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Jmusic?

Japanese Music: A ten second introduction

Although Japan is the second biggest music market in the world, it’s still relatively obsolete in parts outside of the tiny island. However, Japanese music has amassed a huge cult following of its many genres and sub genres, with everything from pop to rock to its unique visual kei and enka styled traditional music, but nevertheless, they have managed to effortlessly mix together modern, Western styles with their own unique Eastern flavor.

When it comes to the Japanese music reviews I put together on this site, here’s what you need to know:

The Japanese love minute details. They have song titles like “Far away” and “SEASONS” and “teddy bear”…and they expect them to be written exactly like that, at all times, capitalization rules be damned. If the title is not written in English (though many are), the general unwritten rules are as follows:

If the song is written in traditional Japanese script, i.e kanji and hiragana, ie. 七色の明日, then its romaji (English pronunciation) will be written in correct English capitalization, like this: Nanairo no Ashita.

If a song is written in Katakana (Japanese alphabet for pronouncing foreign words), then the word is usually written with all letters capitalized. If you have no idea of the difference between the two, don’t worry; just know the crazy capitalizations are not without reason.

I mention the Oricon charts a lot. Oricon is short for ‘Original Confidence’ and is equivalent to the Billboard Charts in the United States.

Speaking of singles and albums, they work a bit differently in Japan. In the U.S., it’s customary to release a single and then follow up with the album one or two months later, followed by subsequent singles. In Japan, about three or four singles are released by an artist over the course of a year, usually two or three months in between themselves, and then the album is released. Needless to say, singles are much more popular in Japan than in the U.S. Most of them carry incentives to encourage fans to collect them all, including ‘bonus’ CD+DVD combinations that include the music videos, called PVs (promotional videos). A lot of times, albums will also have the same special versions along with the increasingly popular photobook.

Just like any country that produces music, there are millions of styles that the Japanese perfect and many unique to their country. They have perfected the art of idol worship (Hello! Project), spawned a love child from metal and cross-dressing (visual kei), and even have their own version of the quintessential pop queen (Ayumi Hamasaki). There are thousands of music artists, both popular and not so popular. I wouldn’t even know where to begin introducing artists and relating the impact each has had in their own unique way, but I can direct you to the J-pop Wikipedia, which provides a better summary.