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Shibuya-kei

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shibuya-kei
Shibuya Crossing, 2007
Native name
渋 cốc hệ
Stylistic origins
Cultural origins1990s,Shibuya,Tokyo,Japan
Fusion genres
Akishibu-kei
Other topics

Shibuya-kei(Japanese:渋 cốc hệ,lit."Shibuya style" )is amicrogenre[7]ofpop music[1]or a general aesthetic[8]that flourished in Japan in the mid-to-late 1990s.[3]The music genre is distinguished by a "cut-and-paste" approach that was inspired by thekitsch,fusion, andartificefrom certain music styles of the past.[9]The most common reference points were 1960s culture and Western pop music,[1]especially the work ofBurt Bacharach,Brian Wilson,Phil Spector,andSerge Gainsbourg.[10]

Shibuya-kei first emerged as retail music from theShibuyadistrict ofTokyo.[5]Flipper's Guitar,a duo led byKenji OzawaandKeigo Oyamada(Cornelius), formed the bedrock of the genre and influenced all of its groups, but the most prominent Shibuya-kei band wasPizzicato Five,who fused mainstreamJ-popwith a mix ofjazz,soul,and lounge influences. Shibuya-kei peaked in the late 1990s and declined after its principal players began moving into other music styles.

Overseas, fans of Shibuya-kei were typicallyindie popenthusiasts, which contrasted with the tendency for other Japanese music scenes to attract listeners of foreignanime fandoms.This was partly because many Shibuya-kei records had been distributed in the United States through majorindie labelslikeMatadorandGrand Royal.[3]

Background and influences

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The term "Shibuya-kei" comes fromShibuya(渋 cốc),one of the 23special wards of Tokyo,known for its concentration of stylish restaurants, bars, buildings, record shops, and bookshops.[11]In the late 1980s, the term "J-pop"was formulated by FM radio stationJ-Waveas a way to distinguish Western-sounding Japanese music (a central characteristic of Shibuya-kei) from exclusively Euro-American music.[11]In 1991, HMV Shibuya opened a J-pop corner which showcased displays and leaflets that highlighted indie records. It was one of those displays that coined the moniker "Shibuya-kei".[12]

The upper middle-class, privately educated rich kids who frequented these [Shibuya record] stores bought loads of imported records from the UK and esoteric reissues of all kinds, then created music that was a portrait of themselves as exquisitely discerning consumers.

—Simon Reynolds[13]

At the time, Shibuya was an epicenter forTokyo fashion,nightlife,andyouth culture[14]with a cluster of record shops likeTower RecordsandHMV,which housed a selection of imports, as well as fashionable recordboutiques.[13]Britishindependent record labelssuch asél Recordsandthe Compact Organizationhad been influences on the various Japanese indie distributors,[15]and thanks to the late 1980s economic boom in Japan, Shibuya music shops could afford to stock a wider selection of genres.[11]

Shibuya in the '90s is just likeHaight-Ashbury in the '60s.The young people there are always thinking about how to be cool.

—Yasuharu Konishi[16]

Musicologist Mori Yoshitaka writes that popular groups from the area responded with their "eclectically fashionable hybrid music influenced by different musical resources from around the world in a way that might be identified aspostmodernist... they were able to listen to, quote, sample, mix, and dub this music, and eventually create a new hybrid music. In other words,Shibuya-keiwas a byproduct ofconsumerism".[11]Journalist W. David Marx notes that the musicians were less interested in having an original sound than they were about having a sound that reflected their personal tastes, that the music "was literally built out of this collection process. The 'creative content' is almost all curation, since they basically reproduced their favourite songs, changing the melody a bit but keeping all parts of the production intact."[17]

Specific touchstones include the Frenchyé-yémusic ofSerge Gainsbourg,[nb 1]theorchestral popofVan Dyke Parksandthe Beach Boys'Brian Wilson,[5]thelounge popofBurt Bacharach,[1]and thesunshine popofRoger Nichols and the Small Circle of Friends.[2]Wilson was romanticized as amad geniusexperimenting in the recording studio, andPhil Spector'sWall of Soundwas emulated not for its density, but for its elaborate quality.[16]From él Records,Louis Philippewas heralded as the "godfather" of the Shibuya sound around the time he released the Japan-only albumsJean Renoir(1992) andRainfall(1993).[18]Reynolds adds thatPostcard Recordsand "the tradition of Scottish indie pop it spawned was hugely admired, and there was a penchant for what the Japanese dubbed 'funk-a-latina':Haircut 100...,Blue Rondo à la Turk,Matt Bianco.The composite of all these innocuous and already distinctly ersatz sources was a cosmopolitan hybrid that didn't draw on any indigenous Japanese influences. "[17]

Development and popularity

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Flipper's Guitar,a duo led byKenji OzawaandKeigo Oyamada(also known asCornelius), formed the bedrock of Shibuya-kei and influenced all of its groups. However, the term was not coined until after the fact,[19]and its exact definition would not be crystallized until 1993.[8]Many of these artists indulged in a cut-and-paste style that was inspired by previous genres based onkitsch,fusion, andartifice.[9]In the West, the development ofchamber popand a renewed interest incocktail musicwas a remote parallel.[20][nb 2]According to Reynolds: "What was really international was theunderlyingsensibility.... The Shibuya-kei approach was common to an emerging class of rootless cosmopolitans with outposts in most major cities of the world... known pejoratively ashipsters."[22]Eventually, the music of Shibuya-kei groups and their derivatives could be heard in virtually every cafe and boutique in Japan. Reynolds references this as an issue with its "model of elevated consumerism and curation-as-creation... Once music is a reflection of esoteric knowledge rather than expressive urgency, its value is easily voided."[23]

Cornelius — "The Sun Is My Enemy" (1993)
Oyamada's solo debut combines abossa novabeat with a type of British 1980sguitar popcommonly associated withél,as well as assortedjazz,funkandsoulinfluences.[6]
Problems playing this file? Seemedia help.

After Oyamada went solo, he became one of the biggest Shibuya-kei successes.[13]Although his debut "The Sun Is My Enemy" only peaked at No. 15 on Japanese singles charts, writer Ian Martin calls it a "key track" that helped define Shibuya-kei.[6]His 1997 albumFantasmais also considered one of the greatest achievements of the genre.[22][19]Oyamada landed praise from American music critics, who called him a "modern-day Brian Wilson" or the "JapaneseBeck".[10]Marx described the album as "an important textbook for an alternative musical history whereBach,Bacharach, and the Beach Boys stands as the great triumvirate. "[19]

The most prominent Shibuya-kei band wasPizzicato Five,who fused mainstreamJ-popwith a mix ofjazz,soul,and lounge influences, reaching a commercial peak withMade in USA(1994).[14]As the style's popularity increased at end of the 1990s, the term began to be applied to many bands whose musical stylings reflected a more mainstream sensibility. Although some artists rejected or resisted being categorized as "Shibuya-kei," the name ultimately stuck, as the style was favored by local businesses, including Shibuya Center Street's HMV Shibuya, which sold Shibuya-kei records in its traditional Japanese music section. Increasingly, musicians outside Japan—includingMomus,La Casa Azul,Dimitri from Paris,Ursula 1000,Nicola Conte,Natural Calamity, andPhofo—are labeled Shibuya-kei.[citation needed]South Korean bands such asClazziquai Project,Casker, andHumming Urban Stereohave been said to represent "a Korean neo-Shibuya-kei movement".[24]

Shibuya-kei's prominence declined after its principal players began moving into other music styles.[25]Momus said in a 2015 interview that the subculture had more to do with the area itself, which he called "an overblown shopping district".[26]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^Particularly "Yume Miru Shanson Ningyō", the Japanese version of theFrance Gallbig hitPoupée de cire, poupée de son,[citation needed]
  2. ^Like Shibuya-kei, chamber pop foregrounded instruments like strings and horns in its arrangements.[20]AllMusicnotes that although chamber pop was "inspired in part by the lounge-music revival", there was a "complete absence of irony or kitsch".[21]

References

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  1. ^abcdefAnon. (n.d.)."Shibuya-Kei".AllMusic.
  2. ^abcdefReynolds 2011,p. 168.
  3. ^abcdeOhanesian, Liz (April 13, 2011)."Japanese Indie Pop: The Beginner's Guide to Shibuya-Kei".LA Weekly.
  4. ^Đệ 14 hồi ─ シティー・ポップ[No. 14 ─ City Pop] (in Japanese). bounce.com. 2003-05-29. Archived fromthe originalon 2007-08-24.Retrieved2008-11-17.
  5. ^abcdefJoffe, Justin (June 13, 2016)."The Day J-Pop Ate Itself: Cornelius and the Timeless Freakiness of 'Fantasma'".Observer.
  6. ^abcdeMartin, Ian (August 28, 2013)."Twenty years ago, Cornelius releases the track that defined Shibuya-kei".The Japan Times.
  7. ^"Singles Club: The revolution will not be televised, it'll be robotized".Factmag.August 28, 2018.RetrievedSeptember 27,2018.
  8. ^abMcKnight 2009,p. 451.
  9. ^abTonelli 2004,p. 4.
  10. ^abLindsay, Cam (4 August 2016)."Return to the Planet of Cornelius".Vice.Retrieved17 April2020.
  11. ^abcdYoshitaka 2009,p. 225.
  12. ^Onishi 1998,p. 482, coined after an HMV Shibuya J-pop display;McKnight 2009,p. 451, HMV Shibuya's J-pop corner opened in 1991
  13. ^abcReynolds 2011,p. 166.
  14. ^abAlston, Joshua (June 1, 2015)."Pizzicato Five stripped disco to its barest essentials and turned it Japanese".The A.V. Club.
  15. ^Onishi 1998,p. 482.
  16. ^abWalters, Barry (November 6, 2014)."The Roots of Shibuya-Kei".Red Bull Music Academy.
  17. ^abReynolds 2011.
  18. ^Evans, Christopher."Louis Philippe".AllMusic.
  19. ^abcHadfield, James (July 24, 2016)."Keigo Oyamada sees U.S. 'Fantasma' tour as a good warm-up to new Cornelius material".The Japan Times.
  20. ^abTonelli 2004,p. 3.
  21. ^"Chamber pop".AllMusic.
  22. ^abReynolds 2011,p. 169.
  23. ^Reynolds 2011,p. 170.
  24. ^Shin, Hyunjoon; Roberts, Martin (January 2013).East Asian popular music and its (dis)contents.Cambridge University Press.pp. 111–123.
  25. ^Michael, Patrick St. (June 11, 2016)."Cornelius: Fantasma Album Review".Pitchfork.
  26. ^Fisher, Devon (10 March 2015)."Momus honors music's eccentrics on 'Turpsycore'".The Japan Times.Retrieved17 April2020.

Works cited

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