Earlier this month, one of the biggest musical moments of the year was honored with the No. 2 spot on the year-end ranking of New Words and Buzzwords Awards. The word, ¡°usseewa,¡± translates as ¡°shut up¡± in English but, when you nail the accent right, can sound more like ¡°shut the f--- up,¡± and it was the title of a song by teenage musician Ado.
For a society still in the throes of a pandemic, the track served as a roundhouse kick aimed at, well, whoever was closest. It was released in late 2020 but rose to prominence in 2021 as COVID-19 robbed Japanese youth of everything from gainful employment to wild nights out in Tokyo. Forgive them for the need to let off some steam.
J-pop in general didn¡¯t quite follow Ado¡¯s call to rage against the routine. But as COVID-19 cases shot to record highs thanks to the delta variant, the industry was left to figure out how to live with the ¡°new normal.¡± Festivals like Fuji Rock and Supersonic held scaled-down shows, while the majority, like Rock in Japan, had to cancel for the second year in a row.
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