The J-Pop thread!

Karl Hungus

So, why J-Pop you ask?

Hmm, well for many reasons. Perhaps the obvious one is just because it's Japanese, and as such makes it cool with Japan obsessed nerds? Maybe because with those learning the language, the at times simple lyrics are easy to understand, and it's an excellent way to expose yourself to the language, thus being a great aid to learning. Another obvious reason being that with the amount of Anime having opening and ending themes by some famous Jpop groups, if you watch Anime, it's hard for some of the music not to seep into your regular playlists.

There's also an incredibly cheese factor aswell, and there's no denying that, if there's anyone to out-do everyone else for sheer cheese, it's the Japanese. I mean, just look at this! Nothing comes close tbh. There's some real oddities aswell, just take a look at this, and you'll see Marty Friedman of Megadeth fame.

And not strictly Jpop, more Jrock, but this rules.

Anyway, I'm not all that up on Jpop, I listen to a fair bit, like Utada Hikarus, Ayami Hamasaki and a few others, but not much really. So I'm hoping someone else who knows a bit more than I do can contribute to this, and maybe I can get some decent recommendations.

So, that Visual Kei, eh?

DerekD Goldfish

not exactly pop but Japanese Alt Metal trio Boris are quite good albums Pink and Akuma no uta are easaly advailabe in ireland

Mono Japanese Post Rock group are damn good their most recent album You are there is a great album as are most of thier previous ones

honru

Yeah, J-Pop is great... I'm a sucker for their poppy rock music. I should get a Guitar Vader album one of these days.

You heard of Penpals, KH? They did the opening theme to the Berserk anime.

A smile comes to my face when I hear Engrish J-music.

monkeyfudge

My radio station was having a World Music day there on monday and I did two hours of music from Japanese Anime... it was great fun.

I'd like to do another show at some stage with a more general mix of Japanese music.

I'm a big fan of Pizzicato 5 and Shonen Knife.

melekalikimaka

J- anything is good, great edges to genres that have become very 'sameold'

i love Dir En Grey/Mad Capsule Markets/Shonen Knife/Takako Minekawa to name a few, dunno if they count but the 5.6.7.8's have some great J surf rock too

pbsuxok1znja4r

Got a fair few Shonen Knife tracks on the 'aul winamp playlist, but TBH I think they suck. One or two Pizzicato Five, but I'm not a fan of them, either. Then there's some song by The Pillows. Sounds very Snow Patrol, so no, I'm not feelin' that one, either. I do, however, thoroughly dig some Wong Fei songs, if they count as 'J-pop'.
[Edit]: I'm an idiot, I knew she wasn't japanese! Confused by some jap connections.

melekalikimaka

ah check out some shonen videos, the cheesiest of cheese, ya gotta love em for that http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u84Sf8A1Of4

sceptre

Picked up some stuff by the Pillows a year or two ago, good but I wasn't that enthralled by it. I've found some stuff by Angela Aki to be quite good though. Nothing else off the top of my head.

Dudess

Yeah, I quite liked Shonen Knife when they first appeared. That was about 15 years ago. Are they still doing the rounds? Only other group along those lines that I like (or indeed, know of) are The 5.6.7.8s. Do they count? The main Kill Bill song has become annoying, but some of their other stuff is class.

monkeyfudge

Dudess wrote:

Yeah, I quite liked Shonen Knife when they first appeared. That was about 15 years ago. Are they still doing the rounds?

One of them left the band.. I got one of the albums released after that.. .I'm not sure if they've done any others as I haven't been paying attention.

Mika Bomb are good fun too by the way.

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI

Personally I find J-Pop, J-Rock and Visual Kei stuff EXTREMELY tiresome and obnoxious, though I love the odd Gackt song. Dir En Grey are hacks (in my opinion) I love the Mad Capsule Markets, but I don't think they fit in with the usual stereotypical JRock routine. It's late at night gg, going to bed, excuse my mediocre grammar and conveyance of ideas.

dalk

Actually this thread got me thinking about Cornelius...

Remember years ago No Disco showed a live video of Cornelius' song E#... For whatever reason its was very memorable. This is the song on youtube... but the one i remember seeing was different footage. It started with a single spot light on Cornelius' arm. Someone then puts one of those studded leather wrist bands on his wrist and the songs starts. All the members of the band were wearing identical wrap around shades and black and red stripe shirts. Cornelius was playing a flying-v... Very rock 'n roll.

And the part where he goes to the audience with the sampler was quite amusing...

Karl Hungus

Wow, that video was cool.

dalk

Karl Hungus wrote:

Wow, that video was cool.

... And the one i remember seeing was even cooler! There is nothing that early velvet-undergroundy-wrap-around-shades and a flying-v guitar can't improve on.

Damn i wish i could find the footage i am thinking of. Must have been official if it was shown on the telly.

Karl Hungus

I think if we're branching this thread out into other Japanese music apart from J-Pop, I have to give mention to the excellent and bizarre band Sigh. Kind of a psychadelic avant garde metal band, if that makes any sense to anyone.

Makaveli

J-Pop is kind of scary. Hyper Japanese teenage or preteen girls jumping around the place.

I like quite a bit of J-Rock. Asian Kung-Fu Generation, Supercar and The Pillows would be my favourites.

Polysics and The Mad Capsule Markets I also like, but they don't fit under J-Pop or J-Rock.

i'm not that into j-stuff
but i like dir en grey[saw them on the 1st!! awesome!]/ d'espairs ray/ D/ moi dix mois and various songs by other artists
i'm so sick of scene kids ruining the whole genre

Moi Dix Mois

Deleted User wrote: »

i'm not that into j-stuff
but i like dir en grey[saw them on the 1st!! awesome!]/ d'espairs ray/ D/ moi dix mois and various songs by other artists

Your so lucky! I'm not really into Dir En Grey that much but I'm still jealous! >.<
I love Dix too (hence the username ^^; ) and a little of D (don't like the Malice Mizer cover >.<) but don't they count as "J-stuff", being Japanese?
Yeah, scene kids annoy me too, I'm with you on that one!