More Japanese freestyle

[koganbot]

Remember five years ago we were talking about Japanese freestyle? davidfrazer clues me in to further developments: Fairies "HEY HEY ~Light Me Up~."

Watch on YouTube

The speedbeats and basic pounding rhythm are from '90s Eurobeat, but the doleful melodies are freestyle, so are the hooks (freestyle and Italodisco), not to mention the screeching-brake intro and the "HEY hey hey-hey HEY hey hey-hey HEY— HEY hey hey-hey HEY hey hey-hey HEY" electro-stutters at the start, and the mournful chordings and the "oh oh-oh" vocal riff that come between the brakes and the heys.

Watch on YouTube

[UPDATE: Had a full-length live version embedded above, but YouTube killed it; fortunately, six months down the line, AVEX put forth a full-length dance rehearsal version, which I've embedded in its place.]

Here are some vintage 1980s–early '90s freestyle tracks, to give you an idea what I mean by the term.*

New York:

Cover Girls "Inside Outside"

Judy Torres "Come Into My Arms"

Cynthia "Change On Me"

Lisette Melendez "A Day In My Life (Without You)"

Miami

Debbie Deb "When I Hear Music"

Sequal "It's Not Too Late"

Company B "Fascinated"

*The genre "freestyle" is not to be confused with "freestyle" in hip-hop, which refers to live, improvised or at least off-the-cuff raps.

[UPDATE: David Frazer has now found out that "HEY HEY ~Light Me Up~" is a cover of Vanessa's 1993 Eurobeat track "Hey Hey" (Vanessa likely being Clara Moroni under another name), the Fairies' version not straying far from the original. See David's comment below.

I learn from Wikip that, while the term "Eurobeat" has had many uses, by 1993 it was mainly referring to Italian Italodisco-derived tracks selling almost exclusively to the Japanese market. This song is still definitely, overwhelmingly freestyle, at least on top, with Eurobeat underneath. Of course, Italodisco and freestyle took on each other's characteristics.]

Comments

David Frazer

[koganbot]

David Frazer says [at LiveJournal]:

Here's a full length performance of HEY HEY ~Light Me Up~.

Via Melissa Johnson on Twitter I discovered some Korean Italodisco from 1989.

I also learned that Italodisco is alive and well in Ukraine thanks to Russya, who debuted in the late 1980s.

Sydney-Seoul-Bucharest-Seville

[koganbot]

David Frazer adds:

Good Bye by Hong Jinyoung is Austral-Romanian trot with a hint of flamenco.

Trostriches (David Frazer links this via Twitter) and Ostriches

[koganbot]

David Frazer informs me via Twitter that Hong Jinyoung sings "Good Bye" to the ostriches.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlTHMfhV71k

As you no doubt know, Lou Reed recorded "The Ostrich" in 1964 with the Primitives for Pickwick Records.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxcP4jsal8o

"Developments" (David Frazer)

[koganbot]

And David Frazer now adds:

From this review I learn that "HEY HEY ~Light Me Up~" is a cover of a 1993 Eurobeat track called "Hey Hey" by Vanessa, which was included on an Avex Super Eurobeat compilation CD. (Avex are still cranking them out and presumably single-handedly supporting the remaining Eurobeat producers.)

Anyway, Vanessa's original has the abrupt intro, synth hooks and "doleful melodies" you mentioned, so songs classified as Eurobeat can themselves have Italodisco and freestyle influences. You might see the extended version as accelerated freestyle rather than Eurobeat as such, because it has a dreamy, expansive feel with the vocals floating over the beat.