30 seconds over
Tokyo - the vinyl solution
Real Groove December 2001
In Japan, technology
is everywhere. From the huge billboards blasting Japanese pop down at
you from the sides of buildings, to teenagers emailing each other on their
cellphones while riding the subway (yes, their cellphones work underground),
its easy to get the feeling that in Japan, the future is already here.
In Aotearoa, when we finish work we relax by going to the beach, or to
the park. In Japan, people relax by going shopping. Consequently, they
are extremely well catered to on every retail front imaginable. From the
high fashion boutiques in Ginza, to the department stores in Ikebukuro,
to the 300+ record shops in Shibuya. Music is everywhere in Japan. When
you walk through their department stores, each section of the shop will
have their own stereo, playing everything from Naughty By Nature to the
Go Betweens.
Japan is the second biggest music market in the world. Last year the Japanese
spent 540 billion Yen ($NZ 10.5 billion) on music, mainly on cdís (523.9
billion Y/$NZ 10.2 billion). Of that total, 424.7 billion Y was spent
on local music. Cassettes accounted for 14 Billion Y ($NZ 274 million),
and vinyl sales were a mere 2.1 billion Y ($NZ 41 million).Of the 1,914,000
records sold, 1,609,000 were by Japanese artists.
There's a record shop in Shibuya for any genre you can think of, and the
format of choice is by and large, vinyl. There's record stores hidden
up narrow flights of stairs and down alleyways, and there's also the big
chain stores, like Tower Records seven floor store and HMV's six floor
store in Shibuya, and Virgin Megastores equally large Shinjuku branch.
Even the chains stock a basic range of dance vinyl, alongside every cd
you could ever imagine wanting. Then there's all the Japanese only cd
reissues with special bonus tracks, etc.
I caught up with Auckland DJ Manuel Bundy, who was over there to
play a few gigs with Mark De Clive Lowe and his band, who flew
in from London, where Mark is now based. It was Manuel's second visit
to Japan. He came over for the first time last year with Mark.
"He (Mark) told me that I could find any record you want over here (in
Tokyo), and I was like, yeah, sure", says Manuel. "And then I got here,
and my god, you really CAN find any record you want!" Manuel says that
he's been to London and New York, but reckons that Tokyo beats both of
those places hands down, when it comes to record shopping, "and unlike
those places, the prices aren't ridiculous." He's got a few records that
DJ Sirvere had been looking for all over the world. "I found them too,
so he's gonna be pleased with me!"
When you come out of Shibuya station, you are greeted by several video
walls, blasting out Japanese Pop, or J Pop. Three million people go through
Shibuya station every day, so as you can imagine, its a busy place. There's
a vast number of record stores located here, but finding them is a mission.
basically, you have to follow your nose. Most of them are tucked away
behind Tokyu Hands department store.
There's Manhattan Records 3 branches; Manhattan caters to new and old
school hip hop and funk, Manhattan 2 is techno and house, and Manhattan
3 is more eclectic, covering latin, reggae, leftfield, and broken beats.
Cisco (www.cisco-records.co.jp)
has several shops, catering to house, hip hop, techno and reggae, and
also does a mail order service.
I had a rather amusing conversation in Cisco Reggae, trying to
ask for some Japanese reggae. The surly young shop assistant looked down
his nose at me and my appalling attempts at speaking Japanese, and then
indulged me by spinning a handful of dancehall 45's by Japanese dancehall
MCs.
In Vinyl Planet I saw a whole bin of original pressings of 12" on the
Sugarhill Records label, including early hip hop greats like Grandmaster
Flash. Then thereís Still Diggin (www.stilldiggin.com),
Hot Wax, Beat Bop, View Records, Next Records, and a few hundred more
that eluded me.
In DMR (Dance Music Record) they have rows of mainly hip hop releases,
in shelves that have three records facing out at you, from top to bottom.
Its more spacious than most of the shops mentioned so far, but whatís
interesting is they have 10 to 15 copies of every record, and they sell
them all too. There must be a huge number of bedroom DJs in Tokyo, or
some serious record collectors amongst the kids. But where do they store
all those records? Most Japanese live in apartments about the same size
as your average Kiwi family caravan. Thatís being a bit generous, actually,
its probably smaller than that.
Near Cisco House and Manhattan 3 is a tiny place called Disc Jam. Its
an apt name, as the shop is jammed floor-to-ceiling with every kind of
dj mixer you can imagine, and of course turntables and assorted dj toys
(the new Technics 1200 Mk 3D is only $900 NZ in Japan; they'll be about
$1900 when they arrive here next year). There's even cute plastic replicas
of some superfly dj's and their decks, just for your mantlepiece or desk.
Every record is labelled with a neat little index card at the top so you
can easily see who its by and what is the title. Some shops also include
handy snippets of information, such as with AC/DCs Back in Black single
- "dope beat, used by Beastie Boys - Rock Hard". The rest of the card
was in Japanese, but included numerous exclamation marks. As they say,
these are the breaks.
Tokyo Meltdown, a guide to Tokyo record storeswww.bento.com/tleisure.html
Tokyo Classified article on Tokyo vinyl shops
Welcome to Electric City.
Tokyo is a city that's divided up into zones. Roppongi is party central
for Westerners, Harajuku is the hip young teens hangout, Shibuya is record
shop heaven, Odaiba is the dating area and Akihabara is known as Electric
City.
This area is covered with shops that sell every possible electric and
electronic device you can think of. Akihabara accounts for 10% of all
electronic goods sold in Japan. It runs for about 3 or 4 city blocks,
and encompasses building after building that is full to the brim with
goods, for 5 or 6 floors, minimum.
When you enter these shops, there is usually several salespeople on the
street shouting out their sales pitch at the top of their lungs. Then
you take 2 steps into the store, and thereís a stereo blasting away. Then
you take another 2 steps and thereís a DVD player screening some Hollywood
movie on the biggest TV you have ever seen. Every single shop is like
this. The noise pollution is just intense. Some of these shops have their
sales pitches prerecorded on mini-disc, and just set them on repeat. Retail
deafness, anyone?
All of these shops have about a million fluorescent lights in them, and
its almost blinding. There are rows of stereos, rows of tv's, rows of
the latest cellphones, rows of computers, rows of air conditioning units,
rows of washing machines, rows of hairdryers, rows of dvd players, its
just endless. There's even a model toy shop that sells M16s and Glocks.
Then there's the small dealers, selling electrical components, everything
from tiny LEDs to big league computer parts.
The cellphones are incredibly small, and have all sorts of flashing lights
and cute extras. The very popular i-mode phones all the kids are using
there are 2.5 G phones. The new 3G phones have recently launched in Japan,
the first place in the world to get them. They have been slow to take
off however. The 3G phones are more expensive to buy and run than the
existing i-mode phones, and their best feature is as a videophone, whereas
the i-mode phone is best for always-on email (meaning that its constantly
connected to the internet, so you recieve any emails sent to you instantly).
The 3G phones may take a while to find their niche, the way the i-mode
phone has. Everyone in Japan seems to have one, and is equally adept at
using them while walking, riding bikes, or on the train. As if all the
shouting and hollering wasn't enough to get your attention, Akihabara
is a sea of neon, flashing at you, demanding your attention. This is a
bit more palatable however when it rains, as this gives Tokyo that whole
exotic Bladerunner vibe. This is very very cool.
Osaka has a similar area called
Den Den Town. It runs down one long street, with a number of smaller shops
down side streets. While not quite on the same huge scale as Akihabara,
its just as flashy and jam-packed with product. All this retail excitement
just confirms the notion that Japan is where the future is already here.
Peter McLennans visit to Japan was made possible with the generous assistance
of Asia 2000 Foundation.
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Shopping
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