Part 10-1: Introduction

Kan Takagi 'Between Rock and Roll...'
Text: Kan Takagi / Illustration: UJT

The popular series from the literary culture magazine IN THE CITY, published by BEAMS, is back. A long essay examining 'rock and roll as imported culture' from the streets.

'Between Rock and Roll...' was a project serialized in <IN THE CITY>, which was published by BEAMS. The project involved interviewing key figures to write about how rock, rock and roll, or avant-garde music—as imported culture—entered Japan and how it was perceived at the time, including its influence on fashion.

So far, we have had the privilege of hearing valuable stories from people such as Yoshio Kataoka, Reiko Sa, Keiko Suzuki, Nahoko Toyoda, Hajime Tachibana, Kiri Teshigawara, Chuji Akagi, Hiroshi Higo, Reck, Toshio Nakanishi, Hiroshi Fujiwara, Yukihiro Takahashi, Hiroshi Kamayatsu, Kenji Ishida, and Shingo Kubota (titles omitted).

Starting in 2013, the series ran for nine installments and gained quite a reputation in some circles. We have decided to resume it here. Thank you again for your support.

The catalyst for this series was the passing of Masayuki Kawakatsu. The loss of Kawakatsu, who shared rock, pop, and subculture widely across Japan, was a major loss for our current era. Kawakatsu was a person who could be called a unique medium himself, loving music, film, manga, and more without being bound by genre, and introducing and conveying them with a gentle demeanor. Many lamented that a true connoisseur was gone.

When the connoisseurs are gone, Japanese pop heads in a boring direction.

At that moment, I suddenly thought:

Even if I can't introduce and pass things on as meticulously as Kawakatsu-san, isn't there something I can write down and leave behind...?

The rock and roll, punk, and hip-hop that I grew to love were layered with the unique stories and forms of discovery of each individual listener. Just as it was for me, it was something sent from a different space, suddenly arriving where there was once a blank slate. What kind of situations could that entail...?

As for famous stories from across the sea...

There is the miraculous meeting of Mick and Keith of the Rolling Stones in the back seat of a bus, or Dylan and John Lennon discovering Elvis and becoming captivated by rock and roll—the list goes on and on.

Stories of being swept away after receiving an electric revelation, and the atmosphere of the time, are not limited to music alone. It includes everything, even hairstyles and what people wore. Everything is influenced and changes.

How was that in Japan...? Japan has relatively thin archives, but even so, there are interesting stories here and there.

For example, there is this story.

Toshio Nakanishi saw 'Planet Rock' live in Manhattan in 1982, before it was even released. At the time, the word 'hip-hop' hadn't really taken hold, or it was just when people were starting to hear it. I, who was in a rock band, asked Toshi-chan Nakanishi, who had just returned, what it was like.

They spin around on their heads!

Huh? Their heads?

That was the moment I first learned about what would become an official Olympic event.

Toshi Nakanishi's first impression upon seeing Afrika Bambaataa was: Black people doing techno! Dance music! The fashion felt like a delayed punk style, a bit uncool! However, the shock of encountering something new was quite significant, and above all, he seemed overwhelmed by the audience's dancing, in other words, 'breakdancing'.

At the time, Nakanishi had just disbanded Plastics and was in a period of trying to create a new wave pop sound, but his coordinates were moving closer to dance music. A few years later, he would go on to start Major Force with me, but that is a story for another time.

Setting that aside, what is interesting is that the place where Toshio Nakanishi saw breakdancing was the Peppermint Lounge.

The club was originally open from 1958 to 1965 and was known as the venue that created the twist boom. After being sold and undergoing various changes, it became a club where new wave and alternative artists performed in the early 1980s. It is known that even the Beatles stopped by to hang out in the 60s, but there is an interesting story from the time of the twist boom. It seems that Akira Kobayashi learned the twist at that club and brought it back to Japan, which was the start of the boom in Japan. And 20 years later, Toshio Nakanishi learned about breakdancing at that same club.

(To be continued)