Chara is a pretty prolific and popular alternative J-pop singer. She's been around since the early 1990s and still going. The most outstanding part of her act is definitely her voice. Sometimes I find it hard to listen to depending on my mood, but you can't deny her unique whispery style.
Also of note she was married to (one of my favourite actors) Tadanobu Asano for fourteen years. She has also done some film work herself and currently hosts a TV Show Ongaku Baka. Keep an eye for her 2011 release Dark Candy.
Halcali are a Japanese female hip-hop duo, their naming being a combo of the members respective names Halca (Haruka) and Yucali (Yukari). They rap and sing together over ballads and dance songs, often with funny, weird and creative backing music. Their style of rapping might sound weird at first, particularly if you're used to American-style rap, but their catchiness quickly grabs you. My favourite album from them is Cyborg Oretachi (I wasn't terribly impressed with Tokyo Groove, their newest one) which I listen to every once in a while with pure joy. And obviously their videos reflect their fun style:
And how can you not have fun with a song called "It's PARTY TIME!"? And don't tell me you've never wanted to do this in a grocery store:
I cannot read Japanese, and Google translate has done nothing for me. This band is so small known so I can't really find much English material about them. Google says that the song means "Gin, sing for me." Now, knowing the Japanese that could totally be the name of a song, BUT I doubt it. But the info is in the video description if you're interested. I found this band a while ago, thanks to BounDEEtube on Youtube, and their songs grew on me. And kept growing on me till I was a bit swollen. However, only just NOW have I found their album! So I've yet to give it a proper listen, but it's good so far. Only..this song isn't on it? Hmph.
From what I can gather, they're in the same league as andymori in terms of their indie cred, and I'm pretty sure their fanbase has grown and is growing quite well. So let me just say, this video does weird things to me. I don't know what about it, but it makes me feel odd. I adore the androgynous beauty of the singer, the foggy atmosphere, the play of light and shadow. Also the song is great (give it more than one listen, if you can). All together it just gives me chills, but that could be my sentimental nature. It makes me miss Japan, that's for sure.
I think what I love about a lot of Japanese music, particularly the rock/indie rock is that the musicians are not afraid to use weird or complex chord structures. You can see it demonstrated here especially in the chorus - even the baseline is quite interesting too. That extra technical musicianship just makes the song meatier for me and will almost always make me a fan.
Technically this song is a remix by Nujabes of a Clammbon song - so it's a good thing. Nujabes is amazing (R.I.P.) and check out his stuff. But this post will focus on Clammbon, another amazing alternative pop band from Japan. I think this group has a lot of character in their sound. At times it's jazzy, at others just pop, rock, techno and altogether fusion. The singer is also very unique as well (though personally I can only listen so long myself). They've got a large discography with lots of different sounds throughout, so it's worth an exploration.
I love Quruli. I...could listen to them for ages. Only now am I getting off my lazy butt and...years after having a bunch of their music am I combing through to make sure I have it all. And I don't. Bad fan. What I do have of theirs, I loveee. Every track, I tells ya. So invest in Quruli. There's not much to say about them. They're quite successful, one of the top pop bands in Japan. The sound is nothing spectacular in and of itself - simple guitars, drums, singing, etc. But there is magic to their work, I think. Just the right emotions, solid songwriting, carefree singing and technical instrumentation: it all works so well.
I haven't bothered to watch many of their videos, but from what I see they're fun too! I'll post another good one below, but make sure you listen to much more than this!
Chitose comes from Amami Oshima, which is responsible for the style of singing you will notice about her, as it is particular to that region. She uses various falsetto effects to achieve this sound; I don't know what a proper term for it would be, but I simply call it "fluting." This song is Kataritsugu Kotou and was the first song I heard from her and fell in love. Her voice is just stunning - a true instrument.
Kousuke sings in virtually the same fashion as she. I joke that he is the male version of her, though he is not as popular (but deserves to be!). His voice is just as finely tuned, and definitely has a smooth texture that makes me melt. Here is his song "Hana."
The song and video I have uploaded here is "Over Load" which is a decent song, but definitely not her absolute best. I'm using it because most of her music seems to have been removed from Youtube (so...yeah). Her most famous track is probably "Yuki no Hana" which is a damn good ballad that I still enjoy from time to time. I love all the songs she did for her movie "Nana" a couple years ago.
Well, let's introduce her properly. Mika is a pretty well-known J-pop artist. I latched on to her right away when I was first learning about Japanese music. When you first dig into another culture's music, you're most likely to come across pop, pop and pop. So having alternative pop artists like Mika are great gateway artists for better stuff (not that pop is necessarily bad). Mika's earlier stuff definitely had more jazz, reggae and big band influence which I also liked, but she has evolved with lots of different pop sounds and harder rock sounds. She's a bit weird at times, especially in her aesthetic, and she is also so very beautiful. In Nana, she wasn't too bad an actress either. So if you're interested in J-pop and wanted someone a bit meatier, please check out more of her!
