Japanese music

[Nebby4T]

I've been really getting into Japanese music. Anyone know some good artist/bands or songs I should listen to? So far all I have is the Gravitations TV tracks CD.

[Kyuriko]

If you like Jrock, Asian Kung-Fu Generation is awesome, and T.M. Revolution too. If you like Jpop, I'd suggest Ayumi Hamasaki, Masami Okui, Puffy AmiYumi, or BoA. Hope those are some good suggestions. Good luck finding music.

[Steven]

Jpop

Hamasaki Ayumi
Utada Hikaru
Koda Kumi
Kwon BoA
Amuro Namie

[Nebby4T]

Any certain songs?

[Ryuuzaki_Raito]

This is some of the songs i really like.

Kiroro:
mirai e, best friend, fuyu no uta, nagai aida

DAI (Do as infinity):
under the sun, under the moon, shinjitsu no shi.....

Utada Hikaru:
Hikari, letters....

strawberry flower:
ai no uta (weird, but nice song)

Kururi highway: (i dunno if this is the groups name or the song title :p)

if you want you can download them here.
http://www.mark-edmond.com/index3.cfm?loc=3

you should also try some Samurai X theme song like
sobakasu, its gonna rain,one half....i forgot where i downloaded them.

[ohemgee]

Stay away from Japanese rap if you know what's good for you. And I'm not exactly a fan of JPop (I don't like it at all, in fact. "Loathe" is a much more accurate word, actually), but I do listen to some JRock.

Look up The Brilliant Green or Soulsberry if you like British-style rock. Anything from the Pillows is generally good. If you like Coldplay, you'll like Quruli. If you like metal, Sex Machineguns are actually damn good.

[Nebby4T]

Not all Japanese rap is bad. Orange Range is pretty good. I like their song "Shanghai Honey" a lot.

[Mukade]

One to add to Jrock: Urufuruzu (ウルフルズ) They are on the poppy side of rock, but they have a sense of humor and (more importantly) they have musical sense and can play their own instruments (anyone who's listened to any Jpop knows what I mean...).

Supercar (スーパーカー) is a somewhat Coldplay-esque band that mixes rock and ambient techno sounds. Very cool.

Hajime Chitose (元ちとせ) is pretty good. She's from Okinawa and sings more folksy-type rock. She mixes some Okinawan sounds with some tunes that sound very Irish. The first time I heard her I thought that the Cranberries had recorded a song in Japanese.

If you're into metal, you should check out Number Girl (ナンバーガール). Their dark riffs mixed with their even darker lyrics are quite interesting.

Last, but not least, Numb (NUMB ) does some pretty dark and intense experimental techno industrial (wow! so many adjectives! ).

[diana_zero_five]

(These songs are also used in various anime.)
If you're looking for something jpop-ish and jrock-ish at the same time, I would highly recommend Aikawa Nanase! Especially her song 'Unlimited' from Samurai 7(My all-time favorite song, by the way ). There are two versions of the song. (Don't worry, only the lyrics are different ^_^)



If you would like smooth-sounding voices, I would recommend Maaya Sakamoto and Atsumi Saori.

Maaya Sakamoto: 'Yubiwa', 'Kaze Ga Fuku Hi' both from Escaflowne
'Gift' from Clamp Gakuen
'Platinum' from Card Captor Sakura

Atsumi Saori: 'Mou sukoshi... Mou sukoshi...' from Midori no Hibi



For jrock, L'Arc~en~Ciel is pretty good, too. 'Fourth Avenue Cafe' from Rurouni Kenshin and 'Blurry Eyes' from DNA^2.

And Bana's song 'Shell' from Witch Hunter Robin.



If you would like something like a hard-core jrock song, try Buzzlip's 'Wild Rock' (from Saiyuki Reload). I sometimes get a head-ache when I listen to it too loudly .




I would recommend more recent jpop songs but there are just so many to choose from! These songs are just some of my absolute favorites!

[ohemgee]

As far as anime soundtracks go, FLCL's (by The Pillows) is one of the best, if not the best, soundtrack I've come across.

[ZanbatouX]

The only Japanese artist you ever need to listen to:

Ayumi Hamasaki

Her song EVOLUTION is really good, and so are tons of her other songs.

[Birouku]

I thought the sound track for the FLCL series was great, and fit the show perfectly. I was surprised to learn that every song was written by the same group. The group's name is "The Pillows."

I dont really know if you could classify their music under one genre as their style changes from song to song. I assume that many of the songs were written for the show (which would explain why they fit so well ).

Anyway, I really enjoy their music so check em out. If you haven't seen FLCL you should check that out too. If you like FLCL, you will like The Pillows.

[Ogawa]

Dragon ash rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pierrot too.

[Kojiki]

Kyuriko wrote:
If you like Jrock, Asian Kung-Fu Generation is awesome, and T.M. Revolution too. If you like Jpop, I'd suggest Ayumi Hamasaki, Masami Okui, Puffy AmiYumi, or BoA. Hope those are some good suggestions. Good luck finding music.

I'm with Kyuriko here on Ajikan (Asian Kung-Fu Generation). They're an incredible group. The lyrics are really deep and the music is fun to listen to. I've even been listening to their music while reading along in the cd books to strengthen my knowledge of the various kana characters. It's worked really well so far ^^.

You may also want to check out Yum!Yum!Orange for a J-Ska sound if you're into that kinda thing. I LOVE the group and their music.

[Kramersize]

I will look into them So far I like the pillows and some yukari fresh, Takako Minekawa, Utada, kahimi Karie, Hi Posi, Tomoyasu hotei, Oh penelope, Cubismo Grafico, Neil & Irazia, Collette, Some may be more French than Japanese and some may not be japanes at all but had songs on a cd called sushi 4004 and from cd Escalator Records Tokyo
Also kind of unrelated IS the cd OR by miss kittin and goldenboy its good music to dance too and for exercise like stairsteppin its electronica type music. Again thanks for all the groups and song titles I will check into them! I love listening to music its my favorite form of entertainment because I can do it while I work and exercise and many other things.