Make Believe Mailer 50: Everyone's Talkin' '90s (Music Magazine's Best 100 J-pop Songs Of The 1990s)

Synergy! (Scroll Down For The List)

Rare do the critical concerns of American and Japanese music media align so neatly…but everyone has the ‘90s on the brain! A week before Pitchfork unveiled “The 250 Best Songs Of The 1990s,” Music Magazine’s “Best 100 J-pop Songs Of The 1990s” arrived in bookstores across the country. Plenty of contextual differences swirled around them — one is a prominent publication’s latest crack at ranking the sounds at the end of the 20th century, while the other is the first such effort at whittling the decade’s output down to triple digits following a succesful attempt at creating a ‘90s album canon.

Yet they share the goal of summing up a period that is back en vogue, for nostalgia (lived-through-it version) and nostalgia (has seen a picture of a Tamagotchi but never owned one). Part of that’s owed to the natural flow of trends in time, another element is the media needing some new topics after squeezing so much content out of older works¹, and there’s also a feeling of powerhouses from that period returning to the spotlight, making it seem natural to turn back and evaluate.

Utada Hikaru, “Automatic,” #2 Of The 1990s

While the lists share the same time period, a lot of interesting differences in approach pop up. Pitchfork’s effort aims to be all encompassing, borders ignored and all generes welcome. Isolée, Janet Jackson and Belle And Sebastian can share three spots in a row, and it feels normal. It’s global, but not too global², with the emphasis still on “Western” artists. While greater impact and chart performance is considered, the end result still feels…focused mostlly on the music, and the feelings it inspires.

That last bit certainly comes across in Music Magazine’s effort, but what’s surprising about the final ranking and their approach to creating it is how focused on the context of the ‘90s it is. It’s immediately setting up a fence — this isn’t a best songs of the ‘90s list, it’s a best “J-pop songs” list. This is the decade where that term — a marketing term rolled out at the start of the decade to present Japanese music to international audiences — truly settles in, but there’s no real central sound…something this list underlines. This is a pure look inwards, and a lot of styles get swooped up.

East End And Yuri, “DA.YO.NE,” #87 Of The 1990s

You won’t find a Ken Ishii track anywhere here, but multiple Denki Groove offerings. Visual Kei sneaks in around the edges. Rock gets plenty of representation, but mostly from major-label offerings. The experimental stuff that littered the publication’s album list is nowhere to be seen here, which makes sense given the “J-pop” right on the cover (good example…no Fishmans anywhere). Most telling is rap, a genere that exploded in popularity during the ‘90s, but only gets represented here by pop-hybrids that many in the scene reject (see above³). But doesn't matter...this is about J-pop, the songs served up to the masses and delivered through a monocultural media structure that could only exist before the internet.

That carries over into the other ethos at play here…Music Magazine celebrates the multi-media quality of music in the 1990s. The pre-list introduction emphasizes how this was the time of peak CD sales, commercial tie-up songs and pop hits serving as the themes to dramas. TV looms large over this list — blurbs mention the variety shows or soap-opera-lite programs that turned, say, a “La La La Love Song” into a generational hit. Considerations are made for the overall sound of course, along with some nods to how they’ve held up in the years since…but unlike any list I’ve seen, references to how it existed in the greater Japanese mediascape of the time proliferate.

It’s doing something few lists of this nature ever even shrug their shoulders at — it’s telling a story. The Pitchfork list offers a lot of bite-sized perspectives on the 1990s, from those who lived through it to those who barely expereienced it, but isn’t interested in grand narratives, because it’s too all over the place. Music Magazine is only interested in telling a narrative about J-pop and how it travelled, even if it gets complicated.

Pizzicato Five, “Sweet Soul Revue,” #4 Of The 1990s

Here’s where I admit that seeing what they chose as number one totally caught me off guard. The defining hit of the ‘90s according to this panel of experts is…Original Love’s “Seppun -kiss-.” Is…is it? Yet looking a little deeper shows why it makes sense, at least from the vantage point of what this undertaking is trying to do. It’s a hit song sitting at the midpoint of multiple ‘90s trends (city pop, Shibuya-kei, soul revival, R&B) that also served as the theme to a popular drama, Ootona No Kiss. Few songs interesect at all these points — a Pizzicato Five or UA might capture the experimentation at play during the period, but lack the all-encompassing presence of being on television, while many other songs that techincally came out in the ‘90s feel at home in a different time, making it hard to spotlight them as the single of the period. More individual writers put Utada’s “Automatic” as their number one of the decade…but that also feels wrong. “Automatic” is the end of ‘90s J-pop (the Roppongi clubs, Shibuya-kei, Tetsuya Komuro⁴) and the beginning of the 21st century.

So that’s why an Original Love makes sense, even if I’m not personally a fan⁵. But this isn't about solo tastes...it's about the story of J-pop, during the decade it came to be what it is.

Music Magazine’s Best 100 J-pop Songs Of The 1990s List (Originally Published In Late September 2022, Links When Available)

Original Love, “Seppun -kiss-,” #1 Of The 1990s⁶

1. Original Love “Seppun -kiss-” (1993)

2. Utada Hikaru “Automatic” (1998)

3. Spitz “Robinson” (1995)

4. Pizzicato Five “Sweet Soul Revue” (1993)

5. Kenji Ozawa Featuring Scha Dara Parr “Konya Wa Boogie Back (nice vocal / smooth rap)” (1994)

6. Yasuyuki Okamura “Anoko Boku Ga Long Shot Kimetara Dona Kao Suru Darou” (1990)

7. Morning Musume “Love Machine” (1999)⁷

8. UA “Jonetsu” (1996)

9. SMAP “SHAKE” (1996)

10. PUFFY “Asia No Junshin” (1996)

Denki Groove, “Shangri-La,” #12 Of The 1990s

11. Eiichi Ohtaki “Shiawase Na Ketsumatsu” (1997)

12. Denki Groove, “Shangri-La” (1997)

13. Southern All Stars “Manatsu No Kajitsu” (1990)

14. Kenji Ozawa “Lovely” (1994)

15. KinKi Kids “Garasu No Shonen” (1997)

16. Kazumasa Oda “Love Story Wa Totsuzen Ni” (1991)

17. Flipper’s Guitar “Groove Tube” (1991)

18. Flipper’s Guitar “Koi To Machine Gun” aka “Young, Alive, In Love” (1990)

19. NOKKO “Ningyo” (1994)

20. Kyoko Koizumi “Anata Ni Aete Yokata” (1991)

Chage & Aska, “SAY YES,” #28 Of The 1990s

21. Hiroshi Takano “Niji No Miyako He” (1990)

22. DREAMS COME TRUE “Kessen Wa Kinyoubi” (1992)

23. MISIA “Tsutsumi Komu Youni…” (1998)

24. Makoto Kawamoto “1/2” (1997)

25. Yosui Inoue “Shonen Jidai” (1990)

26. Tama “Sayonara Jinrui” (1990)

27. H Jungle with t “WOW WAR TONIGHT ~ Toki Ni Wa Okoseyo Movement” (1995)

28. Chage & Aska “SAY YES” (1991)

29. Chara “Yasashii Kimochi” (1997)

30. Noriyuki Makihara “Mo Koinante Shinai” (1992)

Sheena Ringo, “Koko De Kiss Shite,” #33 Of The 1990s

31. Koji Tamaki “Denen” (1996)

32. THE BOOM “Kaze Ni Naritai” (1995)

33. Sheena Ringo “Koko De Kiss Shite” (1999)

34. Ryoko Hirosue “Maji De Koi Suru 5 Byou Mae” (1997)

35. B’z “LOVE PHANTOM” (1995)

36. globe “DEPARTURES” (1996)

37. Sharam Q “Zurui Onna” (1995)

38. aiko “Kabutomushi” (1999)

39. Denki Groove “N.O.” (1994)

40. Mr. Children “innocent world” (1994)

Yumi Matsutoya, “Manatsu No Yoru No Yume,” #49 Of The 1990s

41. JUDY AND MARY “Sobakasu” (1996)

42. Namie Amuro “Don’t Wanna Cry” (1996)

43. Southern All Stars “Ai No Kotodama ~ Spiritual Message ~” (1996)

44. My Little Lover “Hello, Again ~ Mukashi Kara Aru Basho" ~” (1995)

45. Chisato Moritaka “Watarase Bashi” (1993)

46. THE YELLOW MONKEY “JAM” (1996)

47. Kenji Ozawa “Tsuyoi Kimochi, Tsuyoi Ai” (1995)

48. L’Arc ~ en ~ Ciel “HONEY” (1998)

49. Yumi Matsutoya “Manatsu No Yoru No Yume” (1993)

50. Sheena Ringo “Honno” (1999)

BLACK BISCUITS, “Timing,” #58 Of The 1990s

51. Toshinobu Kubota Featuring Naomi Campbell “La La La Love Song” (1996)

52. aiko “Hanabi” (1999)

53. ASKA “Hajimari Wa Itsumo Ame” (1995)

54. YEN TOWN BAND “Swallowtail Butterfly ~ Ai No Uta ~” (1996)

55. Chisato Moritaka “Kusai Mono Ni Wa Futa Wo Shiro!!” (1990)

56. Miyuki Nakajima “Sora To Kimi No Aida Ni” (1994)

57. Tamio Okuda “Easy Rider” (1996)

58. BLACK BISCUITS “Timing” (1998)

59. Tomomi Kahara “I’m proud” (1996)

60. SPEED “STEADY” (1996)

DA PUMP, “Rhapsody In Blue,” #64 Of The 1990s

61. JITTERIN’ JINN “Present” (1990)

62. BUCK-TICK “Aku No Hana” (1990)

63. hide with Spread Beaver “ROCKET DIVE” (1998)

64. DA PUMP “Rhapsody In Blue” (1998)

65. JUDY AND MARY “Over Drive” (1995)

66. Kohmi Hirose “Romance No Kamisama” (1993)

67. Fumiya Fujii “True Love” (1993)

68. Folder “Parachute” (1997)

69. Morning Musume “Manatsu No Kosen” (1999)

70. Noriyuki Makihara “Donna Tokimo” (1991)

Cocco, “Tsuyoku Hakanai Monotachi,” #77 Of The 1990s

71. The Blue Hearts “Jyounetsu No Bara” (1990)

72. the brilliant green “There will be love there” (1998)

73. Namie Amuro “Sweet 19 Blues” (1996)

74. Kome Kome Club “Roman Hiko” (1990, But Actually 1987, Thanks JAL Ad Campaign!)

75. Tamio Okuda “Ai No Tameni” (1994)

76. L⇔R “KNOCKIN’ ON YOUR DOOR” (1995)

77. Cocco “Tsuyoku Hakanai Monotachi” (1997)

78. SMAP “Aoi Imazuma” (1996)

79. Ulfuls “Gattsu Daze!” (1995)

80. Spitz “Namida Ga Kirari” (1995)

Bubblegum Brothers, “WON’T BE LONG,” #81 Of The 1990s

81. Bubblegum Brothers “WON’T BE LONG” (1990)

82. My Little Lover “YES ~ free flower ~” (1996)

83. Miki Imai “Pride” (1996)

84. KAN “Ai Wa Katsu” (1990)

85. Unicorn “Subarashi Hibi” (1993)

86. Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi “Shabon Tama” (1991)

87. EAST END X YURI “DA.YO.NE” (1994)

88. ACO “Yorokobi Ni Saku Hana” (1999)

89. Miho Nakayama And WANDS “Sekaijyu No Dare Yori Kitto” (1992)

90. HIS “Yozara No Chikai” (1991)

hitomi, “CANDY GIRL,” #99 Of The 1990s

91. LUNA SEA “ROSIER” (1994)

92. BEGIN “Koishikute” (1990)

93. trf “survival dAnce ~ no no cry more ~” (1994)

94. Pucchi Moni “Chokotto LOVE” (1999)

95. Mariya Takeuchi “Manhattan Kiss” (1992)

96. Ayumi Hamasaki “Boys & Girls” (1999)

97. Fuyumi Sakamoto “Yozakura Oshichi” (1994)

98. COMPLEX “1990” (1990)

99. hitomi “CANDY GIRL” (1995)

100. B.B. Queens “Odoru Ponpokorin” (1990)

Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies

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1. Japan could chill on the “city pop lookbacks” for a little bit, while I haven’t seen any like, new ecstatic re-evaluations of Steely Dan lately, think it’s time to hit up the Clinton years again.

2. ODB does shout out Japan on “Fantasy.” Only foreign country, right up there with Sacramento!

3. though it’s top ten for me personally, but maybe that helps their argument!

4. Whom Music Magazine finally acknowledges! Totally ignored on their albums of the ‘90s list, Komuro appears frequently on the songs version, because you can’t create an accurate canon of that time without him. They still aren’t enthusiastic, but he’s dappled throughout, including a trf inclusion right at the end.

5. My immediate personal inclination was towards Denki Groove’s “Shangri-La,” though in terms of summing up the musical palette of the decade, I think globe’s “Departures” might be perfect (Marc Panther’s rapping…essential to unpacking it all). Still, part of me thinks “La La La Love Song” got a raw deal since it checks all the boxes the Original Love song does while also being attached to a much more popular drama. Though really…Pizzicato Five is the answer, they feel the most essential of the bunch.

6. New observation from putting this together…the #1 and #2 songs both feature videos where the title of the song is frequently superimposed into the clip itself. What a trend!

7. Favorite detail of this song…the arrangement is by “Dance Man,” a novelty performer sporting a huge afro. EXCEPT he’s actually Hideki Fujisawa, the lead vocalist of ‘80s group JADOES. Which makes “Love Machine” closer to city pop than a lot of the “city pop” songs on this list.