I’ve been a fan of Ryuichi Sakamoto since his early (1979) electronic music days with Japanese tecnopop band “Yellow Magic Orchestra.” YMO are considered the pioneers of the tecnopop genre, a major influence to modern Japanese popular music and to British bands like Japan and Duran Duran. His participation in the 1983 movie “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” (Dir. Nagisa Oshima) for which he wrote the theme song “Forbidden Colours” sung by David Sylvian vocalist for the band Japan, brought him major attention. His acting alongside David Bowie made the movie a memorable performance.
Apr
30
Most people would consider the beautifully nostalgic song “Forever Autumn” as a Moody Blues tune, but it was originally written by Jeff Wayne, Gary Osborne and Paul Vigrass and was originally released on the Vigrass and Osborne (1972) album Queues with moderate success in Japan. But it was until 1978 that it became most popular when Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues was asked to sing the lead vocal for Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds reaching #5 (UK Singes Chart) in 1978. I found this video of the Live Musical performance from the LIVE IK 2006 Tour of War of The Worlds.
Feb
19
One of my favorite music videos from the MTV golden era in the 80s.
Nov
12
This 2007 Sarah McLachlan music video still rings current in it’s powerful message. With companies spending millions of dollars on advertising and media production costs, this video teaches perspective on how the money could be spent to greatly improve living conditions around the world.
Sep
16
Gustavo Cerati is one of my favorite latin american music artists, he is songwriter, guitarist and vocalist for the great rock band Soda Stereo from Argentina. A while back, I found this mesmerizing Shakira music video directed by Jaume de Laiguana in which Cerati collaborates on guitar and backing vocals. The song was written by Shakira and Lester Méndez and is part of her album ” Fijación Oral Vol. 1″ (2005).