Make Believe Bonus: Songs That Should Have Been On Music Magazine's Best 100 J-pop Songs Of The 2010s
Why won't anyone think about Radio Fish!?!?
Frederic — “oddloop” (2014)
In my most challenging hours, I turn to karaoke. Specifically, when I find myself out and about, unable to find a suitable cafe or convenience store eat-in corner to work at, I’ll head over to the cheapest karaoke chain in the immediate area to get a room to work in. This was the situation last Tuesday, wandering around Narita (the city next to the airport). Nothing viable was coming up…so Big Echo it was for two hours.
Generally, karaoke rooms are incredible offices. Designed for loud sounds so having a meeting is easy, isolated and often featuring a soda machine offering unlimited refills just outside your door. The biggest drawback, meanwhile, is that you can hear the people next to you trying out their rendition of “Idol” or whatever. While cooped up trying to finish a feature, the room adjacent to mind dove into a song that sounded very familiar…something I’d heard so, so much over the last 10 years. Then it hit me.
Right, it’s Frederic’s “oddloop,” one of the most viral Japanese rock songs of the 2010s…and one not present at all on Music Magazine’s Best 100 J-pop Songs Of The 2010s list.
One of criteria underlining the entries on this ranking is how “viral” or at least internet-centric they were during the 2010s. Nearly every one of the big “surprise Japanese song making an impact at home and internationally” appear here…except for “oddloop,” which boasts over 155 million views on YouTube at time of writing and has one of the most memorable music videos of the period. It’s big in Japan…but also a song a ton of people know overseas. I swear I’ve seen recent fan art for Bocchi The Rock! and Girls Band Cry originating from abroad referencing it, for one recent example. It’s part of another meme recently???? That’s staying power.
This alone should have probably earned Frederic’s defining number a place in the list, but its exclusion also gets at one of the more head-scratching parts of this feature.I swear…I think Music Magazine just picks J-rock bands to include on these rankings out of a hat sometimes. You could swap out UNISON SQUARE GARDEN for CreepHyp or Kana-Boon and not miss a thing. I get that they are viral now…but AndyMori aren’t blowing up TikTok thanks to “1984,” a relatively sleepy song not really reflecting what they’re best. Then you wade into the older contributor side, who always find a way to get a Quruli and Cornelius song in even if it really isn’t necessary.
I think “oddloop” isn’t just important in telling the story of Japanese music, it’s just catchier than everything listed above, and probably more too. I’m still hearing it in TikToks and random karaoke joints in Chiba prefecture ten years since it came out. It is the biggest snub given the context of this ranking…but not the only one.