Joined: Dec 2011
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do they have xfactor/japan got talent?
cannot find
Joined: Jul 2010
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Would it be totally offensive to hijack this thread to make requests on my own behalf? If so, I apologize in advance, but I'm having a very hard time finding Japanese music I enjoy. I'm attempting to use music to give myself more immersion, because I can have it on almost all the time at work and home. Most of what I can find in the US, on Amazon, and via English-language searches sends me to the kind of JPop that I can't get too deeply into - that electronic high-pitched girl band stuff. Although I have found a few I can enjoy (Kalafina, which seems to combine World Music with JPop, comes to mind), most of them are a bit too mechanical for my tastes. I can enjoy them from time to time, and I have a strange and inexplicable weakness for Namie Amuro, but I'm getting frustrated that the market of available music here is saturated with electronic girl bands.
I am specifically looking for more male vocalists that aren't oversynthesized. Two I've found that I think are absolutely amazing are:
Hiroyuki Hanada
Chikuzen Sato
I know Sato was in a more electronic-based band called Sing Like Talking, and I'm on the fence with regards to their album stuff, but I've heard some "unplugged"-style live stuff that sounds fantastic. And Sato has an all-accoustic EP available on iTunes in the US which quickly became my favorite album to play, English or Japanese. I believe Hanada was in The Roosters before going solo, and is associated with some project or group called Rock N' Roll Gypsies now, or was lately. I have two albums of his, which were available on iTunes in the US, and I listen to them regularly. He's like the Japanese Rolling Stones, in my opinion. Genuine rock music without relying on a drum machine. I've found a lot of punk, and while I do enjoy that from time to time as well, I think I need something with more intelligible lyrics and cohesive melodies.
I am not ruling out female vocalists if the music is interesting enough to me. I have been enjoying Love Psychedelico lately, but it's a bit too much Japanglish to help me, I think. The constant shifting between English and Japanese is making me focus on the English too much and ignoring the Japanese.
So, those are the ones I know about. What I'm looking for is more music I can fill my iPod with. I know there must be a gigantic indie music scene going on in Japan about now, but I'm just not finding access to it.
Joined: Mar 2010
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You could use last.fm. One of the features there is that after you select your favorite artists the site starts to suggest you other artists that match your preferences.
Joined: Jul 2010
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Arigato gozaimasu! There are lots of good suggestions there. The problem I've had with things like Pandora and Amazon's suggestion mechanism is that if you put in any Japanese artist, they tend to reason "Oh, you like a Japanese artist? You must like all Japanese music!" And then proceed to give me a lot of poppy girl groups. I just tried last.fm, and it looks a little more properly tuned. I'll leave that on today and see how it goes. Thanks!
Joined: May 2012
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Block.fm
Most of the music is English but the DJs talk in Japanese. Plenty of Drum & Bass / Dub Step / Trance though.
Joined: Jul 2007
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Thanks so far. Much appreciated!
Accidentally I found music by Secret Ocean (in Spotify), which I like.
Listening to Block.fm now: not bad. Unfortunately, this station does not appear to be in TuneIn.
