The time for rock and pop

The other day, I saw a Japanese rock band Tulip on TV in their concert. It was going to be their last live performance.

In other news, I learned that the Summer Festival in September will be the last public performance of another famous Japanese rock band, The Southern All Stars.

It means they are all getting old, but I was deeply impressed to notice that they have eventually reached that age without any setbacks.

Instead of dwelling on their career, let's talk about my childhood when they had not debuted.

When I entered middle school, my parents bought me a radio, and I began to listen to folk and rock music on the radio. Then, I got a guitar to sing and play like my favorite musicians such as Takuro Yoshida.

That was how my music life started. It was the year The Beatles broke up. It’s been a long time.

Back then in Japan, there was almost a complete division between the music listened to by young people and adults.

We were really into folk and rock music (later known as J-Pop), completely different from traditional Japanese popular song genres such as Kayo-kyoku and Enka which adults were fond of.

On the other hand, adults thought that classical music was the most sophisticated, whether they liked it or not, and folk and rock music was one rank lower.

Some adults labeled the music we liked as the music for the delinquents and tried to prevent us from playing that kind of music.

So young people often made their own songs and protested against their parents and teachers in those songs.

In those times, you could find confrontations between the young and old generation everywhere, other than in music. Those were the days when the youth and the adults were always at odds with each other at every turn.

I remember when my childhood friend Shun and I talked to each other in middle school. He said, “When John Lennon and Mick Jagger hit 60, do you think they will still be rocking out?”, and I answered, “I sincerely hope so”.

Back then every rocker was so young. There were neither old rockers nor old audiences around us.

Years later John Lennon was murdered at 40, but fortunately, Mick Jagger is still going strong though he has already turned 80.

After that, Shun became more and more absorbed in music, and after graduating from college, he became a jazz guitarist, though he couldn't make a living with that job. But I guess that was one of his rebellions against adults.

Then all of a sudden, he died of illness at the age of 41.

I had lent him a copy of Yes’s “Close to the Edge” record album, but I could no longer get it back.

Some people had to give up their careers as musicians or accidentally died on their way to big success like Shun.

But I am now happy that many musicians have fought their way, survived successfully, and continue to play their music at any age like Tulip and The Southern All Stars.

Also in the amateur world, many people of my age are now in bands.

Many of them had once given up their musical activities when they started working, but after a break in their careers or retirement, they returned and are playing gigs for the first time in decades.

It is disappointing as a fan to see Takuro Yoshida retire from the scene, or Tulip and The Southern All Stars stop performing live, but those are in happy retirement.

They were not forced to abandon the project for any reason. They survived and finally, an era has come in which adults and young people can listen to and enjoy the same music without disconnection or mutual condemnation.

It is an age in which we can pursue music seamlessly without having to give up in exchange for becoming adults.

It is a good time to be alive.