Abstract

How three Japanese musicians joined forces to change music as we know it.

There are two kinds of music: everything that came before Yellow Magic Orchestra, and everything that came after.

The electronic pop pioneers from Japan also known as YMO were only together for six years (1978-1984), but in that time they became Japan’s most popular band, scored multiple hits in the US and Europe, embarked on two successful world tours and, with their use of synthesizers, samplers, drum machines and digital recording technology, changed how music was made forever. The influence of YMO runs deep in genres from techno to synthpop to hip hop to chiptunes. The band also used subversive humor to point out the outdated orientalism of the West and comment on other social and political issues. Meanwhile, the trio of individuals who made up YMO would become legends in their own right — including the late Academy Award-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto.

How did Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi come together to form YMO? What inspired their innovative use of technology to create never-before-heard sounds? Why do they continue to inspire musicians from Daft Punk to Harry Styles?

Shin YMO: Yellow Magic Orchestra Chronicle answers these questions by taking a deep dive into decades of interviews and quotations from the band and those around them with analysis from magazine editor, video producer and author Yuji Tanaka, a veritable expert on the rise of electronic music in Japan. Most of the material in the book is available in English for the first time, allowing YMO enthusiasts and the YMO-curious alike to learn more about this revolutionary group.

Author’s Information

Yuji Tanaka has written books about electronic music in Japan, children’s songs in the Showa period (1926-1989), Japanese elevator music, the creation of the Roland TR-808 drum machine, the girl band phenomenon AKB48, and more. He has also produced documentaries about artists like Matsuo Ōno and TM NETWORK.