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J-pop

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J-pop (or Jpop) is an abbreviation of Japanese pop. It refers to Western-influenced Japanese popular music. The term is widely used to describe different musical genres of pop in Japan.

Japanese stores typically divide their music into four sections: J-pop, enka (a traditional form of ballad), classical, and English/International. Some songs, such as those by Miyuki Nakajima and Anzen Chitai, represent a fusion of enka with J-pop.

Emergence of J-pop artists

J-pop artists become famous in two notable ways. The first, and longer, route involves auditioning first for smaller roles such as commercial jingles, then moving upwards to acting in dramas or recording TV theme songs. The other main way artists achieve fame is through amateur contests; for example, the teenage girl singers of Morning Musume were selected as winners on the music competition Asayan.[1]

History

J-pop can be traced to the jazz music which became popular during the early Shōwa period (i.e. the reign of emperor Hirohito). 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.

Under pressure from the Imperial Army during World War II 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. 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), Eri Chiemi's "Tennessee Waltz" (1951), Misora Hibari'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. 1952 was declared the "Year of the Jazz Boom" but the genre itself demanded a high level of technical proficiency and was difficult to play. As a result many amateur Japanese musicians turned to country music which was far easier to learn and perform. This in turn led to a proliferation of country-based music.

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. The rock-and-roll movement would reach its peak in 1959 with the release of a movie featuring performances by a number of Japanese rock-and-roll bands. However, the demise of rock-and-roll in the United States was quickly followed by its downfall in Japan due to the fact that many groups were heavily influenced by their American counterparts. Some performers attempted to merge traditional Japanese pop music with rock-and-roll. One of few musicians to be successful in this effort was Sakamoto Kyū with the song "Ue wo Muite Arukō" (lit. "Let's Look Up and Walk"), known in other parts of the world as "Sukiyaki". 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. Other performers decided instead to play the music and translate the lyrics of popular American songs resulting in the birth of "cover pop." However, the popularity of these acts faded as radio and television gave every household the opportunity to watch the original musicians perform. The concept of karaoke and its subsequent popularity can arguably be attributed to the cover pop phenomenon.

During the period from the early 70s to the mid 80s the emphasis shifted from simple songs with a single guitar accompaniment to more complex musical arrangements known as New Music. Instead of social messages the songs focused on love and other personal events. Takuro Yoshida and Yosui Inoue are two notable New Music artists.

In the 80s the term City Pop came to describe a type of popular music with a big city theme. Tokyo in particular inspired many songs of this form. It is difficult to draw a distinction between City Pop and New Music and many songs fall under both categories. Wasei Pop (lit. Japan-made pop) quickly became a common word to describe both City Pop and New Music. By the 1990s, J-pop became the common term to describe most popular songs. Rockers like Eikichi Yazawa, a singer who remained popular for decades with a rabidly loyal fan following, loosely fell into this category, along with more mainstream female pop idols such as the "Dance Queens" Yoko Oginome and her successor, singer/songwriter Chisato Moritaka. Hikaru Genji, the highly-influential rollerskating boy band also became popular during this time, with some of its members growing up to fame on their own. In 1980, Eikichi 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. Mega-idol Seiko Matsuda extremely popular through the 1980s 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 used to hold the record of the most consecutive No.1 singles for a female artist in Japan. That record was recently shattered by the singer Ayumi Hamasaki. Along with Matsuda Seiko, the latter 1980's were dominated by idol singers such as Nakayama Miho, Nakamori Akina, Moritaka Chisato and Kudo Shizuka.

The late 1980s saw the emergence of one of Japan's most famous rock groups of all time, Chage & Aska. A massively popular male singer/songwriter duo consisting of Chage (Shuji Shibata) and Ryo Aska (Shigeaki Miyazaki), they released a string of consecutive monster hits throughout the 1980s and 1990s, establishing themselves as Asia's most popular rock group. 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. Ryo Aska is widely considered today to be one of Japan's greatest songwriters. However, with the advent of the Japanese dance-pop music pioneered by Namie Amuro and Tetsuya Komuro in the mid- to late-1990s, the popularity of rock groups like Chage & Aska has declined.

In the early 1990s, the music scene can be split up into different parts. With the 1990-1993 being dominated by the Being artists (ZARD, Wands, Deen), B'z and the Southern All Stars. 1994-1997 being dominated by the TK (Komuro Tetsuya) family, 1996 known as a year where the Okinawan Actors School being dominant with Amuro Namie, MAX (The Super Monkeys) and SPEED leading the charge. 1997 being the introduction of Morning Musume and in 1998 with visual kei starting to make it on the top of the charts with Shazna reaching #1. In 1999, the era of the domination of divas Hikaru Utada and Ayumi Hamasaki began.

The boy band SMAP 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, Kimura Takuya, becoming a popular actor in later years known commonly as "Kimutaku". By the late 1990s an all-female band, Morning Musume, became wildly popular, with a string of releases that were sales hits before even being released. Female pop groups like SPEED, ZONE and Morning Musume sold millions of records with their pop-techno sounds. Following the pattern set a decade before by the 1980's all-female Onyanko Club, Morning Musume spawned several splinter bands whose members continue to be popular to this day.

R&B became popular in Japan in the late 90's, when young singer-songwriter Hikaru Utada debuted with her 1st single Automatic / time will tell. Her 1st album, First Love sold around 9,500,000 copies, making it the best selling Japanese album of all time, and the best selling debut album ever in the country. While she sold millions with her R&B sounds, pop music was still popular in Japan with solo female singers such as Ayumi Hamasaki (the highest selling female artist in Japan), BoA (one of the few foreigners that break into the japanese music industry), Mai Kuraki and Ami Suzuki.

Now in the mid 00's, R&B and Hip Hop influences in Japanese music are stronger than ever. In many cases, lyrical content has evolved to be more risqué and provocative in nature. Many artists who started their careers singing about simple-natured topics, have now adapted to this change and included more bold lyrics in their music. J-Hiphop/rock bands such as ORANGE RANGE and Ketsumeishi are at the top of the Oricon charts, with some older pop/rock groups like Mr.Children, B'z, Southern All Stars and L'Arc~en~Ciel. The current charts are mainly ruled by male only bands and solo male singers such as Ken Hirai; female pop has declined a lot since the 90's but pop singers like Ayumi Hamasaki,BoA, Kumi Koda, Hikaru Utada, Ai Otsuka and Mika Nakashima still get to #1 with most of their releases. J-pop also has a growing indie scene, with the likes of pop/R&B female singer Koiko from Miyazaki indie label It's Oh! Music.

J-pop music is an integral part of Japanese popular culture. It is used everywhere: anime, stores, commercials, movies, radio shows, 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.[citation needed]

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.

The sheer number of songs that are released means the faces of J-pop are constantly changing. Groups like Dreams Come True, Chage & Aska, B'z, Southern All Stars, the pillows, SPITZ, and TUBE and individual singers NOKKO, Seiko Matsuda, Chisato Moritaka and Yazawa Eikichi have been popular for many years.

Recently, J-pop has come to the attention of people around the world through video games and anime. Due to the popular trend of importing games from Japan into other countries to obtain games sometimes up to a year before they are released in countries like the United States, Americans and others have been and continue to be exposed to the theme songs, often J-pop sung by famous singers such as Utada Hikaru in the best-selling Square Co., Ltd. games Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II. Her song "Easy Breezy" was also used to promote the Nintendo DS. 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.

J-pop songs in 2005- 2006

The Oricon chart from 1 to 10 for the year 2005 is:

  1. Seishun Amigo by Shuji to Akira
  2. Sakura by Ketsumeishi
  3. Yojigen four dimensions by Mr. Children
  4. *~Asterisk~* by ORANGE RANGE
  5. SCREAM by GLAY×EXILE
  6. Anniversary by KinKi Kids
  7. OCEAN by B'z
  8. love parade by ORANGE RANGE
  9. GLAMOROUS SKY by NANA starring MIKA NAKASHIMA
  10. Fantastipo by Toraji・Haiji

The song “Seishun Amigo” was released on 2005-11-02 and sold 945,000 copies, quickly surpassing sales of any other single released that year. It is sung by the duo Shuji to Akira, two members of Johnny's Jimusho (the same company responsible for chart-topping male groups over the past 40 years, such as SMAP, TOKIO, V6, Arashi and KinKi Kids). The song was the ending theme of Nobuta o Produce, the drama in which both young men starred in fall of 2005. The name of the duo is derived from their character names: Kamenashi Kazuya played the role of Kiritani Shuji and Yamashita Tomohisa acted as Kusano Akira.

The oricon chart from 1 to 10 for the first half of the year 2006 is:

  1. Real Face by KAT-TUN
  2. Konayuki by Remioromen
  3. Passion by Utada Hikaru
  4. Seishun Amigo by Shuji to Akira
  5. Tada…aitakute by EXILE
  6. supernova/ karuma by BUMP OF CHICKEN
  7. Jyunrenka by Shonan no Kaze
  8. Dear WOMAN by SMAP
  9. Triangle by SMAP
  10. Tabibito by Ketsumeishi

The song in the first place, “Real Face”, was released on 2006-03-22 with the debut of the group, KAT-TUN and it sold 1,001,000 copies. It is a group of six young men from Johnny’s Jimusho. First formed in 2001, their highly-advertised CD debut has sold exceedingly well.

Subgenres

The term "J-pop" includes most of the music sold in Japan and often includes genres considered separate in other countries.

See also

References

  1. ^ Wade, Bonnie C. Music in Japan. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2005. ISBN 0-19-514487-2
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