I knew the double rainbow over Kitakami this morning was a good sign of things to come...or it at least put me in an optimistic and open state of mind for the day. But I never anticipated that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow would come in the shape of a Sony Walkman and mix tape of '80's singles.
At the break following lunch today, the わが中学校 fuku kocho approached me in the coffee nook and asked if I enjoy music.
"Of course," I said.
"In America, do you listen to much music radio?"
I told him I did and his eyes lit up. Apparently, while he was studying English in Duluth, MN in his youth, he listened to a lot of American radio to practice his English.To take his on the go studying on the go, he recorded his favorite shows onto tapes. He still listens to these old shows now...and today at my desk, he lent me one of his favorite shows. Etched in red pen on the label was a hodgepodge of classic and obscure '80's classics at one time played for mass Duluthians once upon a time in 1984. And here I was, in the middle of the day, listening to a handful of hits from my homeland. A few choice bits on this 102 FM KZ10 broadcast include:
Howard Jones: "New Song"
Michael Jackson: "Thriller"
Lionel Ritchie: "Hello"
Nena: "99 Luftballons"
Phil Collins: "Take a Look at Me Now"
Hall and Oates: "Adult Education"
Cindi Lauper: "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"
Eurythmics: "Here Comes The Rain Again"
Rockwell: "Somebody's Watching Me"
Kenny Loggins: "Footloose"
Van Halen: "Jump"
I found it a little endearing that he'd actually written "Rionel Litchie." But I didn't have the heart to tell him. These are the man's memories, we're talking about here. Who would have thought that two decades later, the foreign Japanese student singing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" would later offer to share his favorite piece of American culture with the foreign American sitting in his teacher's room? It's just a "Back the the Future" mind effer for me.
And it got me wondering. Why doesn't foreign music catch on so fervently with Americans? Yeah, I know I know. You were just singing "Feliz Navidad" in the Food Lion today and your zumba group listens to Shakira's hits all the time. But how many Japanese pop artists can you name? What about French groups, for that matter? Any? Hipsters don't count...nobody's heard what they listen to. We get it.
American consumers capitalize on Japanese cars, gadgets and food, but artistic venues are pretty much disregarded. We sort of lump everything into what we remember from "Sailor Moon," "Dragon Ball" and "Pokemon:" the theme song was kick ass and all the characters had big eyes. That's about it. No further consideration given. But maybe some Japanese watch American TV and think, "Same story. Different channel." As for our current music, the Fuku told me that he thinks everything sounds the same, and I can't disagree with him. Hell, even in the '90's, we were losing our edge. Britney Spears? Jessica Simpson? N'Sync? Backstreet Boys? Same artists, different hair. (And I say that as a straight-faced, heart fluttering Backstreet fangirl)
And meanwhile, while Americans love karaoke night, who's singing the latest AKB48 or Exile hit?
Some younger Japanese may eat up American music...sometimes without much regard for taste (Justin Bieber is not an artist, but you can't seem to convince anyone under 16 of that, American or Japanese) but, everyone still loves the classics. My students now all know The Beatles and can sing a few of their earlier works. Avril Lavigne and ACDC are also popular still.
So this is my endorsement of Japanese music, directed at America. Put down your One Direction and Taylor Swift and check out some J-Pop. Broaden your horizons and bring something new and inspiring to karaoke night!
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