I need to pick out one hour’s worth of good Japanese pop.
Let’s not go into the bazare and perverse details, but suffice it to say that it involves a stapler, Super Mario Cippolinni, and STD’s in pigeons.
So, go forth and post, and if you wouldn’t mind tell me what makes your J-Pop so uniquely adorable and awesome, as well as possibly how to pronounce everything, some cool background info about the band if it really strikes you. Even getting as specific as song names and track numbers on albums would be excellent.
I’m very preferential to Pizzicato Five, but they aren’t really J-Pop as they are on an American label (Matador). Find the song “Nata di Marzo,” it is probably the happiest song on the planet.
Puffy Ami Yumi is a good choice - they even have 3 North American albums (Spike and Nice are the Japanese Albums of the same name with an extra track or two each, and An Illustrated History is a NA-only greatest hits/introduction.) They did the theme of the Teen Titans cartoon, as well as having their song K2G used in the Mad Mod episode. (Both are on Nice.) I’d reccomend Asia no Junshin/Pure Asia, Love So Pure, Violet, & Boogie Woogie #5.
I’m fond of Zone and The Brilliant Green - True Blue and Rainy Days Never Stays are my favourites, respectively.
Kick the Can Crew are really good, but they’re a bit of a bitch to find. <Some Japanese Word I’ve Never Been Able To Make Out> Vacation is my favourite.
Amuro Namie is who got me into the genre, so I should definitely reccomend her. Sweet 19 Blues, Can You Celebrate, Please Smile Again, How To Be a Girl, A Walk in the Park, Body Feels EXIT (yes, that’s the title), and Girlfriend are my favourites…
I also love Pizzicato Five. Their album “Made In USA” is a great introduction to their kitschy, loungey, retro sound, with funky grooves, jazzy hooks, and an amazingly cute-sounding Japanese girl singer. Anyone who likes J-Pop, lounge music, or general “hipster”/indie music ought to own this album.
The 5.6.7.8.s are a Japanese all-girl trio that plays American-style surf, rockabilly, and three-chord rock ‘n’ roll. You saw them in the House Of Blue Leaves scene in the movie Kill Bill Volume 1, the cute girl house band that was playing for the dancers before the huge fight started. They are AWESOME.
Shonen Knife is a Japanese girl pop-punk band that has had a following in America for many years. Imagine the Ramones, but as super-cute Japanese girls, with many songs about animals and food. They are a lot of fun, and they sing in Japanese and English. If I had to name one track to look for (if you’re a downloading kind of person), try “Cookie Day.”
Gackt is a major Japanese pop star with a HUGE following in Japan. He is well-known here among otaku, the often-young fans of anime and Japanese pop culture. He is a sex symbol, but on the androgynous side. Everything I’ve heard from him and about him reminds me of a Japanese Morrissey, with many elements of David Bowie. Try the song “Miserable” for a sample.
I’m really not a J-Pop expert beyond these, but you may also want to look for Puffy AmiYumi (they do the Teen Titans cartoon theme song), The Pillows, Tommy February, Yoko Kanno (composer of the jazzy score to the Cowboy Bebop anime), and Nobuo Uematsu (composer of some gorgeous orchestral video game music, best known for the Final Fantasy games).
While your purposes seem somewhat questionable (pigeon STDs? :smack: ), I can’t miss an opportunity to promote JPop.
Try anything by B’z for some great guitar rock music. They’ve put out something like a dozen number one albums since at least the 80s. Favorites are Juice (track 8 on “Eleven”), Fireball (track 6 on “Survive”), and especially blues-rock piece Bad Communication (track 8, “The Loose”).
L’Arc~en~Ciel is a great, well-known JRock band as well. Try Snow Drop (5, “Ray”), Blurry Eyes (4, “Tierra”), and Kasou (7, “Ray”).
The Brilliant Green, as mentioned before, is one of the best bands on the Pop side of things. I love the singer (“Tommy”)'s oh-so distinctive voice. There Will Be Love There (9, “The Brilliant Green” (self-title)) is a perennial favorite; I second the previous TBG recommendations as well.
More great pop: Utada Hikaru, especially her first album (“First Love”). She’s releasing a brand new album in the US on October 8, which I’m excited about–Japanese artists don’t get much exposure over here. Try First Love (4, “First Love”), and a little more upbeat, Wait & See ~risuku~ (1, Distance). The latter has a great music video btw.
If you’re looking for any specific sub-genres (techno? rock? metal? saccharine (hmm)) I have other suggestions.
Fair enough–like many other bands, they have a number of mediocre releases. But at least listen to Snow Drop (easily obtainable via the usual methods). I think it is one of the best jrock songs of all time.
I agree with this contention. What does BBVL mean, though
Definitely Shonen Knife. Let’s Knife is probably my favorite album of theirs, but it is mostly in english. If you want the lyrics to be in japanese, get their earlier albums.
A lot of what has been mentioned so far strikes me as being popular Japanese music, rather than actual J-Pop (if that makes any sense).
I’m a big fan of Hamasaki Ayumi, a star who has been the Queen of J-Pop for the last few years. I think that Utada Hikaru may actually sell more albums, but she doesn’t have the overall cultural effect that Ayu has.
Her latest mini-album ‘Memorial Address’ and latest single ‘Moments’ are both very good. Some other recent hit songs that I can recommend are ‘Evolution’, ‘M’, and ‘Free & Easy’.
I also recommend Aiuchi Rina (‘Navy Blue’ and ‘Infinity’), and Every Little Thing (‘fragile’, ‘Graceful World’, ‘Fundamental Love’).
I think that’s only true if you construe ‘J-Pop’ in its most ‘poppish’ form. No offense to your tastes, but I can’t stand Ayumi–her music or her trendiness. Morning Musume is another band on the extreme poppish side of j-pop, but I would hesitate to recommend them to the unsuspecting
While I’m here, here’s a couple other groups: Bonnie Pink (pop), Bump of Chicken (traditional guitar rock band), Chihiro Onitsuka (incredible, highly emotional singer, with some… almost gospel influence (yeah yeah, but listen. She’s amazing)), Every Little Thing (electro-synth pop), Globe (highly creative electronica), and X Japan (the epitome of “visual kei” imo).
I am a huge fan of Aiko. She performs a pretty nice variety of styles, and I believe she writes most of her own material, too. Aiko is heavily influenced by a lot of early-70s American and British pop. One thing I really like about her music (at least her early stuff - I don’t have her most recent CDs) is that it lacks the super-slick production that you hear in so much J-Pop. It’s a little rough around the edges, and she even leaves in the little mistakes and bad notes. The result is a more “live-sounding” performance.
Her song “Kabutomushi” is a ballad with one of the most beautiful melodies I’ve ever heard in a pop song.
I really like Morning Musume (although I didn’t reccomend them) they’re really, really…cute, which is not neccessarily to everyone’s taste, but it is to mine. I’m not a fan of Ayumi at all. I find her fairly…bland. Same with Bonnie Pink, actually.
Someone else I like, but I haven’t seen mentioned is Koda Kumi. She did the Japanese versions of Real Emotion and 1000 Words from Final Fantasy X-2, which are a good place to start. (She also did English versions of each, but they’re not as good as either the Japanese version or the versions from the English version of the game.) Other good ones are So Into You and The Meaning of Peace (which she did with BoA.)
