Tokyo is the capital of Japan, with a population of 13 million people, it is known as a place where the ultra modern and futuristic sits comfortably next to ancient tradition. Today we hear some legendary japanese music that broke new ground when it was released in the 1970s and 1980s as well as some modern pop music and electronic music by young artists that are active in Tokyo today.
When you think of Tokyo, images of neon lights, futuristic technology, and almost science fiction-esque environments might be the first thing that comes into some peoples heads and it’s true that Tokyo has for a long time been a center of technological innovation. And this is particularly true when it comes to music technology. In fact some of the most famous brands of electronic music instrumentation come from Japan including the likes of Korg, Roland and Yamaha and a lot of the most well known and recognised sounds in electronic music and modern pop come from drum machines and synthesizers that were developed by these companies in Japan.
It should be no surprise then that one of the most influential and pioneering bands in the history of electronic music comes from Tokyo. In the late 1970s the Yellow Magic Orchestra a futuristic boyband formed of musicians Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto emerged onto the scene with a groundbreaking form of electronic pop music powered by drum machines and synthesizers that would go on to immortalize them as important pioneers of electronic music second only to the likes of Kraftwerk who were doing similar things in Europe at the same time.
Each of the members of YMO would go on to become hugely important figures in the world of electronic and experimental music. Ryuichi Sakamoto's Riot in Lagos is one of the first popular music recordings that features a Roland 808 Drum machine and that many people say can be considered to be the first example of Electro Music which would become huge in the development of hip hop a few years later in the United States thanks to music by the likes of Afrika bambaata and Hashim.
Where Ryuichi Sakomoto is widely regarded for the influence he has had on avant garde electronic and film music. Haruomi Hosono is known as one of the most influential musicians in the history of Japanese Pop music in fact he is credited with shaping the sound of japanese pop music for decades.
J pop is the term used to describe modern day popular Japanese Pop Music. Like K pop in Korea and Canto Pop in Hong Kong it’s the type of music that fills stadiums with adoring young fans and which blends japanese lyrics and melodies with for standardised forms of western pop music. It has changed a lot since the 1960s when J-pop is supposed to have been birthed. Namie Amuro is an artist that has been called the Madona of J pop. She was active on the J pop scene between 1992 and 2018.
This episode was quite focused on electronic music and electronic pop music made with synthesizers and Drum machines which in many ways is very fitting as Japan is a hub for the production of those kinds of instruments but Japan also has an amazing Psych Rock history, there’s the whole world of J-pop which we briefly skimmed over today as well as plenty of other kinds of music from the country. As always this is just a snap shot and it’s worth going to do a bit more digging of your own if you liked any of what you heard here.