Japanese music culture is growing rapidly. Today many Asian artists outside of Japan are looking to Japan to expand their fan base. Tohoshinki is just one example of this. Tohoshinki is a Korean group that learned Japanese and now releases Cd's and preform concerts in Japan and in Japanese. Something else interesting about Japanese music is that Japanese singers don't often put out full length albums. Instead, they put out singles followed by an occasional full length album. In America ,as you know, our singers put out album after album.
My favorite female Japanese singer is Utada Hikaru (宇多田 ヒカル).
Utada Hikaru was born in New York and speaks Japanese and English fluently. I have been listening to her music for six years. I first heard Utada Hikaru when i was twelve years old. For Christmas that year I got a PlayStation 2 and the Kingdom Hearts video game. Utada Hikaru sand the theme song for that game and I have been listening to her ever since. Utada Hikaru has an amazing voice. I enjoy watching her preform live as well as just listening to her on a CD. Her voice always sounds great. I have not hears a song that i have not liked. In 2004 Utada released a CD in America titled Exodus. I went and bought it at BestBuy! Althought she released a CD here in America she did not get a lot of attetnion from it, which is a typical occurrence. That's alright with me thought, I enjoy keeping her wonderful music to myself.Utada Hikaru - Can You Keep A Secret
My favorite male Japanese singer is Gackt. I have been listening to him for a couple of years now and he reminds me a little bit of Madonna. Gackt, like Madonna, seems to always reinvent himself. Sometimes he is seen singing soft ballads with blond hair and other times he is seen singing rock with black hair. Gackt has a unique voice, he has a natural falsetto. Little is known about Gackt's personal life. He is rumored to be in his forty's and yet his looks and unique voice transcend time. Gackt is the first male Japanese singer i ever heard and also the first Japanese celebrity i had a crush on. Gackt has stared in movies in Japan and in 2009 he will star in a movie in America called Bunraku with Josh Hartnett and Demi Moore. I cant wait to see him in an American movie!
Gackt - Another World
Johnny and Associates Inc ( also known as Johnnys or Johnnys Jimusho) is a well known Japanese record label that exclusively signs boy bands. Johnny's most famous group is called SMAP which debuted around 1991. Groups like Arashi, KAT-TUN, NewS, Hey!Say!Jump, and Kanjani8 are popular Johnnys groups among teens. Many Johnnys Jimusho group members act as well as sing. I like to watch a show called Pop Music Club on the Japanese channel. It features boy band after boy band singing in front of a live audience of screaming tween girls. To the untrained eye and ear (like my parents) they all seem to look and sound the alike, but I have no problem telling them apart.
NewS - Happy Birthday
2 comments:
There is a lot of good information in this post. It looks like you did it kind of quickly, though, without running the spell-checker (don't forget to do that). There is also a lot of white space in between the paragraphs--maybe a bit too much? The spacing makes it seem as if each paragraph is a stand-alone piece, not part of a whole, while this does read as one good blog entry.
I think it's pretty awesome that some of your favorite Japanese music can now be found at local big box stores...I'll surf YouTube to see if I can hear a few songs while watching the videos of the singers you mention here.
I am kind of shocked at how so much of the Japanese pop culture wants to appear and sound like the Americans? Normally, the United States and Japan have very little in common, but you are shedding light on the fact that while we are oceans apart, we're not as different as one would think. It's sad that more Japanese musicans are not recognized here in the states, but that may have something to do with the fact that we have more musicians than we know what to do with here in the US. Good data!
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