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Note: Artists' names are written (surname,
first name) to follow the way they're usually referred to in Japan.
Ratings are out of five for poppiness!
Please e-mail any comments / corrections
/ updates to the address on the main site!
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aiko Aiko has been going for a little while and looks ten years younger than she actually is (28). Her voice is a little on the "over-cutesy" side but her songs are catchy and happy, favouring real instruments to the more usual, synthesized J-Pop you get around. Had a huge hit last year with Andromeda. Sounds like daffodils. Rating: ++++
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Amuro Namie 
During the '90's, Quarter-Italian Namie was known as the Queen of J-Pop but has since been taken over by the likes of Hamasaki "Ayu-chan" and Matsuura Aya. She started as a dance artist under the famous producer Komuro Tetsuya. Her more recent music is more mellow, her latest single, All for You, being an (ever so slightly cheesy) ballad. She has a 6-year old son, and had a five year marriage with a fellow dancer, which ended in 2002. The song which brought her fame is Body Feels Exit, and a karaoke favourite is A Walk in the Park. Rating: +++
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BoA Although not officially J-Pop (She's Korean), BoA has become big in Japan, having released two popular albums in Japanese. Previously, she had been a big star in Korea too, not bad for someone under 20. Her name stands for "Beat of the Angel". Her most prominent song is Valenti, though the album of the same name is pretty standard poppy stuff. Rating: ++
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Bump of Chicken Being in Japan for a year reduces your sensitivity to such outrightly stupid names as Shakalabbits, Thee Michelle Gun Elephant and Porno Graffiti. So much so that the fact that Bump of Chicken were recently number 1 with a song called Only Lonely Glory almost passed completely unnoticed through my head and are only a last minute addition to the site. The all-male foursome have released two albums and play nice, energetic, poppy rock, though with less noodling than B'z. Rating: ++++
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B'z The group the term "fret wanking" must have been invented for. The duo, Tak Matsumoto and Koshi Inaba, have released many singles since they first started in 1988. They usually feature a fast pace, emotional vocals, smooth harmonies and ultra-noodly guitar solos. Two songs to look out for are the catchy Love Phantom from 1995 and the more recent kick-ass hit It's Showtime!! (note obligatory double exclamation mark). Rating: ++++
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Chemistry A male duo I haven't listened to a
great deal, largely on account of the fact that what I have heard is a
bit rubbish. But if you like thin-sounding R'n'B then give them a
go; their latest singles, So in Vain
Rating: +
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Dreams Come True ("Dorikamu") Coming soon! |
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Exile Tinny, boy-band pop which pretty much fades into the background except for their most notable hit, Choo Choo Train, featuring the lyrics "Fun fun we hit the step step". However, it's a cover, so you can't blame them too much. Their four singles since then have not exactly been awe-inducing, but if you like Take That's early stuff then they're worth a try. Rating: ++
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Gackt A bit of a nutcase, Gackt loves himself deeply, claiming to be 450 years old while wearing leather, looking feminine and advertising cameras and mints at any opportunity. His fans adore him and dress like him at his concerts (they're usually women). It's not all bad though, his music's actually quite good. It's accessible rock with a poppy feel, providing the backing to his deep voice. Just ignore the occasional pretentious lapse into opera. Try Luna from the album Moon, it's pretty catchy. Rating: ++++
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GLAY Be careful not to correct your students who say "I like Glay" as it's not their favourite colour they're talking about. Kings of the umbrella-shaped hairstyle, Glay are mainly a noodly rock band but more mainstream than B'z. They also have a few more laid-back songs. New single Blue Jean looks destined to lodge itself in people's minds. Rating: +++
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globe Not so recent, but worth a special mention because they were so big in the late '90s and got me into J-Pop in the first place. Made up of a world-conquering trio: cute but powerful-voiced singer Keiko, French rapper Marc Panther and hugely respected producer Komuro Tetsuya, it seemed like everyone Japanese owned a CD of theirs. Their music is dancy pop occasionally verging into trance and they're great until Marc irritatingly inserts lyrics like "livin' on and keep on the EDGE" which could only have sounded cool before 1989. Listen to Can't Stop Fallin' in Love and Departures for two of their classic hits. If you want to try the trancy stuff then listen to Garden or Try This Shoot. Ignore their version of Stop! In the Name of Love. It's bad. Still, they've got a lot of talent even though they passed their sell-by date around the time when Keiko married Tetsuya. Keiko appears to be starting a solo project as KCO - visit www.kco.ne.jp for more information. Rating: +++++
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Hamasaki Ayumi 
If anyone is the queen of J-Pop at the moment, it's Ayu. Go to Akihabara and her face will be peering out, advertising hundreds of digital cameras. Her huge plastic-surgurified eyes and drawn-on moustache decorate Boss Coffee vending machines. She has been the face of Hi-chu sweets, as well as various cars and mobiles over the 5-6 years she's been famous. She appears on numerous TV shows (Ayu Ready? springs to mind). Part of her coolness appears to derive from her striving to look like a gaijin; she has even designed her own sought-after cartoon character called Ayupan, just in case her own eyes aren't big enough. She is also, believe it or not, a musician. More talented than most, she writes her own lyrics and varies from dance music to (more recently) ballads. No Way to Say and Voyage are two typical examples. However, try We Wish - or Depend on You for the other end of her shiny pop spectrum. Rating: ++++
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Hirahara Ayaka 
Born in 1984, Ayaka is an up-and-coming young star, being a favoured guest on many TV shows. Her debut single was the biggest of the first half of 2004, a Japanese reworking of Holst's Jupiter. It's better than it sounds especially as it avoids any element of cheese. The only thing to watch out for is that her rich, classically trained voice could get used for hundreds of bland ballads - it must seem pretty tempting. Rating: +++
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Hirai Ken 
Ken (who is not in any way a gaijin) is currently pretty huge in the charts, recently having had two songs in the Top Ten. He's good at ballads and soulful music, two recent hits being Kimi wa Tomodachi and Hitomi o Tojite. He also released a very popular album of covers, Ken's Bar. Ken is easily filed in the section marked "nice". Rating: ++++
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Kuraki Mai 
Mai-K is someone who's good at making fairly unobtrusive pop, perhaps a thinner version of Utada Hikaru; the latter would definitely win in a fight between the two. However her album If I Believe contains a healthy mix of styles, not least a Jennifer Lopez style latino hit, Mi Corazon which echoes nicely, and the title track which flows. The tunes get into your head without you intending them to. Rating: +++
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Matsuura Aya 
"Ayaya" is at the top of the pile when it comes to unashamedly cheesy J-Pop, which is often cheesy enough as it is. The only others coming close are Morning Musume (see below), which is not surprising as they are all part of the Hello Project, overlooked by the same manager, Tsunku. Most of her songs are pretty tacky, but it's worth listening to her album T.W.O for the first track, Yeah! Metcha Holiday alone. Students will go crazy if you sing the "su-ge, su-ge, su-ge..." bit. Or laugh. Either one. Rating: ++++
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Morning Musume 
Morning Musume were the original base for the Hello Project, put together by manager Tsunku in 1998. They started as five contestants of a TV talent show and have since ballooned into 14 (or 13, or 16? nobody can ever be certain) members, all girls between the ages of 14 and 23. When members leave, they "graduate" and Morning Musume evolve into the next generation, currently being in their 6th phase. There is also a kids' incarnation of the group and the main group have smaller subgroups, the most recent being Mini-Moni (4 members) and W (2 members). Recent songs have been a little less consciousness-penetrating but for two supreme examples of undiluted J-Pop then listen to Love Machine or Koi no Dance Site (both feature on the album Best! Morning Musume 1). For more information, a handy site on the singlemost J-poppy of J-pop is here: www.jpop.com/mm.php Rating: ++ (quality of music), +++++
(catchiness of music)
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Nakashima Mika 
One of the more talented artists around, Mika manages to stay popular without getting as silly or tacky as other artists; she also favours real instruments and a jazzy feel to her music. Her most recent (2nd) album, Love, shows off her smooth voice very well and its most striking track is the dramatic ballad Yuki no Hana. There are no particularly radical ideas in her music, but it's just all very well executed. Good to listen to before you go to bed (alone or otherwise). Rating: ++++
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SMAP If Ayu is the Queen and Morning Musume are the princesses, then SMAP (Sports Music Assemble People, don't laugh now) are the undisputed kings of J-Pop and have been since their skateboarding debut in 1988. Relatively recently, their HUGE hit Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana (roughly, "The only flower in the world") has been everywhere. You'll hear it a lot, even though it has passed its coolness expiry date with students. The lyrics are along the lines of "every flower is different, we're all looking for that special flower, we are all flowers in the flower shop..." you get the idea. Apart from that, SMAP stick to cheesy ballads rather than Exile's more bouncy style. If you're keen to hear more, then try renting their album, SMAP 016 / MIJ from Tsutaya. "Quirky" member Shingo (Katori) is the jokey one, who occasionally impersonates David Beckham, and presents his own English conversation show (with accompanying book). They all feature on the Fuji TV show SMAP x SMAP, amongst others, and invite other big celebrities (Japanese and foreign) to cook with them in the Bistro SMAP section. A recent recipe is Kimchi Natto, no doubt to be fed to an unsuspecting foreigner. More useful information on SMAP and its individual members is here: www.japan-zone.com/modern/smap.shtml Rating: ++
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Utada Hikaru 
My favourite musician - anywhere, to be frank. So good, I made a whole page about her. Rating: +++++ |
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V6 It's another boy band along the lines of SMAP, with the cunning twist of having 6 members. Slightly younger, they've been going since the mid-nineties. When they're not singing and dancing, they present a TV programme called Gakko e Ikko (Let's go to school!) which involves silly games followed by forfeits ("batsu games") when people mess up. Like getting flicked on the forehead. Rating: ++
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Some other nuggets of J-Pop
goodness:
| L'Arc en Ciel - Spangly rock
group that's been going since 1991. Abbreviated to "Laruku".
Dreams Come True - They wrote the music to Sonic 2! Otherwise, great pop with an immense voice. Halcali - really cheesy teenage girl rap. Imai Miki - An older star, popular with the re-released slow karaoke classic Pride. Judy and Mary - again, pretty cheesy pop. Wrote a song called Bathroom. Ketsu Meishi - Kimi ni Bump has spawned a cheesy dance popular with JHS students. m-flo - Dancy; recently had BoA singing on their single Moriyama Naotaro Worth a special mention for his song "Sakura", a huge hit last year. 
NEWS - Exile-style boy band who sang at the Volleyball World Cup. Tokio - Boy band, famous for Ambitious Japan, a song cheesily featured on the Tokyo-Kyoto shinkansen before pulling into a station. The chorus' words, "Be Ambitious!" are the kind of thing you see above classroom blackboards. Tommy February - A rather unenthusiastic girl who stars alongside Pikachu in her latest video, supposedly set in London. Pretty brainless. w-inds - A pre-pubescent version of any other arbitrary boy band... going for dancy rather than ballady. |
