Feature - Back Numbers
End of an Era - Japan's Music Industry Loses Two Legends (2005.07.16)
It isn't often that you hear the "Mickey Mouse March" sung at a memorial service.
A live band performing that tune and many other "natsukashii (nostalgic)" pop faves set a pleasantly celebratory tone at the recent memorial gathering for the late Shoo Kusano, chairman of Tokyo-based music publisher Shinko Music.
Kusano, who died at age 74 on June 6, was a legendary figure in the Japanese music industry. Besides playing a key role in the development of Japan's music-publishing business and helping to promote countless artists' careers through Shinko magazines such as Music Life and Crossbeat, Kusano - under the pen name Kenji Sazanami - was famous for writing Japanese lyrics for local cover versions for many early-'0s Western pop songs. That helped kindle interest in "yogaku" (foreign music) among Japanese music fans.
Just about every Japanese person above a certain age knows Mieko Hirota's gutsy delivery of the Sazanami-penned Japanese lyrics for the Connie Francis hit "V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N," for example. Other Sazanami translations include "Sukteki na Timing (Good Timing)," which was recorded by the late Kyu Sakamoto; "Can't Buy Me Love" by the Tokyo Beatles (whose career was mercifully short); and "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer" by Chiyo Okumura.
In an interview Kusano once described the trepidation he felt when his father, who founded Shinko in 1931, sent him to New York in the mid-50s to sign sub-publishing deals with leading U.S. music publishers. The Big Apple and the high-energy atmosphere of Tin Pan Alley were pretty overwhelming for the young Kusano, whose English (he said) was minimal at the time.
But he persevered, and over the years Shinko became the Japanese sub-publisher for Acuff-Rose- Music Publishing, Arc Music Group, Irving Berlin Music, among others.
In 1998 Toshiba-EMI released an excellent three-CD set called "Sazanami Kenji Roots 60-60s" comprising 60 Japanese covers of yogaku hits. It's a fascinating time Capsule.
Kusano received a Blue Ribbon Medal from the Japanese government in 1999 in recognition of his many years of service to the music industry - the first Japanese music publisher to be so honored.
Meanwhile, on June 5, the Japanese music business lost another giant: Mamoru Murakami, chairman of leading Japanese music publisher Nichion. He was 69. Like Kusano, Murakami helped popularize yogaku in Japan through Nichion's role as the sub-publisher for major overseas publishers such as Warner/Chappell, Peermusic and Famous Music.
The passings of Kusano and Murakami within a day of each other mark the end of an era in the Japanese music business.
They helped expand the role played by music publishers from simply representing songwriters to creating master recordings with songwriters/artists, managing artists' careers and helping foreign artists get record deals with Japanese labels.
One unique feature of the Japanese music publishing business is that most of the big publishers (such as TV Tokyo Music, Fujipacific Music and Nichion) are subsidiaries or part of the same corporate groups as leading broadcasters, which on the face of it, is a conflict of interest. TV and radio stations want to get the best possible deal from rights owners when using music in their programs, while it's the publishers' job to represent the interests of the songwriters who've composed that music.
It's also worth noting that since Fujipacific Music began administering the EMI Music catalog in October 1999, none of the major international music publishers - except for BMG - has had a free-standing operating in Japan. Fujipacific - which is part of the giant Fujisankei media conglomerate - added another feather to its cap last December when it bought Shinko's Asian rights (excluding China) to the 70,000-song SBK catalog, which includes classics like "Over the Rainbow," "Moonlight Serenade" and "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town."
Fujipacific also bought a minority stake in Shinko, whose domestic song catalog it now jointly administers with Shinko.
While there is clearly consolidation taking place in Japanese music publishing - like many parts of a worldwide music industry increasingly dominated by a few mega-companies with little taste for the new and "risky" - let's hope some adventurous independents remain to continue to seek out and support deserving talent in the spirit of Kusano and Murakami.
A live band performing that tune and many other "natsukashii (nostalgic)" pop faves set a pleasantly celebratory tone at the recent memorial gathering for the late Shoo Kusano, chairman of Tokyo-based music publisher Shinko Music.
Kusano, who died at age 74 on June 6, was a legendary figure in the Japanese music industry. Besides playing a key role in the development of Japan's music-publishing business and helping to promote countless artists' careers through Shinko magazines such as Music Life and Crossbeat, Kusano - under the pen name Kenji Sazanami - was famous for writing Japanese lyrics for local cover versions for many early-'0s Western pop songs. That helped kindle interest in "yogaku" (foreign music) among Japanese music fans.
Just about every Japanese person above a certain age knows Mieko Hirota's gutsy delivery of the Sazanami-penned Japanese lyrics for the Connie Francis hit "V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N," for example. Other Sazanami translations include "Sukteki na Timing (Good Timing)," which was recorded by the late Kyu Sakamoto; "Can't Buy Me Love" by the Tokyo Beatles (whose career was mercifully short); and "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer" by Chiyo Okumura.
In an interview Kusano once described the trepidation he felt when his father, who founded Shinko in 1931, sent him to New York in the mid-50s to sign sub-publishing deals with leading U.S. music publishers. The Big Apple and the high-energy atmosphere of Tin Pan Alley were pretty overwhelming for the young Kusano, whose English (he said) was minimal at the time.
But he persevered, and over the years Shinko became the Japanese sub-publisher for Acuff-Rose- Music Publishing, Arc Music Group, Irving Berlin Music, among others.
In 1998 Toshiba-EMI released an excellent three-CD set called "Sazanami Kenji Roots 60-60s" comprising 60 Japanese covers of yogaku hits. It's a fascinating time Capsule.
Kusano received a Blue Ribbon Medal from the Japanese government in 1999 in recognition of his many years of service to the music industry - the first Japanese music publisher to be so honored.
Meanwhile, on June 5, the Japanese music business lost another giant: Mamoru Murakami, chairman of leading Japanese music publisher Nichion. He was 69. Like Kusano, Murakami helped popularize yogaku in Japan through Nichion's role as the sub-publisher for major overseas publishers such as Warner/Chappell, Peermusic and Famous Music.
The passings of Kusano and Murakami within a day of each other mark the end of an era in the Japanese music business.
They helped expand the role played by music publishers from simply representing songwriters to creating master recordings with songwriters/artists, managing artists' careers and helping foreign artists get record deals with Japanese labels.
One unique feature of the Japanese music publishing business is that most of the big publishers (such as TV Tokyo Music, Fujipacific Music and Nichion) are subsidiaries or part of the same corporate groups as leading broadcasters, which on the face of it, is a conflict of interest. TV and radio stations want to get the best possible deal from rights owners when using music in their programs, while it's the publishers' job to represent the interests of the songwriters who've composed that music.
It's also worth noting that since Fujipacific Music began administering the EMI Music catalog in October 1999, none of the major international music publishers - except for BMG - has had a free-standing operating in Japan. Fujipacific - which is part of the giant Fujisankei media conglomerate - added another feather to its cap last December when it bought Shinko's Asian rights (excluding China) to the 70,000-song SBK catalog, which includes classics like "Over the Rainbow," "Moonlight Serenade" and "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town."
Fujipacific also bought a minority stake in Shinko, whose domestic song catalog it now jointly administers with Shinko.
While there is clearly consolidation taking place in Japanese music publishing - like many parts of a worldwide music industry increasingly dominated by a few mega-companies with little taste for the new and "risky" - let's hope some adventurous independents remain to continue to seek out and support deserving talent in the spirit of Kusano and Murakami.
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Originally submitted by: Steve McClure | See Edit History | Edit Article
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