The Blue Hearts

The Blue Hearts were supposed to be punk, though one listen to this debut album makes it clear that while influence by British punk bands such as the Clash is there, the band is much more than just reinterpreted punk. Their sounds have much more in common with the straight-forward rock 'n' roll of the Ramones, The Jam and The Who. The melodies were quite catchy and uncomplicated. On these melodies, the lead singer, Hiroto, sings about teen angst, wars and world peace in the simple words of a street poet. He sings, "The future is in your hands," and tells his listeners that he "doesn't want pittance money to buy fighter jets." These straight-forward, almost naive words reached many young hearts.

To 15-year-old me, the standout track was "Shonen no Uta" (Song of a Kid), which starts with the words, "Papa, Mama, ohayougozaimasu" (Good morning, Mom and Dad) and ends with "..soshite naifu wo motte tatteta" (and I stood with a knife in my hand). "Kimi no Tame," an embarrassingly juvenile love song, played in the background as I made out with a girl for the first time.

The band represented the disenfranchised youth of the time and became a major mainstream attraction without really intending to. I think this is very similar to the way Nirvana swept the American music scene in the 1990s, though the music and messages are very different. Eventually the music industry capitalized on them and broke the spell, but it was the kids on the fringe of the two societies that these bands affected most profoundly.

The band released a total of eight albums in its eight-year history (many of them are unavailable here, unfortunately, though a few "best of" packages can be found), and today, the main members of the band are active in another band called the High-Lows.