Shinmachi

About

“Shinmachi” (Japanese: 新町) is a ballad song by Japanese singer & songwriter called Hiroyā the last poet in Aomori (青森最後の詩人ひろやー, Aomori Saigo no Shijin Hiroyā). In the autumn of 2010, he suddenly got much of a cult following among the Japanese internet users due to the song’s ridiculous but too honest lyrics.

Origin

This song was written by the independent artist in 2008 and it was included to his music album “Tsugaru Mandara” (津軽曼荼羅) released in November of thay year. Its title “Shinmachi” refers to a town name known as the bustling area in Aomori City, Aomori Prefecture^[1] which is on edge of north in Honshu island and has a severe winter and slumping economy.

And, this song is fully consisting of Hiroyā’s impassioned plea for “Sex”.

Spread

The original YouTube video was uploaded on January 2009 (shown above). It finally became to catch an attention when it was reprinted to Nico Nico Douga (NND) with the title “I found an awesome song” on September 29th 2009.^[2], and it had earned about 700,000 page views in its first month.

Some of NND users inspired by his quite surreal performance, singing ridiculous lyrics in painfully sad voice and shouting “SEX!” 42 times in one song, had created dozens of parodies, remixes and mashups featuring his passionate singing.^[3] This song soon became to be dubbed “Orion Chart No.1 Song” among them, which was a pun for ORICON^[4], a Japanese famous pop music chart.

Creator’s Responce

Hiroyā posted a blog entry titled “Orion chart No.1” on October 3rd, 2010, 4 days later the video uploading, in which he seemed to receive the 2 year-old song’s sudden popularity favourably.^[5] Moreover, a nationwide album release tour playing in 5 cities was suddenly announced in the middle of that month despite of the album was released in 2 years ago.^[6]

On December 1st, a Japanese gossip newspaper catching his wierd popularity on the web published an interview with him and a report of his last performance in the tour at Shimokitazawa, Tokyo on November 18th, where he shouted “SEX!” 171 times at that night.^[7] In the interview, he also answered the reason why he made that song, and it was “My thought went around the universe.”

Notable Examples

【ニコニコ動画】【セックス】「すごい歌見つけたｗｗ」と「ローリンガール」混ぜてみた【ニコニコ動画】【新町】すごい歌見つけたｗｗｗからセクロスできるようにしてみたREMIX
Left: Mashup with Vocaloid Song “Rolling Girl” | Right: Remixed by Camellia
【ニコニコ動画】すごい歌をJ-HIPHOPにしてみた。【ニコニコ動画】【新町】すごい歌見つけたからHandzUPにした【Remix】
Left: Hiphop Mix | Right: Handzup Mix

Search Interest

External References

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