History Creator / KenjiSawada

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: To most people today, Kenji "Julie" Sawada's antics onstage seem mundane in the age of artists like Music/MaliceMizer, Music/DirEnGrey and the like, but at the time he was in his prime years (1975-1982), Sawada's onstage antics on songs like "STRIPPER" were considered darlingly sexual and flamboyant, and producer/bandmate Kunihiko Kase's invention of the term "Visual" to describe Sawada's onstage costuming and persona. This later was taken by Music/AtsushiSakurai and Music/YoshikiHayashi and turned further into the VisualKei movement.

* AntiLoveSong: "Toki No Sugi Yuku Mama Ni" can be interpreted as the singer lamenting over an extremely toxic relationship.

* BreakupSong: LONELY WOLF, Forbidden Love (About longing for a woman who has long left him), Pari ni Hitori

* ConceptAlbum: The Tigers 1968 album "Human Renascence" was the first use of the trope in Japan. Julie's solo career had him have more than one has well, with Onnatachiyo being a RockOpera retelling ''Literature/TheTaleOfGenji'' and JULIE II being themed around sea travel.

* CreatorBreakdown: A lot of Sawada's early 80s material can be interpreted as this, with Rokubanne no Yuutsu, his BSOD song, seemingly being a rant on his feelings about fame, and seemingly having a much more eccentric manner of dress and stage persona.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: JULIE I and Julie II are about as far away from the proto-Visual Kei pop rock and New Wave Sawada is mainly known for, having a sound one can liken to Barry Manilow or other easy listening, and almost none of the songs in these two albums have been included in Sawada's later years, with Yurusenai Ai being rearranged to fit more with Sawada's later style in TheEighties then dropped from his setlist after 1991, and almost all of the other songs from these two albums being forgotten.

* GenreShift: Went thru many. Like David Bowie, his shifts reflect that of popular music in the country he came from as a whole was like at the time. Going by the Julie Special GreatestHits alone, he went thru EasyListening, PowerPop, SynthPop, {{New Wave|Music}}, and in the late seventies, early eighties thru a proto VisualKei period, with the album S/T/R/I/P/P/E/R featuring heavily distorted, blazing guitar and bass and very sexualized lyrics, and after the 90s, his output almost became Music/BruceSpringsteen like, with a greater focus on traditional pop-rock anthems, and a much more tame, almost socially aware feel to the lyrics.

* IntercourseWithYou: STRIPPER, the title is self-explanatory, and the first live of it actually [[TooSexyForThisTimeslot moved to watershed hours]] for NHK's 1981 New Years Eve show.
* InternationalCoproduction: JULIE, JULIE II, JULIE III, JULIE VI: ARU SEISHUN were all coproductions between Kenji Sawada & Takayuki Inoue Band (Japan) and Olympic Sound Studios (UK).

** Easy listening in the vein of Barry Manilow (Julie-Julie III)
** A revisitation of the psychedelic rock sound PYG had done with the original members of that band (Julie IV)
** Symphonic Rock (Julie VI)
** Glam Rock (Jewel Julie, Itsukana no Baman, And Now I Feast On A Grand Banquet, The Fugitive Ai No Troubador)
** New Wave (Bad Tuning, TOKIO, STRIPPER)
** Synthpop/New Romantic (NON-POLICY, MISCAST, Onna-tachiyo, A WONDERFUL TIME)
** {{Main/AOR}}-(A Grand Ballet With Co-COLO)
** TinPanAlley (A Saint In The Night)

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: To most people today, Kenji "Julie" Sawada's antics onstage seem mundane in the age of artists like Music/MaliceMizer, Music/DirEnGrey and the like, but at the time he was in his prime years (1975-1982), Sawada's onstage antics on songs like STRIPPER were considered darlingly sexual and flamboyant, and producer/bandmate Kunihiko Kase's invention of the term "Visual" to describe Sawada's onstage costuming and persona. This later was taken by Music/AtsushiSakurai and Music/YoshikiHayashi and turned further into the VisualKei movement.

* SingerNamedrop: "Julie My Love" in Hoshizora no Romance

* {{Bishonen}}: Pretty much the one of the UrExample of the androgynous lead singer in Japanese music.

* BadassBaritone: His voice can range from this to a beautiful boyish tenor.

* PowerBallad: Ikutsuka no bamen is the most prominent example of sawadas ballads.

* SynthPop: His early eighties work, specifically ''Onnatachiyo'' and ''Non-Policy'' which had Sawada in full on Mr. Fanservice mode once again on the cover and featured mostly synthezied instruments and Sawada's voice reverberating through layers of synthesizers.

* BreakupSong: LONELY WOLF, Forbidden Love(About longing for a woman who has long left him), Pari ni Hitori

* DyeHard: His hair has ranged from hot pink, to blonde, to orange. However his hair greyed very early(in his late 40s, early 50s) from dying it so much.

* InternationalCoproduction: JULIE, JULIE II, JULIE III, JULIE VI: ARU SEISHUN were all coproductions between Kenji Sawada & Takayuki Inoue Band (Japan) and Olympic Sound Studios(UK).

** Easy listening in the vein of Barry Manilow(Julie-Julie III)

** Symphonic Rock(Julie VI)
** Glam Rock(Jewel Julie, Itsukana no Baman, And Now I Feast On A Grand Banquet, The Fugitive Ai No Troubador)
** New Wave(Bad Tuning, TOKIO, STRIPPER)
** Synthpop/New Romantic(NON-POLICY, MISCAST, Onna-tachiyo, A WONDERFUL TIME)

* PeripheryDemographic: Ever since VisualKei became more popular internationally, he seems to have gained a significant fanbase crossing over from bands like Buck-Tick, GLAY and X Japan, all of which have members who have professed to have Sawada as one of their influences(Sakurai Atsushi even covered two of Julie's songs and seems to style his vocal mannerisms after him, and GLAYs vocalist has covered "Toki no Sugiyuku Mama ni")
* PowerBallad: Ikutsuka no bamen is the most prominent example of sawadas ballads

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: To most people today, Kenji "Julie" Sawada's antics onstage seem mundane in the age of artists like Music/MaliceMizer, Music/DirEnGrey and the like, but at the time he was in his prime years(1975-1982), Sawada's onstage antics on songs like STRIPPER were considered darlingly sexual and flamboyant, and producer/bandmate Kunihiko Kase's invention of the term "Visual" to describe Sawada's onstage costuming and persona. This later was taken by Music/AtsushiSakurai and Music/YoshikiHayashi and turned further into the VisualKei movement.

* NewRomantic: His mid-late 80s output, with his androgyny UpToEleven, and a new backing band, Co-Colo, who included rather dark sounding string passages in addition to the synthesizers and guitar-drum-bass Sawada had become so accustomed to.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: The Broken Earth, a PsychedelicRock song on a BaroquePop concept album which had little to do with the rest of the album's theme.

%%* BadassBeard: Sports one as of 2013.

* CastIncest: Currently married to a fellow actress from the set of Tora-san: The Professional.

* AlterEgoActing: Somewhat of a type 3.

* BadassBeard: Sports one as of 2013.

* CampStraight

* CrucifiedHeroShot: Most performances of Ikutusuka no Bamen.

* DudeLooksLikeALady: ESPECIALLY in the early 80s.

* SelfTitledAlbum: Several.

* SingerSongwriter

* ConceptAlbum: The Tigers 1968 album "Human Renascence" was the first use of the trope in Japan. Julie's solo career had him have more than one has well, with Onnatachiyo being a RockOpera retelling TheTaleOfGenji and JULIE II being themed around sea travel.

'''Kenji "Julie" Sawada''' (born 1948) is a Japanese musician, actor and composer, best known to Americans for being in ''Film/MishimaALifeInFourChapters''. His claim to fame among Japanese is perhaps, according to many, such as {{SMAP}}, with planting the seeds of the VisualKei movement. His manner of dress when he performed, his heavy use of makeup, and his tendency to not seperate his stage personality from his real one are all traits later adopted by most VisualKei groups. After the breakup of Music/TheTigers, Sawada formed the SuperGroup PYG, bringing together many of his former rivals as musicians and churning out three albums. He later began a very successful solo career and became apt to a Japanese Music/DavidBowie, acting in many roles to this day.

[[IThoughtThatWas Probably not related to]] the [[Music/TaijiSawada bassist]] of X and Loudness.

* GenreShift: Went thru many. Like David Bowie, his shifts reflect that of popular music in the country he came from as a whole was like at the time. Going by the Julie Special GreatestHits alone, he went thru EasyListening, PowerPop, SynthPop, {{New Wave|Music}}, and in the late seventies, early eighties thru a proto VisualKei period, with the album S/T/R/I/P/P/E/R featuring heavily distorted, blazing guitar and bass and very sexualized lyrics, and after the 90s, his output almost became BruceSpringsteen like, with a greater focus on traditional pop-rock anthems, and a much more tame, almost socially aware feel to the lyrics.

* SpiritualSuccessor: His modern equivalent could be considered {{Gackt}}, who like Sawada, found more sucess after the band he debuted in broke up, and has a gigantic acting resume.

* VisualKei: Essentially went into the territory fashionwise in the 90s, with his makeup and clothing in the mid-90s making him resemble HidetoMatsumoto to some degree.

'''Kenji "Julie" Sawada''' (born 1948) is a Japanese musician, actor and composer, best known to Americans for being in ''Film/MishimaALifeInFourChapters''. His claim to fame among Japanese is perhaps, according to many, such as {{SMAP}}, with planting the seeds of the VisualKei movement. His manner of dress when he performed, his heavy use of makeup, and his tendency to not seperate his stage personality from his real one are all traits later adopted by most VisualKei groups. After the breakup of Music/TheTigers, Sawada formed the SuperGroup PYG, bringing together many of his former rivals as musicians and churning out three albums. He later began a very successful solo career and became apt to a Japanese DavidBowie, acting in many roles to this day.

* BreakupBreakout: After the Tigers broke up, Sawada launched a successful solo career, acted in many movies, picking up the moniker "Japan's DavidBowie", and pretty much singlehandedly began what became the VisualKei movement of music/fashion. Not bad huh?

* GenreShift: Went thru many. Like DavidBowie, his shifts reflect that of popular music in the country he came from as a whole was like at the time. Going by the Julie Special GreatestHits alone, he went thru EasyListening, PowerPop, SynthPop, {{New Wave|Music}}, and in the late seventies, early eighties thru a proto VisualKei period, with the album S/T/R/I/P/P/E/R featuring heavily distorted, blazing guitar and bass and very sexualized lyrics, and after the 90s, his output almost became BruceSpringsteen like, with a greater focus on traditional pop-rock anthems, and a much more tame, almost socially aware feel to the lyrics.

* PuttingOnTheReich: like Gackt and MaliceMizer, has been photographed in Third Reichesque outfits.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: To most people today, Kenji "Julie" Sawada's antics onstage seem mundane in the age of artists like MaliceMizer, DirEnGrey and the like, but at the time he was in his prime years(1975-1982), Sawada's onstage antics on songs like STRIPPER were considered darlingly sexual and flamboyant, and producer/bandmate Kunihiko Kase's invention of the term "Visual" to describe Sawada's onstage costuming and persona. This later was taken by Music/AtsushiSakurai and Music/YoshikiHayashi and turned further into the VisualKei movement.

'''Kenji "Julie" Sawada''' (born 1948) is a Japanese musician, actor and composer, best known to Americans for being in MishimaALifeInFourChapters. His claim to fame among Japanese is perhaps, according to many, such as {{SMAP}}, with planting the seeds of the VisualKei movement. His manner of dress when he performed, his heavy use of makeup, and his tendency to not seperate his stage personality from his real one are all traits later adopted by most VisualKei groups. After the breakup of Music/TheTigers, Sawada formed the SuperGroup PYG, bringing together many of his former rivals as musicians and churning out three albums. He later began a very successful solo career and became apt to a Japanese DavidBowie, acting in many roles to this day.