Tokyo Rockabilly Club
A dying breed of big fifties revivalists the Tokyo Rockabilly Club have attained cult icon notoriety for their highly distinctive combination of Elvis hair, yakuza tattoos and predisposition to publicly jive to 50s rock ’n’ roll. Their classic greaser look is inspired by the Japanese street culture, known as “rokabiri-zoku” (the rockabilly tribe), that is modeled on the American rock ‘n’ roll movement of the mid-1950s.
Image source: Michael John Grist
These rebels without a cause can be found in Harajuku’s Yoyogi Park on a Sunday decked out in retro threads, donning psychobilly pompadours and towering quiffs, and gyrating to a boombox blasting rockabilly tunes of yesteryear as if Elvis had never left the building.
Image source: Lars Borges
The rockabilly style first emerged in Japan in 1958 when thousands of teenagers, heavily influenced by the new “rockabilly” music that had recently swept the U.S., fashioned a so-called “rokabiri-bumu” (rockabilly boom), the first popular culture movement of post-Occupation Japan.
Image source: Flickr
The influence of this musical genre and its fanatical following proved short-lived with the style waning in the 1960s, but during the late 1970s and early 1980s, rockabilly enjoyed a major revival of popularity reappearing on the streets of Harajuku.
Image source: Flickr
Harajuku had become a mecca for youth and youth fashion and saw groups of teenagers, such as the “takenoko-zoku” (bamboo shoot tribe), convened on the streets dressed in garish clothes and dancing to portable music. Within this landscape fifties nostalgia was resurrected and the rock ‘n’ roller relics of a bygone era, precursors to the new wave urban tribes – the gothic lolita and cosplayers – have been entertaining onlookers in Yoyogi Park ever since.
Image source: Grizzly Bear Modern
The official music video for “Nothing To Worry About” by Swedish indie rock band Peter Bjorn and John from their album Living Thing features the Tokyo Rockabilly Club in Yoyogi Park.
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Very Cool!!
The O.G.’s holding shit down!!
You got me humming an Ice-T old school track now ♪ O.G. Original Gangster ♪
A blast from the past!
They actually look pretty damn cool!
I don’t know if you checked the Peter Bjorn and John vid at the bottom of the post featuring these fellas but at the 0.11 second mark what is the purple dildo doing in the bottom right hand corner?
There’s a pent-up anger around these guys. They have a tendency to drunken belligerence towards passers-by in Yoyogi. I tend to give them a wider berth than I usually do anyone else in public in Japan.
Maybe the attitude of a rebel expressing individuality is magnified in a highly conformist, totalitarian society.
It is a little amusing however that if their intention is to demonstrate their rebellion against a highly conformist society that they do it in such a conformist way i.e. same hair, same clothes, same look…
Yup. Welcome to Japan.
Rock on! Very cool story.
By the way, in my experience, most rebels still want to identify themselves as part of a group. Dressing like this enables them to do that. I’m guessing the only “real” rebel is a loner that you’ll rarely see.
I say we find him and conform him. But which is he… Wait, could I be the rebel? Must .. conform….
Thanks for dropping by Darren. I hope that Paris is treating you well. I am envious! I would love to be in Europe right now.
Thanks for the clarification on rebels. What you say makes sense. It would be difficult to form a successful rebellion as an individual. I’m sure that one man storming the Bastille would have yielded a different outcome to the French Revolution.
I was looking at it from the perspective that a rebel is an individual who resists authority or control; but what the Tokyo Rockabilly’s are probably rebelling against is the brand of society that we live in, in favour of the way of life of a greaser or ロカビリー (rockabilly).
Hey reesan…sorry…I wasn’t trying to correct/clarify anything! I was agreeing and only adding a thought…but poorly worded I guess!
I’ve been looking at how I can get back over to Japan again but if you can get to Barcelona, I’ve got space for you. Come on over!
Greaser look in Japan! I love it! I want to be there with these guys!
Nice ! ^_^
I also made some post about them..
check my video http://www.lifeyou.tv/rockabilly-club-in-yoyogi-park-dance-session/
Hey. I wrote a book called ‘Rockabilly Haiku & Swingin’ Tails’
I am looking to have it translated into Japanese and sold as an E-Book.
I will be in Tokyo this Saturday, Oct. 23, 2011 and would love to meet Japanese cats and dolls.
Kepp it rockin.
Albert Difilippantonio
albert@rockabilly-haiku.com
Wow, these guys have always been lame. I’ve been in Tokyo and going to RocknRoll shows for 10 years and have seen countless rockabilly and psychobilly shows and have never seen any of these dudes there. Maybe some go, but I don’t see it. They do your family-friendly, sunday in the park, looking like caricatures of Vince Taylor or Elvis in 68′ vaudeville thing dancing to cute retro 50s music like Sha NA Na. It’s not that diffrent from teenagers practicing their hip-hop routines in sync in front of closed department stores at night except what the kids do is actually more dangerous. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a rockabilly tune playing where they are. Really. Not all 50s-sounding music is rockabilly. The Twist (song) is not rockabilly.
Don’t get me wrong, I think ppl getting out and having a good time in public (never saw them mess with anyone who didn’t deserve it btw) is great and I’m not knocking that at all. More music, more dancing and more grease I say!. I think what they do is pretty unique to Japan but it really isn’t all that interesting or, at least not as interesting as those injecting new energy into the sound instead of trying to be Marlon Brando in the Wild One.
Real rock and roll lives in Tokyo in dingy basement bars in Shinjuku, Koenji, Hatagaya… with drunks, fiends, maniacs, lecherous goons and those who aren;t satisfied with dancing to a tape of a cover of a great tune that is 60 years old and not in the entrance of Yoyogi park with the hacky-sackers and frisbee chuckers.
It’s too bad that the actual rockabilly in Tokyo goes unnoticed while everyone and their avatar who seem to be experts on the matter claim these perfectly uniformed steppers to be rockabillies or even psychobillies by some amazing feat of imagination.
-Not knockin, just rockin’
Great background information. I’ve seen them often and never researched why or when they began their movement.
wished i lived somewhere where people were into this! I am on meetup and DFW has no rockabilly meetups
I have 50′s clothes and stuff that I can’t use.
I am on 20s and 30s and a host this year. I am also a host for the Bucket List.
I find it fascinating and sexy all at the same time xD