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In the first episode of Ichigo Mashimaro (Strawberry Marshmallow), right after Ito Nobue went into her sister Chika's room (that is, at around 3 minutes from beginning), there was several seconds of music that seemed to come from Chika's headphone, and the CD player was shown to display "CD track 2 time 01:19" on its screen.

CD track 2 time 01:19

I do not really know if this is significant, but I remember reading somewhere that Ichigo Mashimaro (the manga version, at least) is known for its reference to western music. It would be great to know if someone here, who may be familiar with the western music as well, could actually identify the piece.

Here is a SoundCloud link to the music that I was referring to.

Gagantous
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user23823
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  • idk if it's real music, sounds like a made up on the spot "human music" – Hakase Nov 30 '17 at 09:42
  • @Hakase It can be. I guess I would have to give up on this one after the seven-day bounty is over. Let's see. – user23823 Nov 30 '17 at 09:46
  • I mean anyone could appear at any moment after that with the actual answer, since nobody here is sure yet, we can't exclude that possibility :p – Hakase Nov 30 '17 at 09:50
  • There was a vocal in the soundtrack, I will give it a shot once I get home after my shift ends. I am pretty familiar with western music from 2000-2008. If it is a piece from then I might be able to identify it. But then again, there are dozens of possibilities. – ploopploop Nov 30 '17 at 10:21
  • This is more likely a simply a backtrack that was whipped up when needed. I doubt it is a legit song with a name. I mean, it's basically a standard drum beat. – PGODULTIMATE Nov 30 '17 at 22:36

3 Answers3

4

I think it is this song that is playing in the anime.

Song name: Popping

Artist: Kelly Richmond

Album: Free & Funky WSR148

Gao
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Proxy
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  • this is the closest answer i guess, or maybe this is the correct answer – Gagantous Dec 01 '17 at 23:23
  • Wow! It's like 90% resemblance! The only problem is this song is released in an album in 2014 (almost ten years after the anime) and it's not track 02. But wow, this is really something! – Gao Dec 02 '17 at 01:29
  • I personally think its pretty different but whatever floats your boat. I think this one sounds better anyhow. – PGODULTIMATE Dec 02 '17 at 01:49
  • Wow Amazing! I'd say it is the correct answer, although the release date does bother me a little bit. Also, about the Westar Music site link, it seems to me like a company that provides all kinds of stock music for media producers, but I am not very sure. If this is the case then I'd be pretty disappointed as this music contains no message that is significant to the anime. Would appreciate it if this answer's poster provides more info. But anyhow, this answer definitely satisfies my condition for the bounty. – user23823 Dec 03 '17 at 08:41
  • This isn't the original one, but apart from that it is the same track. The original one was done by a different band most likely, how did you find this? I absolutely love this track. – ploopploop Dec 04 '17 at 08:10
  • @user23823 sadly you are right as far as i know the site is used to sell "stock" music. Could be that the author copied the song from the anime, you never know :P – Proxy Dec 04 '17 at 18:22
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In the screenshot, the CD player displays the title of the track, DAIJOB. There are two songs I could find with that title and track number (02): one is from the 1980 album Landsale by P-Model, and the other is from Digimon in 2000, either the vocal version in Digimon Adventure 02 Best Partner 2 Yamato Ishida & Gabumon or the karaoke version in Collection: Digimon Adventure 02 Best Partner Original Karaoke: Digimon Hen.

Japanese internet bloggers[1][2] seem to relate it to the 1980 one as it was written by the famous Susumu Hirasawa, after whom Yui Hirasawa from K-On! is modeled. However, to a non-musician me, none of the two sounds like what is used in the episode, so I don't know if this answer is satisfactory or not.

And for those interested, I'll leave this URL by one of the authors linked above where he scienced the shit out of Strawberry Marshmallow trivia: https://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/mahodobackyard/diary/?ctgy=7.

Gao
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  • Thank you and this is really great info! So the LCD display is a reference to a piece by Hirasawa, known to at least some Japanese audiences, but the actual soundtrack is some other little-known "stock" music. Makes sense to me as it is not always easy/cheap to get the license to use the real song. – user23823 Dec 06 '17 at 09:23
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I am unable to identify the exact piece of music used in the sample. This is simply because the given audio samples are way too short. I tried using apps that have over 10 million pieces in the database, but none had a single result.

I am able to provide some information though based on the samples with the knowledge I have about music.

At the very least I can say that the genre is either Jazz from the late 80s/early 90s or it is a sped up Soul track from the 60s. It contains drums and a very clear saxophone. The era is based on the playstyle of the saxophone. This playstyle was very popular during the 80s/90s. That is when the hiphop/jazz become popular in plenty of countries. While it is unclear if the actual audio sample used by the studio (Daume) has been tampered with is unclear. I looked up their history from around 2000-2005 and their connections to pinpoint a certain band that might've been used, but this provided no results.

As the second we can at least say that this soundtrack is from a legitimate piece of music and not made on the fly in the studio. This is because of the instruments used in the sample and the mixture of the instruments. This would be too expensive for such a short sample and would be too much hassle for a studio. There is a clear beat and the instruments dont conflict with each other; this indicates that the composer was aware of what he/she did; an experienced composer. If anything I'd honestly love to listen to this piece myself as well as it is a master piece based on what we were given to listen to during the episode.

Based on the genre and the airing of the series I'd say that it is from the early 90s. This is due to the big world wide hit on the genre Jazz at the time. But it might've been some Japanese Jazz as well, which would date to LP's from as early as the 70s.

Maybe with the information provided above someone might be able to pinpoint the track or LP. I don't think it will be found on the internet as not all music from the 90s and earlier are online. There are still some hobby stores around that sell LP's. Perhaps someone there can identify the piece. All you need to do is cut the first 10 seconds from the soundcloud track and then from 22s to 26s. Boost up the volume and you will hear the instruments clearly. But if the original file has been tampered with and for example boosted in speed then it is highly unlikely that even someone of that level will be able to identify it.

ploopploop
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