Word: anthem
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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When the average Japanese salaryman heads home each evening, you can bet the last song he wants to hear from his car radio or earphones is his company's anthem, or shaka, the corporate tune that employees are forced to sing at year-end parties and sometimes even during morning calisthenics in the factory yard. Pity, therefore, the workers of Yokohama-based Nihon Break Kogyo. After its anthem was played on a popular midnight variety show, Asahi TV's Tamori Club, so many listeners responded with requests for copies that the company decided to release the song as a single...
When the average Japanese salaryman heads home each evening, the last song he wants to hear on his car radio or television is his corporate anthem, the tune he is compelled to sing at year-end parties or, even worse, while performing morning calisthenics in the factory yard. Pity, therefore, the workers of Yokohama-based Nihon Break Kogyo Co. After a popular midnight variety show, Asahi TV's Tamori Club, played its shaka [anthem], the company was bombarded with feedback from viewers until it finally decided to release the song as a single. It debuted last week...
...This is hardly the first unorthodox tune to make the charts in Japan, but it is the first company anthem. Few teenyboppers would choose to rock out to, say, the theme of Fujitsu Ltd., which exhorts: "We plan on uniting all our new techniques/ Over all the world...
...contrast, Nihon Break Kogyo's anthem has lyrics nihilistic enough for the most postmodern hipster: We will destroy houses! We will destroy bridges! We will destroy buildings! To the east! To the west...
Even the national anthem was Cornell-ized. When the band got to “…and the rocket’s red glare,” the Big Red crowd’s scream of “RED” was jarring as students punched the air with the word and thousands of voices echoed through the small building...