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Yellow Magic Orchestra

June 22, 2023

For their self-titled album, see Yellow Magic Orchestra (album).

Yellow Magic Orchestra (abbreviated to YMO) was a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono (bass, keyboards, vocals), Yukihiro Takahashi (drums, lead vocals, occasional keyboards) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards, vocals).[4] The group is considered influential and innovative in the field of popular electronic music.[4][5] They were pioneers in their use of synthesizers, samplers, sequencers, drum machines, computers, and digital recording technology,[4][6][7] and effectively anticipated the "electropop boom" of the 1980s.[8] They are credited with playing a key role in the development of several electronic genres, including synthpop, J-pop, electro, and techno, while exploring subversive sociopolitical themes throughout their career.[9]

Yellow Magic Orchestra
Background information
Also known as
  • YMO
  • YMO
  • Not YMO
  • Human Audio Sponge
  • HAS
  • HASYMO
OriginTokyo, Japan
Genres
Years active
  • 1978–1984
  • 1992–1993
  • 2002–2004
  • 2007–2012
Labels
Past members
Websiteymo.org

The three members were veterans of the music industry before coming together as YMO, and were inspired by eclectic sources, including the electronic music of Isao Tomita and Kraftwerk, Japanese traditional music, arcade games, funk music, and the disco productions of Giorgio Moroder. They released the surprise global hit "Computer Game" in 1978, reaching the UK Top 20 and selling 400,000 copies in the U.S. For their early recordings and performances, the band was often accompanied by programmer Hideki Matsutake.[10] The group released several albums before pausing their activity in 1984. They briefly reunited several times in subsequent decades before Takahashi and Sakamoto's deaths in 2023.

History

1976–1978: Early years and formation

Prior to the group's formation, Sakamoto had been experimenting with electronic music equipment at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, which he entered in 1970, including synthesizers such as the Buchla, Moog, and ARP.[11] The group leader Haruomi Hosono had been using an Ace Tone rhythm machine since early in his career in the early 1970s.[12] Following the break-up of his band Happy End in 1972, Hosono became involved in the recording of several early electronic rock records, including Yōsui Inoue's folk pop rock album Kōri no Sekai (1973) and Osamu Kitajima's progressive psychedelic rock album Benzaiten (1974), both of which utilized synthesizers, electric guitars, electric bass, and in the latter, electronic drums, and rhythm machines.[13][14] Also around the same time, the band's future "fourth member" Hideki Matsutake was the assistant for the internationally successful electronic musician Isao Tomita. Much of the methods and techniques developed by both Tomita and Matsutake during the early 1970s would later be employed by Yellow Magic Orchestra.[10][15]

Sakamoto first worked with Hosono as a member of his live band in 1976, while Yukihiro Takahashi recruited Sakamoto to produce his debut solo recording in 1977 following the split of the Sadistic Mika Band. Hosono invited both to work on his exotica-flavoured album Paraiso, which included electronic songs produced using various electronic equipment. The band was named "Harry Hosono and the Yellow Magic Band" as a satire of Japan's obsession with black magic at the time,[16] and in late 1977 they began recording Paraiso, which was released in 1978.[17] The three worked together again for the 1978 album Pacific, which included an early version of the song "Cosmic Surfin".[18] Hosono and Sakamoto also worked together alongside Hideki Matsutake in early 1978 for Hosono's experimental "electro-exotica" fusion album Cochin Moon, which fused electronic music with Indian music, including an early "synth raga" song "Hum Ghar Sajan".[19] The same year, Sakamoto released his own solo album, The Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto, experimenting with a similar fusion between electronic music and traditional Japanese music in early 1978. Hosono also contributed to one of Sakamoto's songs, "Thousand Knives", in the album.[20] Thousand Knives was also notable for its early use of the microprocessor-based Roland MC-8 Microcomposer music sequencer, with Matsutake as its music programmer for the album.[21][22]

While Sakamoto was working on Thousand Knives, Hosono began formulating the idea of an instrumental disco band which could have the potential to reach success in non-Japanese-language territories, and invited Tasuo Hayashi of Tin Pan Alley and Hiroshi Sato of Uncle Buck as participants, but they declined.[22] Hosono, Sakamoto and Takahashi eventually collaborated again to form the Yellow Magic Orchestra and they began recording their self-titled album at a Shibaura studio in July 1978.[23]

1978–1983: National and international success

The band's 1978 self-titled album Yellow Magic Orchestra was successful and the studio project grew into a fully fledged touring band and career for its three members. The album featured the use of computer technology (along with synthesizers) which, according to Billboard, allowed the group to create a new sound that was not possible until then.[24] Following the release of the album Yellow Magic Orchestra, a live date at the Roppongi Pit Inn was seen by executives of A&M Records of the USA who were in the process of setting up a partnership deal with Alfa Records. This led to the YMO being offered an international deal, at which point (early 1979) the three members decided the group would be given priority over their solo careers. The most popular international hit from the album was "Firecracker", which would be released as a single the following year and again as "Computer Game", which became a success in the United States and Europe.[citation needed]

Following an advertising deal with Fuji Cassette, the group sparked a boom in the popularity of electronic pop music, called "technopop" in Japan,[16][6] where they had an effect similar to that of the Beatles and Merseybeat in 1960s Britain.[16] For some time, YMO was the most popular band in Japan.[16] Successful solo act Akiko Yano (later married to Sakamoto) joined the band for its live performances in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but did not participate in the studio recordings. On the other hand, the YMO trio contributed to her own albums and became part of her live band, during these same years.[citation needed] Legendary English guitarist Bill Nelson, who had disbanded Be-Bop Deluxe and Red Noise to more recently explore Electropop himself, likewise played on YMO's Naughty Boys (1983), its non-vocals variant Naughty Boys Instrumental (1984) and subsequent solo Yukihiro Takahashi projects, before featuring the latter on two of Nelson's own UK based releases.

Making abundant use of new synthesizers, samplers, sequencers, drum machines, computers and digital recording technology as it became available, as well as utilizing cyberpunk-ish lyrics sung mostly in English, they extended their popularity and influence beyond Japan.[4][6][7]

Their second album Solid State Survivor, released in 1979, was YMO's pinnacle recording in Japan, winning the 1980 Best Album Award in the Japan Record Awards. It featured English lyrics by Chris Mosdell, whose sci-fi themes often depicted a human condition alienated by dystopic futures, much like the emerging cyberpunk movement in fiction at that time. One of the album's major singles, and one of the band's biggest international hits, was "Behind the Mask", which YMO had first produced in 1978 for a Seiko quartz wristwatch commercial,[25] and then for Solid State Survivor with lyrics penned by Chris Mosdell. The song was later revised by Michael Jackson, who added new lyrics and had intended to include it in his album Thriller.[26] Despite the approval of songwriter Sakamoto and lyricist Chris Mosdell, it was eventually removed from the album due to legal issues with YMO's management.[27] Jackson's version was never released until his first posthumous album, Michael, though his additional lyrics were included in later cover versions of the song by Greg Phillinganes, Eric Clapton, and Ryuichi Sakamoto himself in his 1986 solo release Media Bahn Live.[citation needed] Solid State Survivor included several early computerized synth rock songs,[6][28] including a mechanized cover version of "Day Tripper" by the Beatles.[28]

Solid State Survivor went on to sell over 2 million records worldwide.[29] By 1980, YMO had become the most popular group in Japan, where they were performing to sold-out crowds. Their first live album Public Pressure set a record in Japan, topping the charts and selling 250,000 copies within two weeks, while their next studio album X∞Multiplies had 200,000 pre-orders before release.[6] The same year, their albums Solid State Survivor and X∞Multiplies held the top two spots on the Oricon charts for seven consecutive weeks, making YMO the only band in Japanese chart history to achieve this feat.[30]

The 1980 song "Multiplies" was an early experiment in electronic ska.[31] X∞Multiplies was followed up with the 1981 album BGM. "Rap Phenomena" from the album was an early attempt at electronic rap.[32]

They also had similar success abroad, performing to sold-out crowds during tours in the United States and Europe.[6] The single "Computer Game" had sold 400,000 copies in the United States[6] and reached No. 17 in the UK Charts. The group also performed "Firecracker" and "Tighten Up" live on the Soul Train television show. At around the same time, the 1980 song "Riot in Lagos" by YMO member Sakamoto pioneered the beats and sounds of electro music.[3][33] The band was particularly popular with the emerging hip hop community, which appreciated the group's electronic sounds, and in the Bronx where "Firecracker" was a success and sampled in the famous Death Mix (1983) by Afrika Bambaataa.[3][34] Meanwhile, in Japan, YMO remained the best-selling music act there up until 1982.[35]

1984–1993: Breakup and brief reunion

The band had paused their group activities by 1984. After the release of their musical motion picture Propaganda, the three members had returned to their solo careers. They were careful to avoid saying they had "split up", preferring to use the Japanese phrase meaning "spreading out" (散開, sankai), and the trio continued to play on each other's recordings and made guest appearances at live shows. Takahashi, in particular, would play the band's material in his concerts. Meanwhile, Sakamoto would gain international success for his work as a solo artist, actor, and film composer,[36] winning Grammy, Oscar, and Golden Globe awards.[28]

Yellow Magic Orchestra released one-off reunion album, Technodon, and credited it to 'NOT YMO' (YMO crossed out with a calligraphy X) or YMO in 1993.[citation needed] Instead of traditional vocals, about half of it features field audio recordings and samples of authors and scientists reading their work.[citation needed] During their brief reunion in the early 1990s, they continued to experiment with new styles of electronic music, playing an instrumental role in the techno and acid house movements of the era.[37]

2002–2023: Post-breakup and reformation

The early 2000s saw Hosono and Takahashi reunited in a project called Sketch Show. On a number of occasions Ryuichi Sakamoto has joined in on Sketch Show performances and recording sessions. He later proposed they rename the group Human Audio Sponge when he participates. Barcelona performance at Sonar festival and Wild Sketch Show DVDs chronicle these reunions, and include a tongue-in-cheek Japanese text-only history of the group that spans to 2036.

The band have reunited in 2007 for an advertising campaign for Kirin Lager which lampooned their longevity and charted No.1 on various Japanese digital download charts (including iTunes Store chart) with the song "Rydeen 79/07", released on Sakamoto's new label commmons. Recently performing live as Human Audio Sponge; Hosono, Sakamoto, and Takahashi did a live performance together as Yellow Magic Orchestra for the Live Earth, Kyoto, event on July 7, 2007, which raised money and awareness of a "climate in crisis".

In August 2007, the band once again reformed, taking the name HASYMO or HAS/YMO, combining the names of Human Audio Sponge and Yellow Magic Orchestra. Their first single under this name, "Rescue", was written for the film Appleseed EX Machina. They released a new two song single titled "The City of Light/Tokyo Town Pages" on August 6, 2008. HASYMO played two live concerts in Europe in the summer of 2008, one at the Royal Festival Hall, London on June 15, as part of the Meltdown festival of music curated by Massive Attack and another in Gijón, Spain, on the 19th. Although the primary YMO members (Yukihiro Takahashi, Haruomi Hosono, and Ryuichi Sakamoto) were effectively known as HASYMO and played both these concerts, these concerts were billed simply as "YMO" but featured only 4 YMO songs in each concert while the rest of the concert featured Sketch Show, HASYMO music and members' solo works.

In August 2009, the band played the World Happiness festival in Japan, featuring many Japanese artists. The band closed the night, and confirmed that "Yellow Magic Orchestra" was their official name, dropping the HASYMO title. They opened with a cover of "Hello, Goodbye" and performed old YMO songs along with their newer songs.[38]

In August 2010, YMO once again closed their World Happiness festival. They added classic songs from their back catalog into their set list. They also covered "Hello, Goodbye" and "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)".[39] In January 2011, KCRW announced for their World Festival concert series that Yellow Magic Orchestra will perform at the Hollywood Bowl on June 26, 2011.[40] Not long after, a concert for June 27, 2011, at The Warfield was added.[41] It was announced in February that YMO would perform at the Fuji Rock festival in July and the World Happiness festival 2011 on August 7.

In 2012, Sakamoto helped organize the No Nukes 2012 festival held in the Makuhari Messe hall in Chiba, Japan, on July 7 and 8, 2012.[42] Among the many artists performing, Kraftwerk closed the July 7th concert, with YMO performing on both days, closing the July 8th concert.[43] YMO also headlined their World Happiness festival on August 12, 2012.[44] After these performances, the band once again went quiet; though no formal announcement was made of a hiatus or breakup, the band ultimately did not reconvene for further recordings or headlining concerts.

On June 23, 2018, Hosono played his debut UK solo concert at the Barbican Centre in London; Takahashi and Sakamoto joined him on stage to perform "Absolute Ego Dance", marking the final time that the three would appear together in public. (The band featured in Hosono's second and third "Yellow Magic Show" on Japanese TV, both recorded in 2019; their appearance in the third was in front of a live audience, but Sakamoto appeared via prerecorded video.)

2023: Takahashi and Sakamoto's deaths

On January 11, 2023, Takahashi died at the age of 70, following a case of pneumonia. He had undergone surgery to remove a brain tumor in 2020 but continued to have health troubles that interfered with his musical activities in the intervening years.[45][46][47][48] That same year, Sakamoto died on March 28 at the age of 71, following a lengthy battle with cancer; leaving Hosono as the last surviving member of the group.

Musical style and development

While their contemporaries in Düsseldorf, and later Detroit, were using synthesizer technology to create bleak dystopian music, YMO introduced a more "joyous and liberating" approach to electronic music. According to Sakamoto, they were "tired" of Japanese musicians imitating Western and American music at the time and so they wanted to "make something very original from Japan."[49] Kraftwerk was particularly an influence on Sakamoto, who heard the band in the mid-1970s and later introduced them to his fellow band members.[49] They were impressed with Kraftwerk's "very formalized" style but wanted to avoid imitating their "very German" approach. He described Kraftwerk's music as "theoretical, very focused, simple and minimal and strong".[50] Their alternative template for electronic pop was less minimalistic, made more varying use of synthesizer lines, introduced "fun-loving and breezy" sounds,[51] and placed a strong emphasis on melody[49] in contrast to Kraftwerk's statuesque "robot pop".[52]

The band also drew from a wider range of influences than had been employed by Kraftwerk.[31] These influences on YMO included Japanese electronic music (such as Isao Tomita),[53] traditional Japanese music, experimental Chinese music (of the Cultural Revolution era),[49] Indian music (such as Ravi Shankar and Bollywood music),[19] arcade game samples,[16][54] American rap,[32] exotica,[31] Caribbean ska,[31] Giorgio Moroder's disco work,[4] the Beatles, the Beach Boys and their leader Brian Wilson,[55] Van Dyke Parks,[citation needed] classical music,[11] animal sounds,[56] and noise.[57] Sakamoto has expressed that his "concept when making music is that there is no border between music and noise."[57]

Sampling

Their approach to sampling music was a precursor to the contemporary approach of constructing music by cutting fragments of sounds and looping them using computer technology.[58] Their 1978 hit "Computer Game / Firecracker", for example, sampled Martin Denny's 1959 exotica melody "Firecracker"[16] and arcade game sounds from Space Invaders and Circus.[16][54] According to The Vinyl District magazine, they also released the first album to feature mostly samples and loops (1981's Technodelic).[59] The pace at which the band's music evolved has been acknowledged by critics. According to SF Weekly, YMO's musical timeline has gone from "zany exotica-disco spoofs" and "bleeps and blips" in the 1970s to "sensuous musique concrète perfected" in their 1983 albums Naughty Boys and Service.[49]

Technodelic (1981) was produced using the LMD-649, a PCM digital sampler that Toshiba-EMI sound engineer Kenji Murata custom-built for YMO.[60] Soon after Technodelic, the LMD-649 was used by YMO-associated acts such as Chiemi Manabe[61] and Logic System.[62]

Instruments

 
YMO were the first band to use the Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, which has appeared on more hit records than any other drum machine.

The band often utilized a wide variety of state-of-the-art electronic music equipment immediately as they were made available.[22][23] The group leader Haruomi Hosono had already been using an Ace Tone rhythm machine since early in his career in the early 1970s.[12] Yellow Magic Orchestra and Ryuichi Sakamoto's Thousand Knives were one of the earliest popular music albums to utilize the Roland MC-8 Microcomposer, which was programmed by Hideki Matsutake during recording sessions.[21][23] Roland called the MC-8 a "computer music composer" and it was the first stand-alone microprocessor-based music sequencer.[63][64][65] It also introduced features such as a keypad to enter note information and 16 KB of RAM which allowed a maximum sequence length of 5200 notes, a huge step forward from the 8–16 step sequencers of the era.[64] While it was commercially unsuccessful due to its high price,[64] the band were among the few bands at the time to utilize the MC-8, which they described as, along with its music programmer Hideki Matsutake, an "inevitable factor" in both their music production and live performances.[10] "Behind the Mask" (1979) made use of synthesizers for the melodies and digital gated reverb for the snare drums.[22]

They were also the very first band to utilize the Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, one of the first and most influential programmable drum machines, as soon as it was released in 1980.[66] While the machine was initially unsuccessful due to its lack of digital sampling that the rival Linn LM-1 offered, the TR-808 featured various unique artificial percussion sounds,[66] including a deep bass kick drum,[67][68] "tinny handclap sounds",[68] "the ticky snare, the tishy hi-hats (open and closed)", and "the spacey cowbell",[66] which YMO utilized and demonstrated in their music, as early as its year of release in 1980, paving the way for the TR-808's mainstream popularity several years later,[66][67] after which it would be used for more hit records than any other drum machine[69] and continue to be widely used through to the present day.[66]

At the time, Billboard noted that the use of such computer-based technology in conjunction with synthesizers allowed YMO to create new sounds that were not possible until then.[24] Yellow Magic Orchestra was also the first computer-themed music album, coming before Kraftwerk's Computer World (1981) by several years.[70] As a result of such innovations, YMO were credited at the time for having "ushered in the age of the computer programmer as rock star."[6]

Other electronic equipment used by the group included the LMD-649 sampler (see Sampling above),[60] Roland MC-4 Microcomposer sequencer,[22] Pollard Syndrum electronic drums,[23] Roland VP-330 and Korg VC-10 vocoders,[23][22] Yamaha CS-80 and DX7 synthesizers,[71][22] Korg PS-3100 and PS-3300 synthesizers,[23][22] Moog III-C and Polymoog synthesizers, and ARP Odyssey, Oberheim 8 Voice, and E-mu Emulator synthesizers.[22] Electric instruments were also used, the Fender Rhodes piano and Fender Jazz Bass.[23]

Legacy

The band has been described as "the original cyberpunks"[72] and their early work has been described as "proto-techno" music.[73][74] By the 1990s, YMO were also frequently cited as pioneers of ambient house music.[4] YMO also popularized a style of live performance that eschewed human movement in favour of electronics such as rhythm boxes and samplers.[75] They also influenced the New Romantic movement,[75][failed verification] including British bands Duran Duran[16] and Japan, whose member Steve Jansen was influenced by drummer Takahashi,[76] while lead member David Sylvian was influenced by Sakamoto, who would later collaborate with Sylvian.[76]

Various cover versions of "Kimi ni Mune Kyun" (1983) have also been produced by other artists,[77] including The Human League in 1993 ("YMO Versus The Human League")[78] and Asako Toki in 2006.[77] In 2009, a cover of "Kimi ni Mune Kyun" was used as the ending theme song for the anime adaptation of Maria Holic, sung by Asami Sanada, Marina Inoue, and Yū Kobayashi, the voice actresses of the main characters. In 2015, in the anime Sound! Euphonium, episode 5, the song "Rydeen" is played by Kitauji highschool's orchestra. The popular anime series Dragon Ball Z also paid homage to the band with the song "Solid State Scouter" as the theme song of the 1990 TV special Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – The Father of Goku.

In HMV Japan's list of top 100 Japanese musicians of all time, YMO were voted second place, behind only Southern All Stars, a pop-rock band who remain largely unknown outside Japan.[79] In 2006, Senor Coconut paid tribute to the band with his Yellow Fever! album.[7]

Electronic music

YMO were pioneers of synthpop, a genre which emerged at the start of the 1980s. In 1993, Johnny Black of Hi-Fi News, in a review for the record Hi-Tech/No Crime, described YMO as "the most adventurous and influential electro-techno-dance technicians the world has produced" and further argued that "without them (and Kraftwerk) today's music would still sound like yesterday's music."[5] In 2001, Jason Ankeny of the Allmusic Guide to Electronica described YMO as "a seminal influence on contemporary electronic music – hugely popular both at home and abroad" and placed them "second only to Kraftwerk as innovators of today's electronic culture."[80]

YMO are considered pioneers in the field of popular electronic music, and continue to be remixed or sampled by modern artists,[4] including experimental artist Yamantaka Eye, electronica group LFO, jungle band 4hero, electrolatino artist Senor Coconut, ambient house pioneers The Orb and 808 State,[11] electronic music groups Orbital[27] and The Human League,[78] hip hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa,[3] and mainstream pop musicians such as Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Greg Phillinganes,[27] Eric Clapton, Mariah Carey, and Jennifer Lopez.[81]

YMO also influenced techno music,[82] including its pioneers Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May,[83] who cited YMO as an important influence on their work alongside Kraftwerk.[84] YMO continued to influence later techno musicians such as Surgeon, μ-Ziq, and Cosmic Baby.[4] "Technopolis" (1979) in particular is considered an "interesting contribution" to the development of Detroit techno and the group Cybotron.[31] "Computer Game" (1978) also influenced Sheffield's bleep techno music; the Warp record, Sweet Exorcist's "Testone" (1990), defined Sheffield's techno sound by making playful use of sampled sounds from "Computer Game" along with dialogues from the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).[85] "Computer Game" (1978) was later included in Carl Craig's compilation album Kings of Techno (2006).[86]

In the 1990s, YMO influenced ambient house pioneers such as The Orb and 808 State,[11] as well as Ultramarine and other ambient/house artists.[4] This resulted in the release of the tribute remix album Yellow Magic Orchestra: Hi-Tech/No Crime in 1993,[4] by leading ambient, house and techno musicians at the time, including The Orb, 808 State, and Orbital.[87] The music YMO produced during their comeback in the early 1990s also played an instrumental role in the techno and acid house movements towards the end of the 20th century.[37] The band's use of oriental musical scales and video game sounds has continued to be an influence on 21st-century electronica acts such as Dizzee Rascal, Kieran Hebden,[16] and Ikonika.[88]

YMO's success with music technology encouraged many others, with their influence strongly felt in the British electronic scene of the early 1980s in particular.[29] They influenced many early British synthpop acts, including Ultravox, John Foxx, Gary Numan, Duran Duran,[16] Depeche Mode,[4][failed verification] Camouflage,[4][89] OMD, The Human League,[49] Visage,[90] and Art of Noise,[91] as well as American rock musicians such as Todd Rundgren.[16]

"Technopolis", a tribute to Tokyo as an electronic mecca that used the term "techno" in its title, foreshadowed concepts that Juan Atkins and Rick Davis would later have with Cybotron.[31]

Hip hop

The band was popular with the emerging hip hop community, which appreciated the group's new electronic sounds, and in the Bronx where Firecracker was a success and sampled in the famous Death Mix by Afrika Bambaataa.[3][34] Afrika Bambaataa's influential song "Planet Rock" was partly inspired by YMO.[92][93] The "terse videogame-funk" sounds of YMO's "Computer Game" would have a strong influence on the emerging electro and hip hop genres.[11] Sakamoto's "Riot in Lagos" was cited by Kurtis Mantronik as a major influence on his early electro hip hop group Mantronix;[94] he included both "Computer Game" and "Riot in Lagos" in his compilation album That's My Beat (2002) which consists of the songs that influenced his early career.[95] The song was also later included in Playgroup's compilation album Kings of Electro (2007), alongside later electro classics such as Hashim's "Al-Nafyish" (1983).[96] The 1980 release of "Riot in Lagos" was also listed by The Guardian in 2011 as one of the 50 key events in the history of dance music.[97]

YMO's use of video game sounds and bleeps also had a particularly big influence on 1980s hip hop[98] and pop music.[49] Beyond electro acts, "Computer Game / Firecracker" was also sampled by a number of other later artists, including 2 Live Crew's "Mega-Mixx II" (1987),[77] De La Soul's "Funky Towel" (for the 1996 film Joe's Apartment),[99] Jennifer Lopez's "I'm Real" (2001), and the original unreleased version of Mariah Carey's "Loverboy" (2001).[81]

Japan

The band has also been very influential in its homeland Japan, where they had become the most popular group during the late 1970s and 1980s.[16] Their albums Solid State Survivor and X∞Multiplies held the top two spots on the Oricon charts for seven consecutive weeks in 1980, making YMO the only band in Japanese chart history to achieve this feat.[30] Young fans of their music during this period became known as the "YMO Generation" (YMO世代, YMO Sedai).[100] The band significantly affected Japanese pop music, which started becoming increasingly dominated by electronic and computer music due to YMO's influence.[53] YMO were one of the most important acts in Japan's "New Music" movement and paved the way for the emergence of contemporary J-pop in the 1980s.[101] They also inspired early ambient techno artists such as Tetsu Inoue,[102] and the classical music composer Joe Hisaishi.[103] The manga author Akira Toriyama, creator of Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump, cited Yellow Magic Orchestra as his favorite music band in a 1980 interview.[104]

Video games

YMO also influenced many video game composers and significantly affected the sounds used in much of the chiptune and video game music produced during the 8-bit and 16-bit eras.[70] In 1994, four video game composers employed at Namco formed a parody band called Oriental Magnetic Yellow (OMY), producing parody cover versions of various YMO records, consisting of Shinji Hosoe as Haruomi Hosonoe, Nobuyoshi Sano as Ryuichi Sanomoto, Takayuki Aihara as Takayukihiro Aihara, and Hiroto Sasaki as Hideki Sasatake.[105]

Discography

Main article: Yellow Magic Orchestra discography

Notes

  1. ^ Original international versions replace skits with tracks from Yellow Magic Orchestra and Solid State Survivor, depending on the region.[106]

References

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External links

  • YMO (in Japanese)
  • Yellow Magic Orchestra discography at Discogs
  • Yellow Magic Orchestra at IMDb
  • Official Facebook website
  • Official MySpace website

June 22, 2023
yellow, magic, orchestra, their, self, titled, album, album, abbreviated, japanese, electronic, music, band, formed, tokyo, 1978, haruomi, hosono, bass, keyboards, vocals, yukihiro, takahashi, drums, lead, vocals, occasional, keyboards, ryuichi, sakamoto, keyb. For their self titled album see Yellow Magic Orchestra album Yellow Magic Orchestra abbreviated to YMO was a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono bass keyboards vocals Yukihiro Takahashi drums lead vocals occasional keyboards and Ryuichi Sakamoto keyboards vocals 4 The group is considered influential and innovative in the field of popular electronic music 4 5 They were pioneers in their use of synthesizers samplers sequencers drum machines computers and digital recording technology 4 6 7 and effectively anticipated the electropop boom of the 1980s 8 They are credited with playing a key role in the development of several electronic genres including synthpop J pop electro and techno while exploring subversive sociopolitical themes throughout their career 9 Yellow Magic OrchestraYMO after playing a 2008 concert in London From left to right Ryuichi Sakamoto Yukihiro Takahashi Haruomi HosonoBackground informationAlso known asYMOYMONot YMOHuman Audio SpongeHASHASYMOOriginTokyo JapanGenresElectronicelectropopsynth pop 1 art pop 2 electro 3 Years active1978 19841992 19932002 20042007 2012LabelsAlfa Records Japan A amp M RecordsToshiba EMIRestless RecordsSony Music House Japan Epic RecordsCommmons Japan Past membersHaruomi Harry Hosono Ryuichi Sakamoto Yukihiro TakahashiWebsiteymo wbr orgThe three members were veterans of the music industry before coming together as YMO and were inspired by eclectic sources including the electronic music of Isao Tomita and Kraftwerk Japanese traditional music arcade games funk music and the disco productions of Giorgio Moroder They released the surprise global hit Computer Game in 1978 reaching the UK Top 20 and selling 400 000 copies in the U S For their early recordings and performances the band was often accompanied by programmer Hideki Matsutake 10 The group released several albums before pausing their activity in 1984 They briefly reunited several times in subsequent decades before Takahashi and Sakamoto s deaths in 2023 Contents 1 History 1 1 1976 1978 Early years and formation 1 2 1978 1983 National and international success 1 3 1984 1993 Breakup and brief reunion 1 4 2002 2023 Post breakup and reformation 1 5 2023 Takahashi and Sakamoto s deaths 2 Musical style and development 2 1 Sampling 2 2 Instruments 3 Legacy 3 1 Electronic music 3 2 Hip hop 3 3 Japan 3 4 Video games 4 Discography 5 Notes 6 References 7 External linksHistory Edit1976 1978 Early years and formation Edit Prior to the group s formation Sakamoto had been experimenting with electronic music equipment at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music which he entered in 1970 including synthesizers such as the Buchla Moog and ARP 11 The group leader Haruomi Hosono had been using an Ace Tone rhythm machine since early in his career in the early 1970s 12 Following the break up of his band Happy End in 1972 Hosono became involved in the recording of several early electronic rock records including Yōsui Inoue s folk pop rock album Kōri no Sekai 1973 and Osamu Kitajima s progressive psychedelic rock album Benzaiten 1974 both of which utilized synthesizers electric guitars electric bass and in the latter electronic drums and rhythm machines 13 14 Also around the same time the band s future fourth member Hideki Matsutake was the assistant for the internationally successful electronic musician Isao Tomita Much of the methods and techniques developed by both Tomita and Matsutake during the early 1970s would later be employed by Yellow Magic Orchestra 10 15 Sakamoto first worked with Hosono as a member of his live band in 1976 while Yukihiro Takahashi recruited Sakamoto to produce his debut solo recording in 1977 following the split of the Sadistic Mika Band Hosono invited both to work on his exotica flavoured album Paraiso which included electronic songs produced using various electronic equipment The band was named Harry Hosono and the Yellow Magic Band as a satire of Japan s obsession with black magic at the time 16 and in late 1977 they began recording Paraiso which was released in 1978 17 The three worked together again for the 1978 album Pacific which included an early version of the song Cosmic Surfin 18 Hosono and Sakamoto also worked together alongside Hideki Matsutake in early 1978 for Hosono s experimental electro exotica fusion album Cochin Moon which fused electronic music with Indian music including an early synth raga song Hum Ghar Sajan 19 The same year Sakamoto released his own solo album The Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto experimenting with a similar fusion between electronic music and traditional Japanese music in early 1978 Hosono also contributed to one of Sakamoto s songs Thousand Knives in the album 20 Thousand Knives was also notable for its early use of the microprocessor based Roland MC 8 Microcomposer music sequencer with Matsutake as its music programmer for the album 21 22 While Sakamoto was working on Thousand Knives Hosono began formulating the idea of an instrumental disco band which could have the potential to reach success in non Japanese language territories and invited Tasuo Hayashi of Tin Pan Alley and Hiroshi Sato of Uncle Buck as participants but they declined 22 Hosono Sakamoto and Takahashi eventually collaborated again to form the Yellow Magic Orchestra and they began recording their self titled album at a Shibaura studio in July 1978 23 1978 1983 National and international success Edit The band s 1978 self titled album Yellow Magic Orchestra was successful and the studio project grew into a fully fledged touring band and career for its three members The album featured the use of computer technology along with synthesizers which according to Billboard allowed the group to create a new sound that was not possible until then 24 Following the release of the album Yellow Magic Orchestra a live date at the Roppongi Pit Inn was seen by executives of A amp M Records of the USA who were in the process of setting up a partnership deal with Alfa Records This led to the YMO being offered an international deal at which point early 1979 the three members decided the group would be given priority over their solo careers The most popular international hit from the album was Firecracker which would be released as a single the following year and again as Computer Game which became a success in the United States and Europe citation needed Following an advertising deal with Fuji Cassette the group sparked a boom in the popularity of electronic pop music called technopop in Japan 16 6 where they had an effect similar to that of the Beatles and Merseybeat in 1960s Britain 16 For some time YMO was the most popular band in Japan 16 Successful solo act Akiko Yano later married to Sakamoto joined the band for its live performances in the late 1970s and early 1980s but did not participate in the studio recordings On the other hand the YMO trio contributed to her own albums and became part of her live band during these same years citation needed Legendary English guitarist Bill Nelson who had disbanded Be Bop Deluxe and Red Noise to more recently explore Electropop himself likewise played on YMO s Naughty Boys 1983 its non vocals variant Naughty Boys Instrumental 1984 and subsequent solo Yukihiro Takahashi projects before featuring the latter on two of Nelson s own UK based releases Making abundant use of new synthesizers samplers sequencers drum machines computers and digital recording technology as it became available as well as utilizing cyberpunk ish lyrics sung mostly in English they extended their popularity and influence beyond Japan 4 6 7 Their second album Solid State Survivor released in 1979 was YMO s pinnacle recording in Japan winning the 1980 Best Album Award in the Japan Record Awards It featured English lyrics by Chris Mosdell whose sci fi themes often depicted a human condition alienated by dystopic futures much like the emerging cyberpunk movement in fiction at that time One of the album s major singles and one of the band s biggest international hits was Behind the Mask which YMO had first produced in 1978 for a Seiko quartz wristwatch commercial 25 and then for Solid State Survivor with lyrics penned by Chris Mosdell The song was later revised by Michael Jackson who added new lyrics and had intended to include it in his album Thriller 26 Despite the approval of songwriter Sakamoto and lyricist Chris Mosdell it was eventually removed from the album due to legal issues with YMO s management 27 Jackson s version was never released until his first posthumous album Michael though his additional lyrics were included in later cover versions of the song by Greg Phillinganes Eric Clapton and Ryuichi Sakamoto himself in his 1986 solo release Media Bahn Live citation needed Solid State Survivor included several early computerized synth rock songs 6 28 including a mechanized cover version of Day Tripper by the Beatles 28 Solid State Survivor went on to sell over 2 million records worldwide 29 By 1980 YMO had become the most popular group in Japan where they were performing to sold out crowds Their first live album Public Pressure set a record in Japan topping the charts and selling 250 000 copies within two weeks while their next studio album X Multiplies had 200 000 pre orders before release 6 The same year their albums Solid State Survivor and X Multiplies held the top two spots on the Oricon charts for seven consecutive weeks making YMO the only band in Japanese chart history to achieve this feat 30 The 1980 song Multiplies was an early experiment in electronic ska 31 X Multiplies was followed up with the 1981 album BGM Rap Phenomena from the album was an early attempt at electronic rap 32 They also had similar success abroad performing to sold out crowds during tours in the United States and Europe 6 The single Computer Game had sold 400 000 copies in the United States 6 and reached No 17 in the UK Charts The group also performed Firecracker and Tighten Up live on the Soul Train television show At around the same time the 1980 song Riot in Lagos by YMO member Sakamoto pioneered the beats and sounds of electro music 3 33 The band was particularly popular with the emerging hip hop community which appreciated the group s electronic sounds and in the Bronx where Firecracker was a success and sampled in the famous Death Mix 1983 by Afrika Bambaataa 3 34 Meanwhile in Japan YMO remained the best selling music act there up until 1982 35 1984 1993 Breakup and brief reunion Edit The band had paused their group activities by 1984 After the release of their musical motion picture Propaganda the three members had returned to their solo careers They were careful to avoid saying they had split up preferring to use the Japanese phrase meaning spreading out 散開 sankai and the trio continued to play on each other s recordings and made guest appearances at live shows Takahashi in particular would play the band s material in his concerts Meanwhile Sakamoto would gain international success for his work as a solo artist actor and film composer 36 winning Grammy Oscar and Golden Globe awards 28 Yellow Magic Orchestra released one off reunion album Technodon and credited it to NOT YMO YMO crossed out with a calligraphy X or YMO in 1993 citation needed Instead of traditional vocals about half of it features field audio recordings and samples of authors and scientists reading their work citation needed During their brief reunion in the early 1990s they continued to experiment with new styles of electronic music playing an instrumental role in the techno and acid house movements of the era 37 2002 2023 Post breakup and reformation Edit This section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section Unsourced material may be challenged and removed February 2011 Learn how and when to remove this template message The early 2000s saw Hosono and Takahashi reunited in a project called Sketch Show On a number of occasions Ryuichi Sakamoto has joined in on Sketch Show performances and recording sessions He later proposed they rename the group Human Audio Sponge when he participates Barcelona performance at Sonar festival and Wild Sketch Show DVDs chronicle these reunions and include a tongue in cheek Japanese text only history of the group that spans to 2036 The band have reunited in 2007 for an advertising campaign for Kirin Lager which lampooned their longevity and charted No 1 on various Japanese digital download charts including iTunes Store chart with the song Rydeen 79 07 released on Sakamoto s new label commmons Recently performing live as Human Audio Sponge Hosono Sakamoto and Takahashi did a live performance together as Yellow Magic Orchestra for the Live Earth Kyoto event on July 7 2007 which raised money and awareness of a climate in crisis In August 2007 the band once again reformed taking the name HASYMO or HAS YMO combining the names of Human Audio Sponge and Yellow Magic Orchestra Their first single under this name Rescue was written for the film Appleseed EX Machina They released a new two song single titled The City of Light Tokyo Town Pages on August 6 2008 HASYMO played two live concerts in Europe in the summer of 2008 one at the Royal Festival Hall London on June 15 as part of the Meltdown festival of music curated by Massive Attack and another in Gijon Spain on the 19th Although the primary YMO members Yukihiro Takahashi Haruomi Hosono and Ryuichi Sakamoto were effectively known as HASYMO and played both these concerts these concerts were billed simply as YMO but featured only 4 YMO songs in each concert while the rest of the concert featured Sketch Show HASYMO music and members solo works In August 2009 the band played the World Happiness festival in Japan featuring many Japanese artists The band closed the night and confirmed that Yellow Magic Orchestra was their official name dropping the HASYMO title They opened with a cover of Hello Goodbye and performed old YMO songs along with their newer songs 38 In August 2010 YMO once again closed their World Happiness festival They added classic songs from their back catalog into their set list They also covered Hello Goodbye and Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin 39 In January 2011 KCRW announced for their World Festival concert series that Yellow Magic Orchestra will perform at the Hollywood Bowl on June 26 2011 40 Not long after a concert for June 27 2011 at The Warfield was added 41 It was announced in February that YMO would perform at the Fuji Rock festival in July and the World Happiness festival 2011 on August 7 In 2012 Sakamoto helped organize the No Nukes 2012 festival held in the Makuhari Messe hall in Chiba Japan on July 7 and 8 2012 42 Among the many artists performing Kraftwerk closed the July 7th concert with YMO performing on both days closing the July 8th concert 43 YMO also headlined their World Happiness festival on August 12 2012 44 After these performances the band once again went quiet though no formal announcement was made of a hiatus or breakup the band ultimately did not reconvene for further recordings or headlining concerts On June 23 2018 Hosono played his debut UK solo concert at the Barbican Centre in London Takahashi and Sakamoto joined him on stage to perform Absolute Ego Dance marking the final time that the three would appear together in public The band featured in Hosono s second and third Yellow Magic Show on Japanese TV both recorded in 2019 their appearance in the third was in front of a live audience but Sakamoto appeared via prerecorded video 2023 Takahashi and Sakamoto s deaths Edit On January 11 2023 Takahashi died at the age of 70 following a case of pneumonia He had undergone surgery to remove a brain tumor in 2020 but continued to have health troubles that interfered with his musical activities in the intervening years 45 46 47 48 That same year Sakamoto died on March 28 at the age of 71 following a lengthy battle with cancer leaving Hosono as the last surviving member of the group Musical style and development EditWhile their contemporaries in Dusseldorf and later Detroit were using synthesizer technology to create bleak dystopian music YMO introduced a more joyous and liberating approach to electronic music According to Sakamoto they were tired of Japanese musicians imitating Western and American music at the time and so they wanted to make something very original from Japan 49 Kraftwerk was particularly an influence on Sakamoto who heard the band in the mid 1970s and later introduced them to his fellow band members 49 They were impressed with Kraftwerk s very formalized style but wanted to avoid imitating their very German approach He described Kraftwerk s music as theoretical very focused simple and minimal and strong 50 Their alternative template for electronic pop was less minimalistic made more varying use of synthesizer lines introduced fun loving and breezy sounds 51 and placed a strong emphasis on melody 49 in contrast to Kraftwerk s statuesque robot pop 52 The band also drew from a wider range of influences than had been employed by Kraftwerk 31 These influences on YMO included Japanese electronic music such as Isao Tomita 53 traditional Japanese music experimental Chinese music of the Cultural Revolution era 49 Indian music such as Ravi Shankar and Bollywood music 19 arcade game samples 16 54 American rap 32 exotica 31 Caribbean ska 31 Giorgio Moroder s disco work 4 the Beatles the Beach Boys and their leader Brian Wilson 55 Van Dyke Parks citation needed classical music 11 animal sounds 56 and noise 57 Sakamoto has expressed that his concept when making music is that there is no border between music and noise 57 Sampling Edit Their approach to sampling music was a precursor to the contemporary approach of constructing music by cutting fragments of sounds and looping them using computer technology 58 Their 1978 hit Computer Game Firecracker for example sampled Martin Denny s 1959 exotica melody Firecracker 16 and arcade game sounds from Space Invaders and Circus 16 54 According to The Vinyl District magazine they also released the first album to feature mostly samples and loops 1981 s Technodelic 59 The pace at which the band s music evolved has been acknowledged by critics According to SF Weekly YMO s musical timeline has gone from zany exotica disco spoofs and bleeps and blips in the 1970s to sensuous musique concrete perfected in their 1983 albums Naughty Boys and Service 49 Technodelic 1981 was produced using the LMD 649 a PCM digital sampler that Toshiba EMI sound engineer Kenji Murata custom built for YMO 60 Soon after Technodelic the LMD 649 was used by YMO associated acts such as Chiemi Manabe 61 and Logic System 62 Instruments Edit YMO were the first band to use the Roland TR 808 Rhythm Composer which has appeared on more hit records than any other drum machine The band often utilized a wide variety of state of the art electronic music equipment immediately as they were made available 22 23 The group leader Haruomi Hosono had already been using an Ace Tone rhythm machine since early in his career in the early 1970s 12 Yellow Magic Orchestra and Ryuichi Sakamoto s Thousand Knives were one of the earliest popular music albums to utilize the Roland MC 8 Microcomposer which was programmed by Hideki Matsutake during recording sessions 21 23 Roland called the MC 8 a computer music composer and it was the first stand alone microprocessor based music sequencer 63 64 65 It also introduced features such as a keypad to enter note information and 16 KB of RAM which allowed a maximum sequence length of 5200 notes a huge step forward from the 8 16 step sequencers of the era 64 While it was commercially unsuccessful due to its high price 64 the band were among the few bands at the time to utilize the MC 8 which they described as along with its music programmer Hideki Matsutake an inevitable factor in both their music production and live performances 10 Behind the Mask 1979 made use of synthesizers for the melodies and digital gated reverb for the snare drums 22 They were also the very first band to utilize the Roland TR 808 Rhythm Composer one of the first and most influential programmable drum machines as soon as it was released in 1980 66 While the machine was initially unsuccessful due to its lack of digital sampling that the rival Linn LM 1 offered the TR 808 featured various unique artificial percussion sounds 66 including a deep bass kick drum 67 68 tinny handclap sounds 68 the ticky snare the tishy hi hats open and closed and the spacey cowbell 66 which YMO utilized and demonstrated in their music as early as its year of release in 1980 paving the way for the TR 808 s mainstream popularity several years later 66 67 after which it would be used for more hit records than any other drum machine 69 and continue to be widely used through to the present day 66 At the time Billboard noted that the use of such computer based technology in conjunction with synthesizers allowed YMO to create new sounds that were not possible until then 24 Yellow Magic Orchestra was also the first computer themed music album coming before Kraftwerk s Computer World 1981 by several years 70 As a result of such innovations YMO were credited at the time for having ushered in the age of the computer programmer as rock star 6 Other electronic equipment used by the group included the LMD 649 sampler see Sampling above 60 Roland MC 4 Microcomposer sequencer 22 Pollard Syndrum electronic drums 23 Roland VP 330 and Korg VC 10 vocoders 23 22 Yamaha CS 80 and DX7 synthesizers 71 22 Korg PS 3100 and PS 3300 synthesizers 23 22 Moog III C and Polymoog synthesizers and ARP Odyssey Oberheim 8 Voice and E mu Emulator synthesizers 22 Electric instruments were also used the Fender Rhodes piano and Fender Jazz Bass 23 Legacy EditThe band has been described as the original cyberpunks 72 and their early work has been described as proto techno music 73 74 By the 1990s YMO were also frequently cited as pioneers of ambient house music 4 YMO also popularized a style of live performance that eschewed human movement in favour of electronics such as rhythm boxes and samplers 75 They also influenced the New Romantic movement 75 failed verification including British bands Duran Duran 16 and Japan whose member Steve Jansen was influenced by drummer Takahashi 76 while lead member David Sylvian was influenced by Sakamoto who would later collaborate with Sylvian 76 Various cover versions of Kimi ni Mune Kyun 1983 have also been produced by other artists 77 including The Human League in 1993 YMO Versus The Human League 78 and Asako Toki in 2006 77 In 2009 a cover of Kimi ni Mune Kyun was used as the ending theme song for the anime adaptation of Maria Holic sung by Asami Sanada Marina Inoue and Yu Kobayashi the voice actresses of the main characters In 2015 in the anime Sound Euphonium episode 5 the song Rydeen is played by Kitauji highschool s orchestra The popular anime series Dragon Ball Z also paid homage to the band with the song Solid State Scouter as the theme song of the 1990 TV special Dragon Ball Z Bardock The Father of Goku In HMV Japan s list of top 100 Japanese musicians of all time YMO were voted second place behind only Southern All Stars a pop rock band who remain largely unknown outside Japan 79 In 2006 Senor Coconut paid tribute to the band with his Yellow Fever album 7 Electronic music Edit YMO were pioneers of synthpop a genre which emerged at the start of the 1980s In 1993 Johnny Black of Hi Fi News in a review for the record Hi Tech No Crime described YMO as the most adventurous and influential electro techno dance technicians the world has produced and further argued that without them and Kraftwerk today s music would still sound like yesterday s music 5 In 2001 Jason Ankeny of the Allmusic Guide to Electronica described YMO as a seminal influence on contemporary electronic music hugely popular both at home and abroad and placed them second only to Kraftwerk as innovators of today s electronic culture 80 YMO are considered pioneers in the field of popular electronic music and continue to be remixed or sampled by modern artists 4 including experimental artist Yamantaka Eye electronica group LFO jungle band 4hero electrolatino artist Senor Coconut ambient house pioneers The Orb and 808 State 11 electronic music groups Orbital 27 and The Human League 78 hip hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa 3 and mainstream pop musicians such as Michael Jackson Quincy Jones Greg Phillinganes 27 Eric Clapton Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez 81 YMO also influenced techno music 82 including its pioneers Juan Atkins Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May 83 who cited YMO as an important influence on their work alongside Kraftwerk 84 YMO continued to influence later techno musicians such as Surgeon m Ziq and Cosmic Baby 4 Technopolis 1979 in particular is considered an interesting contribution to the development of Detroit techno and the group Cybotron 31 Computer Game 1978 also influenced Sheffield s bleep techno music the Warp record Sweet Exorcist s Testone 1990 defined Sheffield s techno sound by making playful use of sampled sounds from Computer Game along with dialogues from the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977 85 Computer Game 1978 was later included in Carl Craig s compilation album Kings of Techno 2006 86 In the 1990s YMO influenced ambient house pioneers such as The Orb and 808 State 11 as well as Ultramarine and other ambient house artists 4 This resulted in the release of the tribute remix album Yellow Magic Orchestra Hi Tech No Crime in 1993 4 by leading ambient house and techno musicians at the time including The Orb 808 State and Orbital 87 The music YMO produced during their comeback in the early 1990s also played an instrumental role in the techno and acid house movements towards the end of the 20th century 37 The band s use of oriental musical scales and video game sounds has continued to be an influence on 21st century electronica acts such as Dizzee Rascal Kieran Hebden 16 and Ikonika 88 YMO s success with music technology encouraged many others with their influence strongly felt in the British electronic scene of the early 1980s in particular 29 They influenced many early British synthpop acts including Ultravox John Foxx Gary Numan Duran Duran 16 Depeche Mode 4 failed verification Camouflage 4 89 OMD The Human League 49 Visage 90 and Art of Noise 91 as well as American rock musicians such as Todd Rundgren 16 Technopolis a tribute to Tokyo as an electronic mecca that used the term techno in its title foreshadowed concepts that Juan Atkins and Rick Davis would later have with Cybotron 31 Hip hop Edit The band was popular with the emerging hip hop community which appreciated the group s new electronic sounds and in the Bronx where Firecracker was a success and sampled in the famous Death Mix by Afrika Bambaataa 3 34 Afrika Bambaataa s influential song Planet Rock was partly inspired by YMO 92 93 The terse videogame funk sounds of YMO s Computer Game would have a strong influence on the emerging electro and hip hop genres 11 Sakamoto s Riot in Lagos was cited by Kurtis Mantronik as a major influence on his early electro hip hop group Mantronix 94 he included both Computer Game and Riot in Lagos in his compilation album That s My Beat 2002 which consists of the songs that influenced his early career 95 The song was also later included in Playgroup s compilation album Kings of Electro 2007 alongside later electro classics such as Hashim s Al Nafyish 1983 96 The 1980 release of Riot in Lagos was also listed by The Guardian in 2011 as one of the 50 key events in the history of dance music 97 YMO s use of video game sounds and bleeps also had a particularly big influence on 1980s hip hop 98 and pop music 49 Beyond electro acts Computer Game Firecracker was also sampled by a number of other later artists including 2 Live Crew s Mega Mixx II 1987 77 De La Soul s Funky Towel for the 1996 film Joe s Apartment 99 Jennifer Lopez s I m Real 2001 and the original unreleased version of Mariah Carey s Loverboy 2001 81 Japan Edit The band has also been very influential in its homeland Japan where they had become the most popular group during the late 1970s and 1980s 16 Their albums Solid State Survivor and X Multiplies held the top two spots on the Oricon charts for seven consecutive weeks in 1980 making YMO the only band in Japanese chart history to achieve this feat 30 Young fans of their music during this period became known as the YMO Generation YMO世代 YMO Sedai 100 The band significantly affected Japanese pop music which started becoming increasingly dominated by electronic and computer music due to YMO s influence 53 YMO were one of the most important acts in Japan s New Music movement and paved the way for the emergence of contemporary J pop in the 1980s 101 They also inspired early ambient techno artists such as Tetsu Inoue 102 and the classical music composer Joe Hisaishi 103 The manga author Akira Toriyama creator of Dragon Ball and Dr Slump cited Yellow Magic Orchestra as his favorite music band in a 1980 interview 104 Video games Edit YMO also influenced many video game composers and significantly affected the sounds used in much of the chiptune and video game music produced during the 8 bit and 16 bit eras 70 In 1994 four video game composers employed at Namco formed a parody band called Oriental Magnetic Yellow OMY producing parody cover versions of various YMO records consisting of Shinji Hosoe as Haruomi Hosonoe Nobuyoshi Sano as Ryuichi Sanomoto Takayuki Aihara as Takayukihiro Aihara and Hiroto Sasaki as Hideki Sasatake 105 Discography EditMain article Yellow Magic Orchestra discography Yellow Magic Orchestra 1978 Solid State Survivor 1979 Multiplies also known as Zoshoku 1980 n 1 BGM 1981 Technodelic 1981 Naughty Boys 1983 Service 1983 Technodon credited to YMO 1993 Notes Edit Original international versions replace skits with tracks from Yellow Magic Orchestra and Solid State Survivor depending on the region 106 References Edit Buckley P 2003 The Rough Guide to Rock Rough Guides London pp 1200 1201 Simpson Paul Bamboo Biography amp History AllMusic Retrieved January 24 2018 a b c d e David Toop March 1996 A Z Of Electro The Wire no 145 retrieved May 29 2011 a b c d e f g h i j k l Yellow Magic Orchestra at AllMusic Retrieved June 3 2009 a b Johnny Black 1993 Yellow Magic Orchestra Hi Tech No Crime Hi Fi News Link House Publications 38 1 6 93 a b c d e f g h Computer rock music gaining fans Sarasota Journal 8 August 18 1980 Retrieved May 25 2011 a b c Paul Sullivan September 1 2007 Senor Coconut clashmusic com Retrieved May 29 2011 J D Considine March 23 2000 Sakamoto hears music s sounds not its styles The Baltimore Sun Retrieved June 9 2011 Jones Mikey IQ January 22 2015 The Essential Yellow Magic Orchestra Factmag a b c Sound International 1981 p 147 a b c d e Dayal Gheeta July 7 2006 Yellow Magic Orchestra Groove The Original Soundtrack Archived from the original on October 2 2011 Retrieved June 17 2011 a b The Primer Yellow Magic Orchestra The Wire 404 38 October 2017 井上陽水 氷の世界 at Discogs Translation Osamu Kitajima Benzaiten at Discogs Isao Tomita Moog reverie Resident Advisor July 13 2012 Retrieved July 17 2012 a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis John July 4 2008 Back to the future Yellow Magic Orchestra helped usher in electronica and they may just have invented hip hop too The Guardian UK Retrieved May 25 2011 Harry Hosono And The Yellow Magic Band Paraiso at Discogs Pacific at Discogs a b Dominique Leone July 19 2005 Hosono amp Yokoo Cochin Moon Pitchfork Media Retrieved May 26 2011 Ryuichi Sakamoto Thousand Knives Of at Discogs a b Ryuichi Sakamoto Thousand Knives Of CD at Discogs a b c d e f g h i Tanaka Yuji November 11 2014 Yellow Magic Orchestra The Pre MIDI Technology Behind Their Anthems Red Bull Music Academy a b c d e f g Yellow Magic Orchestra Yellow Magic Orchestra at Discogs a b Artists and producers strive for inroads overseas Billboard vol 91 no 20 p 61 May 26 1979 ISSN 0006 2510 Yellow Magic Orchestra UC YMO Discogs August 6 2003 Retrieved May 29 2011 Behind the Mask Michael Jackson s rarest recording MetaFilter Retrieved March 27 2011 a b c Aimee Heckel January 15 2011 Chris Mosdell quirky Boulder lyricist wrote lyrics for newly released Michael Jackson song Daily Camera Retrieved June 19 2011 a b c Jim Sullivan February 8 1998 RYUICHI SAKAMOTO GOES AVANT CLASSICAL The Boston Globe p 8 archived from the original on February 10 2013 retrieved May 27 2011 a b Phil Hardy Dave Laing Stephen Barnard 1987 Encyclopedia of Rock 2nd ed Macdonald Orbis p 476 ISBN 0 356 14274 4 a b ポルノが24年ぶりの快挙達成 Oricon August 17 2004 Retrieved June 9 2011 Translation a b c d e f Dan Sicko amp Bill Brewster 2010 Techno Rebels 2nd ed Wayne State University Press pp 27 8 ISBN 978 0 8143 3438 6 a b Yellow Magic Orchestra at AllMusic Retrieved May 29 2011 Broughton Frank 2007 La historia del DJ The DJ s Story Volume 2 Ediciones Robinbook p 121 ISBN 978 84 96222 79 3 a b Buckley Peter 2003 The rough guide to rock Rough Guides p 901 ISBN 1 84353 105 4 Pioneering Production Economy in the 80s Billboard vol 94 no 21 p 41 May 29 1982 ISSN 0006 2510 Q amp A With Ryuichi Sakamoto Pop Pioneer And Producer And Award Winning Soundtrack Composer Billboard vol 108 no 35 p 72 August 31 1996 ISSN 0006 2510 a b Ryuichi Sakamoto UGO Networks Retrieved May 27 2011 permanent dead link WORLD HAPPINESS 2011 World happiness com Retrieved March 27 2011 1 Archived August 5 2010 at the Wayback Machine Big in Japan Yellow Magic Orchestra amp Cibo Matto Hollywood Bowl Presented by LA Phil Hollywoodbowl com Archived from the original on April 8 2011 Retrieved March 27 2011 The Warfield Event Details Thewarfieldtheatre com Archived from the original on March 21 2012 Retrieved April 10 2012 NO NUKES 2012 Nonukes2012 jp January 2 2012 Retrieved December 12 2012 Sakamoto gently rallies the troops for No Nukes 2012 The Japan Times Online Japantimes co jp July 5 2012 Retrieved December 12 2012 World Happiness 2012 Time Out Tokyo Timeout jp August 12 2012 Retrieved December 12 2012 YMO高橋幸宏さん死去 70歳 20年脳腫瘍摘出 懸命リハビリも Yahoo News January 11 2023 Archived from the original on January 15 2023 Retrieved January 14 2023 YMO 高橋幸宏さん死去 70歳 ライディーン の作曲手がける NHK January 15 2023 Retrieved January 15 2023 Corcoran Nina January 15 2023 Yellow Magic Orchestra Drummer Yukihiro Takahashi Dies at 70 Pitchfork Retrieved January 15 2023 Legaspi Althea Kreps Daniel January 15 2023 Yukihiro Takahashi Drummer and Lead Vocalist of Yellow Magic Orchestra Dead at 70 Rolling Stone Retrieved January 15 2023 a b c d e f g Stout Andrew June 24 2011 Yellow Magic Orchestra on Kraftwerk and How to Write a Melody During a Cultural Revolution SF Weekly Retrieved June 30 2011 Geeta Dayal August 29 2010 Studio 84 Digging into the History of Disco in India The Original Soundtrack Archived from the original on July 28 2011 Retrieved June 3 2011 Bogdanov Vladimir 2001 All music guide to electronica the definitive guide to electronic music 4th ed Backbeat Books p 565 ISBN 0 87930 628 9 Kraftwerk at AllMusic a b Emmanuelle Loubet amp Marc Couroux Winter 2000 Laptop Performers Compact Disc Designers and No Beat Techno Artists in Japan Music from Nowhere Computer Music Journal MIT Press 24 4 19 32 doi 10 1162 014892600559498 JSTOR 3681552 S2CID 32835136 a b The Wire Issues 221 226 The Wire p 44 2002 Tanaka Yuji Thomas Andy Walk Douglas YMO solo guide Red Bull Music Academy YMO Rydeen 2 2003 television interview on YouTube a b Hoban Alex May 19 2009 Turning Japanese The Philosophy of Ryuichi Sakamoto The Guardian UK Retrieved July 16 2011 Condry Ian 2006 Hip hop Japan rap and the paths of cultural globalization Duke University Press p 60 ISBN 0 8223 3892 0 Carter Monica June 30 2011 It s Easy When You re Big In Japan Yellow Magic Orchestra at The Hollywood Bowl The Vinyl District Retrieved July 22 2011 a b ロック ミュージシャンのためのニュー サイエンス YMO 松武秀樹が使用のLMD 649とは New Science for Rock Musicians What is the LMD 649 Used by YMO Hideki Matsutake Rockin Ensemble Seminar グラビア Photos ロッキンf Rockin f No 71 立東社 Ritto Sha March 1982 pp 140 141 via Tokyosky February 3 2011 月刊ロッキンf 1982年3月号 LMD 649の記事 1982 Article on the LMD 649 from the March 1982 Issue of Monthly Rockin f Tokyosky Webmaster s Blog a href Template Cite magazine html title Template Cite magazine cite magazine a External link in code class cs1 code via code help Chiemi Manabe 不思議 少女 Discogs Logic System Orient Express Discogs Russ Martin 2008 Sound Synthesis and Sampling Focal Press p 346 ISBN 978 0 240 52105 3 a b c Gordon Reid November 2004 The History Of Roland Part 1 1930 1978 Sound on Sound Retrieved June 19 2011 Chadabe Joel 1997 Electric Sound The Past and Promise of Electronic Music Upper Saddle River New Jersey Prentice Hall p 194 ISBN 978 0 13 303231 4 a b c d e Jason Anderson November 28 2008 Slaves to the rhythm Kanye West is the latest to pay tribute to a classic drum machine CBC News Retrieved May 29 2011 a b Mickey Hess 2007 Icons of hip hop an encyclopedia of the movement music and culture Volume 1 ABC CLIO p 75 ISBN 978 0 313 33903 5 a b Happy 808 Day Wired August 8 2008 Archived from the original on October 24 2011 Retrieved May 31 2011 Peter Wells 2004 A Beginner s Guide to Digital Video AVA Books p 18 ISBN 2 88479 037 3 a b Daniel Robson February 29 2008 YMCK takes chiptune revolution major The Japan Times Retrieved June 11 2011 Tim Barr Kraftwerk from Dusseldorf to the Future With Love page 152 Random House Lester Paul June 20 2008 Yellow Magic Orchestra The Guardian UK Retrieved May 26 2011 Keyboard Volume 19 Issues 7 12 GPI Publications 1993 p 28 Peter Stenshoel May 18 2011 Peter Stenshoel s Album of the Week What Me Worry by Yukihiro Takahashi KPCC Archived from the original on January 19 2012 Retrieved June 4 2011 a b Zeshu Takamura 1997 Roots of street style Graphic sha Publishing p 90 ISBN 4 7661 0895 7 a b The Japanese Connection Japan Life in Tokyo July 1982 Retrieved April 1 2011 a b c Yellow Magic Orchestra whosampled com Retrieved May 28 2011 a b Yellow Magic Orchestra Versus Human League The YMO Versus The Human League Discogs April 21 1993 Retrieved May 28 2011 Geek Monthly Volumes 17 22 Geek Monthly CFQ Media 20 2008 Vladimir Bogdanov Jason Ankeny 2001 All music guide to electronica the definitive guide to electronic music 4th ed Backbeat Books p 564 ISBN 0 87930 628 9 a b Mariah Ripped Off Twice on Same Record Fox News April 4 2002 Archived from the original on September 6 2011 Retrieved May 28 2011 Bogdanov Vladimir 2001 All music guide to electronica the definitive guide to electronic music 4th ed Backbeat Books p 582 ISBN 0 87930 628 9 permanent dead link Reynolds Simon Energy Flash a Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture p 15 Pan Macmillan 1998 ISBN 978 0330350563 Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine Derrick May on the roots of techno at RBMA Bass Camp Japan 2010 Red Bull Music Academy YouTube September 20 2010 Retrieved May 22 2012 Dan Sicko amp Bill Brewster 2010 Techno Rebels 2nd ed Wayne State University Press p 76 ISBN 978 0 8143 3438 6 The Kings of Techno Carl Craig at AllMusic Hi Tech No Crime Yellow Magic Orchestra Reconstructed at AllMusic Retrieved June 19 2011 Lawrence Eddy January 11 2011 Ikonika interview Producer and DJ Ikonika had an incredible 2010 Time Out Retrieved August 5 2011 Bruce Britt December 22 1988 Camouflage Emphasizes That It Is Its Own Band Chicago Tribune Los Angeles Daily News Retrieved May 26 2012 Lai Chi Ming Yellow Magic Orchestra amp Friends The Influence of Japanese Technopop J Pop Go Archived from the original on December 13 2011 Retrieved April 28 2012 Billboard 19 April 1986 Billboard Vol 98 no 16 April 19 1986 p 41 ISSN 0006 2510 Retrieved October 9 2013 William Eric Perkins 1996 Droppin science critical essays on rap music and hip hop culture Temple University Press p 12 ISBN 1 56639 362 0 Father Afrika Bombaataa CMJ New Music Monthly no 76 p 72 December 1999 ISSN 1074 6978 Kurtis Mantronik Interview Hip Hop Storage July 2002 archived from the original on May 24 2011 retrieved May 25 2011 That s My Beat Mantronix at AllMusic Kings of Electro at AllMusic Vine Richard July 9 2011 Ryuichi Sakamoto records Riot In Lagos The Guardian UK Retrieved July 9 2011 David Toop 2000 Rap attack 3 African rap to global hip hop Issue 3 3rd ed Serpent s Tail p 129 ISBN 1 85242 627 6 David Sprague June 29 1996 Nothin Like the Reel Thing Soundtrack amp Film Score News Billboard vol 108 no 26 p 68 ISSN 0006 2510 Ryuichi Sakamoto Special Interview in Japanese Apple Inc March 19 2007 Archived from the original on December 24 2008 Retrieved January 8 2009 New Music in Japanese Who ne jp Archived from the original on June 3 2009 Retrieved June 13 2011 Translation Inoue Yellow Magic Orchestra at AllMusic Retrieved July 17 2011 Falk Ben February 2 2012 Popular Computer s Top 5 Japanese Music Artists The Huffington Post Retrieved April 28 2012 Mangaka Who s Who Akira Toriyama Pafu September 1980 Retrieved March 3 2022 OMY Troubadour Record Review Yellow Magic Orchestra X Multiplies 1980 Progrography February 9 2021 Retrieved February 26 2021 External links EditYMO in Japanese Yellow Magic Orchestra discography at Discogs Yellow Magic Orchestra at IMDb Official Facebook website Official MySpace website Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Yellow Magic Orchestra amp oldid 1161046242, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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