To be honest I don't know everything about J-pop (Japanese pop) but since I became interested in Japanese culture I've found out more and more about this Japanese kind of pop. There's a huge variety of Japanese pop artists so it sometimes seem a bit confusing. And that's why I can surely say that I don't know many of them, but I will tell you what I know about J-pop.
In the beginning I thought that J-pop sounded kind of strange and I wondered why people liked that kind of music. It was very different from the pop we listen to in Denmark and the West, which was basically music in English. The first J-pop band that I heard about is called W (double you). Their music is kind of old fashioned now and it was even a bit old fashioned when I first heard the music in 2007. But after I listened to it for a while I got more and more used to the Japanese pop and the different pop style.
One of my favorite songs by W (double you) is "Ai no imi wo oshiete" (愛の意味を教えて) which means "Teach me the meaning of love".
So after I got more used to J-pop I started to listen to other kinds of Japanese music like Arashi and other bands and singers that I don't remember. That was the time that I tried to teach myself Japanese. It was too difficult to learn a new language by myself, so I basically gave up until I was accepted to Aarhus University to study Japanese language and culture, which I haven't regretted at all.
Right before I got into AU, my uncle sent me a link with a very interesting music video and music in Japanese. That was the first time that I listened to Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. Since then I have been a big fan of her creative and interesting music and have bought almost all of her albums. Of course I thought in the beginning that it was really special music and I found it a bit strange. But somehow her music caught my attention and I really like it. Her songs always seem happy so I enjoy listening to her music.
Kyary's latest music video is "Kira kira killer" (きらきらキラー) and kira kira basically means that something sparkly while kiraa means killer. I think it would be really interesting to analyze her videos because they seem to contain many symbols, but sometimes it also seems like many of the things in her videos are random. Here's her newest video.
One thing that I find really interesting about J-pop and Japanese music in general is the use of English words. Many songs contain English words in the middle of Japanese sentenses, and I haven't quite understood why that is so, but it somehow make it a bit easier to recognize and understand lyrics if it's not all in Japanese. Many Japanese artists use English words, so try to listen and see if you can recognize the words that they use.
Lately there's a band in Japan that is really popular and they're on TV and on the news all the time. They have even made a song for a Disney movie! If you know a lot about J-pop you probably know AKB48. I think that it's really difficult to understand exactly what this band is, but you can read more about them here. I'm not such a big fan and I don't really understand what's so special about them but I though that I wanted to share it with you. Here's their song from the Disney movie "Wreck-It Ralph" (the movie is called "Sugar Rush" in Japanese).
J-pop is definitely a special genre of music for many Western people and because there are so many different artists, I think that it's difficult to know all of them if you don't live in Japan. But there are probably many online pages that talk about J-pop. You can listen to J-pop on last.fm here or read about the historical development on wiki here.
That was it for today's Gaijin's opinion. I hope you liked reading about J-pop, and if you have any questions please ask. If you have any suggestions to what I should comment on next, leave a comment below and let me know. See you soon! :D
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