よしだたくろう - 結婚しようよ Album

結婚しようよ (Kekkon Shiyouyo - 'Let's Get Married') was a big hit of 1972, going to number 3 in the Oricon charts and selling half a million copies in its first three months.

It is said by many to mark a turning point in the history of Japanese Folk, which up to this point had been of a more serious political nature, deriving from the student protest movements of the 1960s.

This song dispenses with all that, and in its breezy cheerfulness ("when my hair gets down to my shoulders and becomes as long as yours, let's get married") presages the coming era of Yumin et al, whose songs are more concerned with personal sentiment than any particular condition of society.

In short, Japanese folk can be seen here subtly switching from being the symbol and theme music of dissidents to being the generic popular music of young people, reflecting their concerns and hopes for their own personal and day-to-day lives.