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2016 marks the 70th anniversary of Sony, and so we joined seven photographers on a trip to celebrate the country where it all started – Japan. In this series, we’ll be looking back on our history and examining how Japan has had an immeasurable impact on the way we work and the products that we make.
Sonus. It’s a Latin word that means ‘sound’, ‘tone’ or ‘character’, and it’s so important to us that it even inspired our name.
But when you consider the two men who founded the company, this revelation should come as no surprise. Akio Morita grew up listening to his mother’s extensive collection of classical records and was on first-name terms with Michael Jackson, while Masaru Ibuka believed in the intellectual power of music (which he talks about in his book Kindergarten is too Late) and could frequently be found listening to opera music on his cassette Walkman. These two weren’t just music fans; they were obsessives.
Morita was passionate about pushing the boundaries of quality.
This passion has been there since day one, and nothing has changed. The people that work on all of our products - from audio to TVs, cameras and beyond - are just as obsessive about their work as Morita and Ibuka were, always striving to create something that will physically ‘wow’ people.
When it comes to working on innovative products, there’s no better person to talk to than our European audio expert Eric Kingdon. He’s worked in collaboration with our audio teams on products from the Walkman and Super Audio CD right up to the new PS-HX500 turntable, and he’s a firm believer that teamwork and passion equals quality.
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“I think we have a great team spirit that builds on excitement and passion; that feeling that you’re working to achieve something,” he told us. “To have a feeling that you’ve had an impact on a new Sony product, even if you’re just a small part of a team and whatever level you contribute, that’s exciting. The one thing about the audio group is that everyone is made to feel a part and is equally valued, and when you’re all genuinely excited by something, you’ll succeed with it.”
Just look at two of the first products that we ever made under the Sony name, the transistor radio and the cassette Walkman. Both ideas came from Morita and Ibuka’s desire to make music portable, despite everyone at the time saying that it just couldn’t be done. However, not only did the pair eventually succeed, but they surpassed everyone’s expectations, making something that also looked and sounded great; something of quality.
“Morita used to do a lot of travelling, and he wanted to take quality music with him,” Eric told us. “The cassette player already existed as a Dictaphone machine, but Morita made a beautiful, all-metal machine with great frequency response that could play music. It wasn’t just a cassette player, it was an amazing cassette player. Even from the first days, Morita was passionate about pushing the boundaries of quality – not just allowing you to have better quality, but allowing you to take that quality into other areas.”
As we travelled across Tokyo to celebrate 70 years of rich Japanese history, we realised that this passion for music – in both its aural quality and its emotional impact – actually stretched across the whole of Japan. You could spend your Saturday morning dancing to J-Pop in a dingy basement venue, walk across the street and find yourself in a record shop selling extremely rare jazz imports, and then head round the corner to a bar that plays nothing but punk, all before midday. Head out in the evening and you’re more than likely to find yourself indulging in some karaoke: a pastime that has captivated the Japanese and the rest of the world, and a celebration of music in perhaps its purest form.
When you're genuinely excited by something, you'll succeed with it.
To understand more about the diversity of the Tokyo music scene we spoke to Mr. Pan, lead singer of the Japanese rock ‘n’ roll band The Neatbeats. Having grown up listening to his uncle’s cassette tapes of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and playing double bass in a high school rockabilly band, Mr. Pan is an encyclopaedia of rock ‘n’ roll knowledge as well as an avid collector of vintage guitars, amplifiers and recording equipment. During a tour of his home studio, he was more than happy to talk about the sound that he holds so dear to him.
“Why do I love music? It’s the sounds, seeing the looks on people’s faces when we’re playing, even the smells! I love the smell of old vintage gear. I even started a record label called Majestic Sound, because vintage gear has a majestic sound!”
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Music really is everywhere in Japan, from the record shops and karaoke bars that adorn each street to the J-Pop that blares through speakers in Shibuya and Harajuku. It’s hard to think of any other country where music is so embedded into everyday culture, and when you think of it like that, it’s no wonder that music has had such a fundamental impact on us.
When they started Sony, Morita and Ibuka weren’t thinking about what products would make the most money, they were thinking about how the products sounded and how they would make people feel. This is why we’ve introduced technologies like High-Resolution Audio and High Power Audio – so you can feel and appreciate the music instead of it just passing you by.
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