Anime Music (Part 1)

By: Brian Mah

In Japan, music and anime have been together since the beginning. Just as their counterparts in the West, much of the first animated films in Japan relied on live musical scores or simple audio tracks during the screening of each film. TV made it possible to combine complex music with animation. Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy is a perfect example of how music and anime blended together. The opening sequences of the original Astro Boy is the genesis of how the anime industry has used music in their TV series and films.

Adding modern music, made the shows more appealing to a wider audience. For instance, Space Battleship Yamato, Macross, Gatchaman, and Cowboy Bebop are some examples of how modern music and anime created a global fan base.

Musicians from the entire world have added segments of anime series into their music videos. For instance, in the Michael and Janet Jackson video, "Scream," incorporated sequences from the series Akai Kōdan Zillion. Matthew Sweet utilized sequences from the anime series Urusei Yatsura in the song, "I've been waiting", and Space Adventure Cobra in the song, "Girlfriend." Both songs were broadcasted numerous times on MTV when the videos were released in the late 1990's.