Now, when I feel that the words “The Turntable of Civilization” are beginning to recover their original form once again, I republish this essay.
The Turntable of Civilization was not born as mere political commentary.
It was born from my own time, during which I continued to search for music, hometown, loss, rebirth, and the resonance of the 21st century.
Last.fm, iTunes, Arcade Fire, and Half Light I.
For me, they were entrances through which I touched the essence of the age called the 21st century.
This essay records the fact that The Turntable of Civilization reached Japan and the world, and that it was not mere discourse, but something issued from the depths of sensibility and history.
The Turntable of Civilization, which began in 2010, certainly reached Japan and the world, and gave them a shock.
The musical destination of the 21st century, led by my encounter with Last.fm, iTunes, and Arcade Fire.
2017-07-08
In July 2010, I had no choice but to appear on the Internet in this way.
I am convinced that my “The Turntable of Civilization” reached the core of Japan and the world without doubt.
I am also convinced that it did not merely reach them, but gave them a great shock.
Before I appeared, around 2005, I came to know Last.fm, and I listened to music as if filling the musical blank period during which I had not listened to new music for many years, having lived only in the world of work.
It was the 21st century.
I was searching for the resonance of the 21st century.
Through iTunes, I collected at least 500,000 yen’s worth of music that carried the resonance of the 21st century.
Day after day.
Night after night.
It was also because I thought that, had I possessed PC skills, I myself would have founded Last.fm.
The two young Englishmen who founded it, and who correctly understood the essence of the Internet, were bought out by CBS several years after I began listening, and became millionaires.
I searched for the first time in order to confirm the details of that process.
The name came from “the last FM you ever need.”
In my youth, I was one of the most devoted FM listeners in Japan.
When I was a high school student suffering from family problems in my hometown, I listened to classical music on NHK FM every day, from morning until night.
After leaving my hometown and, in a sense, wandering, when I was living in Senbayashi, Osaka, I listened to Beat on Plaza day after day.
The shock I felt when, through that program, I first came to know Television and Bob Marley in Japan still remains in my heart.
When I thoroughly collected the resonance of the 21st century, I came to know Arcade Fire.
In 2010, when I appeared in this way, I praised them many times.
And when they released The Suburbs, I was convinced that it would become their masterpiece.
The supreme music within it is Half Light I, which I gave to everyone today.
I wrote that, with this song, they had reached the realm of John Lennon.
While there were painful partings and other things, I was absorbed in work, and the Grammy season arrived.
I wrote that Arcade Fire should win.
Today, while translating an article about my hometown into English, when the word “house” appeared, the lyrics of Half Light I came to mind.
I give this song to the people of Yuriage and to people all over the world.