The Japanese musician Haruomi Hosono took his stage name, Harry, from the trend of post-WWII Japanese comedians adopting Western-sounding names to sound exotic: Frankie Sakai, for example, or Tani Kei—a homophonic riff on the American actor Danny Kaye. A playful gesture, but also one that, in a way, defined his career: Hosono, the joker; Hosono, the outsider. Over the course of 50-plus years, he’s explored pop with a sense of wonder, flexibility, intelligence, and humour that is unparalleled, from the hippyish folk-rock of Hosono House through the exotica and electronic music of the late ‘70s (Cochin Moon, Pacific), cutting-edge synth-pop (Philharmony, his work with Yellow Magic Orchestra) and nostalgic takes on American standards (Heavenly Music). Listening, it can be tempting to wonder: Where’s Harry? Or Haruomi? Certainly listeners conditioned to Western-style ideals of authorship—the Stylistically Consistent Artist Standing Grandly Behind it All—might be spooked by a catalog so varied. But in a way, that’s Hosono’s grace, and the source of his enigma: He doesn’t take music for himself—he gives himself over to it. It’s no wonder he’s had such an outsize influence on pop, Japanese or otherwise, impacting everyone from slacker indie-pop icon Mac DeMarco to mega-pop icon Harry Styles.