I can't find any Japanese music that doesn't suck. Seriously. Did the culture as a whole take a nap for the 60s-70s? Sure they have a wealth of jpop and jrock, along with a select few Carpenters-esque ballads and crappy covers, but damn! I know many of the gruff vocal styles I've come to love aren't even in the Japanese gene pools, but where are the Classic Rockers of Japan? There are no Beatles, no Zeppelin, no ZZ Top or Tom petty. No Chili Peppers or Floyd, and certainly no Creedence or Kansas.

Am I just not looking in the right direction, or do the Japanese just not like good music?

I don't think that I share your taste in music, but I do believe that there is good Japanese music.

Just a few songs straight out of my head:

-Thee Michelle Gun Elephant - Akage no Kerry and Drop (both featured in the film Blue Spring)

-Downy - Hidari no Tane and Anarchy Dance(Japan's answer to Radiohead!)

-Number Girl - I don't know (from the brillant film HARMFUL INSECT)

Those bands are actually pretty good. Number Girl really reminds me of Coheed and Cambria, if you know of them. These songs aren't really the genre I was looking for, but it's a nice middle ground between Rock and Roll and JRock. Definitely listenable! I haven't listened to the full songs yet, but I will later, and these will give me a good starting point to search.

Thanks a lot.

The_Dude Wrote:I can't find any Japanese music that doesn't suck. Seriously. Did the culture as a whole take a nap for the 60s-70s? Sure they have a wealth of jpop and jrock, along with a select few Carpenters-esque ballads and crappy covers, but damn! I know many of the gruff vocal styles I've come to love aren't even in the Japanese gene pools, but where are the Classic Rockers of Japan? There are no Beatles, no Zeppelin, no ZZ Top or Tom petty. No Chili Peppers or Floyd, and certainly no Creedence or Kansas.

Am I just not looking in the right direction, or do the Japanese just not like good music?

The 70s were awesome for music from japan, they certainly were not sleeping especially on the Prog-rock front, Pyg, Flower Travelling band, Happy End, Melting Glass Box to name a few.

The Album Kazemachi Roman from Happy End is in my top 10 albums.

Tons of good music has come out of Japan, not much since the early nineties sadly, Boris maybe the only good Japanese band enjoying some success outside of Japan.

Some anime openings are awesome!

Kekkaishi first opening rocks!

I know that many countries have great music if you look hard enough, but I am also curious to know if there are any generally accepted "rock legends" of Japan, and if so, who are they? For example, if you asked an American or Brit to name some timeless English language classic artists, most will rattle off names like Led Zep, Beatles, Floyd, Doors, and Hendrix just as The_Dude mentioned. So to ask the question a different way, does Japan have incredibly popular rock music that both the young and old still listen to, or do people mainly stick to their own generation's music, thus forcing all older music into near-obscurity? If ever, maybe the famous Japanese love for fads contributes to this lack?

Seems like the only one Japanese legend I ever hear about consistently is that Ryu Sakamoto guy.

Rock legends, let's see? before the 80's you have groups like Pyg, Happy End, Champloose and Shinji Harada.

From the 80's on rock music in Japan walks hand in hand with Visual Keiand groups like X-Japan, Larc~en~Ciel and Malice Mizer take the crown. Larc~en~Ciel is still active, and I love their sound.

Today, I enjoy Gackt (ex Malice Mizer), The Pillows and Dir en Grey, among others.

Outside the rock genre, I really like Ayumi Hamasaki, Utada Hikaru, Hirai Ken and many, many more. I guess I'm exactly your opposite: I enjoy japanese music a lot.

Dragg Wrote:I know that many countries have great music if you look hard enough, but I am also curious to know if there are any generally accepted "rock legends" of Japan, and if so, who are they? For example, if you asked an American or Brit to name some timeless English language classic artists, most will rattle off names like Led Zep, Beatles, Floyd, Doors, and Hendrix just as The_Dude mentioned.

This was more along the lines of what I was asking. It would be great if their music was like the stuff we have in English, but if not it's no biggie. Are there and bands widely accepted in Japan as mind numbingly awesome?

And I'm really starting to dig downy. Their music is so mellow, but it's way dark at the same time.

Dir en Grey is decent, but I think they are too shock rock for my tastes. I'm not really into the whole visual kei deal. And the video for obscure is *way* odd. Most of the bands you listed I have never heard of, so I'll look them up.

Could someone supply a good Happy End video? I can't seem to find one, just a bunch of Avril...

http://neojaponisme.com/2007/11/09/100-g...ck-albums/

to get some ideas.


Look for 「風街ろまん」 to find some Happy End vids.

Generally, if you want to find out what's popular right now, I'd suggest searching for the Oricon listing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oricon

It's a list of the current hits. You can even find some packaged torrents containing the last week/month/year of top 100 Oricon hits, if you're up for discovering random bands. It's less of a source for rock music than pop, but sometimes you can be surprised.

As far as rock-esque stuff goes, I'd echo previous posters' on The Pillows as being a pretty old school and famous band.

Have you tried:
- Plastic Tree (lead singer's voice often described as "ethereal" and "child-like", they say that they are heavily influenced by Radiohead and The Cure, but don't really fit into any genre - a really unique sound)
- Ellegarden (west coast style punk with copious usage of mostly correct English - this you gotta listen to just for the amazing English lyrics. Wow!)
- Ajikan (aka Asian Kung Fu Generation - album art is pretty sweet, music ain't bad either!)
- Bump Of Chicken (kinda more alternative-y, but it's hip with the kiddies over in JLand these days)
- Guitar Wolf (about as growly as a JHonJin's voice is going to get, wikipedia calls them "an energetic cross between The Ramones, rockabilly, classic punk, and noise rock")
- Southern All Stars (again, alternative/pop-y, and hip with the youngsters)
- Miyavi (pretty wide range of styles for this guy, so depending on what you find it might be rock or it might be acoustic guitar jazz covers, but still a good bet)


Here's a couple great sites for some other ideas:
http://www.rockofjapan.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Japan#Rock_music
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jap...rock_bands

I hope that helps!

-amt

(edit: also, note that 'visual kei' mostly just applies to a style of performance, not a style of music, per se. It can be anything from pop to heavy metal to electronica, so long as they have the right style and presentation... so don't write off all visual kei stuff just because their costumes are weird. Remember that you can enjoy music without enjoying a band's looks or the subculture that they promote! )

Just curious, but do rock radio stations even exist in Japan? Or is it just varying degrees of pop? The reason I ask is that here in the US, I dont think bands like Boris and Guitar Wolf would ever get any play because they sound almost too experimental/avant garde for mainstream consumption. Almost every Japanese band here on this thread sounds to me like either like pop (Shinji Harada, Southern All Stars) or incredibly indie/dark/edgy/shock like Malice Mizer. It weirds me out because in the US there is so much in the middle but Japan's music tastes seem so extreme and polarized in comparison.

"or do the Japanese just not like good music"...
because you don't like it doesn't mean it's not good ;-)

The biggest rock band in Japan is B'z (n.1 disk sales ever), and it might be close to what you're looking for: Aerosmith-like vocals, excellent guitars

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%27z

But maybe while you're at it, you should give other kinds of music a chance. I mean rock is mainly western (American) music, why not try things like Enka or something typically Japanese ?
e.g. http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=G0KgmNKyZHE

I never said it was bad.. I actually like Guitar Wolf and even the Boredoms. Its good stuff for what it is, but it is basically J-noise, and just not what we are asking about (rock legends). Hell even countries like the Philippines have rock legends like Pepe Smith. So far Pyg and maybe Happy End are the closest to what I was thinking about.

I'm not saying that Japan lacks originality, but most of modern Japanese music is deeply rooted on Western foundations and occasionally outright imitation. Just look at their country western, hip-hop, and rockabilly genres. Therefore, I just dont understand their apparent lack of plain hard rock that isnt speed, death, noise, etc.

Dragg, you pretty much summed up my opinions in your last two posts. Polarized and extreme summarize their rock genre completely. I can see what you mean when you mention how western a lot of Japanese music is, but they only recreated the outskirts of the rock genre, and completely forgot the basics or whatever. What do the Japanese put on when they are hanging out with friends, or when they just sit around their houses? I can't picture a group of people chillin' to Dir en Grey. Maybe my problem Is that I like a more "southern" American Rock for the most part, like Skynyrd and Tom Petty. Similar bands are hard enough to find in other parts of the states, let alone Japan!

Edit: I guess I'm not even looking for a "rock legend," just music more suited to my tastes. Anything from classic Rock and Roll to Reggae to Prog, or whatever. I mean, if reggae could make it to Australia, why can't a more smooth variety of rock make it into Japan?

Anyway, I want to thank everybody for their recommendations. I am checking out all the ones I can find on Youtube one by one. Some seem pretty good.

I'm definitely looking forward to buying some great albums that can get me excited about learning the lyrics. Great music can be a fun, inspiring way to learn. When I was learning German, I learned a lot through Rammstein and for Spanish my favorite was Gustavo Cerati. I'm excited about hopefully having some new Japanese faves to add to the mix as well.

Here's a blog about 'weird' Japanese music that I enjoyed, and you can download some songs with the artists' blessings.

http://japonchi.wordpress.com/

I especially recommend Mouse on the Keys. Not really rock or anything, but definitely not boring.

Anyone want to let me hijack this thread a little and suggest some Japanese Industrial music? Or digital hardcore, something heavy with instruments but still sequenced and assembled?

if you like harcore, check out Envy, Gauge Means Nothing, and Heaven in Her Arms

for poppier stuff i like Shiina Ringo

@ phauna

Some industrial recommendations would be great! Actually, my favorite band has long been Nine Inch Nails and I also like old KMFDM so if you know of anything even remotely similar, I would be much obliged.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brilliant_Green

Edit, oh yea, and I really like this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Psychedelico

etpan

Thank you!

The B'z are exactly the kind of style and band I had always wanted to find in Japanese music. Amazing stuff.

If any blues/classic rock fans have read this far without checking out the bands above, just check out the B'z. Just make sure to listen to their later songs as their earlier ones are a bit different.

We need to compile a list with genres and suggested bands.

Hey guys check this out! I love this song どうして?君を好きになってしまったんだろう？
Bands that I like are UVERworld and ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION
Songs that I like too are from ikimonogakari,utada hikaru,aqua timez and mixed ones from Ayumi Hamasaki - SUPER EUROBEAT..not all but...however for finding some good songs giving a glance at the oricon chart is a good idea
I don't like so much rock style,but try this author MAXIMUM THE HORMONE! the name is a garancy in itself(^^)

phauna Wrote:We need to compile a list with genres and suggested bands.

This sounds like a good idea. It's hard to start off with finding good music, in my opinion (if you have no idea where to look).

There is Asobi Seksu (from NYC/bilingual Eng/Jap) and Luminous Orange, which definitely have great modern Shoegaze sounds for Slowdive/MBV fans.

Cornelius is just a trip, sometimes rock, often post-everything.

Dragg -

if you like digital hardcore, try Mad Capsule Markets.