Music, like most aspects of modern life, hasn’t felt normal in 2020. When the COVID-19 pandemic started causing concern in Japan at the end of February, artists began adjusting to a new reality.
My most vivid concert memory of this year was going to Tokyo Dome on Feb. 25 to watch J-pop trio Perfume — hand sanitizer was in surplus in the concourse, and the video boards inside the stadium displayed guides on how to wash your hands.
This also happened to be my last memory of live music in 2020. The next day, major concerts and events began canceling after a request from the central government. Not long after, smaller live houses and clubs across the country closed their doors. Performances went online, with once-digital-adverse companies dumping live footage on YouTube. Pikotaro promoted good hygiene, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe somehow found himself enveloped in a scandal thanks to a Gen Hoshino meme. Totally par for the course.