NHK's documentary program "Document 72 Hours" (NHK General) will air "Shibuya 'Tower of Music': Everyone's Playlist" on May 22nd at 10 PM. This episode takes place in a massive CD and record store in Shibuya, Tokyo. In an age where you can enjoy music streaming on your smartphone, why do people go out of their way to visit this place...?
The location is Shibuya, Tokyo. It's one of the world's largest "music department stores," stocking approximately 800,000 CDs and records. There are college students buying CDs to support their favorite bands, American tourists who say Japanese music has saved them, and a Japanese-Brazilian couple visiting Japan for the first time in 70 years to find new enka music releases. We listened to the voices of people searching for their own music, not through data but through physical objects, not online but in the real world.
The program's narration was handled by Masafumi Goto of the rock band "ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION (Ajikan)".
The program is a documentary that places a camera in one location each time and observes the various human dramas that unfold there for 72 hours. It listens to the stories of people who meet by chance and captures a glimpse of "the present."
