March 10, 2004

Corporate rock still sucks

Posted by Ted
Nihon Break Kogyo Co’s company song smashed into the Oricon, one of (Japan’s) most influential music charts, on Dec 29. It is the first time that a “shaka,” or corporate anthem, has made the charts, according to Oricon Inc, a major Tokyo music information provider…

Unlike the stiff, propaganda-like nature of regular Japanese corporate anthems, the up-tempo rock tune, written and performed by a Nihon Break Kogyo demolition worker, sounds like themes from old Japanese animated films featuring superheroes.

But the humorous lyrics reflect the pure corporate anthem spirit of promoting the company — “We will destroy houses! We will destroy bridges! We will destroy buildings! To the east, to the west — Run, Run, Nihon Break Kogyo!”

I believe that I am the first person in history to point out that Japanese culture can appear somewhat baffling.

Posted on March 10, 2004 01:16 AM UTC
Comments

This would never happen in the U.S. Now, what was the name of that Budweiser Dog again?

Posted by Kieran Healy · March 10, 2004 01:25 AM

As Japan goes today, the world will go tomorrow. Anyone for for karaoke?

Posted by John Quiggin · March 10, 2004 02:25 AM

Nope, you’re not the first, the folks who put together that Eurocentric trash LOST IN TRANSLATION beat you to it.

Posted by vert galant · March 10, 2004 02:45 AM

My circle of friends here in New York is comprised mostly of former expats in Japan (some Japanese, some non-Japanese Asian, some white and one of Tiger Woods level multiraciality) and they didn’t like “Lost in Translation.” Not because they found it racist, but because they’d heard all the jokes 100 times before.

Posted by JX · March 10, 2004 03:24 AM

Wait a minute. Demolition man. Corporate jingles as pop tunes. Where have I seen this before? Next you’ll be telling us that “all restaurants are Taco Bell” over there.

Posted by Sven · March 10, 2004 06:16 AM

All hail vert galant, who it appears has personally rendered the subjective-in-art OBSOLETE! No longer will we need to look at creative works which emerge from (I can hardly bear to type this) a “point” of “view”. In this cowardly new world of expression, no one need fear treading to the local multiplex or museum because they risk assault from some “individual’s” particular sensibility…

Guess that renders this blogging thing unnecessary, dunnit?

Posted by cl · March 10, 2004 06:48 AM

Maybe Vert was being ironic? I enjoyed LiT; I didn’t find it bigoted. For the movie to have been western chauvinistic, it would have needed to take a ridicuing or patronising stance on the Japanese mileau it presented. I don’t think it did.

To be fair, however, it should be noted that any depiction of a somewhat-mythologized yet alien culture by someone not deeply familiar with it runs a heavy risk of confusing verite with cliche. Even so, one can still usually tell the difference between that and clear bigotry. Or, at least, I can.

Posted by Keith M Ellis · March 10, 2004 07:48 AM

Do they find us ‘scrutable?

Posted by andrew · March 10, 2004 10:03 AM

My old girlfriend is Chinese American, and helps to run our East Asian Studies program and working on ethnic identity. She loved Lost In Translation, and she’s not really Eurotrash. Mind you, she is Chinese.
OTOH she hated hated hated Pearl Harbor. And she cringed at The Last Samurai.

Posted by John Isbell · March 10, 2004 11:15 AM

That last comment was edited to produce bad syntax.

Posted by John Isbell · March 10, 2004 11:20 AM

Heh. Flash thingy accompanying the song.

Posted by Graham · March 10, 2004 12:16 PM

OTOH she hated hated hated Pearl Harbor. And she cringed at The Last Samurai.

Yeah, but that probably has more to do with the fact that both those movies sucked than any “racial” reason…

When I see the few Japanese TV shows we get over here, I always wonder: does this not make sense because it’s an alien culture, or is “not making sense” part of the culture?

Posted by jimbo · March 10, 2004 02:24 PM
My old girlfriend is Chinese American, and helps to run our East Asian Studies program and working on ethnic identity. She loved Lost In Translation, and she’s not really Eurotrash. Mind you, she is Chinese.

Don’t mean to be impolitic here, but suggesting that a movie about Japan isn’t bigoted because a Chinese American liked it, is like saying a movie about France isn’t unfair because it’s loved in Texas.

Of course this says nothing about the merits of LiT or your old girl friend; just that the anecdote is hardly compelling.

Posted by WillieStyle · March 10, 2004 02:30 PM

Funny that, I was more interested in the characters and the story and the acting than how Japan was portrayed in Lost In Translation. Maybe I missed the point of watching movies…

Posted by Morvern Callar · March 10, 2004 02:55 PM

I think the only way for anyone to derive a real answer to the question is to spend some time playing “Sonic the Hedgehog,” and trying to figure out just WTF is up with the Chao.

Posted by nolo · March 10, 2004 04:03 PM

Am I the only one here who is trying to put those lyrics to the tune of “Go, Go, Godzilla”?

I think I’ll go slink off to my nerd hovel now.

Posted by Gamer · March 10, 2004 06:06 PM

I’d like to remind you all of “I’d Like to Teach the World To Sing,” by the New Seekers, which was a Coke jingle with the words slightly altered. See Robert Christgau’s classic review. I’m just barely too young to remember it from then—they actually made us sing that song in elementary school.
The Japanese song sounds like it has better lyrics, though.

Posted by Matt Weiner · March 10, 2004 07:07 PM

Ah, yes, that Coca Cola song has got to be the most famous instance - and don’t forget the spin-offs, legal ones included:

The song’s melody was later used as the basis of the song Shakermaker by the rock group Oasis. They were successfully sued for the unlicensed use by The New Seekers and had to pay out $A500,000 (Australian dollars).

Posted by Morvern Callar · March 10, 2004 09:37 PM

…they actually made us sing that song in elementary school.

Same here!

Posted by Morvern Callar · March 10, 2004 09:40 PM

Dammit, I’ve had that nihon bureeku kougyou song stuck in my head ever since I heard it. I usually like Eurobeat JPop better than other types, but the English Eurobeat version isn’t the one stuck in my head, it’s the Japanese version.

And everyone quit carping about Lost in Translation. It’s SUPPOSED to be eurocentric, it’s about eurocentric gaijin doing dumb stuff in Japan.

Posted by Charles · March 10, 2004 11:17 PM
I believe that I am the first person in history to point out that Japanese culture can appear somewhat baffling.

As Jeremy Irons, portraying Claus von Bulow, said in Reversal of Fortune (responding to the observation that he is a very strange man), “You have no idea.”

Posted by Adam Rice · March 11, 2004 06:13 AM

Hmm… Just watched the flash. I don’t find it baffling at all. I kind of see it as a passive-aggressive slam on the whole corporate anthem thing. There’s something playfully ludicrous about turning your corporate anthem into an homage to Ultra-Man and Power Rangers. And therein lies the appeal to the average Japanese listener.

Personally I think you risk underestimating the capacity of the Japanese to respond to the subversive quality, because we’re blinded by this whole “Japan is reflexively conformist” stereotype. I mean, 1000+ years of rigidly enforced conformity gives a culture plenty of practice in subtle subversion.

Posted by HP · March 12, 2004 06:07 AM
Followups

This discussion has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.