Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) is a pioneering Japanese electronic music group that emerged in the late 1970s. One of their most popular tracks is titled "Firecracker." Released in 1978, "Firecracker" is a dynamic and energetic song that showcases YMO's innovative sound and experimental approach to music. The track features a captivating fusion of electronic and traditional instruments, blending futuristic synth tones with traditional Japanese melodies. YMO drew inspiration from a variety of musical genres, including pop, funk, and even classical music. With "Firecracker," they incorporated elements of traditional Japanese music, such as the use of taiko drums and pentatonic scales, to create a unique and unforgettable sound.

Nuclear Fusion | “Firecracker” by Yellow Magic Orchestra

Last Tuesday, legendary composer and soundsmith Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away at the age of 71. While Sakamoto is known in his own right through his prolific work as a soloist, some of his most enduring works come as a result of his membership in seminal electro-pop group Yellow Magic Orchestra. This is for good reason.

Before the scores he wrote for Brian De Palma, Bernardo Bertolucci and Pedro Almodovar , before countless underrated reinventions of new wave , trip-hop and funk , before the avant-garde segues into minimalism and ambient music , before the original compositions for cellphones and Olympic ceremonies , before a career of electro-pop so spidery and precise that it couldn’t be confused for anyone else’s handiwork, there is “ Firecracker ”: a singular, perfect pop song. Yet one of the most fascinating histories of this song is one of the most elusive: It’s actually a cover!

Released in 1959, American composer Martin Denny’s “ Firecracker ” is a song so chintzy and orientalist that hearing it today conjures horrific flashbacks to Mickey Rooney’s yellowface visage in Breakfast At Tiffany’s two years later. Denny was a godfather of “exotica,” a subgenre of lounge and pop music fueled by mid-century America’s fetishization of the South Pacific, East Asia and elsewhere. Music scholar Shuhei Hosokawa classified it as “a fantasy of travel” designed to relax listeners as they drifted off into an imagined paradise.

The plucky percussion and swooning bass strings of the original “Firecracker” feel like the soundtrack to an Elvis Goes to Japan movie that was never released, or perhaps an ill-advised bachelor party hosted by Justin Trudeau. As a random Rate Your Music user writes in a comment box for Denny’s Quiet Village , “if you [didn’t] yet have colour tv i can see this being hot stuff.”

Yellow Magic Orchestra’s flip of Denny’s song into an instant classic is one of electronic music’s great miracles. Sakamoto notably took humor at the song’s absurdly fake, stereotypical image and decided to do it one better by giving it even more gloss. Assisted by bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, “Firecracker” crackles to life by mixing live drums, synthetic chirps and funky keys into an unstoppable groove. The chord progression from Denny’s original is unmistakable once you’ve heard it, but the new version adds spooky bridges, luxurious piano solos and a barrage of vintage synth work to make it a creature unto its own.

While “Firecracker” is very much a record of its time, its influence is profound. The song found an audience everywhere from Soul Train to the pop charts, cracking Top 20 in the UK , although merely cracking the Top 100 in the US. Synth-pop acts from Duran Duran to Gary Numan have claimed YMO as an influence, and you can hear the “Firecracker” wiggle in everything from Pet Shop Boys to Madonna .

Both Michael Jackson and Eric Clapton would go on to cover the band’s 1979 classic “ Behind The Mask .” This legacy makes Yellow Magic Orchestra’s contributions just as relevant to electronic music’s early development as Kraftwerk and Giorgio Moroder’s contributions around the same time. Much like how Filipino fast-food chain Jollibee recently opened its first location in Spain, Denny’s imperial aspirations bear a delicious irony now that YMO’s “Firecracker” has endured far beyond his creation.

Pop history is frequently defined by moments of artistic appropriation, sometimes even vandalism. A sample of a Rolling Stones rearrangement has the power to turn a Britpop song into a classic three decades later. Countless disco and pop classics have been flipped into even better rap songs . At its worst, this zone of exchange can produce sonic war crimes, such as David Guetta and Bebe Rexha’s recent defilement of an Italian techno classic . At its best, you have triumphs of pop creativity: moments that transcend time, place and genre. “Firecracker” is one such moment. Although this would be far from the last time Sakamoto would master his medium, it showcases a magic touch that bears a dual understanding of both the warm and the robotic, the tacky and the sublime. This instinct is part of what makes Sakamoto one of modern music’s great masters, and it ensures a legacy that will last far beyond his passing.

Yellow magic orchestra firecracker

We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.

With "Firecracker," they incorporated elements of traditional Japanese music, such as the use of taiko drums and pentatonic scales, to create a unique and unforgettable sound. The song starts with a catchy synth melody, which is soon joined by driving percussion and synthesized vocals. The combination of these elements results in a vibrant and infectious rhythm that is instantly recognizable.

Firecracker

from History Of Flight by Khruangbin

Digital Track

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Sold Out

credits

shows

discography

contact / help

If you like Khruangbin, you may also like:

supported by 84 fans who also own “Firecracker” Love a good sitar heavy album. Kikagaku Moyo put something special together with this one. jrsmith17 go to album

supported by 82 fans who also own “Firecracker” Found this via @rabea_senftenberg and love it very much! wiesel go to album

supported by 80 fans who also own “Firecracker” Big thanks to Floating Points for bringing me back to Pharoah Sanders on his swansong . An amazing creation and collaboration. David Rankin go to album

Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp

Firecracker

He was heavily involved in music, so much that he had been in at least several bands by his late 20s. The economic climate was ripe for an artist of any pursuit or discipline to thrive, and Haruomi was wise not to let the opportunity go to waste.

Japanese folk music was a major musical influence for Haruomi early in his youth. He played electric bass keyboards and sang. The cultural and social changes, at the time, going on in nearby China, were felt to some degree over in Japan. These and other elements would be the backdrop for Haruomi's artistry.

He got together two musicians from the local area - themselves occupied with other musical projects - and formed the Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1978. Like the rest of the world, Japan has followed American culture and trends.

With that, there is a close following of American music. Japan has its answer to Jazz, simply called Japanese Jazz; its response to Pop music, called J-Pop (not to be mistaken with K-Pop, from Korea); there is also Japanese Rap, and now even Trap music. This phenomenon is found in almost every country.

Haruomi loved a variety of musical styles and genres. This translated into the musical bodywork of the YMO or Yellow Magic Orchestra.

“ Admittedly, Hosono says his band was “heavily influenced” by Kraftwerk - an electronic dance group from West Germany at the time. After introducing the music to his bandmates, “they immediately became huge fans,” he says. ”

Kraftwerk is said to have significantly influenced Pop music, especially that of the 1980s era. This includes the familiar sounds made famous by musical acts such Eurythmics and their hit "Sweet Dreams" or Blondie's "Heart of Glass," amongst others.

Yellow Magic Orchestra would release their self-titled album in 1978. The first single was "Firecracker," it was a mega success in Japan, later conquering other parts of the world. The album leans considerably on the musical framework of Kraftwerk. YMO was not particularly prideful about this, but for purposes of some semblance of originality - and longevity - Yellow Magic Orchestra added other elements.

They explored themes of Asianness, Orientalism, and also Exoticism. The latter two are particularly interesting because they both entail Western perceptions of the East and the Pacific, respectively. Hosono characterized Kraftwerk's style as being "very German." By that, he may have meant not only of a different musical tradition but also serious in nature.

Kraftwerk's music and art were rather dystopian, likely reflective of their environment in West Germany. YMO's music departed from their idols - temperamentally - and created music that emphasized 'joy' and 'liberation.'

Japan is the land of classic video games - that many have known and loved growing up. Nintendo, originally from Japan, has dominated the global video game industry in terms of the highest of revenues. Super Mario, also a Japanese product, is recognizable in all corners of the world. The sounds of these beloved video games, or just video game sounds generally, were sampled into music by YMO, predating much of the sampling that's come to define today's many subgenres of electronic music, including Hip Hop.

Computer and video game sounds can be heard in YMO's single "Firecracker." This laid one of the most critical foundations in Hip Hop music; Afrika Bambaataa would joke that YMO was singularly responsible for Hip Hop's birth. Yellow Magic Orchestra had become the most prominent musical act in Japan at the time - more so than even the Beatles. A rise in the R&B charts initiated their crossover to the American music market.

The band managed to secure a spot on the popular tv show Soul Train to perform in-studio in late 1980. They performed "Firecracker" before a very enthusiastic, dancing crowd that was predominantly African American.

"Firecracker" was later sampled by Afrika Bambaataa and popularly became known as a treasured Bronx - birthplace of Hip Hop - anthem. The song was later again sampled by Bronx native Jennifer Lopez, Hip Hop group De La Soul, and countless others.

Jason ‘Jsxn’ Nsinano is a multi-discipline artist who mainly works in the independent music industry as a music producer and writer. He is also a published recording artist. Jason is based in the culturally rich PNW (or the Pacific Northwest), encompassing the cities of Portland, OR, and Seattle, WA.

He is currently involved in a number of small film projects including short films and documentaries. Jason lists, among his heroes and influences, Michelangelo, Ray Charles, Prince, and writer Ernest Hemmingway.

Yellow magic orchestra firecracker

A+M Records | UK | 12″ | 1979 | AMSP 7502

1. Computer Game [Theme From Invaders]
2. Firecracker
3. Technopolis

I was a freshman in high school when I first heard Yellow Magic Orchestra back in 1979. They had a huge hit with what was called “Computer Game” in America but there was a lot of confusion surrounding the track and its domestic marketing. While the main song on this single A-side was an electro cover of Martin Denny’s “Firecracker” by Yellow Magic Orchestra, it is preceded by a brief composition that sounds like 1st gen video game sounds as played on YMO’s synths for about a minute before the sounds segue into “Firecracker.” The intro is “Computer Game [Theme From Invaders]” but somehow that got conflated into the two segued tracks going by that name in America. I recall seeing the early 12″ single depicted here selling in the store I frequented in my primordial record store days.

What was interesting about hearing the track on the radio was that it only got airplay on WOKB-AM [“Tiger Radio”] the so-called urban station that catered to the local African American audience out of nearby hamlet Winter Garden. The sight of the US cover of the album at left was fairly common among students of color in my classes. We got to listen to the radio in art classes and on some days WOKB got the nod and I heard what was otherwise ignored on the top-40 stations unless they managed to “cross-over.”

This was absolutely my first experience to the concept of Afrofuturism [which did not exist as a word until 1993] but would not be my last as I was exposed to Funkadelic soon afterward. [Parliament I had already heard via their top 40 success with “Tear The Roof Off The Sucker” being an elementary school favorite]. The notion of African Americans also enjoying electronic synthesizer music [as much as Caucasian nerds like myself did] was fairly novel to me at the time and a cultural eye-opener. Of course by the time I was a senior, I would see this scenario play out again when Kraftwerk released their groundbreaking album [their last groundbreaking album – sigh] “Computerworld.” Electro tunes like these would be heard on early [monophonic] boom boxes of the time.

Astoundingly enough, I did not own this record until 2013, when I found the staggering yellow vinyl UK 12″ in its silk-screened PVC sleeve at a local emporium. “Firecracker” as played by YMO sticks fairly closely to the template first released in 1959 by the father of exotica, Martin Denny. Of course, that YMO would re-appropriate the oriental kitsch twenty years later was rather post-modern of them! It also put them ahead of the Lounge/Exotica revival by at least a good 22 years! I have to say that in 1979, Martin Denny was a forgotten man. After 1993, that was no longer the case, and he died a dozen years later revered as a highly creative composer who synthesized new genres that were no longer considered a late 50s joke.

YMO were certainly finding the funk in simulated ethnic music with their analog synths sounding so gloriously warm, that its difficult to realize that many derided this music as cold and unfeeling at the time. Every melody here was synthetic, save for the luxuriant piano glissandos that Ryuichi Sakamoto embellished the grooves with. Yukihiro Takahashi’s drums [and presumably xylophones] were the only other non-synthetic component.

“Technopolis” opened with a vocoded voice intoning “Tokyo” and it sounded for all the world like the same vocoder used by Kraftwerk on their “Man-Machine” album on “The Robots,” but we all know that was custom built. Still, the similarity of tone and effect was astonishing. This song featured the rhythm section being the “live” component with Haroumi Hosono’s bass being very funky indeed. This track almost had a jazzfunk feel, but for the deliberately corny sounding topline melodies that were at odds with the high gloss of the track. In any case the musicianship here was of a high caliber. YMO may have been perceived as the “Japanese Kraftwerk,” and that more than anything may be the reason why they are shamefully light in Ye Olde Record Cell, but in reality their chops wipe the floor with their Düsseldorf brethren, though we know that chops are far from everything. I will need to make it a program to buy much more YMO than the scant amount I can put my finger on currently.

"Firecracker" is an instrumental track, showcasing YMO's ability to captivate an audience without relying on lyrics. YMO's talent for blending diverse musical influences and their pioneering use of electronic instruments earned them international acclaim. They were one of the first Asian musical acts to achieve significant recognition in the western world. Their influence can be heard in the works of countless artists and continues to resonate today. Overall, "Firecracker" by Yellow Magic Orchestra is a remarkable piece of music that showcases the group's ability to merge traditional and electronic sounds seamlessly. It remains a timeless track and a testament to the enduring legacy of YMO..

Reviews for "Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Firecracker"

1. John Doe - 1/5 stars - I found "Yellow Magic Orchestra Firecracker" to be incredibly repetitive and boring. The same beat and melody play over and over again, without any variation or development. It felt more like a monotonous loop than a song. I couldn't understand the hype surrounding this track as it lacked creativity and innovation. Overall, it was a disappointing experience for me.

2. Jane Smith - 2/5 stars - While I appreciate the historical significance of "Yellow Magic Orchestra Firecracker" in popularizing electronic music, I personally did not enjoy it. The disjointed and erratic sounds were off-putting, making it difficult for me to connect with the music. It felt like a jumbled mess of noises thrown together without any clear structure or purpose. I understand its influence on the genre, but it simply did not resonate with me.

3. David Thompson - 2/5 stars - I wasn't a fan of "Yellow Magic Orchestra Firecracker" mainly because it lacked depth and substance. The repetitive nature of the song made it feel like a mindless loop that never went anywhere. It failed to evoke any emotions or create a memorable listening experience for me. I understand it may have been groundbreaking for its time, but as a standalone piece of music, it left much to be desired.

Examining Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Firecracker" as a Political Statement