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Kenshi Yonezu’s Lemon hits 1 billion views on YouTube and he’s still not quite sure why

Master Blaster a few minute ago
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He handed life a ‘Lemon.’

Back in 2018, one song in particular was tearing up the charts in Japan. It was a somewhat somber pop song balanced with an energetic rock rhythm, known as ‘Lemon.’ It won several awards, was played on calculators, and in addition to charting number one on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 for 2018, it has continued to chart in the annual Hot 100 every year since.

Now, eight years since its initial release, the song has earned yet another honor by surpassing one billion views on YouTube. It’s rarefied air that ‘Lemon’ now shares with the likes of ‘Baby Shark,’ and in honor of this achievement, songwriter Kenshi Yonezu released the following statement, translated from Japanese:

“In all honesty, I still don’t really get why ‘Lemon’ became such a huge song with this wide a reach. I mean, of course I never set out to make a trivial piece of music, and I totally get that Lemon only grew into a phenomenon because it was the theme song for the truly excellent television show Unnatural*, and because the production team treated it with the utmost care and affection.*

But I remember back when I first released Lemon, I was completely blown away by the explosive momentum its reputation spread with. I thought to myself, ‘Hang on… Is this really going to be my signature song?’ It was like lighting a small scrap of wood on fire, thinking I’d start a campfire, only to have the flames spread instantly and eventually turn into a full-blown wildfire with me just standing there holding a lighter in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. That’s how the whole situation looked from my perspective.

When I was growing up, I’d see these brilliant musicians act dismissive about their own signature songs, claiming they never saw what was so good about them or refusing to play them live because they didn’t like them. At the time, I’d think to myself, ‘It’s clearly a great song! Don’t play cool and act like you don’t know it!’ But now that it’s happened to me, I finally understand why they felt the way they did.

To put it simply, songs like this end up leaving the creator’s original intentions and personal feelings in the dust. They move at such an incredible speed they basically become public domain overnight. I guess it’s only natural to resent that a little bit. In a way, ‘Lemon’ has allowed me to pull up a chair at the same table as these great musicians, at least in the sense that I can empathize with them now.

It might sound like I’m complaining, but I want to be clear that I have always felt and always will feel tremendous gratitude towards ‘Lemon.’ It took an untamed, raggedy stray dog from the sticks like me and threw my life into complete chaos. It showed me sights that I’d never dream of seeing and guided me into a life so absurdly entertaining that it nearly wears me out.

Some nights I imagine myself in the future as a pathetic and withered old man singing ‘Lemon’ and strumming along in front of some kids 40 years younger than me. They’d bluntly tell me off, saying, ‘Give all those depressing songs a break,’ and ‘No one even remembers that song anymore,’ but that’s just the way it is.”

It’s good to see the fame hasn’t changed Yonezu much. He still seems to be the somewhat brooding but incredibly insightful guy he was eight years ago. Online comments were also intrigued by his surprisingly astute and sincere reflections on having a billion-view song.

“What a wonderful statement that really conveys Yonezu’s true feelings and sense of astonishment about this.”
“Wow! Last time I checked, it was about 600 million.”
“He’s totally talking about Bump of Chicken and ‘Tentai Kansoku’ in that middle part, lol!”
“He’s really got class. You can see how he struggles to process how the public reaction doesn’t align with his own assessment of his work without sounding bitter about it.”
“He’s an artist, musician, and a great writer too.”
“That comment makes me happy! Congratulations on ‘Lemon’ hitting a billion views!”
“It’s the classic story. The things an artist doesn’t try too hard to make end up being the most highly regarded.”
“What an annoyingly long-winded rant. I read the whole thing, but still…”
“He should try writing an autobiography sometime. I’d like to read it.”
“I like the way he writes about ‘Lemon’ better than ‘Lemon.’”

I kind of agree that ‘Lemon’ isn’t even really Yonezu firing on all cylinders, and would argue he’s done some stuff much more deserving of a billion views. However, the part about him feeling bad when people misunderstand his work is really making me nervous about our 1,000-word analysis of how ‘Paprika’ is really about children who died. He’s never copped to it, but I’d eat my hat if it isn’t.

Source: Reissue Records, My Game News Flash
Image: Pakutaso
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