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Any J-Pop listeners here?

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Max Spider X

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Ishi's got a good list going. Though, if you like the bubblegum rock and roll, you could try adding on Puffy (AmiYumi). BoA is also a good addition, though she is Korean her library has quite a bit of Japanese tracks.

Me, I personally prefer these artists:

Yonekura Chihiro

Horie Yui (she's got one hella high shirlly voice, and for some reason, I dig that).

The Pillows

Shonen Knife

Every Little Thing, AKA ELT

There are plenty of voice actors going into the whole singing business. I won't recommend many, but the one I'll recommend (other than Horie Yui) is Sakamoto Ma'aya (Maaya/Maya... whatever). Along those lines, track down Yoko Kanno's works. Good stuff.

Honestly, I think my library is stuck somewhere in the mid to late 90s personally.

Edited by Damage
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Nice topic..

I must admit that I'm not as in tune with the genre as I could be. What would be good for the aspiring novice?

What do you listen to, dork?  :ol_groucho:

My interest lies mainly in girl pop (not something that I'm proud of :ol_lol: ): Speed, hiro solo, Goto Maki, Matsuura Aya, H!P stuff. I like Yonekura Chihiro's songs, especially her vocals in the Gundam 08th MS Team soundtrack. Hikki's early songs aren't that bad either.

Edited by Max Spider X
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Surprise, you can buy one of her albums at your local Towers record. I forget the album's name however. You can also purchase a Puffy album ("Nice" is the title, IIRC).

Or you can just go play Kingdom Hearts or something.

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Utada is a must simply because she's great, there's such a charisma and worldview that comes through right away... and she's very accessible from a, I guess you'd say, gaijin point of view. Having said that, I don't think her sound, style or influences is really representative of J-pop as a genre. Any album is a good starting point - maybe not Exodus (the English language, US-debut) cause I think she was going for a kind of honesty that she felt she couldn't reach for in Japan. Anyway, I wrote about Exodus on the T-board... Deep River is a great album. With Utada, remember to read the lyrics.

I think all music has a barrier to entry (think economic terminology, not physical): a lot of people simply don't enjoy vocals they perceive as screechy, screaming, sounds from when you're in labor. In that case I'd say start with artists that are outside of the standard "J-pop" world.

But one of the best things about Japanese music is they've got huge numbers of artists in each genre, I think there's a good variety at the major label level, which is a variety some of us can only envy. A lot of word of mouth is required, maybe a lot of $$, but it's worthwhile...

Like bird, she tackles a lot of Latino-y, Jazzy dance music.

Me, I've been outside the mainstream for years, I'm all over the map, so it's probably not a good idea to name artists you have no access to :P For middle-of-the-road, str8 J-pop, I like Mika Nakashima. (Plus there's the Hi-MD connection!)

P.S. Amuro is nice... she's soldiering on without Komuro. "want me want me" had lyrics so "hot" it's almost funny.

Edited by Leon
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  • 2 weeks later...

奥井雅美 (Masami Okui). My #1 fav, especially since now she's under her own label.

Other than that:

V6

B'z

T.M.Revolution

dream

ZONE (too bad they're disbanded already)

move

There are many more, but now I'm more into Eurobeat. :)

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Don't pass up Bonnie Pink! She's been putting out beautiful albums for almost ten years now and she just keeps getting better. Less of a pop artist than those mentioned previously. She writes, sings, composes, plays instruments, and looks so good. I hope you like her as much as I do.

Edited by minimonk
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  • 5 weeks later...

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