"I'm confident that there IS good music in Japan, it's just really hard to find."
Wrong, wrong, wrong! One of the best things about living in Japan is the huge variety of record shops catering to any genre you can imagine, plus a few you've probably never heard of. Furthermore, if you live in nearly any of the major cities, you've got plenty of options with regards to club nights, live shows, not to mention the festivals which go on all summer. Judging the state of Japanese music based on Ayumi Hamasaki and her ilk is just plain ignorant.
I've said it before on a bunch of other threads but anyone interested in Japanese music needs to check out SUPERCAR. 'nuff said.
― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Thursday, 10 November 2005 08:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jacob (Jacob), Thursday, 10 November 2005 08:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― Patrick South (Patrick South), Thursday, 10 November 2005 09:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jacob (Jacob), Thursday, 10 November 2005 09:52 (eighteen years ago) link
Did anyone get the last english-language Utada album?
― spontine (cis), Thursday, 10 November 2005 14:16 (eighteen years ago) link
i was thinking the other day that I needed to start a thread about j-pop in 2005 b/c i've really been out of the loop - anybody know of any great '05 releases in the genre?
― Josh Love (screamapillar), Thursday, 10 November 2005 14:26 (eighteen years ago) link
"Long Way Home" by Speed is a lachrymose ballad in the "Careless Whisper" vein that kind of seeps under your skin after a few hearings. Dunno if they're anything to do with Speed, Glue and Shinki (I suspect not) but you can always hope.
Those are the only 2 j-pop songs I can remember actually. Are there any compilations / overviews marketed to the Western market? Or would that be a complete waste of any record companies time and money?
― Matt #2 (Matt #2), Thursday, 10 November 2005 15:42 (eighteen years ago) link
The Hillary Duff sounding song "Endless Love" from We Love Katamari soundtrack. So good!
This morning on the train I jammed out The Fantastic Plastic Machine's "too" which is total disco mindfuck.
― Jdubz (ex machina), Thursday, 10 November 2005 15:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― Sébastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Friday, 11 November 2005 00:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― Patrick South (Patrick South), Friday, 11 November 2005 01:28 (eighteen years ago) link
spontine i had just bought LOve Jam, which is good, is Love punch better ?Also i bought Chara "a scenery like me but had yet to listen"
not strictly jpop but i highy recommend Takako Minekawa "Roomic cube" and "Chat chat".
any other suggestion, expecially greatest hits, since i can permit to go bankrut and i buy tons od diverse genre of music. Yeh a J-Pop compilation for the wester market would be a goodidea, but probably noone is interested....
― francesco brunetti, Friday, 11 November 2005 17:34 (eighteen years ago) link
― francesco brunetti, Friday, 11 November 2005 17:36 (eighteen years ago) link
Kinokuniya Books sells "The Best in J-Pop! Volume X" type comps for better (yet slightly inflated but nowhere near Japanese import) prices.. so SOME labels (in the U.S. at least) have seen a market for this.
They also sell domestic releases of Japanese bands like Polysics and, occasionally, Boredoms related stuff... Still, I wish the buyers at Kinokuniya would be more on the off-the-radar tip -- but the AOR Japanese pop, J-Pop, and Japanese underground customer bases tend to be mutually exclusive, I guess.
― (plurplurplur) ^_- DJ 'O' Nut -_^ (rulprulprulp) (donut), Friday, 11 November 2005 17:56 (eighteen years ago) link
BABYMETAL! I have nothing else to say.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QbAXXXOJF8
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 28 October 2011 18:35 (twelve years ago) link
That's...quite something.
I guess there's always been a crossover between j-pop and metal with people like Aikawa Nanase and the vis kei bands but i've never heard anything like that.
― Mohombi Khush Hua (ShariVari), Friday, 28 October 2011 18:39 (twelve years ago) link
Do not ignore their homepage:
http://www.babymetal.jp/
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 28 October 2011 18:55 (twelve years ago) link
Amazing.
― Mohombi Khush Hua (ShariVari), Friday, 28 October 2011 19:02 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKJdLkpqj6k
― bob loblaw people (dayo), Thursday, 12 January 2012 13:24 (twelve years ago) link
Have to post this here as well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAOqbu_XEvk
(This being Momoiro Clover Z - the music video is great as well, but the official upload's sound is muffled http://youtu.be/TIokp4MonxE )
Big, amazing song. Marty Friedman featuring seems like a normal sort of thing for these girls. There's also this article from Japan Times:
The not-so-odd coupling between noise acts and J-pop http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fm20120223im.html
However, a lot of it is thoroughly sincere, and in Japan, the burning heart of this love affair is Momoiro Clover Z, a pop group who provoke squealing, teenage admiration from punks, indie kids, noise musicians and heavy-psychedelic longhairs throughout the Japanese underground music scene.One such progressive rocker is Taigen Kawabe of U.K.-based psychedelic band Bo Ningen. More often seen in Tokyo playing alongside noise legends such as Keiji Haino, Kawabe's page on the website SoundCloud leads off with a curious mashup of his own band and Momioro Clover Z in which the former band's shifts in rhythm match surprisingly well with the idol group's distinctive penchant for chopping aggressively (and sometimes illogically) between seemingly unconnected melodies.
One such progressive rocker is Taigen Kawabe of U.K.-based psychedelic band Bo Ningen. More often seen in Tokyo playing alongside noise legends such as Keiji Haino, Kawabe's page on the website SoundCloud leads off with a curious mashup of his own band and Momioro Clover Z in which the former band's shifts in rhythm match surprisingly well with the idol group's distinctive penchant for chopping aggressively (and sometimes illogically) between seemingly unconnected melodies.
Interestingly, Momioro Clover's recent single, "Roudou Sanka," written by Ian Parton of British band The Go! Team, met with criticism from some fans for being too commercial, and the Hyadain-produced (and Friedman-enhanced) followup, the elaborately titled "Mouretsu Uchuu Koukyoukyoku Dainana Gakushou", is defiantly back in the group's previous furious conceptual mashup territory
Roudou Sanka is actually great http://youtu.be/Krj3dwKEaSk
― abcfsk, Friday, 2 March 2012 18:40 (twelve years ago) link
the music isn't killing me as much as the video concepts, but the Megadeth guitar + Volga Boatmen Russian choral coda is definitely some kind of... thing? they're 9000 times less disturbing than AKB48 in any case, if I could take back watching that one video of theirs a friend forwarded I would
that Japan Times article is great though; Merzbow had been influencing western pop artists from the beginning of his career, but when Shiina Ringo began integrating full on Otomo Yoshihide levels of noise-solos in her pop songs it really did come across as national heritage rather than some kind of collage. almost confused Japan Times didn't reference Shiina even though she basically moved away from noise in 2004
― Milton Parker, Friday, 2 March 2012 20:15 (twelve years ago) link
Here's the song performed live with a full choir and marty on the guitar!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB3Oo1vihSo
― abcfsk, Saturday, 3 March 2012 10:57 (twelve years ago) link
I fell asleep listening to Perfume's JPN last night and had weird acidy candy store french electro dreams.
― owenf, Tuesday, 13 March 2012 22:37 (twelve years ago) link
Whoa, I completely missed out on Momoiro Clover Z's nutsoid Christmas song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmfli1WCcFA
― Doch! (seandalai), Wednesday, 14 March 2012 00:30 (twelve years ago) link
^ the best bit is when it goes SANTA
― owenf, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 01:32 (twelve years ago) link
Dude who writes most of their stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyUXKynmmiw
― abcfsk, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 06:33 (twelve years ago) link
bet he's tired
― owenf, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 09:48 (twelve years ago) link
Sufficiently so to forget his many chords in the new Momoiro tune- http://youtu.be/fATvdleWPtU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVn3_qeIrBA
― abcfsk, Wednesday, 14 March 2012 10:49 (twelve years ago) link
TAKE FIVE! puts me in this really nostalgic mood
― flagp∞st (dayo), Saturday, 17 March 2012 23:04 (twelve years ago) link
live track by Salyu, from her new Cornelius produced albumhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brec06BA6JU
― zappi, Sunday, 18 March 2012 12:37 (twelve years ago) link
I realize that i should have typed GIVE ME FIVE!. TAKE FIVE! is a dave brubeck song.
― flagp∞st (dayo), Sunday, 18 March 2012 12:48 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BmnwuISzlA&feature=related
not often that i really dig auto-tune/vocoders. she has a couple great songs but i can't find youtube hosts of them.
― kelpolaris, Monday, 19 March 2012 00:11 (twelve years ago) link
here's a real treat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN0zuBHKHaM
― frogbs, Monday, 19 March 2012 00:42 (twelve years ago) link
Grabbed the new Ayumi Hamasaki album yesterday. The first few songs are pretty good in a blatantly Rihanna/pop-trance kind of way, but the album's latter two-thirds are all ballads with gloopy strings. Don't love it.
― 誤訳侮辱, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 13:43 (twelve years ago) link
Saw L'Arc-en-Ciel at Madison Square Garden last night; reviewed it for the Voice. I took many more pictures than they used; I'll put some up on my blog, and link it later.
― 誤訳侮辱, Monday, 26 March 2012 14:14 (twelve years ago) link
I really like the Ayumi Hamasaki album! I'm not big on ballads and gloopy strings either but they are much more restrained and creative than that description usually suggests. With the exception of the last one (the single) which, yes, is a bit much.
― if, Monday, 26 March 2012 15:07 (twelve years ago) link
I don't know - my favorite of her recent albums is Rock 'n' Roll Circus, so with the title Party Queen I was kinda hoping for something more in that vein.
Here's the link to my L'Arc-en-Ciel photos.
― 誤訳侮辱, Monday, 26 March 2012 15:57 (twelve years ago) link
Meta new Perfume
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VnPyW9LwxY
― abcfsk, Sunday, 1 April 2012 09:49 (twelve years ago) link
amazing. As usual.
― owenf, Sunday, 1 April 2012 11:45 (twelve years ago) link
yep, that's good
― James Bond Jor (seandalai), Sunday, 1 April 2012 14:59 (twelve years ago) link
http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/03/japanese-idol-on-support-by-eating-positive-from-wbc/http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/04/another-member-of-tokio-hospitalized/
― _Rudipherous_, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 20:32 (twelve years ago) link
this song, wtf. its like a Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure version of Jpop starring teenage girl space pirates, with choirs and the kitchen sink flung in. it feels like it goes on forever! the "aye aye sir" bits are pretty funny tho.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIokp4MonxE
― zappi, Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:16 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah I posted about it some posts over you and their excellent Christmas classic also got posted.
― abcfsk, Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:20 (twelve years ago) link
Why didn't we already know about this:
http://bourdaghs.com/blog/
?
― _Rudipherous_, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 19:04 (twelve years ago) link
DescriptionFrom the beginning of the American Occupation in 1945 to the post-bubble period of the early 1990s, popular music provided Japanese listeners with a much-needed release, channeling their desires, fears, and frustrations into a pleasurable and fluid art. Pop music allowed Japanese artists and audiences to assume various identities, reflecting the country's uncomfortable position under American hegemony and its uncertainty within ever-shifting geopolitical realities.In the first English-language study of this phenomenon, Michael K. Bourdaghs considers genres as diverse as boogie-woogie, rockabilly, "enka," 1960s rock and roll, 1970s new music, folk, and techno-pop. Reading these forms and their cultural import through music, literary, and cultural theory, he introduces readers to the sensual moods and meanings of modern Japan. As he unpacks the complexities of popular music production and consumption, Bourdaghs interprets Japan as it worked through (or tried to forget) its imperial past. These efforts grew even murkier as Japanese pop migrated to the nation's former colonies. In postwar Japan, pop music both accelerated and protested the commodification of everyday life, challenged and reproduced gender hierarchies, and insisted on the uniqueness of a national culture, even as it participated in an increasingly integrated global marketplace.Each chapter in "Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon" examines a single genre through a particular theoretical lens: the relation of music to liberation; the influence of cultural mapping on musical appreciation; the role of translation in transmitting musical genres around the globe; the place of noise in music and its relation to historical change; the tenuous connection between ideologies of authenticity and imitation; the link between commercial success and artistic integrity; and the function of melodrama. Bourdaghs concludes with a look at recent Japanese pop music culture.
From the beginning of the American Occupation in 1945 to the post-bubble period of the early 1990s, popular music provided Japanese listeners with a much-needed release, channeling their desires, fears, and frustrations into a pleasurable and fluid art. Pop music allowed Japanese artists and audiences to assume various identities, reflecting the country's uncomfortable position under American hegemony and its uncertainty within ever-shifting geopolitical realities.
In the first English-language study of this phenomenon, Michael K. Bourdaghs considers genres as diverse as boogie-woogie, rockabilly, "enka," 1960s rock and roll, 1970s new music, folk, and techno-pop. Reading these forms and their cultural import through music, literary, and cultural theory, he introduces readers to the sensual moods and meanings of modern Japan. As he unpacks the complexities of popular music production and consumption, Bourdaghs interprets Japan as it worked through (or tried to forget) its imperial past. These efforts grew even murkier as Japanese pop migrated to the nation's former colonies. In postwar Japan, pop music both accelerated and protested the commodification of everyday life, challenged and reproduced gender hierarchies, and insisted on the uniqueness of a national culture, even as it participated in an increasingly integrated global marketplace.
Each chapter in "Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon" examines a single genre through a particular theoretical lens: the relation of music to liberation; the influence of cultural mapping on musical appreciation; the role of translation in transmitting musical genres around the globe; the place of noise in music and its relation to historical change; the tenuous connection between ideologies of authenticity and imitation; the link between commercial success and artistic integrity; and the function of melodrama. Bourdaghs concludes with a look at recent Japanese pop music culture.
― _Rudipherous_, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 19:05 (twelve years ago) link
ha ha as to the entirety of the samples chosen for Japanese Popular Music Since 1990
http://bourdaghs.com/Sayonara-current-JPop.html
will buy this book
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 19:14 (twelve years ago) link
that being said if he's calling 'KZK' her second instead of her third solo album, I will hope that the factual details in the rest of the book have been better proofed
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 19:16 (twelve years ago) link
Well how do you think I googled this thing up to begin with? Funny though, I hadn't even made it that far yet (to the page you link to).
Japan Times review here: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fb20120513a2.html
― _Rudipherous_, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 19:37 (twelve years ago) link
And yes, that's some bad fact checking. University press too.
― _Rudipherous_, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 19:38 (twelve years ago) link
Had you seen this author's name previously?
― _Rudipherous_, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 19:39 (twelve years ago) link
There's a whole chapter on Misora Hibari.
― _Rudipherous_, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 19:46 (twelve years ago) link
"plateau" is solid but it's pretty by-numbers. they're still good at that one thing though which is enough to make it stand out from the rest of the album.
it's such a short & slight album and the other songs don't really have anything going for them, they're fairly mellow and restrained without their usual big hooks. it's not even like they don't have ideas, there's no reason the talking heads-esque disco pastiche of "shock" has to be so underwhelming - it's not bad but they're clearly capable of so much better. they've made going retro work extremely well before on "wasureranai no" but there's nothing like that here
― ufo, Thursday, 31 March 2022 04:05 (two years ago) link
flipping through it, I like it fine but yeah my general impression of this band is they're too interesting to be doing what they're doing. if this is "easily their worst" that's a good sign for the albums I haven't heard yet
― frogbs, Thursday, 31 March 2022 18:39 (two years ago) link
I've liked a few Haruka Kudo (工藤晴香) songs before, but not with enough mindfulness to internalize the kanji and realize that without looking it up. But the new album, 流星列車 (Meteor Train?), is fantastic idol rock all the way through. Highly recommended!
https://open.spotify.com/album/43fD05oNZfTmSg6UZWo6UG
― glenn mcdonald, Wednesday, 6 April 2022 17:11 (two years ago) link
got to say I'm amused that altidol is already in the nostalgia phase with Bellring and Especia announcing oneoff reunionsonly a matter of time before WACK scrape together a lineup of Lui and whoever is in the office at the time to do a BiS "hits" tour
anyway Ano has a major label debut single, it's OK?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JeCJ8kDmu
― ( X '____' )/ (zappi), Saturday, 9 April 2022 12:25 (two years ago) link
(copy/pasted that wrong)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JeCJ8kDmus
― ( X '____' )/ (zappi), Saturday, 9 April 2022 12:29 (two years ago) link
new wednesday campanella EP out today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feiToPhrzcI
it's solid, not special in the way their 2013-2018 run was, but i'm happy to have more from hidefumi
― ufo, Friday, 27 May 2022 01:29 (two years ago) link
I think it was time for a bit of a lighter vibe. Utaha is growing on me. "Buckingham" goes.
― maf you one two (maffew12), Friday, 27 May 2022 02:10 (two years ago) link
greatly enjoying this debut album from ExWHYZ - first single "Wanna Dance" produced by Shinichi Osawa/Mondo Grosso:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn9EPV_atyQ
― Roz, Sunday, 27 November 2022 05:50 (one year ago) link
hey something WACK related that I actually like, been a while since that happened(thought it was a 46 offshoot at first just going by the initial haircuts haha)
― ( X '____' )/ (zappi), Sunday, 27 November 2022 06:31 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjzzPdG7RXw
ho6la - "idol fire" goes hard and goes places
― ufo, Saturday, 10 December 2022 12:33 (one year ago) link
ok this is cheating a bit cos they are from Thailand, but this Shimmer Shrimpner song is fun in a late 80s indiepop way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A2AhynBC8o
― ( X '____' )/ (zappi), Saturday, 10 December 2022 13:33 (one year ago) link
speaking of cheating, is there a better place to talk about the lexie liu record?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4tyThWCYU0
― (⊙_⊙?) (original bgm), Sunday, 18 December 2022 21:43 (one year ago) link
oh and nakata continues bringing the good stuff again with the new capsule
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXlbYV9RhAM
― (⊙_⊙?) (original bgm), Sunday, 18 December 2022 22:47 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n8WiBNCZpY
very confused by this sailor moon-themed idol group putting out this weird atonal track produced by hudson mohawke & bloodpop
― ufo, Friday, 17 March 2023 12:07 (one year ago) link
Sakurazaka46 (formerly Keyakizaka46) have been steadily ruling this year
"Start Over" - such a rush
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJRFD1AdaUE
"Shoninyokkyu" - currently no.1 in Japan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_BjvhMW9TE
― Roz, Wednesday, 1 November 2023 03:09 (seven months ago) link
love the weird ass tempo changes in this, makes my brain feel like it's being squished together and pulled apart simultaneously
RYUGUJO - Deep Waves
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w--X4i-K1Wk
― Roz, Friday, 29 March 2024 09:50 (two months ago) link
it's not just tempo but time signature too, extremely bold
― ufo, Friday, 29 March 2024 11:43 (two months ago) link
Yeah, that's wild.
― emil.y, Friday, 29 March 2024 14:10 (two months ago) link
Even more Sakurazaka46:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs-Y9MtHsoo
Anything else happening in the J-Pop world at the moment?
― emil.y, Friday, 14 June 2024 12:47 (four days ago) link
That's pretty good. They seem consistently solid in their lane.
Anonymous singers taking off maybe? Perhaps I've been blind to it before, but after Ado taking over the world (including an actual world tour) without showing her face it feels like every month there's some new singer showing up in my feed with some popularity who's not revealing her identity.
On the 2024 mid-year chart 15 year old singer/songwriter tuki. is at nr. 2. Makes some sense for a young girl in school to not reveal herself if she can I guess. She has several songs on the JP Spotify chart. Her songs are maybe reminiscent of Yuuri, but a memorable voice.
The Supper Song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxW-ok1ekSY
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GP_7JF1aQAA3Won?format=jpg&name=small
― abcfsk, Friday, 14 June 2024 16:07 (four days ago) link
Personally I find this new Aimyon single very sweet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqSspWjCA6s
― abcfsk, Friday, 14 June 2024 16:27 (four days ago) link
haven't been paying _super_ close attention but I've enjoyed -
usabeni "air":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAb1OZIJGiI
these lilniina singles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aocYZAJ1RL0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po6UjrGrb7E
the "sped up" vers of both also pretty great
kimriri "episode":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMaKM-9dFPs
― (⊙_⊙?) (original bgm), Friday, 14 June 2024 20:00 (four days ago) link
there's also a brand new YUKI record! those are usually good!
― (⊙_⊙?) (original bgm), Friday, 14 June 2024 20:02 (four days ago) link
Dempagumi is about to retire and still doing their thing best in the biz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz69lZW8h0A
― abcfsk, Saturday, 15 June 2024 10:54 (three days ago) link
they still got it!
hadn't heard about the retirement but makes sense. they feel a little out of step at this point. and I like that there are still one or two OG members left. including a married one! (hopefully this is no longer taboo but... probs is lol)
― (⊙_⊙?) (original bgm), Saturday, 15 June 2024 18:07 (three days ago) link
Probably. Even at debut Dempagumi hid their ages because they were reportedly on the 'too old' side of starting up a idol career. Good to see they made a long run out of it.
― abcfsk, Sunday, 16 June 2024 08:08 (two days ago) link
Enjoy the lilniina songs, haven't heard (due to my lack of effort no doubt) that style too much in jpop
― abcfsk, Sunday, 16 June 2024 08:10 (two days ago) link
Thanks for these - lilniina definitely standing out the most to me atm.
― emil.y, Sunday, 16 June 2024 20:57 (two days ago) link