“Ikaten” and the Band Boom Theory: From ”K-ON! to The Human Chairs

Heisei Meibutsu TV: Yuji Miyake's Ikasu Band Tengoku” aired from 1989 to 1990 and was an amateur band contest program called ”Ikaten. The bands that appeared on the program ranged from the oddball to the avant-garde, but as a result, the program hooked up a number of hidden talents, such as “Tama,” which participated in the NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen (Red and White Singing Contest). It could be said that the frenzy was a festive atmosphere in which impulse and passion were the gasoline that drove the rush. Young people who wanted to do something but did not know what to do, and who were so depressed, watched “Ikaten” and started to play in bands.

Thus began the counterattack of the nekkid boys and girls who stayed at home and watched the late-night program “Ikaten” (to use the terminology of the time). From passive to active, or rather, action. Later, “K-ON! and “Bocchi Za Rokku! and “Bocchi Za Rokku! The band boom was not a boom in listening to bands. It was a boom in “playing in a band.

The “Ikaten to Band Boom Theory (tentative)” (DU BOOKS) is scheduled to be published in February 2025, with substantial additions to this series of articles.