Yellow Magic Orchestra

**Yellow Magic Orchestra** (abbreviated to **YMO**) was a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono (bass, keyboards, vocals), Yukihiro Takahashi (drums, lead vocals, occasional keyboards) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards, vocals). The group is considered influential and innovative in the field of popular electronic music. They were pioneers in their use of synthesizers, samplers, sequencers, drum machines, computers, and digital recording technology, and effectively anticipated the "electropop boom" of the 1980s. They are credited with influencing the development of various electronic genres, including synth-pop, city pop, dance, electro, hip-hop, J-pop and techno. They also explored subversive socio-political themes throughout their career. and in late 1977 they began recording *Paraiso*, which was released in 1978. The three worked together again for the 1978 album *Pacific*, which included an early version of the song "Cosmic Surfin".

Hosono and Sakamoto also worked together alongside Hideki Matsutake in early 1978 for Hosono's experimental "electro-exotica" fusion album *Cochin Moon*, which fused electronic music with Indian music, including an early "synth raga" song "Hum Ghar Sajan". The same year, Sakamoto released his own solo album, *The Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto*, experimenting with a similar fusion between electronic music and traditional Japanese music in early 1978. Hosono also contributed to one of Sakamoto's songs, "Thousand Knives", in the album.

While Sakamoto was working on *Thousand Knives*, Hosono began formulating the idea of an instrumental disco band which could have the potential to reach success in non-Japanese-language territories, and invited Tasuo Hayashi of Tin Pan Alley and Hiroshi Sato of Huckleback as participants, but they declined. Hosono, Sakamoto and Takahashi eventually collaborated again to form the Yellow Magic Orchestra and they began recording their self-titled album at a Shibaura studio in July 1978.

### 1978–1983: National and international success 
The band's 1978 self-titled album *Yellow Magic Orchestra* was successful and the studio project grew into a fully fledged touring band and career for its three members. The album featured the use of computer technology (along with synthesizers) which, according to *Billboard*, allowed the group to create a new sound that was not possible until then. Following the release of the album *Yellow Magic Orchestra*, a live date at the Roppongi Pit Inn was seen by executives of A&M Records of the USA who were in the process of setting up a partnership deal with Alfa Records. This led to the YMO being offered an international deal, at which point (early 1979) the three members decided the group would be given priority over their solo careers. The most popular international hit from the album was "Firecracker", which would be released as a single the following year and again as "Computer Game", which became a success in the United States and Europe.

Following an advertising deal with Fuji Cassette, the group sparked a boom in the popularity of electronic pop music, called "technopop" in Japan,

*X∞Multiplies* was followed up with the 1981 album *BGM*. *UnderMain Magazine* noted the album's significance in the early history of hip hop, describing its "groundbreaking" use of the Roland TR-808 drum machine, the song "Music Plans" as where "the beginnings of that funky, electronic boom-bap vibe of hip-hop beats start to emerge" and the song "Rap Phenomena" as "an aural *Australopithecus* of electronic rap music."

They also had similar success abroad, performing to sold-out crowds during tours in the United States and Europe. The band was particularly popular with the emerging hip hop community, which appreciated the group's electronic sounds, and in the Bronx where "Firecracker" was a success and sampled in the famous *Death Mix* (1983) by Afrika Bambaataa. Bambaataa also cited YMO's subsequent albums along with Sakamoto's "Riot in Lagos" as influences.

## Musical style and development 
### Instruments 
, which has appeared on more hit records than any other drum machine.]]
The band often utilized a wide variety of state-of-the-art electronic music equipment immediately as they were made available. *Yellow Magic Orchestra* and Ryuichi Sakamoto's *Thousand Knives* were one of the earliest popular music albums to utilize the Roland MC-8 Microcomposer, which was programmed by Hideki Matsutake during recording sessions.

They were also the very first band to utilize the Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, one of the first and most influential programmable drum machines, as soon as it was released in 1980. Hosono said the 808 is his favourite machine because "that sound is close to the Japanese Wadaiko drum, it has a unique presence."

### Sampling 
Their approach to sampling music was a precursor to the contemporary approach of constructing music by cutting fragments of sounds and looping them using computer technology. Their 1978 hit "Computer Game / Firecracker", for example, sampled Martin Denny's 1959 exotica melody "Firecracker" According to *The Vinyl District* magazine, they also released the first album to feature mostly samples and loops (1981's *Technodelic*). Soon after *Technodelic*, the LMD-649 was used by YMO-associated acts such as Chiemi Manabe and Logic System.

## Legacy 
### Electronic music 
YMO were pioneers of synthpop, a genre which emerged at the start of the 1980s. In 1993, Johnny Black of *Hi-Fi News*, in a review for the record *Hi-Tech/No Crime*, described YMO as "the most adventurous and influential electro-techno-dance technicians the world has produced" and further argued that "without them (and Kraftwerk) today's music would still sound like yesterday's music."

YMO's success with music technology encouraged many others, with their influence strongly felt in the British electronic scene of the early 1980s in particular. They influenced many early British synthpop acts, including Ultravox, John Foxx, Gary Numan, Duran Duran, Camouflage, OMD, The Human League, Visage, and Art of Noise, as well as American rock musicians such as Todd Rundgren. "Technopolis", a tribute to Tokyo as an electronic mecca that used the term "techno" in its title, foreshadowed concepts that Juan Atkins and Rick Davis would later have with Cybotron. When Yellow Magic Orchestra toured the United States in 1980, they described their own music as technopop, and were written up in *Rolling Stone* magazine.

### Hip-hop 
YMO had a significant influence on the development of early hip-hop music. The "terse videogame-funk" sounds of YMO's "Computer Game" would have a strong influence on the emerging electro and hip hop genres.

YMO as well as Sakamoto's "Riot in Lagos" were cited by Kurtis Mantronik as major influences on his early electro hip hop group Mantronix; he included both "Computer Game" and "Riot in Lagos" in his compilation album ''That's My Beat'' (2002) which consists of the songs that influenced his early career. The song was also later included in Playgroup's compilation album *Kings of Electro* (2007), alongside later electro classics such as Hashim's "Al-Nafyish" (1983). Sakamoto's use of squelching bounce sounds and mechanical beats was incorporated in a number of early American electro and hip hop tracks, such as "Message II (Survival)" by Melle Mel and Duke Bootee (1982), "Magic's Wand" (1982) by Whodini and Thomas Dolby, "Electric Kingdom" (1983) by Twilight 22, and *The Album* (1985) by Mantronix.

Beyond early electro and hip hop acts, "Computer Game / Firecracker" was also sampled by a number of other later artists, including 2 Live Crew's "Mega-Mixx II" (1987), De La Soul's "Funky Towel" (for the 1996 film ''Joe's Apartment''), Jennifer Lopez's "I'm Real" (2001), and the original unreleased version of Mariah Carey's "Loverboy" (2001).

### Japan 
The band has also been very influential in its homeland Japan, where they had become the most popular group during the late 1970s and 1980s. and 1,123,000 singles, for a total of  records sold nationwide.

The band also had a significant influence on the development of city pop, with YMO influencing the genre to incorporate electronic instruments and with the YMO members themselves working on various city pop records.

## Members 
### Official members 
* Haruomi Hosono – bass, keyboards, vocals (1978–1984; 1992–1993; 2002–2004; 2007–2012)
* Yukihiro Takahashi – lead vocals, drums, percussion, occasional keyboards (1978–1984; 1992–1993; 2002–2004; 2007–2012; died 2023)
* Ryuichi Sakamoto – keyboards, synthesizers, vocals (1978–1984; 1992–1993; 2002–2004; 2007–2012; died 2023)

### Frequent collaborators 
* Hideki Matsutake – synthesizers, sound programming, sequencers (1978–1982)

## Discography 
* *Yellow Magic Orchestra* (1978)
* *Solid State Survivor* (1979)
* *×∞ Multiplies* (also known as *Zoshoku*, 1980)
* *BGM* (1981)
* *Technodelic* (1981)
* *Naughty Boys* (1983)
* *Service* (1983)
* *Technodon* (credited to YMO, 1993)

## Notes 
## References 
## Other websites 
*YMO 
* 
* 
* Official Facebook website
* Official MySpace website