Japanese Music

[Sandbar]

I'm completely ignorant regarding music from Japanese culture, but is the music you hear in anime indicative of the type of music that is produced there?

I must admit, took me a while to get used to the OP and ED music of anime, but now I love it!

Kinda like Eurovision Song Contest 80's style or something.

Oh and also what are good Japanese bands/singers/music that you know of?

[KiraRin]

I love Rie Fu. She sings in Japanese and English, and has an absolutely stunning voice.

Maximum the Hormone are one of my favourite J-rock groups (they did the Death Note OP and ED), and their videos are hilarious!

Any fans of Initial D will know of Move, and their funky eurobeat. Plus the lead singer is hot ^^

And ask the fan boys about Ayumi Hamasaki. Not only does she sing like an angel, she looks like one too ^^

H.

[Sandbar]

Maximum the Hormone????

Just the name alone intrigues me! hehehe

Okay, Rie Fu and Ayumi Hamasaki. I'm off to do some googling.

Thanks!

[Garyuu]

Maximum The Hormone is awesome!! I've been listening to them for a few months now, and I love their style. Ryo Kawakita is awesome in the Music videos. He always has a funny face when He sings. His sister Nao is cool too. Not only is she a good drummer, but she has a big part in the singing which is she is good at.

Other bands I partically think are good are High and Mighty Color, Orange Range, Asian Kung-Fu Generation, Nightmare, Dir en Grey, Aqua Timez, and the Black Mages. Really there are a lot more groups that I like. These are just some.

[Sandbar]

Where would one find these music videos? Ooh, youtube I guess....
I am soooo intrigued....

Thanks Garyuu!

[Worosei]

ahh!!! not maximum the hormone!
:p
sorry i dont have much love for them... the real japanese metal:

Sigh - pure *ucking spectacularly awesome black metal. They are pretty much one of the only black metal bands today that are still good, and not living off their old name

Galneryus - really awesome power metal, often to compared to sonata arctica... syuu is sheer brilliant with the guitar... and they do the op/ed for mnemosyne... and their english is pretty decent actually... the english for sigh doesnt count as its all growling :p

animetal - just for laughs if u've seen some of those anime - they're really good, but it's more for fun

and then there's the popular Anthem and Loudness.

I also quite like Malice Mizer...

in terms of the jpop stuff, i dont really know much outside those that do music for anime, and the really mainstream ones such as the irritating ayumi hamasaki and Yui


What sort of music do u normally listen to?

[ForgottenSon]

Eiko Shimamiya is probably my favourite Japanese artist. La'cryma Christi are pretty good, too.

That's of course if we discount soundtrack composers, like Yoko Kanno or Akira Yamaoka.

[fictionsmosaic]

Perhaps one of my favorite Japanese artists is Eri Sugai. To quote the little information available for a bio on wikipedia,

Eri Sugai (菅井えり, Sugai Eri?) is a talented Japanese vocalist, composer and arranger. She has been compared to Enya in that she "multitracks her voice into angelic choruses, soaring over spare but emotional arrangements"[1]

She has lent talents to over 1000 television commercials, and has produced four personal albums to date.

The reference in that is to her album Mai on Amazon.com.

What surprised me when I bought her first two albums is that they came with four solid incense sticks in the little area that's the spine of the jewel case. They smelled pretty nice, and even though I've used two of the four in each of the albums, it still smells as strong as ever.

Another thing that surprised me on her first album is the song First Love, she uses her voice to emulate the niko (or erhu) and does an amazing job at it.

[Sandbar]

Originally Posted by Worosei

What sort of music do u normally listen to?

I'm not that adventurous really when it comes to music. Normally it's anything I can sing to, which for me discounts heavy metal and country music.
So basically what you would hear on popular radio. Top 40 and all that....

I reckon I could get into the JPop scene. Some of it seems so cheesy that you just *have* to love it.

Speaking of cheesiness - Eurovision is on this weekend! YAY!

[AverageShinigami]

Originally Posted by Sandbar

Speaking of cheesiness - Eurovision is on this weekend! YAY!

All Europeans - you know who to vote for, right?

At least be grateful that you don't understand the lyrics. "Missä miehet ratsastaa, siellä lampaat ei voi laiduntaa."