Mimi246 on J-pop music (3)

Mimi246 wrote another entry on this topic on April 27, adding some more significant trends. -tomomi

After I finished writing the previous entry, I realized and thought “oh..!”. My list totally lacked the “visual-kei” artists.

The genres that I didn’t include as I knew their existence but didn’t know very well include Japanese Reggae, for example. I am not that knowledgable about R&B, too. Quite a few female R&B singers appeared after Hikaru Utada’s debut, but my memory is very vague about them.

One more thing that I think I should mention is the post-90s rock in Japan. Many bands with lots of personality appeared in this period.

Blankey Jet City “Pepin” (1)
Guitar Wolf “Jet Generation“
thee michelle gun elephant “Birdmen“
NUMBER GIRL “NUM-AMI-DABUTZ“
Quruli, “Akai Densha“

Mimi246 on J-pop music (2)

This is a part 2 of mini246’s entry. Again, very rough translation – sorry for my mistakes! -tomomi

There were quite a few musicians who were active abroad, but I had an impression that those who are supposed by local musicians and music lovers, regardless of the trend of “showbiz” promotions and hit charts, increased in the beginning of the 90s. Especially I remember Boredoms and Shonen Knife, who were supported by alternative rock lovers in the U.S. Boredoms were in touch with Sonic Youth, and Kurt Cobain of Nirvana claimed that he loved Shonen Knife. I got to know of the band, Shonen Knife, for the first time when I was in San Francisco and a guy there who loved alternative music taught me. At the time, I only knew of the bands that were commercially successful and covered in the mass media, and I couldn’t realize the greatness of their music at first. The alternative guy, however, said, “they are doing the “honest” music,” which, I think, shows why those who were not satisfied with commercialized music supported them. At the same time, both Boredoms and Shone Knife were not sticked with the imitation of British-American music,” despite the fact that they sing in English.