2 languages
Japan
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Japan was an English new wave band, formed in 1974 in Catford in south London. The brothers David Sylvian, vocals and guitar, and Steve Jansen, drums, met bassist Mick Karn at the same school, Catford Boys. At first they played two chords and used the music mainly to escape their surroundings. The following year schoolfriend Richard Barbieri joined on keyboards, and later the guitarist Rob Dean. The name Japan was meant to be temporary, but it stuck. After signing the record contract, Sylvian, Jansen and Karn adopted stage names.
Music and breakthrough
In March 1978 the first single appeared, a version of Don't Rain on My Parade, and a month later the debut album Adolescent Sex. The campaign around their androgynous glam rock image attracted little interest in England, but it did catch on in Japan. The first albums were out of step in a time of punk and new wave and did not reach the charts. Influences were Lou Reed, T. Rex, New York Dolls, Roxy Music and David Bowie. In 1979 the band came to the country of Japan for the first time and filled the Budokan, with eleven thousand seats, three days in a row.
Influence
Later the group developed its own sound and found success in England, with nine hits in the top forty, including the single Ghosts in 1982. The live album Oil on Canvas reached the British top five in 1983. Six albums went gold. The band broke up in December 1982, just as it was also becoming successful in other countries. Japan showed that a band with electronic sounds and cool vocals could go on to influence a great deal of British pop music.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 1978Adolescent Sex
- 1978Obscure Alternatives
- 1979Quiet Life
- 1980Gentlemen Take Polaroids
- 1981Tin Drum