by Pat Rial
The sounds of silence ... are not something that you are are likely to find while in Japan. It seems that everywhere you go you are overloaded by aural stimuli. There are the endless touts hocking phones or karaoke parlors, ubiquitous ditties that emanate from every single street front shop, and of course there is J-Pop and the wonderous array of other Japanese music genres. Not all of it is good, but some of it is really nice. I now present you with Patrick's Truly Biased and Factually Inaccurate Guide to Japanese Music.
First of all, Japanese music encompasses every possible genre available. There are Japanese boy bands, punk rockers, acclaimed jazz trios, you name it. This guide will present a mere slice of the great world of Japanese music that is out there for you to experience. One thing this guide does not cover is enka, the musical form that was born after WWII, almost ready made for the karaoke boxes. Your teachers undoubtedly love enka style music and will not fail to sing it at your welcome parties, but if you are remotely normal, you will be handily repulsed by the incredibly slow and depressing songs.
Ayumi Hamasaki - Possibly the most well known J-Pop singer. Her songs are played on pretty heavy rotation and she has been around for a while. Her sound is pretty hard to classify, lots of heavy background pop a la Janet Jackson, although she has a lot of simpler heartache songs that are more reminiscent of Michelle Branch as well. She is as well loved as she is reviled. This reviewer does not find her music terribly original or interesting, but to each his own, right?
SMAP - Boy band extraordinaire, SMAP has been around for a while and even have their own variet show on television (as do their female counterparts, Morning Musume), which explains their perennial popularity. Their songs are catchy and not as heavily produced as groups like N'Sync. You will hear them frequently. Not serious music, but hey, it's nice to listen to.
Mr. Children - Currently, Mr. Children has the theme song for Orange Days, a popular college drama on Channel 6. This is a highly popular and successful rock band, their sound is pretty medium-heavy and they have a lot of ballads/love songs as of recently. Good for a listen, and your students definitely love them.
BoA - Straight out of the slums of Korea, BoA is taking the J-Pop world by storm. She is sort of a hip-hop/R&B/pop combination along the lines of J.Lo. Koreans singing in Japanese has become a new trend here, spurring meaningful cultural debate between the two historically adversarial countries (yeah right).
S.P.I.T.Z. - I don't think the letters actually stand for something, but this band sure does: extremely cool and catchy pop music. Possibly my favorite Japanese band. SPITZ rocks, somewhere along the lines of Third Eye Blind.
The Blue Hearts - The Blue Hearts are the original Japanese punk rock band. It's somewhere between The Clash and Blink 182 I suppose. They were incredibly popular back in the day.
B'z - The Bon Jovi of Japan. The B'z have been going strong for a long time now with their arena rock style. Their new stuff is not quite so good as their older albums, but it's all worth a listen.
Namie Amuro - Namie is from Okinawa and her sound is really cool. She is credited with creating the Ganguro Gal and Guy look that is common on the streets of Shibuya (too-tanned skin and shiny makeup). Her songs have a lot of English in them, so the might be a good choice for karaoke. She has reinvented herself into more of a dance artist recently, so my recommendation is to go with the older stuff.
Some other popular groups you might want to check out: Glay, Orange Range, Bump of Chicken, Puffy, Chemistry, Soul'd Out, Southern All-Stars, Penicillin, and Gackt.
One of the best parts about Japan is the CD rental shops that are combined with video rentals (Tsutaya, Family Video, etc.) For a mere 300 yen, you can borrow the CD and keep it for a week and copy it if you like it, no questions asked. So, why not catch a wave! (A sound wave I mean, ha ha!)