J pop music...

[kenamoto]

Can anyone recommend some good japanese pop bands?

What happened to Pizzicato Five? Did they split???

[Ewok85]

I prefer rock more so bands like Orange Range, 175R, Ketsumeshi, Ulfuls, Southern All Stars, Pornograffitti

Jpop you'll get the usual groupies suggesting groups that are not popular or not popular because of thier music (Gackt, Hyde etc)
But Sonin, Aiko, Morning Musume, Zone make nice music

Ill add some more later when i can get to my collection

[TwistedMac]

only jpop i know of is that ayumi hamasaki girl... "hamasaki"?.. is that right? im sure about ayumi....

[Ewok85]

Yeah, Hamasaki is right. Shes very popular but im not so much of a pop fan...

Also recommend SMAP, B'z, Utada Hikaru, Every Little Thing (ELT), Tokio, Chemistry, Mongol 800 and Exile

[jet_dee]

BoA, Do As Infinity, CHEMISTRY, Mr.Children and Namie Amuro are all good imo, although strictly not all bands.

[silver angel]

Core of Soul is super good, yaida hitomi is awesome too.

[Hachiko]

What happened to Pizzicato Five? Did they split???

No, Pizzicato Five, the duo of Maki Nomiya and Yasuharu Konishi, are still going strong. They're just on hiatus. If they split into who they are today, it was about a half-decade ago. But they're still going strong. Just on hiatus, afaik.

(Btw, this should be moved to the J-Pop Forum... :bluush: )

[michi]

Mai Kuraki
Aya Matsuura
ZONE
Tackey & Tsubasa
Ayumi Hamasaki
day after tomorrow
hitomi
I WiSH
Le Couple
Malice Mizer...ok. Obviously Malice Mizer is not pop, but hehe. Give them a try anyways.

[silver angel]

:dance: I can never find music from Chemistry or B'z although I found a great site for do as infinity!

[Twisted]

No, Pizzicato Five, the duo of Maki Nomiya and Yasuharu Konishi, are still going strong. They're just on hiatus. If they split into who they are today, it was about a half-decade ago. But they're still going strong. Just on hiatus, afaik.

Uhm, hate to burst your bubble, but they've official disbanded on march 31, 2001. Maki is doing solowork and Konishi is mostly doing remixes and productionwork for other artists.

[Meiji Lythtis]

I highly recommend the whole Hello! Project... groups and soloists: Morning Musume, Melon Kinenbi, Mini Moni, Tanpopo, Aya Matsuura, Maki Goto, Yuko Nakazawa, Natsumi Abe

and remember...

Maki Forever !!!
:ramen:

[Ruri-Ruri]

Artists I really like are:
Bonnie Pink
Love Psychedelico
Luna Sea (rock- highly recommended!!)
Orange Pekoe (more jazz than pop, really)
Porno Graffiti
Sakamoto Maaya
Shiina Ringo
Utada Hikaru
X-Japan

[Hachiko]

Uhm, hate to burst your bubble, but they've official disbanded on march 31, 2001. Maki is doing solowork and Konishi is mostly doing remixes and productionwork for other artists.

*iron-fist-punches Twisted into the atmosphere* Bakajinga!!!! :auch: :mad: :D

So ends the legacy of one of the most popular loungecore duos of all time, huh? Thanks for letting me know, Twisted. (next time, PM me in case of bad news or clarifications...save face, j/k.)

P5 will indeed be a tough act to follow. I also like Ayu. I don't know if she's coming back with a new album or what...

[Twisted]

Heheh, you don't know how many times i've been wrong about certain facts.
I use it as a tool these days. If i want to know something of a certain band, i post something quite dubious about that band and then you usually get the correct facts fired at you. :D

Actually, i've seen a performance by a Japanese band named Qypthone (http://www.qypthone.com) a feww months back. They were quite a good follow up to P5.

Ayumi Hamasaki has released an album last december. She will release a new single titled "moments" on march 31.

[TwistedMac]

pop people =P

we have this underground odd little club that devotes itself to japanese music and movies twice or three times a year, so i usually go there.. first time i went they had a jap band too... Mono.. i just went for the novelty of the whole thing..

turned out they were the best instrumental band ive ever heard!..(and one of the best bands over-all) bought both their records and they now have the place of honor on my shelf.. it was instrumental-psychadelic-metal or something like that tho, no pop...

[Eternal Wind]

I love T.M Revolution's songs,E.L.T,Utada Hikaru's and many more!!
:D:D:D

[suzu]

how 'bout
V6
field of view
aiko

[Jean-Francois]

How about an older singer? Mayumi Itsuwa is a legend. :smug:

[Shinmeiryu]

I recommend...

Hayami Kishimoto
Aiko Kitahara
Akane Sugazaki
U'Ka Saegusa in DB
Mai Kuraki
Garnet Crow
Rina Aiuchi

any more and I'll end up naming off the whole GIZA studio lineup...

[MHtrStevie]

Wow! I never expected to see a Mayumi Itsuwa mention in this thread... I love her song "Koibito yo"...

I'll throw in a classic artist too, though I think she's still making music today as well... Yumi Matsutoya! Also, check out her work under her maiden name, Yumi Arai... fantastic stuff!

:cool:

[touzokushoujo]

Some J-Pop artists I can reccomend are:

Ayumi Hamasaki
Megumi Hayashibara (sp?)
Do As Infinity
Puffy AmiYumi
Bonnie Pink
Kick the Can Crew

[nanaochan2]

w-inds. is the BEST!! :cool: secondly is morning musume and aya matsuura... :blush:

[july]

well, there's The pillows, Guitar Vader, and The Emeralds...

The Pillows did the music for the anime FLCL, you can hear a couple guitar vader tracks if you play the games Jet Grind Radio (dreamcast) or Jet set Radio future (Xbox).

The Emeralds...well i don't know where you can listen to them...

If you really want to expose yourself to new artists, playing video games and watching anime is a good way to do it. More and more, game developers and anime creators are incorporating songs from popular artists into their work.

option Ni-ban would be to hit www.japanaradio.com.

[caswl]

every little thing is my best love

[playaa]

Yeah, a few J-pop reccomendations would be helpful.. I have never liked american pop but I will see about J-Pop. :)

[DaMo]

GLAY, The Pillows, Hitomi, Do as Infinity, Dreams Come True, Dream, Aikawa Nanase, Hitomi, Coming Century, Horie Yui (her non-seiyuu stuff is pretty good too)

[okinawa]

Puffy, BoA, Nami Tamaki, Sowelu (she's kind of R&B), Hyori (R&B also), Shinhwa, Vivian or Kazuma... although they've only made one song I've heard of and that's Moment. It's one of the theme songs for Gundam Seed. I NEVER tire of hearing. It's just THAT good! :happy:

[-Yu-]

In my opinion most Japanese songs suck, but not some rock or the artists which most people don't know about.Anyway difinitely J-Pops suck except for some.

What I'm listen to are "Air" which consists of just one guy who plays the guitar and sing.He learns from many kinds of music style and make his own music.If you don't know about him, I really suggest that you listen to him.

[Flashjeff]

Well, how about some old school J-Pop like Pink Lady, Candies or Momoe Yamaguchi? :-)

[-Yu-]

Well, how about some old school J-Pop like Pink Lady, Candies or Momoe Yamaguchi? :-)

Do you know some singers doing just whatever they are told to do?
"Chemistry" is one of good examples for it.
I personaly think they are that kind of artists, I haven't really listened to them though I watched their some music videos on TV.
I don't want to offend anyone, but if you feel like that,I'm sorry.
: :relief:
Anyway this is just my opinion and it can be wrong.

[Jean-Francois]

I happen to find Chemistry's "Your Name Never Gone" very euphonic. In this song, they sound kind of like Boyz II Men who didn't release any new CD for a long time. Well, I guess I can use Chemistry as a subsitute for it then.

I always like commercialized music anyway. If it is not commercialized, I usually don't like it.

[MHtrStevie]

Do you know some singers doing just whatever they are told to do?
Take a cue from flashjeff, Yu... Momoe Yamaguchi is a great story for someone a little jaded by the commercial music industry.

She started as a company idol basically, but she was operating at a turbulent time in the Japanese music industry (1970's) when "new music" was becoming popular and Yumi Matsutoya (Yuming) was leading a new generation of artists into a world where they could be more independently expressive... Momoe was able to capitalize on this and use her idol mega-popularity to spread her creative wings and perform in some more unusual styles later in her career before retiring at the TOP in 1980. Talk about beating the system...

:cool:

If you like a little older '70s style music, she's worth checking out...

[-Yu-]

Well, I didn't know such a story about her, perhaps because of my age(17)
I'm sorry about my wrong opinion that I wrote before.It was a part of my ignorance. :sorry:
To promote better understanding,if you know any websites which have stories about the artists around that time, can you tell me?I don't really know about old Japanese music..
By the way, I know Yuming because my mum likes her music and she often listens to some songs of hers at home.I like her some songs too.

:-)

[Flashjeff]

Stevie was right about Momoe (born five days after me in January 1959), as for websites about J-Pop artists from the 70's, that I don't know about but I'm sure music by stars of that era can be readily found via the Internet!

[MHtrStevie]

Yu, there's no need for apologies... you definitely bring up some good points about the worldwide music industry, and there are plenty of artists out there who merely perform when and what they're ordered to by a corporate body. This is going on in many countries all over the globe, and has been going on for years and years... music has been, is and will continue to be big business.

I don't know much about websites with this kind of information... my sources tend to be in print (books, magazines, etc.), but it's always worth making some quick websearches to see what's out there.

I did a radio show once about Yuming and the "new music" movement, and it's probably worth it for you to check out that story... she and many other artists in her time did a lot to allow different styles of music to grow and flourish in Japan, and I think it's not out of line to say that most artists who don't sing in the "enka" or idol-pop styles owe her a little debt of gratitude for creating the atmosphere in which they can perform today... she succeeded with really no major record label backing while maintaining her creative integrity and ended up being one of the biggest selling J-Pop artists of all time, even to this day... an inspiration to any independent-minded artist looking to succeed...

:cool:

Nice talking with you... you're asking good questions that need to be asked...

[-Yu-]

Okay, I think I will check it out.That's what I should say, thanks for having this conversation and telling me some information.