Hmm I feel like I need to apologize for liking Jpop in this thread. Pop is normally one of my most hated genres, and the lyrics whether it be Japanese or English are NEVER anything resembling decent. But Jpop has always been very catchy IMO.

arch9443 Wrote:Hmm I feel like I need to apologize for liking Jpop in this thread. Pop is normally one of my most hated genres, and the lyrics whether it be Japanese or English are NEVER anything resembling decent. But Jpop has always been very catchy IMO.

I agree completely with this. Somehow progressive rock/metal in Japanese doesn't work for me (or I haven't found a band that suits me yet) and I do want to be immersed so a catchy tune is a really useful thing.

oregum Wrote:I've been rocking this all week. The new cd is pretty good.

Plus the girl is totally cute

I find it really hard to find J-music that I like, but I'm rather selective. If anyone can recommend a band that sounds like ASFG, let me know, ya.

I find most JRock sounds like ASFG. Thanks for the link though, that song was probably the best ASFG song I've heard.

THERE'S lots of bands like AKG (just look harder) ...

actually here's a link to the stuff i posted on the other thread on music"
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...2#pid42832

oh and here's their song:

nope they're not singers. around 2:28 is the "singing"

I should add that Pizzicato 5 have a lot of easy to understand songs with simple lyrics. In fact, when I was still a beginner, they were the first band who's lyrics I could understand at all. They're also a very good band, one of the first shibuya-kei bands, a genre of indie-pop that still continues.

hereticalrants Wrote:

ems573 Wrote:One word: vocaloid.

Bleagh.
No.

Is that a fake ice lolly in the fat kid's hand?

It is shovel.

Vocaloid is really, really awful.

Off the top of my head, I like 椎名林檎, スガシカオ, The blue hearts, 奥田民生 and 井上陽水.

@Blahah
that must have been a cigar. They photoshoped it for political correctness

Mouse On The Keys

RoughSketch

相対性理論 - Theory of Relativity

JPop Xfile

Eastern Youth

If you like alternative stuff, one of the bands I like that was actually somewhat known at one point is Thee Michelle Gun Elephant. Most people don't know what I'm talking about when I mention them, but a few do. I even have a few students who like them.

Anyway, here's one of their more well-known ones. They remind me a lot of early 90s grundge.

rswarsaw Wrote:This sounds ridiculous, but if I go to the iTunes top 50 singles right now in the Japan store, I cannot find a single one I like.

And I have pretty eclectic music tastes, enjoying most genres.

Anyone else share that problem? Maybe looking at popular singles is my first mistake.

The problem is looking in the top 50 singles The best music/bands are diamonds in the rough; usually not what is mainstream imo.

chair Wrote:Vocaloid is really, really awful.

I now feel horrible for liking some of Hatsune Miku's songs...

EDIT: By far my favorite bands are Supercar and Sakanaction. They're both mainly electronica-rock, although Supercar's older stuff is mostly pure rock. Supercar is an older band; they disbanded in 2005 if memory serves me right. Both bands have a decent selection of music on youtube if you wanna check them out.

If you like music from the late 70's and 80's, I'd highly recommend Tatsuro Yamashita. His music spans a few genres like, pop, funk, doo-wop, soft rock. He has an incredible voice and is married to Maria Takeuchi, who is also a pop singer. Here are a few songs I like...


"Downtown" by Sugarbabe (Tatsu's 1st band) from SONGS (1976)
style: pop
*this song has been covered many times by other J-Artists

"Ride on Time" from RIDE ON TIME (1982)
style: pop ballad/light funk groove
*one of his biggest hits*

"Dancer" from the album SPACY (1977)
style: smooth funk groove

"Love Space" from SPACY
style: pop ballad/light funk

"Paper Doll" from GO AHEAD! (1979)
style: smooth funk

"Gone in the Wind"
style: pop

Any questions let me know. Hope you enjoy at least 1 of these. Take care ^_^

相対性理論 has a lot of good catchy mellow songs (the one linked isn't one of them imo). I felt kind of creepy when I discovered them though since it was through the song 地獄先生, and I was a public school teacher at the time.

The easiest way to find Japanese music you like is to take your favorite genres, stick Japanese on to them, and search Google and Youtube. That's how I got into J-Rap. Shakkazombie is too good.

litdemon Wrote:"Ride on Time" from RIDE ON TIME (1982)
style: pop ballad/light funk groove
*one of his biggest hits*

I had no idea about the original!!!

There are a lot of good pop acts out there, but they aren't the ones putting out singles every 3 weeks, and they aren't the ones with 25 members who dance in their videos/concerts.

Ex:
Chara
Yuki (Judy and Mary)
Brilliant Green
Yaida Hitomi
Superfly
Abe Mao

Speaking of Yuki (haven't gotten into much, although I am a fan of Judy and Mary)

Check out her video of The End of Shite:
http://video.google.co.jp/videoplay?doci...3456147472#

Jarvik7 Wrote:Chara
Yuki (Judy and Mary)
Brilliant Green
Yaida Hitomi
Superfly
Abe Mao

I like this style but they all sing in a pitch that hurts my head. Only female pop singers I've found with voices I like are YUI and Rie Fu.

This blog: http://blog.livedoor.jp/rock1967/archive...35854.html
has loads of Japanese music reviews. Haven't had time to go through it yet but it looks promising..

Asriel Wrote:Speaking of Yuki (haven't gotten into much, although I am a fan of Judy and Mary)

Check out her video of The End of Shite:
http://video.google.co.jp/videoplay?doci...3456147472#

That's actually probably one of my least favorite YUKI songs, although I can't really complain about the video. It's not out of character for her though. Her "biographies" are filled with self-drawn nude pictures of herself.

Hey OP how about some direction. What music do you like in your native language?

Kiyoshiro Iwamano, now deceased, is wonderful for learning Japanese. He enunciates every syllable clearly. Japanese linguists have analyzed his speech and found it to be near perfect Japanese. While not everyone will like his style, he clearly has musical and emotional depth far beyond most j-music.

Familiar tune...wait for the solo at the end:

Jarvik7 Wrote:That's actually probably one of my least favorite YUKI songs, although I can't really complain about the video. It's not out of character for her though. Her "biographies" are filled with self-drawn nude pictures of herself.

I wasn't necessarily commenting on the song. Or how sexual it is.

I like the gnomes.

Burritolingus Wrote:\I recently stumbled upon 神聖かまってちゃん by way of his blog, an incredibly unique band I'm slightly addicted to now (and notorious for posting tons of cheap/hilarious PVs to Youtube and Niconico, almost all of which containing Japanese subs).

I just discovered this artist via a Japan Times roundup. Excellent!

This is really good and intense: