Bebop's musical composer, Yoko Kanno, has become even more popular after Bebop has hit the shores of the West. Her unique mix of jazz, blues and funk that makes up the Bebop soundtrack is among one of the most innovative and appreciated soundtracks in anime. One of our AnimeInfo.org staffers, Shouryu, has a special affinity for music, and here he takes an in-depth look at the music that is such a big part of the enjoyment of Cowboy Bebop

J.'Shouryu' Nohe has been a moderate anime enthusiast of anime and manga since 1995. His favorite animes and mangas include El Hazard: The Magnificent World, Cowboy Bebop, and Oh My Goddess! Currently pursuing a Master of Music from New Mexico State University, he graduated from the same institution with a Bachelor of Arts in Music in 2001. Although his focus was primarily on late 18th century and early 19th century clarinet works, he is also a jazz saxophonist, following the playing of Dexter Gordon and Cannonball Adderly. He also currently serves as the assistant director of the Pride of New Mexico marching band and the conductor of the Road Runner Revue.

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When the motion picture was first presented to the general public, it was new wonder that would revolutionize the entertainment industry. In it's first incarnation, however, there was no sound. In order to give the characters on the screen a voice, their lines had to be printed on the screen and read by the audience. In order to present the proper swings in drama, mood, and tension, sound was still utilized: music, usually played by a live performer who knew what kind of music to play at the right moment. Many of us imagine these spectacles just as the media portrayed them: a man with a thin moustache, wearing a cape, has tied a poor girl to the railroad tracks. He laughs maniacally as the hero attempts to rescue her, and all the while, in our minds, we can hear the jangling piano, pounding away at sinister minor chords as the train approaches.

Cowboy Bebop pays homage to this heritage in more ways than one. In episode 3, Honky Tonk Women, Spike wanders about the casino, and a silent samurai film is being shown in a small theatre, complete will cut-away text dialogue (translated into several languages, no less). But on a much higher level, the music truly sets the stage for the players in the drama called Cowboy Bebop in a manner that hasn't been seen in animes that preceeded it.

The alignment of music within anime is nothing particularly new; it is not uncommon for music to have a particular focus, usually in the performance role. Works such as Key: The Metal Idol and Perfect Blue utilize music as a device that not only functions as a scenic/dramatic tool, but also as an interwoven part of the plot, as characters are performers who are searching to perfect their delivery. In these cases, because the music is so integral to the plot and development of the characters, the music almost essentially becomes a character of its own, sharing the stage with the characters composed of ink and paint.

There is no debating the musical success of Cowboy Bebop; composer Yoko Kanno exceeded any and all expectations given of her and delivered a dynamite sound package for a dynamite series. What makes the music so refreshing is the amazing complexity and diversity it contains. There are other excellent jazz soundtracks in anime (Gunsmith Cats, Lupin III, Blue Submarine No.6), but Kanno's score seems to stand out. Is her music that much better? Speaking as a jazz musician, I would say that this is not the reason. Her music is exceptionally good, but the reason the music of Cowboy Bebop stands out in particular is because it is one those particular scores that comes to life in itself, a full character standing along side of Spike, Jet, and Faye. Read the articles in Animerica, or any well-written review you might find on the World Wide Web - it seems no one can review the anime without mention the music. It is that powerful.

Cowboy Bebop, however, stands alone in this particular respect. As mentioned prior, other animes have soundtracks that seemingly become living, breathing entities, but the main difference is that for those animes, the music must come to life. The score is so integral to the plot that we actually get to see the music grow and change, just as an ink and paint character does. In Cowboy Bebop, there is no evolution of the music. In fact, the score is not even remotely important to the plot. Spike and Jet are not aspiring singers, nor are they searching for the perfect song that proves their artistry. They're gunmen looking to make money. What does hardcore jazz have to do with that?

The only direct tie to the characters that the music has is the fact that Jet is pointed out to be a jazz and blues enthusiast (which, of the entire score, at least half is jazz, and a significant portion of the remainder is blues). Neither Spike nor Faye ever say that they share Jet's preferences (and I don't even want to try and guess what Edward likes as far as music...your guess is as good as mine). As a result, Jet's ship is named the Bebop. But the fact that Jet likes jazz has nothing to do with his profession, nor does the music directly impact any plot or character aspects of the series. They could all love showtunes, and still be the gritty, scarred anti-heroes we know them to be. So how does Kanno's jazz score come to life so brilliantly from the moment it is first invoked?

I put forth that the music itself becomes a direct representation of the lifestyles and exploits of the Bebop's crew, even though the characters and the music are not directly connected. While any form of music could have been used to drive the stories of Cowboy Bebop, it is specifically the use of jazz that keeps the characters gritty and realistic, rather than comical and stereotypically heroic. Jazz, in its most basic modern conception, is a perfect mirror of the lifestyles that Jet, Spike, and Faye lead. Allow it to be boiled down to very simplistic parameters.

(Most jazz musicians work out of two sources, their heads, and something called a fake book or a real book, which basically is a massive book with some 400 tunes, containing only the melodies and a skeleton harmony that they call 'changes.')

This is a typical jazz situation:

Here is the tune we're going to play. Here is the key it is in; here is the tempo we'll play it. That is all we know, that is all we need, and that is all we will get. Once we start playing, anything can happen, anything should happen, anything will happen. Start with the melody, and once we've played that, we improvise our own ideas and methods to keep the ball rolling. Sometimes those ideas and methods work really well, and sound amazing. Other times, it seems like you can make your instrument work right, and you have to find other ideas to improvise on to keep from looking too bad, and hope that you'll stll get paid at the end of the gig.

Is this beginning to sound a little familiar?

This is life on the Bebop:

Here is the man we're after. Here is his face, and here is where we think he might be, or at where some leads could be. That is all we know, that is all we need, and that is all we will get. He'll do anything to throw us off, so anything can happen, anything should happen, anything will happen. Once we've made use of the meager bit of info that we have, we're on our own; we have to improvise our own ideas and methods of finding our target. Hopefully, those ideas will work really well...but a lot of times, we'll end up just trying to keep our own reputations from nosediving (further), and hopefully, we'll get paid in the end (assuming we nail him alive and manage to leave the city intact in the process).

No other form of western music is built so heavily upon improvisation than jazz is. The art of taking something so small and basic, such as a melody, and stretching to it's infinite potential within one's own abilities is the very heart of jazz, and truthfully, few, if any other art forms, allow for such off-the-cuff spontenaeity. While the same cannot be said about the uniqueness of bounty hunting (there are a surprising number of occupations that are fairly unpredictable and do not have a set method of operation), it does seem to be largely intuitive and improvisational, just like jazz. If Kanno was completely serious about portraying the story through music, there was really no other route should could have taken to draw the audience in so completely.

The end result is a score that is not merely accompanying and acknowledging the characters and stories, but one that is alive and active within the series, embedding itself within the roots and concepts of Cowboy Bebop...or perhaps vice versa. The improvisation, that crucial element of the unknown path that things can take is truly the key. It is what keeps us interested and impressed as both bounty hunters and musicians make do.

Musically speaking Bebop stands unique, in having an autonomous score that comes to life, injecting its philosophy, its methods, perhaps its very essence into each character and story it flows through.