Tokyo-Based AOI Pro Creates 'Tokyo Culture Story'
Tokyo Culture Story,' is the world's first music video to traverse 40 years of Tokyo fashion and music culture, presented by fashion retailer, Beams.
In celebration of its 40th anniversary, Tokyo’s fashion concept store Beams presents "Tokyo Culture Story," a chronological music video that traverses 40 years of Tokyo fashion and music from 1976 to 2016. As a pioneer of the fashion concept stores in Tokyo, Beams has always been a part of Tokyo’s youth culture, spearheading new trends. The music video counts over 3 million views on YouTube in a week after its launch and is still growing.
The music video created by AOI Pro, showcases 82 iconic Tokyo Fashion trends such as Heavy Duty, Takenoko Zoku, Shibu-Caji and Norm Core from the past 40 years. Japanese stylists worked hard to bring back over 350 legendary brands and rare fashion pieces popularized in each era.
The song featured in the video, "Konya wa Boogie Back (smooth rap)," was a big hit in Japan originally released in 1994 as a collaboration between Kenji Ozawa and Schadaraparr, coloring the Tokyo street scene during the '90s. 27 musicians represent each era and 15 distinct genres ranging from city pop to acid jazz in medley format. These artists include: Chisato Moritaka, the third generation vocalist Maki Nomiya from Pizzicato Five and who’s song "The Night Is Still Young" was used in the closing ceremony of the Rio Paralympics, the vocaloid Hatsune Miku who gained enormous popularity domestically and globally becoming a Japanese subculture, and Japanese idol group Team Syachihoko.
1,200 people took part in the production of the film, which took more than 300 hours, covering Harajuku, Shibuya and Omotesando, which form the heart of where Tokyo culture is born.