garner so much attention! Proof positive that old school J-Pop does indeed have its place here, and in my mind, its a place of reverence.

After all, without trailblazers like Pink Lady and Momoe in the 70's, and Wink and Onyanko Club in the 80's, today's pop stars like Utada, Hamasaki and Morning Masume would have no template on which to base their success.

If anything, it feels really good to go back in time and relive my memories of my experiences in Japan from 25 years ago when J-Pop was in its golden age, an age I think will never be repeated!

MHtrStevie

Dec 30, 2003, 22:13

Greetings!

Have to make a few responses here... nice to see everyone!

Frank: I might have a somewhat logical explanation for why there was so much interest in American music at the time you were stationed in Fukuoka. I'm no expert, but from my research into music movements in Japan, 1971-72 was a period right in between two primary movements at which time the Japanese were most definitely looking toward the American artists... it was the waning moments of the "Group Sounds" movement of the late '60s which involved the Beatles/Ventures influenced groups like The Tigers and The Spiders, and still a couple of years before the amazing band Happy End brought the '70s rock sound into the Japanese language idiom. My understanding is that at that time there was a perception that English was the true language of rock music, and that the American and British artists were the "true" rock artists... many of the Japanese artists at that time were doing a lot of cover work (I have an interesting album from The Mops with their covers of Doors and Jefferson Airplane songs). So I guess that period was pretty low for Japanese artists... but again, I'm only saying this based on third-party accounts I've read.

Old School: Vinyl! Yes! I know where you're at there... I was lucky enough to spot a rack of low-priced 45 RPM aingles at a used manga/book store near my home, and picked up many great records of artists like Onyanko Club, Kyoko Koizumi, Warabe and Minayo Watanabe as well as Checkers, Rebecca and Masashi Sada.

zombiepanda: I'll have to check out more of Hotei's solo work... Himuro's solo stuff mostly sounds like BOOWY, so "Kiss Me" is a pretty good example of how his work sounds. And I think you're right... I believe Buck-Tick was around in the '80s, so they've had an amazing career so far.

L8r!

:wave:

Flashjeff

Dec 30, 2003, 22:57

Speaking of vinyl, thanks to eBay auctions, I have all but two of Pink Lady's albums and all 22 singles from their heyday (1976-1981) which I've since burned onto CD. I even have Mie and Kei's post PL solo singles to boot which I've also burned.

When I was in Japan in August to see Pink Lady in concert, one of my goals was to find PL memorabilia such as vinyl, cassettes, CD's or videos, and, much to my surprise, the pickings were practically non-existent. I found that to have been a surprise. Still, I had a damn good time over there!!!

MHtrStevie

Dec 31, 2003, 01:51

flashjeff: One place you might want to keep an eye on is www.otokichi.com, as they seem to have some Pink Lady vinyl in stock. They're a cool used music store in Japan which also offers an English language website for international ordering. I've ordered from them before with no problems... so check them out from time to time, as I know their stock changes with new acquisitions.

Good luck!

:cool:

Flashjeff

Dec 31, 2003, 19:29

Greetings, Stevie! Thanks for the tip! I'll check them out as I'm dying to complete my collection of Pink Lady vinyl!

Old School

Jan 1, 2004, 05:40

Yeah, I've sent quite a few people over to Otokichi. They should give a me a discount by now!

Also, have you tried Yahoo Japan Auctions? I gotten so much from that. The downside is that you're dealing with regular people and not companies for the most part and you must communicate in Japanese - but that's no problem, right? Also, about 99% of them don't want to deal with or send outside of Japan. So, I've found out that the best way is to have a friend in Japan bid and handle the transactions for you. Yeah, I know, I owe my buddies tons of favors now - I've gone so far as to drive them as far as Los Angeles whenever they come to the US. I think it's worth it, I've filled a lot of holes in my collection.

Flashjeff

Jan 1, 2004, 19:17

Yahoo Japan auctions, eh? Hmm! Sounds most interesting! Perhaps I'll investigate that as well! There's still lots of Pink Lady stuff out there that I wanna get my greedy paws on!
:D

Old School

Jan 2, 2004, 12:06

Originally posted by flashjeff
Speaking of vinyl, thanks to eBay auctions, I have all but two of Pink Lady's albums and all 22 singles from their heyday (1976-1981) which I've since burned onto CD. I even have Mie and Kei's post PL solo singles to boot which I've also burned.

When I was in Japan in August to see Pink Lady in concert, one of my goals was to find PL memorabilia such as vinyl, cassettes, CD's or videos, and, much to my surprise, the pickings were practically non-existent. I found that to have been a surprise. Still, I had a damn good time over there!!!

Where did you shop? I always come back from Japan with 2 suitcases full of treasures. If in Tokyo you should check out... oops, almost gave out the secret places. I'll email you man.

Flashjeff

Jan 2, 2004, 19:25

Well, for music, I haunted Tower Records and HMV, and for books, I went to Jimbocho but couldn't find anything. Man, I was all over the place, Yokohama (where I saw PL at Kanagawa Kenmin Hall), Yokosuka, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Akihabara, Tokyo, Ginza, I did a lot of traveling! if you know of some spots, I'd be plenty interested!
:D

Buntaro

Jan 4, 2004, 14:20

All you vinyl fans, howdy!!

One of my hobbies is taking records and burning them onto CD's. All you need is a record player, a patch cord, a computer with a CD burner, and good sound editing software (to get out as many pops as you can).

Please help all of us to preserve the great songs of yesteryear by burning those LP's and 45's onto CD's.

Buntaro

Jan 4, 2004, 14:22

flashjeff,

30 years ago, they used to sell used LP's in the basement of the Sony building in Ginza. Do they still do that...?

Flashjeff

Jan 4, 2004, 20:10

Y'know, Buntaro, I meant to visit the Sony building while I was in Tokyo but forgot. URGH! And yeah, thanks to Toast, I have burned my Pink Lady LP's onto CD! It's lots of fun to do and I've gotten great results, especially with the live stuff!
:D

Buntaro

Jan 5, 2004, 13:58

flashjeff!!

When you get back to the Sony building, try the spaghetti restaurant on the sixth floor (if it is still there). Best (and most reasonable) spaghetti in Tokyo! The restaurant name was Al Dente.

Flashjeff

Jan 6, 2004, 06:02

Ahhh! Spaghetti! One of my weaknesses! Many thanks! I'll definitely remember that restaurant if I make it back to Tokyo!
:D

Old School

Jan 6, 2004, 14:14

Yeah, I've been there! I was actually shocked at the pasta there since it's been my experience that the Japanese just don't know how to prepare it. Ever had a slice of spagetti & corn pizza? I kid you not! It exists in Tokyo! Actual spagetti noodles and whole kernels of corn! They even have squid pizza - WITH SQUID INK!!! :mad:

Wow, this thread really went off on a tangent... ;)

Flashjeff

Jan 8, 2004, 06:18

I guess that because a majority of the folks on this board are in their late teens to early 20's, they probably have no concept of what we old folks are yakking about. Despite how popular the likes of Utada, Hamasaki and Morning Masume are today, they couldn't come close to the mania of 25 years ago when Pink Lady ruled the scene.

I was there and saw it all. I mean, you literally couldn't turn around without seeing Mie and Kei on TV, billboards, magazines, you name it. They filled arenas and baseball stadiums like The Rolling Stones (whom I've seen a time or two), the level of their popularity was unheard of. This might well be an exaggeration, but it was PL fandom was practically like Beatlemania! In fact, I've joked with a few penpals, saying that Mie and Kei were so popular back in the day, they could've run for political office in Japan----and won!!!

Ahh! Those were the days! But then, who's to say that 25 years from now, people might well consider Utada as being "old school"! HA!
:D

MHtrStevie

Jan 8, 2004, 07:36

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!

:cool:

Old School

Jan 8, 2004, 14:08

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

Jan 9, 2004, 00:30

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!

:D

Flashjeff

Jan 9, 2004, 06:20

This thread continues to be utterly fascinating!! :D

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

Feb 7, 2005, 03:34

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! :wave:

Flashjeff

Feb 7, 2005, 18:31

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!
:wave:

MHtrStevie

Feb 7, 2005, 23:17

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!

:wave:

bogey

Feb 8, 2005, 09:05

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

Feb 8, 2005, 12:22

MHtrStevie

Feb 8, 2005, 22:34

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...

:cool:

bogey

Feb 9, 2005, 04:00

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

Feb 12, 2005, 17:00

Wow Wow Wow! I just stumbled across this page

http://www.vinylparadise.com/6pop_jap/2/popjpnmf.htm

Jeeze 谷村新司 still looks the same all these years.

Akina once looked so young and pure

http://www.vinylparadise.com/

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

Sally_Hawn

Feb 12, 2005, 17:22

Okay.... I think we can look at Akina's innocent face in here
中森明菜 http://www.vinylparadise.com/6pop_jap/1/popjpnf0.htm

柏原芳惠 is among one of these http://www.vinylparadise.com/6pop_jap/1/popjpnfe.htm

Flashjeff

Feb 12, 2005, 20:38

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!
:cool:

Sally_Hawn

Feb 12, 2005, 20:45

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

Feb 13, 2005, 19:05

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!