Miki Matsubara's story is honestly pretty sad. stay with me was her debut song, releasing when she was 19, and it became a hit right away, meaning she had to quickly switch to focusing on her career, which probably heavily impacted her personal life. she was diagnosed with cancer at age 40, and she associated her illness to her career, so she tried to block everyone she knew through it, and burned her belongings related to it, regretting having her life revolving around her music/career. in the end, she died at just 44 years old.
I listen to more Japanese music these days than English 😂. I’m not sure what it is, just an earworm. They have a sound that I don’t pick up in the rock and roll i grew up on.
Me personally.. i love japanese music and anime openings and ending because their songs are often uplifting.. the vibe of the music.. the lyrics.. so many times lift up my mood and spirits whenever i feel down.. also japanese music aren't overly sexualized like modern western music..
There was a massive funk/jazz boom in Japan in the 70's, and disco lived longer there in their cultural zeitgeist than in the US, and that's sort of left a footprint on even their poppiest of pop music to this day. I continue to be impressed with how much more interesting Japanese mainstream music is, from a sonic perspective.
I remember the day I realized that a huge number of old Nintendo game soundtracks were basically jazz fusion chip tunes. A lot of 80s anime music, too - tons of funk and fusion influence.
@@フルーツぶどう-h8q i think responding in my broken japanese isn't the best idea so I'll use english. I love japanese music with my entire heart, your metal amazing, your pop is amazing and your rock has sound that no other genre has
Japanese pop is heavily influenced by jazz, and minor chord progressions are widely used. Japan has had jazz bands since the 1920s, and the representative fusion jazz band in Japan is Cassiopeia and T-square
The Japanese music scene in the '70s and '80s was unique. I was lucky enough to be there, and I grew up listening to it in Japan. I also spent the 80s in the US. They were very different, but both were GREAT.
A Pony Canyon sponsored video? That was absolutely not on my bingo card. That's cool as hell. I'm actually genuinely shocked this happened. Out of these three songs my favorite is Stay With Me by an absolute mile. Both other songs are great, but something about the songwriting in City Pop speaks to me in ways that the others simply don't.
Oh dude Japanese music is the freaking best. Im so glad you've found it. And starting with Pretender which is an amazing song. I first listened to it back on March and it's on repeat ever since.
There's a TV show called "Kan Jam"(recently changed their show title to "EIGHT JAM") in Japanese TV where they will do interviews with Japanese musicians and I remember watching an episode about the popularity and the rise in upright pianos being used frequently in recent J-POP scene and Official Hige Dandism was one of them. The reason why they use an upright piano instead of a grand piano is because the sound it makes is more subtle in a way (or i think they said the sound decreases faster than a grand piano) so it blends in with the other instruments. Like, they don't want overpowering piano tones. I just remembered this as you were mentioning about the relationship between the guitar and piano sounds at the very opening of the music.
Japanese music hits different for some reason. i think it's the odd amalgamation of using very down-to-earth simple chord progressions with very vivid melodic lines but then they add all this instrumental flair. Some artists do a lot of weird funky structural techniques, like doing key changes 3 times in one song (Idol from Yoasobi, as you know). i used to listen to a lot of American rock and metal in my teens, currently living in Korea and hear a lot of Korean music from my friends while riding in their cars or w/e, but they just don't satisfy me anymore. and my favorite artist is Yorushika. If you're a guitar player, you just cannot not love Yorushika.
def not simple chord progression, these progressions are more complex compared to modern american pop/rock, i play both music and while I can always predict the progression in Japanese music because i listen to them A LOT, sometimes they change the variations which completely caught me off guard and i love it. while american music, when i predict the next chord, i always get it right since they always follow the rule, which is easier to predict what will come next. Unlike Japanese music, they always break the rules of music, which is why it’s way more interesting and not boring, because you cant predict what will come next. It’s like jazz, they use jazz IN rock and pop, which is very interesting and it works. Like in the second song where the progression does a chromatic descending. And Japanese music has way more jam with the instruments, while vocal is still on top, which is literally what it should be. Everyone is involved with the songs, everyone shine in their own way. Not only vocal and guitar being the star. Everything else you said is totally agree
Unlike Japan, Korea has not gone down the path of various genres such as jazz, funk, ska, reggae, metal, etc. Korea only has idol music. Kpop is just American pop songs sung in Korean. They don't even write their own lyrics and music, they just lip sync.
Stay with me is an absolute treat - learned the song on guitar and played it with my band at a local convention. The ending solo is super fun to learn and absolute ear candy, highly recommend to anyone!
90% of music I listen to these days is mostly Japanese music or some form of that style. It just does so much more then what more western English music is doing. A lot more progression and creativity vs the classic four cord pop music that tops the charts here.
The bassline in “stay with me” was the first I learned after picking up bass embellishments and all. Really helped me understand groove and how to make a line feel good even if I’m keeping it simple.
It's been awhile since you've reacted to Band Maid. Have a listen to one of their new releases "Bestie". If you like Miki's song, you'll like this one, too.
Very good video, I loved the theme, I hope you do it with other labels soon. Personally, a few years ago I spent time listening to STAY WITH ME, I loved city pop music, Taeko Onuki, Mariya Takeuchi, among others, but lately I've been listening to a lot of Band Maid as well as Babymetal, but all the artists are incredible
10:47 I know an old dude who has no right even knowing them, but fuckin LOVES band maid, also Stay with me is just an eternal classic. Natori reactions when? 👀
Great post, Tony, from a fellow Seattleite! Yes, MISA and Akane do have a very special musical as well as personal, relationship. By the way, I loved your commentary in Ohrenje's documentary about Akane.
from JAPAN. I like your analysis very much and I enjoyed listening to it again. BAND-MAID has uploaded several new songs and i would be very happy if you could react to them again. A release date has not yet been announced, but the new album has just been recorded. Can't wait until it is released.
A pony canyon sponsorship is so damn cool, glad they let you highlight some great music, more jp industries noticing the west and working on the internet with creators these days
thank you Tony for pointing those hidden sounds (not really hidden, sometimes we need to pay close attention to the instruments) as always enjoyed the energy and reaction!! (l)
Akane & MISA have been together since attending the Tokyo School Of Music. They also did other projects together before BAND-MAID, so their bond borders on psychic.
I'm glad to see your channel blowing up brother. Lynnwood checking in. Highly suggest that you check out the track Hate? live official video from their 10th anniversary concert in Yokohama. The Maids at their finest.
I love japanese music cause the progressions seem more diverse than american chord progressions. Marty Friedman did a video discussing it how american music tends to lean towards a 4 chord progression but japanese chord progressions tend to be longer and feel like a journey, he explained it way better than I ever could.
Pop chord progressions are pretty similar. Japanese version is called the road. The American obsession with autotune and overly simplified song construction is unfortunate. We gave great musicians.... but they are not mainstream because the masses are so lazy with listening. Super unfortunate. We invented jazz. Lol global king of chord progressions. We have fallen
I imagine every song has a story that we don't know and every artist is human (at least in some way, I think!), but the important thing for us is to celebrate a moment of genius creation... "Stay With Me" as a ringtone and I guarantee that you'll be singing with Miki all day long... 😊
Incidentally, in the refrain, Matsubara Miki pronounces "door" as 「ドア〜」, stretching the "a" sound to an "ah~" sound. That makes the music flow a lot better.
Hi! I have some Japanese songs from various decades that I think you might enjoy! Here are my recommendations: 1. Niagara Triangle - "Love on Side A" : NIAGARA TRIANGLE 「A面で恋をして」Music Video (40th Anniversary Version) 2. Sugar Babe - "Parade" : パレード(Demo) - SUGAR BABE 3. Ringo Sheena - "Building Block Play" : Tsumiki-Asobi - Playing With Blocks - 4. Kenji Ozawa featuring Scha Dara Parr - "Boogie Back Tonight" : 小沢健二 featuring スチャダラパー - 今夜はブギー・バック(nice vocal) 5. Vaundy - "Such a Bitter Story" : そんなbitterな話 / Vaundy：MUSIC VIDEO 6. Kenshi Yonezu - "Lemon" : 米津玄師 Kenshi Yonezu - Lemon 7. ShowMinorSavage - "Super Icy" : ShowMinorSavage / SUPER ICY (Prod. Chaki Zulu) - Music Video - These songs range from the 80s to the present and showcase a variety of styles and eras in Japanese music. I hope you give them a listen and enjoy them as much as I do! ※ Search by copy and paste after :
I seen Band Maid live last year and they're great. Since I moved to Japan I've gotten more into the local music. Being a big metal fan in my younger years I wasn't too into kawaii metal until I seen Babymetal a couple years back. The first concert I got see live since Covid and I just had so much fun.
I hope to see Pony Canyon making a Band Maid anime like they did in the Unleash MV. If they put many band maid songs in this anime. I'm sure their Band Maid album sales will go up significantly.
God bless 70s R&B...influences City Pop...eventually evolves in to songs like "Stuck On You" (2022) by Nowlu (More than a Married Couple, But Not Lovers) and Yoh Kamiyama's "Iro Kousui" (2021) from Horimiya.
Please react to ONE OK ROCK , they have the best live performances i've ever seen. You will not be disappointed.(not sure if you have already reacted to them)
Definitely keep checking out Official Hige dandism. Such fantastic Harmony, rhythm, and musicianship. You always have such interesting takes on it. I would recommend "Apoptosis" for their magnum opus.
PLEASE LISTEN TO ROMANCE GA ARIAMARU BY GESU NO OTOME, now that that’s out of the way, i’m glad you’re listening to japanese artists outside of shows because there’s plenty of really good underrated works because they’re not in anime (at least when i search for reactions and stuff), or listen to Cute Aggression by Tatsuya Kitani, or Odriko by Vaundy or tokyo flash or fukakoryoku by him (some i like and don’t see videos on)
I can suggest from my palate: Rock: - "Rusty Nail" - X Japan -"Yuuwaku" - Glay Pop/Rock: -"Robinson" - Spitz -"Cloudy Heart" - Boowy Pop: -"Kanashimigatomaranai I Can't Stop the Loneliness" - Anri -"Driving my Love" - Anri Jazz/Rock: -"Black Cherry" - Acid Black Cherry -"Chou" - Acid Black Cherry Ballads: -"Forever Love" - X Japan -"Endless Rain" - X Japan There's a lot of great music to get lost in!
