Shibuya-kei is b-b-back?
Sep. 29th, 2004 12:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomus
I don't know if I've caught some kind of cold -- which would be odd, since I haven't had one for years -- or if all this sento bathing has made me feverish, but I spent my last day in Tokyo walking round in some kind of weird dream state. My throat and nasal membranes were lightly inflamed, a heady musk of mutton fat rose in my throat, and I felt the pleasantly hallucinatory sense of nostalgic unreality that often precedes a cold. In this kind of state I often get flashbacks to scenes from years ago. I'll see a recurring image of the East End of Princes Street, Edinburgh, for instance (upstairs from what's now Burger King, but used to be... the dingy cafe of Patrick Thomson's department store, didn't it?), and then, the next moment, a room in Finland.
The really odd thing about today, though, was that the city of Tokyo seemed to be conspiring with my fever. The whole place transformed itself into one gigantic psychedelic flashback. Suddenly the excitement of the 90s was back. Was it because I've been in Osaka so long, and saw Tokyo -- its zippy consumer spectacle, its stylish supercool youth -- afresh? Was it just sento fever? Or was something afoot, something fresh stirring in the autumnal air?
Taking my cue from Jean Snow's blog I went to Shibuya to see the Braniff International exhibition up on the seventh floor of the Parco Museum. Now, my ties with Parco run deep. It was at Parco's chain of Quattro Clubs that I played the gigs that first brought me to Japan, in 1992 and 1993. Later, I released albums on the Parco Quattro label. My first address in Tokyo was the Tobu Hotel, just a few steps away from the Parco department store. Shibuya-kei, the movement organised around 'jet set' lounge culture, 60s optimism, cosmopolitanism, and so on, was also, for me, organised around Parco department stores. And so it shouldn't have been so surprising that the Parco Braniff show turned out to be recycling exactly this sort of 60s- and-70s-in-the-90s imagery: Alexander Calder-designed jets, Pucci-styled stewardesses in space helmets. To evoke this imagery at its peak in the prime of the Shibuya-kei period I just have to recall Yoshinori Sunahara's 'Sounds of the 70s' album, the Bungalow label, and a Pizzicato 5 show I saw in London in about 1997 (it was, to sum everything up, a Wallpaper magazine party) in which Maki Nomiya was dressed in a dainty sci-fi air stewardess' uniform all in white.
Now, my first reference to Shibuya-kei on my website came in September 1998, when I declared Shibuya-kei dead. Well, I may have been a bit premature. I come today to tell you that Shibuya-kei is no longer dead. Perhaps it never was, or perhaps it's walking undead. It's back, like a Pucci Lolita, like a snapshot in a cherished copy of FRUiTS magazine. For five years the spirit of Gap and Uniqlo has banished all but beige, grey, cream, black and white from Japanese streets. But pinks, yellows, oranges and reds are back, synthetic fabrics are back, a bold sort of sensuality is evident again. Not only in this Braniff exhibition, but in the second show I saw today, an impressive display, designed by Groovisions, of Guy Peellaert's Pravda action girl comics (last seen in a book published by Shoichi Kajino, my A&R man at Nippon Columbia at the height of Shibuya-kei and now designer of fashion magazine Ryuko Tsushin -- a true dandy of vintage Shibuya-kei).
Down in the basement bookshop of Parco -- recently revamped in orange -- Kahimi Karie is once again on magazine covers (sporting with Swedish children in travel magazine Lingkaran), 'frenchy pops' records are displayed prominently in the record store alongside the obligatory bossa nova, and the new film at Cinema Rise (with its classic post-modern 80s dome, a trompe l'oeil rumpled and flipped toga in concrete) is 'Doorway To Love', a comedy about cool otakus by Matsuo Suzuki with the most cluttered, pinkest poster you ever saw.
Playing old Kahimi numbers at my Tokyo concert recently I joked 'this is retro-Shibuya-kei... welcome to the Shibuya-kei Museum!' What I didn't find out until later (when I listened to the clutch of CD-Rs people thrust into my hands after the show) was that half the audience were in neo-Shibuya bands like McDonald Duck Eclair, Dahlia and Migu (who sound exactly like prime-period Buffalo Daughter and comprise ex-members of the Cornelius touring band). The trend is confirmed by the success of new bands like Plus Tech Squeeze Box, whose flirty, squirty J-pop parody records recall classic Escalator / Trattoria groups like Yukari Fresh and Citrus.
It all strikes me as very odd that this stuff should be back so soon. Then again, I did once say that Shibuya was the place where all trends would one day be invented and revived simultaneously (mathematicians have calculated that that day will arrive in 2013). And perhaps I shouldn't declare things dead quite so early. Often, they're only sleeping. Something that summed up as many key Japanese concerns as Shibuya-kei did -- cuteness, positivity, the image of a non-toxic and ludic consumerism, sex appeal, futurism, the exotic appeal of Brazil and France, sex, sensuality and generosity -- doesn't simply disappear. It goes underground, lets people wear denim and black and Gap for a while, then pops up suddenly like a pink and white Takashi Murakami mushroom.
In my tiny way I helped create this particular fever. I understand and appreciate its values. Nostalgia for its optimism makes perfect sense to me. If something from the 90s has to come back, I'd rather see this stuff popping back through the damp topsoil than Madchester, Britpop or Grunge. So welcome back, Shibuya-kei! We missed you.
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what the... ? oh yeah
Date: 2004-09-28 08:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-28 08:10 am (UTC)Re: what the... ? oh yeah
Date: 2004-09-28 08:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-28 09:05 am (UTC)Colors are back! Peace!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-28 09:27 am (UTC)But, frankly, anything that stands a chance of reducing the remaining ganguro/yamamba (http://photojpn.org/books/theme/ganguro.html) population can only be a good thing. I did read recently about the Centre Guy/Gai (http://www.jmrlsi.co.jp/english/mij/c_mind/2004/05_guys.html) phenomenon. Oh dear, me...
One of my favourite jet-lagged memories of Shibuya is wandering around after a couple of years away and suddenly being surrounded in a convenience store by a huge group of ELG (http://www.morbidoutlook.com/fashion/articles/2002_07_gothiclolita.html) types, all dressed in virginal white and some sporting angel wings. Shame the music is so turgid.
Can I say how much I've been enjoying your posts from Japan? It's been great to see the country through your keen eyes (and ears!). For various reasons, my view of the country has been quite jaded for a while, but you've managed to get me excited again about the place. No mean feat, Momu-chan!
1998 sometimes?
Date: 2004-09-28 09:44 am (UTC)Sorry to hear that the summer flu has reached you too, Nick.
W
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-28 09:45 am (UTC)a question to Momus
Date: 2004-09-28 09:46 am (UTC)Re: a question to Momus
Date: 2004-09-28 10:17 am (UTC)At the time I was in a relationship with an English woman who was the former girlfriend of a prominent gangster. That mean that I was quickly inducted into a Japan somewhat distant from Momus' world of beautiful girls eating quality patisserie. That would have been far preferable!
I spent about two years in Tokyo (I've lived in Hokkaido, Osaka and a fishing village since). Coming from London, I didn't find Tokyo that difficult to adjust to in some ways. For much of those two years, I rode around Tokyo on a scooter, forming a peculiar psychogeography of the city. I do miss it, but those particular two years also involved a number of other issues, most prominently the rampant use of methamphetamine, which is the only drug that could claim its own particular Japanese kata.
I've written occasionally about some of this time on my journal, feel free to have a root around, Purandojin. There is a little wheat amongst the chaff.
I'm going back next year for a little while, so I guess I'm.... yes, I guess I'm still sort of in love with it. Never thought I'd say that!
Re: a question to Momus
Date: 2004-09-28 10:20 am (UTC)Guy Peellaert
Date: 2004-09-28 10:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-28 11:20 am (UTC)Back in high school I crushed on a classmate whose Dad flew for them. The planes were cool, and the airline brought quite a bit of culture to the area. I'll have to ask
I went to a graduation party at that girl's house, her Dad had just been made redundant, and American Airlines was busy smothering Braniff with a pillow.
It was the end of an era. Braniff died, and American moved their HQ to Dallas.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-28 11:30 am (UTC)Hell, I wanna have a Drum&Bossa party now. I'd wear a 70s Interflug uniform!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-28 11:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-28 12:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-28 12:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-28 01:08 pm (UTC)Re: a question to Momus
Date: 2004-09-28 03:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-28 03:16 pm (UTC)W
Shibuya-kei is... still around like always.
Date: 2004-09-28 06:16 pm (UTC)The truth is that Shibuya-kei never really went away, even after it commercially died in the mid-to-late 90s. The first generation - Flipper's Guitar and Pizzicato Five and Scha Dara Parr - peaked in the very early 90s, and their success lead to the fame of the next generation - the solo careers of Ozawa and Oyamada plus girlfriends Minekawa Takako and Kahimi Karie. Konishi brought in Tanaka from FPM, and then later introduced Mansfield. Escalator never really gained steam with Cubismo Grafico, Neil and Iraiza, and Yukari Fresh until the very late 90s, after shibuya-kei was "already dead."
Dead is relative. Shibuya-kei was wildly successful in financial terms, and a lot of kids were into the scene only because magazines had given it their blessing. As Naka from Escalator recalls, some time in the mid-90s, lumpen kids were finding the ultra-hipster indie record store Zest and buying insanely sophisticated records; but not because they liked those records, but because the liked shopping and mainstream magazines singled out Shibuya-kei as the "It product."
Ever since the commercial appeal of Shibuya-kei fell apart, the artists have still been pumping out release after release, although some of them - like Kahimi and Cornelius - grew out of their anoraks and some of them - Konishi Yasuharu and Buffalo Daughter - have been content to repeat themselves. In 2000, Konishi and company threw amazing 60s groove parties at clubs like Oto and Fai, but the audiences were small. Guy Peellaert had big exhibitions around then too, because of the use of his art on Mansfield covers.
So, now you stumble back into Tokyo and rediscover basically what you've been intentionally ignoring for 6 years or so and claim that "it's back!" This is the 21st century, where trends don't die, they just fade into smaller audiences. Marquee magazine is trying desperately to create a Neo-Shibuya-kei movement including straight-up rip-offs of the originators like Tetrapletrap and Capsule, but also highly influenced innovators like Plus-Tech Squeeze Box (who are FAR from major label) and Petset. The secret, however, is that none of these bands are selling a fraction of what a minor Shibuya-kei band like Neil and Iraiza sold in the late 90s. Mac Donald Duck Eclair is a great band, but I doubt anyone really knows who they are in Tokyo.
The spirit of Shibuya-kei lives on in this next generation, but it is also their curse. Tokyo is getting grittier, and a consumer-based materialist optimism doesn't make sense anymore. Five years after recession, maybe. Thirteen years later with a host of unsolved structural problems, no. The subcultural majority at the moment - gyaru/yankiii lower class subcultures, punk, and hip hop - are all much better suited for the current environment. They're tough and rough, opposed to the sissiness of these Neo-Shibuya-kei folk. Flipper's Guitar off-stage referred to themselves with the gruff "ore" pronoun and played the aloof badboy rockstar part, but their "boku"-laden songs inspired a new generation of artistic dandies who are hard pressed to find commercial appeal with their soft, unaggressive version of rock'n'roll. There is no new Kahimi, but there is still a group of outsider, artistic girls who want to read magazines with Kahimi, which is why she is still on the cover.
Shibuya-kei is dead, and Japan is worse off for it. Magazines and galleries, however, need content and instead of trawling in the murky bottoms of today's decidedly uncool youth culture, the 30-something editors and curators are reliving their glory days of the 90s. Let's not confuse this exposure with current success or revival though.
Marxy
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-28 07:52 pm (UTC)Also many Japanese people are simply not marrying (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3694230.stm). This must be particularly acute in Tokyo.
Perhaps Japan will be stuck with 90's fashions for a long while to come, just as 60's and early 70's trends in the west lasted far longer than they should have.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-28 09:07 pm (UTC)I only ask because here in Korea, people do it all the time, especially if there's a camera around. At first, it filled my heart with joy to see such a widespread public endorsement of pacifism, but then I found out it only signified 'Victory'. A different thing entirely, of course.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-28 09:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-28 10:48 pm (UTC)Fruits is still a reasonably recent phenomenon in the mainstream. And if you ask most western people about japanese style they would describe something roughly similiar to a page from that magazine.
Add to this the fact that japanese band Polysics have recently been receiving huge amounts of acclaim here in London. Playing sold out shows and releasing a greatest hits. everything is fine with this, but when I listen to them i feel like I'm being transported back to the 90s.
There is however a new branch of japanese music emerging which is far more interesting. A pastoral, but electronic psychedelia influenced by Acid Mothers. I can't name these artists right now because I'm not at home and can't spell the names without referencing. but I'm sure you know who i mean.
In the West or Japan?
Date: 2004-09-29 02:21 am (UTC)That Fruits look (created from following lessons of Cutie etc) has wained since the mid-late 90s. There is still a subdued version of it around, but I wouldn't equate Western recognition with maintained existence.
Polysics are not Shibuya-kei nor Neo-Shibuya-kei.
I think that Japanese psychedelic stream of the Acid Mothers etc has been around quite a while, but has moved out of the Other Music record bins to large audiences.
Marxy