If you listen to a lot of music on YouTube, you may have been recommended a video. The thumbnail image is a striking black-and-white photo of a Japanese singer named Mariya Takeuchi. The song, “Plastic Love,” is a lush disco track with deep groove, impeccable string and horn arrangements, and a slow-burn vocal performance from Takeuchi. When the song was rel ... Show More
Apr 17
Maggie Rogers: going viral is a trap
Ten years ago, Maggie Rogers was a senior at NYU, scrambling to finish a song for a music production class she was close to failing. The guest critic that week happened to be Pharrell Williams. She played him "Alaska," a track she'd written in about fifteen minutes. It is a bit o ... Show More
37m 36s
Apr 14
Learning to Love Train: "Drops of Jupiter" is back in the atmosphere
Train is the kind of band that some people love to hate. Songs like "Meet Virginia" and "Hey Soul Sister" gave the band huge hits, and no small amount of snark. And then there's "Drops of Jupiter." Released in 2001, the song is almost impossible not to love, no matter how many ly ... Show More
47m 25s
Nov 2021
Hiromu Nagahara, "Tokyo Boogie-Woogie: Japan's Pop Era and Its Discontents" (Harvard UP, 2017)
Tokyo Boogie-Woogie: Japan's Pop Era and its Discontents (Harvard University Press, 2017) by Hiromu Nagahara is the first English-language history of the origins and impact of the Japanese pop music industry. The book connects the rise of mass entertainment, epitomized by ryūkōka ... Show More
1h 20m
Apr 2016
Sukiyaki (Ue o Muite Arukou)
Memories of a prison camp in the Arizona desert, a tsunami and a plane crash are stirred by the bittersweet Japanese song Sukiyaki, a huge global hit of the 1960s.Originally released in Japan with the title 'Ue o Muite Arukou' ('I Look Up As I Walk'), the song was retitled 'Sukiy ... Show More
27m 31s
Aug 2018
Yoshitoshi Radio 055 - Stranger Beats - It's a Nu Disco World
Yoshitoshi Radio, the new radio show from Sharam, puts a strong emphasis on Yoshitoshi, the label that Sharam has helmed for over twenty years and which to this day operates on the cutting edge of dance music. Comprised of live DJ sets, studio mixes, and guest mixes from Yoshitos ... Show More
1 h
Jun 2017
The Classic Music Company presents Business As Usual - June 2017
In 2008 I started a series of radio shows with fellow Freak and host, Jonny Rock. The original format was based around vinyl. Digital started to creep in, then CD's, then YouTube rips, and so on. But the idea remained the same, that we were sharing our discoveries with an audienc ... Show More
2h 4m