Yoko Kanno's Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack

Rose Bridges

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781501325854
• eBook ISBN:
  9781501325878
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Cowboy Bebop is one of the most beloved anime series of all time, and if you ask its fans why, you can expect to hear about its music. Composer Yoko Kanno created an eclectic blend of jazz, rock, lullabies, folk and funk (to list just a few) for Cowboy Bebop's many moods and environments. Cowboy Bebop's blend of science fiction, westerns and gangster films promised to be "the work which becomes a new genre itself," and only Kanno's score could deliver.

In this volume of 33 1/3 Japan, musicologist Rose Bridges helps listeners make sense of the music of Cowboy Bebop. The book places it within the context of Bebop's influences and Kanno's larger body of work. It analyzes how the music tells Spike, Faye, Jet and the rest of the crew's stories. Cowboy Bebop and its music are like nothing else, and they deserve a guide to match.

33 1/3 Global, a series related to but independent from 33 1/3, takes the format of the original series of short, music-basedbooks and brings the focus to music throughout the world. With initial volumes focusing on Japanese and Brazilian music, the series will also include volumes on the popular music of Australia/Oceania, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and more.

33 1/3 Global

33 1/3 Global, a series related to but independent from 33 1/3, takes the format of the original series of short, music-based books and brings the focus to music throughout the world. With initial volumes focusing on Japanese and Brazilian music, the series will also include volumes on the popular music of Australia/Oceania, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and more.

33 1/3 Japan

Series Editor: Noriko Manabe

Series Board: Marië Abe, Michael Bourdaghs, Shelley Brunt, Kevin Fellezs, Akitsugu Kawamoto, Yoshitaka Mōri, Dexter Thomas, Christine Yano

Spanning a range of artists and genres—from the 1960s rock of Happy End to technopop band Yellow Magic Orchestra, the Shibuya-kei of Cornelius, classic anime series Cowboy Bebop, J-Pop/EDM hybrid Perfume, and vocaloid star Hatsune Miku—33 1/3 Japan is a series devoted to in-depth examination of Japanese music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Published Titles:

Supercell’s Supercell by Keisuke Yamada

Forthcoming titles:

Perfume’s Game by Patrick St. Michel

33 1/3 Brazil

Series Editor: Jason Stanyek

Covering the genres of samba, tropicália, rock, hip hop, forró, bossa nova, heavy metal, and funk, among others, 33 1/3 Brazil is a series devoted to in-depth examination of the most important Brazilian albums of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Published Titles:

Caetano Veloso’s A Foreign Sound by Barbara Browning

Forthcoming titles:

Tim Maia’s Tim Maia Racional Vols. 1 & 2 by Allen Thayer

João Gilberto and Stan Getz’s Getz/Gilberto by Brian McCann

Yōko Kanno’s
Cowboy Bebop
Soundtrack

Rose Bridges

Noriko Manabe, Series Editor

Bloomsbury Academic

An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Inc.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Note on Japanese Names and English Dubs

Introduction: 3, 2, 1 … Let’s Jam!

1“The Work Which Becomes a New Genre Itself”: Shinichirō Watanabe’s Influences and Legacy

2Mish-Mash Blues: Analyzing Yōko Kanno’s Style

3“Black Dog” Serenade: Bebop, Classic Rock, and Jazz Standards

4“Jupiter Jazz”: Scoring the World of Bebop

5See You, Space Cowboy: Music and Genre Parody in “Cowboy Funk” and “Mushroom Samba”

6Jamming with Edward (and Jet and Faye): Scoring Bebop’s Characters

7“Ballad of Fallen Angels”: Spike Spiegel’s Musical Journey

Conclusion: You’re Gonna Carry That Weight

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgments

I want to thank everyone who played a role in helping make this book possible. This includes my editor, Noriko Manabe, who also graciously helped me procure interviews and conducted them on my behalf in Japan; my advisors at the University of Texas, including Hannah Lewis, James Buhler, and Charles Carson; and Josh Goring of Strawberry Hill Music, for his assistance in setting up interviews with North American musicians from the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack.

I also want to thank everyone who agreed to interviews with me for this book: Emily Bindiger, Steve Blum, Steve Conte, Scott Matthew, Mary McGlynn, Raj Ramayya, and last, but not least, Yōko Kanno and Shinichirō Watanabe. This book would not be possible without your insights and eagerness to help.

I want to thank my father, Dan Bridges, for giving me so much of the early musical education in classic rock-and-roll that made me the musicologist I am today. I want to thank the teacher, Carol Rexer, who first nurtured in me the dream of writing a book one day, a dream I have finally achieved. Last, but not least, I want to thank my mother and stepfather, Karen and Randy Cullen, for their supportiveness as I’ve dedicated the past two years of my life to this book. I also thank my mother for passing on her love of movies to me, which has guided my st...

Table of contents

• 33 1/3 Global
• Title
• Contents 
• Acknowledgments
• Note on Japanese Names and English Dubs
• Introduction: 3, 2, 1 … Let’s Jam!
• 1 “The Work Which Becomes a New Genre Itself”: Shinichirō Watanabe’s Influences and Legacy
• 2 Mish-Mash Blues: Analyzing Yōko Kanno’s Style
• 3 “Black Dog” Serenade: Bebop, Classic Rock, and Jazz Standards
• 4 “Jupiter Jazz”: Scoring the World of Bebop
• 5 See You, Space Cowboy: Music and Genre Parody in “Cowboy Funk” and “Mushroom Samba”
• 6 Jamming with Edward (and Jet and Faye): Scoring Bebop’s Characters
• 7 “Ballad of Fallen Angels”: Spike Spiegel’s Musical Journey
• Conclusion: You’re Gonna Carry That Weight
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright