J-pop

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J-pop is an abbreviation of Japanese pop. It refers to Japanese popular musicians, and was coined by the Japanese media, to distinguish Japanese musicians from foreign musicians. Today, the Japanese music industry is the second biggest in the world[1] (behind the United States) and while extremely hard to define, it is considered by some as a style, though in essence it refers to modern Japanese music outside of traditional Japanese music and early-modern Japanese genres like enka and kayōkyoku. Taro Kato, a member of Beat Crusaders, said that J-pop was not the encoded pop music but the music remembered by being aired many times.[2]

Enka singer Hibari Misora is ranked number 5 in a list by HMV, of Japan's top 100 pops.[3]

See also: Japanese jazz

The base of Japanese pop was jazz music which became popular during the early 20th century. Takarazuka Revue used American jazz music as their theme songs before the World War II.[4] Under pressure from the Imperial Army during the war, the performance of jazz music was temporarily halted. After the war ended the United States soldiers—who were occupying Japan at the time—and the Far East Network introduced a number of new musical styles to the country.[5] Jazz introduced many musical instruments, previously used only to perform classical music and military marches, to bars and clubs. As a result "Ongaku Kissa" (音楽喫茶—lit. "music cafe") became a very popular venue for live jazz music. Boogie-woogie, Mambo, Blues, and Country music were performed by Japanese musicians for the American troops. Songs like Shizuko Kasagi's "Tokyo Boogie-Woogie" (1948), Chiemi Eri's "Tennessee Waltz" (1951), Hibari Misora's "Omatsuri Mambo", and Izumi Yukimura's "Omoide no Waltz" became popular. Foreign musicians and groups including JATP and Louis Armstrong visited Japan to perform. Jazz had much effect on subsequent Japanese pop.[6]

Kyu Sakamoto, ranked 18 in the HMV top 100 pops list,[3] poses with his school band.

In 1956, the rock-and-roll craze began thanks to a country music group known as Kosaka Kazuya and the Wagon Masters and their rendition of Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel. Performers learned to play the music and translate the lyrics of popular American songs, resulting in the birth of Cover Pop.[7] The rock-and-roll movement would reach its peak in 1958 with the performances by a number of Japanese rock-and-roll bands.[8] Some performers attempted to merge former Japanese music with rock-and-roll. One of musicians to be successful in this effort was Kyu Sakamoto with the song "Ue wo Muite Arukō" (lit. "Let's Look Up and Walk"), known in other parts of the world as "Sukiyaki" and released in 1963 in the United States. The song was the first Japanese song to reach #1 in the United States (four weeks in Cashbox Magazine and three weeks in Billboard magazine) in its native language in America and also to receive a "Gold Record" for selling one million copies.[9] During this period, The Peanuts also became famous female duo who performed to sing a song in movie Mothra.[10] The songs of Kyu Sakamoto and The Peanuts became to be known as Japanese pop, called Wasei pop (literally "Japan-made pop").[11][7]

Kyu Sakamoto was once a member of a music band named The Drifters.[12] After frequent changes of members, Chosuke Ikariya re-formed the band in 1964 under the same name. In 1966, The Beatles came to Japan and sang their songs at the Nippon Budokan, making them the first rock music band to perform their concert at the Budokan.[13] Despite an adverse opinion from the old guard, their concert was enforced.[14] Japanese government deployed the riot police against young rock fans at the Nippon Budokan.[15] However, the memory of The Beatles has remained over decades among Japanese people.[16] The Beatles inspired Japanese future rockers such as Eikichi Yazawa.[17] Keisuke Kuwata was influenced by them at second hand because his elder sister was a fan of The Beatles.[18] Yosui Inoue was also a fan of The Beatles though he said that his music style was not particularly related to them.[19] At the concert, The Drifters acted as a curtain raiser for The Beatles, but audiences hurled invective at them.[20] After that, however, The Drifters became popular in Japan, making their 1969 hit song "Zundoko-Bushi" (lit. Zundoko [echoic word] tune).[20] Along with enka singer Keiko Fuji, they won "the award for mass popularity" at the 12th Japan Record Award in 1970.[21] Keiko Fuji's 1970 album "Shinjuku no Onna/'Enka no Hoshi' Fuji Keiko no Subete" (lit. "Woman in Shinjuku/'Star of Enka' All of Keiko Fuji") established an all-time record for spending in number-one spot of 20 consecutive weeks in Japan's Oricon history.[22] The Drifters later became to be known as television personalities and invited Japanese idols such as Momoe Yamaguchi and Candies to their television program.[20]

In the early 1970s, the emphasis shifted from simple songs with a single guitar accompaniment (known originally as "folk") to more complex musical arrangements known as New Music.[23] Instead of social messages, the songs focused on more personal messages, such as love. In 1972, a great change took place in Japanese music scene: Takuro Yoshida produced hit song "Kekkon Shiyouyo" (lit. "Let's marry") and pop icon Hiromi Go made his debut with song "Otokonoko Onnanoko" (lit. "Boy and Girl"), although the highest-selling single of the year was enka song "Onna no Michi".[24] The enka song eventually sold over 3.25 million copies.[25] In December 1973, Yosui Inoue released album "Kori no Sekai" (lit. "World of Ice"), which established a still-standing record to spend at the number-one position for a total of 35 weeks on Oricon charts.[22][26] Yumi Matsutoya, formerly known by her maiden name Yumi Arai, also became notable singer/songwriter during this period by the variety of sounds she produce. At first, only Yumi Matsutoya was commonly called a New Music artist, but the concept merged Japanese fouk music.[27] In October 1975, she released single "Ano Hi ni Kaeritai" (lit. "I want to return to that day"), making it her first number-one single.[28] On the other hand, child-friendly song "Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun", released in December 1975, eventually sold 4.53 million copies, making it the best selling single ever in Oricon history.[25] Miyuki Nakajima, Amii Ozaki and Junko Yagami were also popular singer-songwriter during this period. Several idol singers became popular during this period such as Mari Amachi, Momoe Yamaguchi and Candies. In 1976, female duo Pink Lady made their debut with single "Pepper Keibu". Pink Lady released nine consecutive number-one singles, establishing a record of that time.[29]

Shibuya-kei artist Cornelius (left) and Grammy Award winner Ryuichi Sakamoto (right) are ranked 43 and 11 respectively in the HMV Japan Top 100 pops.[3]

Rock music relatively remained in the underground music genre in 1970s in Japan.[23] However, Eikichi Yazawa became a popular rocker and became to be regarded as one of pioneers of Japanese rock.[30] In 1978, his single "Toki yo Tomare" (lit. "Time, Stop") became a smash hit, which sold over 639,000 copies.[31] In 1980, Yazawa seeking worldwide success, signed a contract with the Warner Pioneer record company and moved to the West Coast of the United States. He recorded the albums "Yazawa," "It's Just Rock n' Roll," and "Flash in Japan," all of which were released worldwide, but were not very commercially successful. Keisuke Kuwata formed rock band Southern All Stars, which made their debut in 1978. Southern All Stars remains very popular in the present days. In the same year, Yellow Magic Orchestra also made their debut. They developed electropop.[32] Ryuichi Sakamoto, a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra, had an influence on Japanese music band such as Mr. Children and Dreams Come True.[33] Southern All Stars and Yellow Magic Orchestra ended the era of New Music.[27] In 1979, Chage and Aska made their debut and folk band Off Course, whose vocalist was Kazumasa Oda, released hit song "Sayonara" (lit. "Good-bye").

In the 1980s, the term City Pop was used to describe a type of popular music that had a big city theme.[34] Tokyo in particular inspired many songs of this form. It was Japanese pop influenced from Album-oriented rock and Crossover.[34] Although it was difficult to draw a rigid distinction between City Pop and New Music, rock band Happy End was considered as one of origins.[35] Akira Terao and Anri became famous during this period. Tatsuro Yamashita and his wife Mariya Takeuchi also became popular in this period. Yamashita's 1983 song "Christmas Eve" finally reached #1 on the Oricon weekly single charts of December 25, 1989.[36] In 1989, Ryuichi Sakamoto won the Grammy Award for his contribution to movie The Last Emperor.[37][38]

In 1980s, the term New Music was not used anymore, but the music was inherited by Japanese idols.[23] Especially, Seiko Matsuda aggressively adopted song producers of previous generations and became a mega-idol.[23] In 1980, her third single "Kaze wa Aki Iro" (lit. "Wind is autumn color") reached the number-one spot on Oricon charts.[29] She eventually became the first artist to make 24 consecutive number 1 singles, breaking Pink Lady's record.[29] She saw a bit more success with English-only songs released on her 1991 album "Eternal", and was hounded by U.S. tabloids for having a relationship with then red-hot Donnie Wahlberg of New Kids on the Block, who sang the duet "The Right Combination" with Seiko Matsuda. In 1980s, idol singers achieved significant popularity such as Akina Nakamori, Kyōko Koizumi, Yōko Oginome, Miho Nakayama, Minako Honda, Chisato Moritaka and Shizuka Kudō. In 1986, idol singer Yukiko Okada's song "Kuchibiru Network" (lit. "Lips' Network"), written by Seiko Matsuda and composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto, became a hit song, but she committed suicide immediately after that.[39]

Pata, known as the member of rock band X Japan. The band is ranked number 40 in the HMV Japan Top 100 pops.[3]

Throughout 1980s, rock bands were popular such as Southern All Stars, Anzen Chitai, The Checkers, The Alfee, Boøwy and TM Network. Anzen Chitai was from Yosui Inoue's backup band. In 1986, The Alfee became the first artist to play a concert in front of an audience of 100,000 people in Japan.[40] Boøwy especially became a influential rock band, whose members included singer Kyosuke Himuro and guitarrist Tomoyasu Hotei. Their three albums reached number-one in 1988, making them the first male artists to do so within a year.[41] Subsequent Japanese rock bands were modeled on this band.[42] In 1989, Tetsuya Komuro, a member of TM Network, eventually prevented Seiko Matsuda's 25 consecutive number-ones.[43] Guitarist Tak Matsumoto, who supported TM Network's concerts, formed rock duo B'z with Koshi Inaba.[44] In the late 1980s, a new trend also emerged in Japanese rock music: the visual kei a movement notable by male bands who wore make up and extravagant hair styles and androgynous costumes. The most well successful representants are X Japan and Buck-Tick.

This period also saw the rise of the female duo Wink. Wink debuted in 1988, surpassing the popularity of the then most popular female duo, BaBe. Also, the famous j-pop idols CoCo made their hit debut with the 1989 single Equal Romance for the hit anime series Ranma 1/2. Hikaru Genji, one of the representants of the Johnny & Associates "talent producer", the highly influential rollerskating boy band, also became popular during this time, with some of its members growing up to fame on their own. Princess Princess became a successful all female band.

In the early 1990s, the term J-pop, which originally came from a word in Japanese radio broadcasting J-Wave, became the common term to describe most popular songs.[45] During this period, Japanese music industry sought marketing effectiveness, ingenerating mass-produced music.[46] B'z achieved commercial success and eventually established a new record for consecutive number-one singles, surpassing Seiko's record.[47] B'z belonged to the "Being" agency. The period between around 1990 and 1993 was dominated by the "Being" agency artists such as Tube, T-Bolan, Zard, Wands, Maki Oguro, Deen, Keiko Utoku and Field of View. In 1993, Zard came at the top of the Oricon yearly total sales rankings.[48] On another front, Wands had trouble because they in fact wanted to play alternative rock/grunge.[49] The term City Pop was not used anymore, but was inherited by Shibuya-kei.[34]

Kazumasa Oda's 1991 song "Oh! Yeah!/Love Story wa Totsuzen ni", Chage and Aska's 1991 song "Say Yes" and Kome Kome Club's 1992 song "Kimi ga Iru Dake de" sold 2.58 million copies, 2.82 million copies and 2.89 million copies respectively.[25] Chage and Aska released a string of consecutive hits throughout the early 1990s. In 1993, they released one more mega-hit song "Yah Yah Yah", which sold 2.41 million copies.[50] In 1996, they also took part in MTV Unplugged, making them the first asian to do so.[51] Dreams Come True, Mr. Children, Spitz and Masaharu Fukuyama were also big names that rose in that period. Dreams Come True's 1992 album The Swinging Star became the first album to sell over 3 million copies in Japan.[52] Mr. Children's 1994 album Atomic Heart and their 1994 song "Tomorrow Never Knows" sold 3.43 million copies and 2.76 million copies respectively.[50] In 1996, they released one more mega-hit song "Namonaki uta", which sold 2.30 million copies, managing to exceed Globe's mega-hit song "Departures", which sold 2.28 million copies.[50]

Namie Amuro (middle) performs at MTV Asia Aid in Bangkok, Thailand. She ranks 53 on HMV's list of 100 top 100 Japanese pops.[3]

After TM Network once disbanded in 1994, Tetsuya Komuro became a serious song producer. The period between around 1994 and 1997 was dominated by dance/techno acts from the "TK family", like TRF, Ryoko Shinohara, Yuki Uchida, Namie Amuro, Hitomi, Globe, Tomomi Kahala and Ami Suzuki. While Globe's 1996 album "Globe" sold 4,13 million copies, Namie Amuro's 1997 song "Can You Celebrate?" sold 2,29 million copies.[50] His total sales as a song producer reached 170 million copies.[53][54] However, his boom was soon gone partly because he only attempted to sell his songs and his music didn't blossom out.[55] Namie Amuro, who was arguably the most popular singer in the period, came from the "Okinawa Actors School", which also revealed MAX and Speed. At first, while still a part of "TK Family", Amuro remained in the dance music genre, but she slowly changed her music style to contemporary R&B and stopped her partnership with Tetsuya Komuro.[56] Zeebra introduced hip hop music to Japanese mainstream music.[57] In 1999, Zeebra was featured by Dragon Ash in their song titled "Grateful Days", which topped the Oricon charts.[58]

Johnny & Associates produced many boy band SMAP, Tokio, V6 and Kinki Kids. SMAP especially hit the J-pop scene in a major way in the 1990s through a combination of TV "Talent" shows and singles, with one of its singers, Takuya Kimura, becoming a popular actor in later years known commonly as "Kimutaku". By the late 1990s, the all-female girl group Speed was very popular until they announced their upcoming disbandment, in 1999. The group returned to the music scene in 2008. Another all-female band, Morning Musume, produced by Tsunku, former leader of band Sharam Q became very popular, with a string of releases that were sales hits before even being released. The group's popularity gave origin to the Hello! Project, a female version of the Johnny & Associates. Following the pattern set a decade before by the 1980s all-female Onyanko Club, Morning Musume spawned several splinter bands.

The 90's also saw the popularity of rock bands, such as Glay, Luna Sea and L'Arc~en~Ciel, most of them related to the visual kei movement though they later changed their style. Glay became specially successful, with a massive exposure in the media that compared to that of the most popular pop singers.[59] In October 1997, Glay released album Review -The Best of Glay, which sold 4.87 million copies.[50] However, B'z's album B'z The Best "Pleasure", released in May 1998, sold 5.12 million copies.[50] In September 1998, their another album B'z The Best "Treasure" was released and sold 4.43 million copies.[50] In November 1998, Yumi Matsutoya also released her greatest hits album titled "Neue Musik".[60] "Neue Musik" sold 3.25 million copies and had been the highest-selling double-album in Japan until Southern All Stars's 1998 double-album "Umi no Yeah!!" broke the record in 2004.[61] In July 1999, Glay played a concert to Guinness World Records' certified record audience (by only the power of one artist) of 200,000 people at the Makuhari Messe.[62]

Hikaru Utada is ranked number 24 in the HMV Japan Top 100 pops.[3]

In March 1999, Hikaru Utada released her first album, First Love, which sold 7,650,000 copies making it the best-selling album ever in Oricon history.[50] She was known as a daughter of Keiko Fuji. In the late 90's and early 21st century, many other female singer/songwriters became famous. Ayumi Hamasaki, Misia, Mai Kuraki, and Shiina Ringo are some female chart toppers of the period who write their own songs or their own lyrics.

In June 1999, Ryuichi Sakamoto's "soothing" musical composition titled "Energy Flow" became the first instrumental single to top the weekly charts in Oricon history.[63] Although the 90's produced many million seller "phenomena" it was a veteran band, Southern All Stars, that topped 2000's yearly chart with their Single CD Tsunami recorded 2,934,965 sales.[64]

Japanese hip hop artist Zeebra is ranked number 97 in the HMV Japan Top 100 pops.[3]
See also: Japanese hip hop

During the mid-2000s, Contemporary R&B and Hip hop music influences in Japanese music started to gain attention in popular mainstream music. Hip-hop/rock bands such as Orange Range and Ketsumeishi have been at the top of the Oricon charts. Orange Range's 'musiQ' album sold over 2.5 million copies, making it the number one album for the year 2005. The singer Ken Hirai managed to come out on top of the yearly album chart in 2006 with the release of '10th Anniversary Complete Single Collection '95-'05 Utabaka' selling over 2,000,000 copies. The group Exile is another example of the popularity of R&B and Hip Hop, with several million seller albums. Their album 'Exile Love' topped the yearly album chart in 2008. Along with his own success, veteran rapper Dohzi-T led young singers such as Miliyah Kato and Thelma Aoyama.[65] The number of new artists recovered from early 2000s' low level.[66][67]

Ayumi Hamasaki won the grand prix awards for three years in a row between 2001 and 2003 for the first time in the Japan Record Award history.[68] Although Hamasaki became an overwhelming big name, it was pointed out that the phenomena of Hamasaki was very risky because her record label Avex Group neglected the modern portfolio theory, which eventually went away when the label's other singers such as Ai Otsuka and Kumi Koda also reached a certain level of popularity in the mid 2000s.[69] Ayaka and Yui also gained popularity. Yasutaka Nakata, whose music style was formerly called "Neo Shibuya-kei", became a song producer for female electropop group Perfume.[70] The market for digital downloads rapidly grew up and Hikaru Utada's 2007 song "Flavor of Life" sold over 7 million digital downloads.[71] In 2007, Utada sold 10 million digital ringtones and songs, making her the first artist ever to have this many digital sales in one year.[72]

Established rock musicians such as Mr. Children, B'z, Southern All Stars and Glay still topped the charts in 2000s. When Mr. Children released album 'Home' in 2007, they passed 50 million sales in albums and singles sold, making them the second highest selling artist of all time in Japan since the origin of Oricon, just behind B'z, who appears as #1 with more than 75 million copies sold.[73] 'Home' topped the yearly album chart in 2007. Although the sales of physical CDs declined, number of audiences to see live performances increased.[74] In 2007, Eikichi Yazawa became the first artist to have performed concerts 100 times at the Nippon Budokan.[75] Kobukuro became a very popular folk duo during the period.[76] In 2007, their double-album All Singles Best became the first male album to ship three million copies in the 21st century in Japan.[77] In 2008, their album 5296 beat out Ayumi Hamasaki's album Guilty though she previously had eight consecutive number-one studio albums.[78]

While Kazumasa Oda's 2005 album Sōkana topped the oricon weekly album charts, his 2007 single Kokoro topped the weekly single charts, making him the eldest singer to top the single charts and breaking the former record of Yujiro Ishihara.[79] On the other hand, Mariya Takeuchi's gratest hits album Expressions topped the Oricon album chart in 2008, being the eldest and longest-career female singer to reach the number-one position.[80]

Johnny & Associates produced boy bands have also been very popular. Smap's cover of the song "Sekai ni hitotsu dake no hana" sold more than two million copies, being the # 1 single in the 2003 Oricon Yearly Chart. Other "Johnny's" famous acts are KinKi Kids, Arashi, Tackey & Tsubasa, News, and KAT-TUN. Smap was said to fight a lonely battle at the Kōhaku Uta Gassen if seen from the viewpoint of its audience share.[81] In 2008, male musicians established a record of four consecutive wins at the Kōhaku Uta Gassen.[82] On the 2008 yearly singles charts, the number of single, which was sung by only female singers and was ranked in Top 30, was just one partly because those boy bands enjoyed an advantage.[83]

Some singers who are not classified as "J-pop" have also achieved commercial success. Japanese tenor singer Masafumi Akikawa's 'Sen no kaze ni natte' single became a smash hit in 2007, managing to sell over one million copies.[84] American-born enka singer Jero also reached popularity in 2008, being the first black enka singer in Japan.[85] Seiyu such as Nana Mizuki increased in popularity, but the genre is often called not "J-pop" but "A-pop" (Anime pop).[86][87] "A-pop" was reportedly proposed by one of Japanese musicians who enjoyed punk rock and club music in their early days.[88]

Ayumi Hamasaki in Taiwan, March 2007. She has sold around 50 million records in Japan alone, and is a huge driving force in Japan's fashion and pop culture.

J-pop is an integral part of Japanese popular culture, being found in anime, commercials, movies, TV shows, and video games and other forms of J-ENT. Some television news programs even run a J-pop song during their end credits.

In anime and television shows, particularly dramas, opening and closing songs are changed up to four times per year. As most programs have both opening and closing songs it is possible for one show to use 8 tracks in a single season.

Over the past decade, J-pop has continually gained fans worldwide through video games and anime. Many video game fans import games from Japan well before they are released in their respective countries. The theme songs and soundtracks from these games can be a gateway to further interest in J-pop and other genres of Japanese music. One example of this can be found in the games Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, in which popular J-pop singer Hikaru Utada performs the main theme songs. Her song "Easy Breezy" was also used to promote the Nintendo DS. The Ouendan Series and Band Brothers for DS both feature a lot of J-Pop songs. In the case of anime, shows are normally sold in the West with their original soundtracks untouched, affording more direct exposure (however this is sometimes not the case, leaving fans outraged). Some shows aired on television in the United States, for example, have seen their themes go so far as to become commercially available as ringtones through mainstream vendors in that country.

Japanese pop artists are extremely popular in Japan and some of them overseas (specially in Asia, but also in Western countries, where they have other fanbases). They are usually idols and influence not only music, but also fashion, and many areas of modern pop culture. During the 1990´s and the 2000´s, the most popular Japanese artists have been Ayumi Hamasaki, Ken Hirai, Namie Amuro, Mr. Children, Hikaru Utada, EXILE, Kumi Koda, Kobukuro, Morning Musume or B'z, Southern All Stars and Glay. For a more comprenhensive list of artist, see:

Main article: List of J-pop artists

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