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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 most powerful in the world (behind the United States) and while extremely hard to define, it´s 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.
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The base of Japanese pop was jazz music which became popular during the early 20th century. Before the World War II, Takarazuka Revue used American jazz music as their theme songs.[2] 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.[3]
Jazz introduced many musical instruments, previously used only to perform classical music and military marches, to bars and clubs. It also added an element of "fun" to the Japanese music scene. 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.[4]
In 1960s, Japanese pops, called Wasei pop (literally "Japan-made pop"), is said to have been birthed.[5] 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.[6] The rock-and-roll movement would reach its peak in 1958 with the performances by a number of Japanese rock-and-roll bands.[7] 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.[8]
Another origin of Japanese pop was female duo The Peanuts.[9] The Peanuts sang Japanese folk songs based on jazz music.[10] In 1966, The Beatles came to Japan and sang their songs at the Nippon Budokan, becoming the first band to do so in Japan.[11] The Beatles had an influence on Japanese future rockers such as Eikichi Yazawa.[12]
In the early 1970s, the emphasis shifted from simple songs with a single guitar accompaniment (known originally as "folk music") to more complex musical arrangements known as New Music.[13] Instead of social messages, the songs focused on more personal messages, such as love. Early 70's produced popular singer/songwriters, as Miyuki Nakajima and Yumi Matsutoya, who are both notable by the variety of sounds they produce. At first, only Yumi Matsutoya, who was formerly known by her maiden name Yumi Arai, was called a New Music artist, but it merged Japanese fouk music.[14] Takuro Yoshida and Yosui Inoue became popular in this period. Off Course became a popular folk band. A notable member of Off Cource was Kazumasa Oda. In even 2000s, his single and album still topped the Japan's Oricon charts, making him the eldest singer to do so.[15]
In 1970s, rock music remained in underground music.[13] However, rocker Eikichi Yazawa remained popular for decades with a rabid fan, becoming a pioneer of Japanese rock.[16] 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.
In the late 1970s, female duo Pink Lady became popular and rock band Southern All Stars was formed. Southern All Stars remains very popular in the present days. On the other hand, Yellow Magic Orchestra developed electropop.[17] Ryuichi Sakamoto, a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra, later won the Grammy Award.[18] Also, he became the first artist to top the Oricon weekly single chart with an instrumental in June 1999.[19] Southern All Stars and Yellow Magic Orchestra ended the era of New Music.[14]
In the 1980s, the term City Pop was used to describe a type of popular music that had a big city theme.[20] Tokyo in particular inspired many songs of this form. However, it was difficult to draw a rigid distinction between City Pop and New Music and many songs fall under both categories. Mariya Takeuchi and her husband Tatsuro Yamashita became popular in this period. Mariya Takeuchi still topped the Oricon album chart in 2008, becoming the eldest female singer to reach the number-one position.[21]
In 1980s, the term New Music was not used anymore, but the music was inherited by Japanese idols, especially Seiko Matsuda.[13] The 1980s were dominated by Japanese idol singers such as Miho Nakayama, Akina Nakamori, Yōko Oginome, Chisato Moritaka, Minako Honda, Kyōko Koizumi and Shizuka Kudō. Mega-idol Seiko Matsuda was extremely popular through the 1980s.[22] 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. Seiko hold the record for most "consecutive" number 1 singles for a female artist in Japan with 24 on the Oricon charts. She was also the first female artist to reach the number-one position by her greatest hits album from B-sides.[23][24]
In 1980s, progressive rock band TM Network had commercially success. TM Network also featured Tak Matsumoto, who later formed rock duo B'z with Koshi Inaba. On the other hand, rock band Boøwy became a very influential rock band, whose members included singer Kyosuke Himuro and guitarrist Tomoyasu Hotei. Subsequent Japanese rock bands were modeled on this band.[25] In the late 1980s, a new trend would emerge 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. The Checkers were also some of the most well known bands in this period.
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.[26] In the early 1990s, Kazumasa Oda, Chage and Aska and Kome Kome Club all made their best-selling singles, which sold nearly three million copies.[27] Chage and Aska, who debuted in 1979, released a string of consecutive hits throughout the early 1990s. Their "Asian Tour II / Mission Impossible" tour was the single largest concert tour ever put on by a Japanese group – the tickets for all 61 concerts in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan sold out on the first day. The term City Pop was not used anymore, but was inherited by Shibuya-kei.[20]
Rock duo B'z became a very commercially success duo, which belonged to the "Being" agency. The period between 1990-1993 was dominated by the "Being" agency artists such as Zard, Tube, Maki Oguro, T-Bolan, Deen and Wands. However, Wands had trouble because they in fact wanted to play alternative rock.[28] In 1999, the agency produced Mai Kuraki.
Tetsuya Komuro left from TM Network and produced many singers and groups. The period between 1994 and 1997 was dominated by dance/techno acts from the "TK family", like Namie Amuro, Globe, Tomomi Kahala and TRF. However, his boom was soon gone partly because he only attempted to sell his songs and his music didn't blossom out.[29] 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.[30] Zeebra introduced hip hop music to Japanese mainstream music.[31]
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 disbanded, 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.
In despite of the domination of song producers and talent agencies, the 90's 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.[32] The band played a concert to a record audience of 200,000 people in 1999.[33] Mr. Children, Dreams Come True, Spitz and Masaharu Fukuyama were also big names that rose in that period.
In 1999, Hikaru Utada's first album, First Love, sold 7,650,000 copies making it the best-selling album ever in Oricon history, surpassing B'z's B'z The Best "Pleasure" and Glay's Review -The Best of Glay.[34] 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.
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.[35]
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 group Exile is another example of the popularity of R&B and Hip Hop, with several million seller albums. 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.
Established rock musicians such as Mr. Children, B'z, Southern All Stars and Glay still topped the charts in 2000s. In 2007, Mr. Children 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.[36] Kobukuro became a very popular folk duo during the period.[37] Their album All Singles Best sold about three million units.[38] In 2008, their album 5296 beat out Ayumi Hamasaki's album Guilty though she previously had eight consecutive number-one studio albums.[39]
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. While singers Hikaru Utada and Ayumi Hamasaki still topped the charts, newcomer Kumi Koda enjoyed popularity with some of her albums selling million copies. Ayaka and Yui also gained popularity. In 2007, Hikaru Utada sold 10 million digital ringtones and songs, making her the first artist ever to have this many digital sales in one year.[40]
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.[41] American-born enka singer Jero also reached popularity in 2008, being the first black enka singer in Japan.[42]
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. 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, were they enjoy small fanbases). They are usually idols and influentiate 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, Morning Musume or B'z, Southern All Stars and Glay. For a more comprenhensive list of artist, see:
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