ryo

YouTube video by J-POP Paradise 明日、春が来たら - 松たか子 (高音質 / 歌詞付き)

definitely gonna do this, been on repeat this month youtu.be/jfzKfqInObc?...

gonna karaoke next weekend, gotta start brainstorming what song to sing

feb 23: sayuri ishikawa - 365 nichi hanamoyo - hana kuyo (1976)

record collector mag put “tsugaru kaikyo fuyugeshiki” in their best 70s idol songs list, which i was taken back by, until this album which actually felt closer in style to an idol album of its day - amazing youth pop album overall #mwe

something in me says this is their moment of putting a peg on it, of cementing the 2nd gen’s legacy of building the foundation of this new iteration, and we’re already slowly seeing the fadeaway with inori and now chuke’s graduation.. if this is the start of a certain end, it’s gonna really hurt me

nobody’s fault was a very uncertain time, with the name change, and these three as we know now has been instrumental as centers to define sakurazaka as we know them now, i just feel all the years and all the efforts hit

this is a group who, in my own idea of them anyway, always looked forward and every look back has been very purposeful, so it messes me up seeing them reflect in their own legacy like this

been emotional all day at sakurazaka referencing the cover art of their own first single for the promo photo of their 5th anniversary show

feb 20: the hated - every song (1989)

emo at its embryonic stage, oomf took apart its influences, r.e.m and rites of spring, and he was on point. hearing the style just about to cohere was great #mwe

feb 18: yukihiro takahashi - tomorrow’s just another day (1983)

a loving ode to the new romantics like the last but those influences also solidify more here as his own, a blast of a pop record #mwe

feb 16: yukiko okada - jyugatsu no ningyo (1985)

a step into maturation from the seiko-esque idol mold of her first two, even before the more overt makeover album after, which i’m very excited to dig into after this one #mwe

nothing but the hits there

honestly this is how I aspire to write

YouTube video by KAWAII LAB. 【MV】TEAM KAWAII LAB.『CHU CHU CHU研究中！』

idk stuff like this give me joy and hope of idol as a vehicle to spread good as much as my beloved hello project www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOPu...

it irks me seeing "reiwa idol" (which is mostly a stand in for kawaii lab) as being self centered and transactional when they're inclusive and have a "we're all in this life together" mentality as much as morning musume does

hello project hitting spotify got people reminiscing and appreciating the hits but i've seen a few also holding up the morning musume discog to do some "heisei idol vs reiwa idol" argument with the former being better messaged and... it just makes my kawaii lab defense go way up again

@jackwannan.bsky.social hey! sent you a dm not long ago but idk if it ever went through..

@kimonobeat.bsky.social hi! sent you a dm not long ago but not sure if it ever went through

i know murasaki was front of my mind bc you wrote about a song from it for tsoj!

Monthly Listening: September 2025 Rounding up great new releases we checked out during August from omeme tenten, BAILEFUNK KAKEKO, mei ehara and more

wrote about her 80s run not that long ago actually! on the bottom third of this thissidejapan.substack.com/p/monthly-li...

if you want something dreamy like akina’s mid 80s albums like fushigi, i recommend PAVANE! or if you want more traditional, NEXT DOOR, fully made with the same arranger who’d work with kudo shizuka. neither are on streaming, unfortunately, Sou from 1991 is streaming and i recommend it too

idol albums I checked out from nov ‘24 to Dec ‘25

not that it was for nothing! koizumi kyoko’s is another all timer, got obsessed with hiroko yakushimaru and harada tomoyo, and got more love for the kazama sisters, to name a few i loved

spent the past year digging into a dozen discographies of ‘80s idols to step out of akina only for it to reaffirm that akina is my absolute favorite

tho i can understand rap needed to work for acceptance in japan, it’s also difficult for me to imagine a music industry relatively untouched by hip hop bc it’s been so informed by hip hop ever since i knew of music

it’s hard to hear a record like this, along with the rest of its peers, that’s so indebted to New York hip hop of its time as music that needs legitimizing when it feels so definitive to the point its descendants are still so stuck on it as the genre’s core if not superior sound

feb 13: microphone pager - don’t stop the light (1995)

great entry in the j-rap canon, more perfecting a form than innovating, tho need to listen again closer to pick upon on more proof of its reputation as a record proving legitimacy of its own genre #mwe

feb 11: jacks - vacant world (1968)

heard this was more psych rock than group sounds which piqued my ear, and it was right, the psych touches made it more palatable for my ear which hardly ever touch music before the 80s #mwe

writing about kpop this week for this annual tradition, first i go a bit on nmixx

this week chose new songs by Chanmina, Kimiga shikakuku narumaeni and PASSEPIED

might have my totals mixed up but i’ll give 4 a listen too