by Frank L. Parker

Created on: July 25, 2009

In ancient times, during the "Kamakura" period from 1185 to 1333, powerful families and shogun warriors fought for absolute rule of Japan. 652 years later in 1985, a record album called "Kamakura" released by Kuwata Keisuke and his mega-popular band, the Southern All Stars, signaled the height of another feudal period in Japanese history: The J-Pop wars. The shogun warriors of the music industry fought for absolute rule of Japan's prosperous music market, and were heavily armed with male "bad-boy" bands, pretty female J-Pop idols, and the Japanese media.

Japanese pop music of the 1980s was fueled by the numerous hits made by all-male bands like Checkers, the beautiful and melodic ballads of Kobayashi Akiko, and the girl-next store image of J-pop idol, Matsuda Seiko. The 1980s are the renaissance period of J-Pop. Music videos were new and exciting, music styles were diverse, and phone-cards, magazines and posters featuring pictures of popular artists were available at every music store, where record albums and tape cassettes were flying off the shelves at 2800 (about $20) a pop.

Another weapon in the music industry arsenal? Karaoke, which was already huge in Japan in the 1980s. Newly released J-Pop songs dominated karaoke menus in bars from southern Okinawa all the way to the northernmost tip of Hokkaido. If, for example, Kobayashi Akiko's hit song "Koi Ni Ochite (Fall In Love)" could be heard karaoke-style every night, it was a winner. Karaoke was the gauge for people to know what was hot and what was not.

The list of J-Pop artists and idols is a long one and naming them all would be impossible, but there are some whose music and names survived not only the J-Pop wars of the 1980s, but still have a place in the hearts of Japanese music lovers into the 21st century.

Kuwata Keisuke. As the creative force behind his bands, Southern All Stars, and The Kuwata Band, and as a solo artist, Kuwata Keisuke is a musical genius. Wonderful Japanese lyrics often written with a hint of amusingly placed English words, Kuwata Keisuke is the undisputed king of 80s J-Pop. Songs like "Kanashii Kimochi (Just A Man In Love)," "Skipped Beat," "Melody," and "Ban Ban Ban," which was the number one song in Japan for 1986, made Kuwata a huge celebrity. "Skipped Beat" was a particularly interesting song in karaoke bars because the words "skipped beat" sound dangerously close to the Japanese word "sukebe," meaning pervert or horny in English. Many a karaoke singer would

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