#JukeboxFridayNight is a musical hashtag which each week offers a prompt from someone in New Zealand or Australia. Here are my entries:

#PartyTime

• Los Del Rio - “Macarena (Bayside Boys Remix)”

#DeathsAndDoorways

• Demi Lovato - “DEAD FRIENDS”

#AStoryTold

• Mitski - “Square”

#LuckGoodOrBad

• AOA - “Good Luck”
  • #KPop Version
  • #JPop Version

#KeepItInTheFamily

• Rina Sawayama - “Chosen Family”

#RainOrShine

• Ladies’ Code - “The Rain” / 레이디스 코드 - “더 레인”

#ShowOfHands

• Trevor Horn, Simple Minds and The Sarm Orchestra - “Brothers in Arms”

#Discovery

• Brian David Gilbert - “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)”

#GettingClean

• Vanessa Carlton - “Rinse”

#GettingDirty

• Wynter Gordon - “Dirty Talk”

#SheMakesMusic

• Susanne Sundfør - “Delirious”

#FiftyYearsOfHipHop

• Ms. Dynamite - “Put Him Out”
  • I don’t listen to hip-hop regularly, but I remember liking this.

#SongsThatGetStuckInYourHead

• Tones and I, BIA and Diarra Sylla - “Bring It On”
  • I’ve been watching a lot of the Women’s World Cup recently, and before every match, they play a song to get the crowd going, and it’s been stuck in my head ever since I first heard it!

#TruthTellars

• Demi Lovato - “29”
  • Demi reflects on a relationship they had at seventeen with a twenty-nine year old, and how inappropriate such relationships are.

#GamesWePlay

• Mika Nakashima / 中島 美嘉 - “GAME”
  • Going with a sultry and jazzy J-Pop favourite of mine, which references levels, stages, chances of winning, and losing, in metaphors about romance.

#SongsOfTheCosmos

• Valerie June - “Astral Plane”
  • I loved it the moment I heard it, and I always feel like I’m out there in the cosmos whenever it’s played.

#OutOfControl

• PVRIS - “Gimme a Minute”
  • It’s always had that feeling to me of someone desperately trying to hold on before conceding “I think I’m losing my mind”, with everything then just spiraling out of control.

#SchoolsOut

• HALCALI - “Electric Sensei” / “エレクトリック先生”
  • In 2003, J-Pop’s HALCALI sung and rapped about a school day in this fun and bouncy tune!

#MidwinterTunes

• BoA: “Meri Kuri” / “Merry-Chri” - “メリクリ” / “메리크리”
  • I struggled to find winter songs that weren’t actually about Christmas, but, despite its title, I remembered one after re-reading through the lyrics! One of the most wintery tracks I know, and released in Japanese and Korean!

#GenreBending / #GenreBender / #GenreBenders

• Girls’ Generation / 소녀시대 - “I GOT A BOY”
  • I’m calling dibs on the K-Pop classic that combines multiple genres in its 4:30 runtime!

#ChangeMakers

• Ayumi Hamasaki / 浜崎あゆみ - “M”
  • Found this a bit tough, but in the end decided to go with J-Pop star Ayumi Hamasaki, who was very influential in the 2000s shaping the sound and style of Japanese pop culture, praised for her lyricism and admired for her trendsetting fashion choices. With eighteen albums, there were a lot of songs I could choose for the jukebox! But, I decided to go with “M” as it marked a change within her own career as she had more creative control over her music and the first song she composed.

Bi, Tri, Extra-Lingual Songs

• Rie Fu / リエ フゥ - “Life is Like a Boat”
  • I’ll put forward the often bilingual discography of J-Pop musical artist Rie Fu, and select a favourite song of mine.

#RockAndRollDivas

• Shiina Ringo - “Crime and Punishment” / 椎名 林檎 - “罪と罰”
  • Has any one posted the Japanese rock legend that is Shiina Ringo yet? Easily one of the best J-Rock musicians of all time. Too many great songs, and whole albums, to choose from, but I just love the structure and emotion of this.