JPOP and JROCK

Who listens to it?

Who do you listen to?

Is there any subgenre that you like?

I'm a big fan of Gackt, Luna Sea, Miyavi, X Japan, Bump Of Chicken, Abingdon Boys School, Orange Range, as well as Sugizo and the Spank Your Juice.

CHARLATAN SCARED OF SHRILL WOMEN SHRIEKING AT HIM IN STRANGE MOONSPEAK.

D8

More on topic, uhhh...I've listened to some Miku Hatsune stuff lately?

edited 17th Oct '09 5:10:42 PM by Charlatan

Everyone I mentioned is not a woman, though most of them look like it. I don't listen to that kind of JPOP much.

And X Japan and Sugizo do quite a bit in English, too.

Gackt sometimes sings a dialect of English known as Gacktese among fans.

Vocaloid stuff is fun.

edited 17th Oct '09 5:12:16 PM by Solstace

I don't listen to as much Japanese music as I probably could...No I am very limited in my knowledge of it.

I do know that The Pillows and The Pizzicato 5 are two of my favorite bands. Dear god I love them. The P5 is my happy time cheer me up music. How could you not be happy while listening to Airplane? Well...that is an exagerration of course, but really it makes me smile.

Most bands do bits in English, with varying degrees of quality. X Japan's English was always pretty good, but listen to Dir en Grey or Versailles and you may not even realise it IS English they're singing in, although both frontmen are improving...

It's not all shrill pop, BTW. There's massive rock scene over there.

I listen to (so far): X Japan, Malice Mizer, Eve of Destiny, Pride of Mind, Moi Dix Mois, Velvet Eden, Lareine, Versailles, the Hizaki Grace Project, Aikaryu, Onmyouza, Inugami Circus Dan, Exist Trace, Dir en Grey, the Candy Spooky Theatre,

Also D'espairsray, Scwarz Stein and Phantasmagoria to an extent, and in an ideal world I'd listen to The Zolge and Matenrou (and no, I don't mean Matenrou Opera), but they've sort of... gone over the edge of the world and I haven't been able to hear very much by them.

I've tried Show-ya, BLOOD, Blam Honey and Penicillin, although I haven't heard enough of them to say how much I like them...

I listen to Dir En Grey, though I listen to more of their ballads. The screaming just gets repetitive.

Pizzicato 5 is great. I've been trying to find more good Shibuya-kei.

I don't care for the more Gothy Visual-kei bands, like Malice Mizer. I think the only song of theirs I could really get into was Illuminati.

Also, hide and Spread Beaver are great. Nothing like Japanese Psyborg Rock.

I've listened to a bit of Maximum the Hormone. Do they count as J-rock? I mean, they're rock, they're Japanese...

Aside from Maximum the Hormone, I've not listened to much J-rock. J-pop? Not that I can remember, but I know what it sounds like so obviously I've heard some of it.

edited 19th Oct '09 6:06:29 AM by Lordnecronus

Artists I currently like:

• Asian Kung-Fu Generation
• The Black Mages
• Dir en grey
• Heavens Dust
• High and Mighty Color
• Home Made Kazoku (Hip-hop counts in this topic, right?)
• Kelun
• L'Arc-en-Ciel
• Luna Sea
• Maximum the Hormone
• Nightmare
• Takanori Nishikawa (T.M. Revolution/Abingdon Boys School)
• UVE Rworld
• X Japan
• Yui

Artists I've been looking into:

• Back-On (If I can find anything)
• Blood Stain Child
• Concerto Moon (If I can find their best of album)
• Galneryus
• Loudness
• Malice Mizer
• Orange Range (Actually the band that got me interested in J-Rock, but I'm not that interested in them)
• Rize
• YKZ

edited 19th Oct '09 12:37:59 PM by Kitsune Inferno

Yes, any non-traditional Japanese music is up for discussion in this topic. I enjoy Home Made Kazoku as well. The voices have a pleasant timbre.

There were a couple female J-HOP artists that I was going to look into, but I completely forgot their names.

I don't listen to a whole lot of Japanese music other than soundtracks, but The Pillows and The Black Mages are good, yep yep.

The Pillows remind me of The Beatles. But I enjoy both. I need to get me some more Pillows.

Would these guys also count?

Bad BLAM! The only JPOP I know comes from Dance Dance Revolution.

Doesn't mean it's bad. I got started with Final Fantasy music.

I like Final Fantasy music.

Yeah, I was listening to an FF internet radio station and one of Gackt's songs that he did for Dirge Of Cerberus popped up. Thus it began.

I started on a few bands because I used play Drummania quite a lot. Bump of Chicken, High And Mighty Colour and Road of Major were all first encountered thus.

I have a couple of KOTOKO albums and Miyuki Hashimoto's Prismatic Colours (after hearing Especially from Da Capo II), and some Nana Mizuki, who I think has a great singing voice.

Are they some of the poppier JPOP?

I need more of that.

And I cry every time I hear Bump Of Chicken's K.

What, Hashimoto, KOTOKO and Mizuki?

Yeah, they're pretty poppy (in descending order of poppiness), but a lot of Mizuki's numbers have more of a rock inflection, though obviously not to the same extent as ABS or Bump.

K's a great song.

Like, Miyavi pop? But with better vocals, obviously.

I should probably jsut look them up. It'd be easier.

edited 21st Oct '09 9:29:41 PM by Solstace

Less aggressive than that.

Also, you might like Asaki's stuff. He's not really mainstream, but he did quite a lot of stuff for Konami Bemani games. He's mainly a composer, not a performer, and his styles range from metrically complex instrumentals for the harder Drummania numbers like Agnus Dei to the light pop of Hana no uta.

He sings and plays with a band more conventionally sometimes, though, and he does a song called Gekkochou which is rather good. It's difficult to find in its unexpurgated album version, though, so if you want you can give me an email address and I can simply send you the mp3.

EDIT: I've just binged on youtube clips of Miku Hatsune (the Vocaloid) live in concert September this year. Okay, okay, it's not really "live" as she's not, you know, real or anything. But the tunes are quite catchy in that high-energy DDR-flavoured J Pop way, once you get over the whole Gibson-esque virtual idoru concept; but what definitely is worthy of special mention is that her support band is just about the tightest live session work I have ever seen. Her drummer, in particular, is a phenomenal player.

edited 23rd Oct '09 2:35:04 AM by zeroplusalpha

Not particularly pop or rock, but does anyone know and good Japanese Jazz bands? I already have the Naruyoshi Kikuchi DUB Sextet.

Wat.

I mostly listen to Amano Tsukiko, Yazima Beauty Salon, Nujabes, and a few more that I've forgotten right now. I don't really have full albums, I only like a few songs from a few artists, since I mostly collect bgm's.