25+ years of grease
I have been seeing the same bunch of Yoyogi Park greasers doing their greasy thing in Harajuku, Tokyo for 25+ years now. This is the best video (and with oddly matching music of “Peter Bjorn and John”) of these rockabillies I have seen.
Link thanks to the always interesting GaijinGuide.blogspot.com.
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August 14th, 2009 at 2:25 am
very cool…i wanna that haircut :D
btw, which one are you?
August 14th, 2009 at 8:06 am
I’m the clean-head in the group.
(These guys really have been doing the same-old same old thing every Sunday since their late teens and they’re pushing 50 now. It has only been in the past 5 years that girls have been allowed to join them dancing. They don’t seem to have any regular job, wives, or life outside of Sunday.)
August 15th, 2009 at 8:16 am
I’m not sure for the last part Tarochan… Just that when they put back their Salary Men uniform before heading home you can’t recognize them anymore…
And while we are at old trends getting too old, don’t know for your hood, but in mine there is not a single bozozoku without grey hair… It’s kinda sorta depressing… Soon they will have to start putting the Old Driver orange raindrop on their bikes…
August 15th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
What I find quite remarkable about the video is that the Yoyogi/Harajuku rockabillies actually let the music video crew follow them back to their crappy ‘1-DK’* to film the greaser creating his rather vain hairdo.
The main part of these biker guys schtick is that they snarl at their their audience of Japanese and tourists (as if they don’t live for the attention).
*1-DK is Japanese for a one room apartment with a separate (but microscopic) combination kitchen and dining room.
August 15th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Saaaaa, so true.
However it’s heartening for an old fart like me to see that those rockabillies have nubile groupies.
August 16th, 2009 at 5:51 am
I also think that, “It doesn’t look like a little age and receding hairlines is going to stop them from doing another 25 years.”
June 23rd, 2011 at 10:12 am
Hi ! I am doing a project for my subcultures class based on Japanese Rockabilly culture. I am looking for someone who can give me some real insight on what goes on in a Rockabillies life!
June 23rd, 2011 at 11:51 am
I have talked to the famous Harajuku rockabillies a few times over the past 25 years—Yes, those same rockabilly guys, who call themselves the Black Shadow zoku (gang), have been doing their dorky dance since the early 1980s.
Key points to remember:
1) Having a half dozen high hairdos doesn’t make them a “subculture.” The Harajuku rockabillies should NOT be thought as a subculture since they consist of only one group, the Black Shadow zoku. The Black Shadow are a one-of-kind club of fewer 20 guys (and an equal number of ever-changing, teenage groupies who are disposable and never last more than a couple of years) without any other similar groups/zoku/gangs/clubs copying them.
2) Neo-Rockabilly has not been popular in Japan since the early 80s and even then rockabilly was only a tiny trend. The first wave of Japanese rockabilly hit in 1957 and rockabilly lasted about as long as it did in the States (until 1963 when the Beatles became popular).
3) The Black Shadow are more a motorcycle gang with a rockabilly hobby. Their primary sources of income include small payments from organized crime Yakuza for “policing” the street where they dance (extortion), the sale of methamphetamine (which they are also users of), and being “himo” —abusively extracting money from their temporary girlfriends.
Refer to the following sources: