I’ve had a growing fascination with older Japanese music over the last couple years. Up until recently, I had only listened to acts like Zard. Even then, I only heard their newer contributions.

I came across a video from Rebecca, whose YouTube description was “wacky 80s Japanese video.” As a fan of Japanese music since 2001, I highly doubted that anything would put a twitch in my eye.

It wasn’t the strangest music I’ve ever encountered, but it opened a door. I found out about a website called Idollica that documents a large number of Silver Age Jpop. As I perused the site, I kept thinking to myself: “I had no idea these bands existed!”

The website explained that what we know as “Jpop” didn’t really exist until the mid-60s. Before then, it was mostly Enka, traditional songs, and orchestra.

I scoured YouTube for some of the more interesting bands like Pink Lady, Candies, and Wink. When I saw Wink’s cover of The Cure’s Boys Don’t Cry, I was hooked.