Togawa Jun is a Japanese singer and musician born in 1961. She began her career in the early 1980s as a rather unique idol singer (or possibly a parody of an idol singer) with the single "Virgin Blues". It was soon apparent that her eccentric personality, surreal or disturbing lyrics and multiple wildly different yet highly accomplished singing voices set her apart from the usual bland, cute pop singers so popular in Japan. Her mash-up of "lolita" voice, straight singing, screaming, and operatics, married to traditional Japanese melodies, militaristic marching themes, and techno-pop continue to endear her to Japanese "maniac" fans, such as devotees of horror or erotic manga, particularly young women. Influential alternative musician and producer Jim O'Rourke known for his work with Sonic Youth amongst others, picked a Togawa Jun album "Goodbye 20th Century" as one of his "best albums of the year" in an interview in 2001. 1961 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... // Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 60s and 70s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ... The term idol (derived from Greek eid-, videre, to see. ... In contemporary usage, parody is a form of satire that imitates another work of art in order to ridicule it. ... Rurouni Kenshin manga, volume 1 (English version) Manga (漫画) is the Japanese word for comics; outside of Japan, it usually refers specifically to Japanese comics. ... Jim ORourke - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... L to R: Steve Shelley, Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo, Jim ORourke Sonic Youth are an experimental rock group formed in New York City in 1981. ...

Although her deeply un-commercial attitude kept her away from major "pop" success, she survived as an influential and respected underground music figure both solo and as the lead singer of Guernica and Yapoos, and she recently released a new CD with her current project "Jun Togawa Band" featuring elements of noise rock, disco, techno-pop, opera and various other genres, to favourable reviews from many underground music fans in Japan. Presumably named after the famous painting Guernica by Pablo Picasso, this Japanese trio from the 1980s specialized in avant-garde music with a retro-1920s and 30s feel. ... CD may stand for: Compact Disc Canadian Forces Decoration Cash Dispenser (at least used in Japan) CD LPMud Driver Centrum-Demokraterne (Centre Democrats of Denmark) Certificate of Deposit České Dráhy (Czech Railways) Chad (NATO country code) Chalmers Datorförening (computer club of the Chalmers University of Technology) a 1960s... Noise rock is a musical genre that developed in the 1980s as an experimental outgrowth of punk rock. ... Disco is an up-tempo style of dance music (generally between 110 and 136 beats per minute) that originated in the early 1970s, mainly from funk and soul music, popular with audiences in larger cities all over the world, and derives its name from the French word discothèque (meaning... The foyer of Charles Garniers Opéra, Paris, opened 1875 Opera is an art form consisting of a dramatic stage performance set to music. ...