Japanese Pop Music

An umbrella term for certain music in Japan, with the genres it covers largely analogous to pop music in the US. Nicknamed "J Pop", it is most known to fans outside Japan for Idol Singers and that many such songs are often featured in Anime openings and endings due to alliances between certain animation studios and record companies (i.e. lots of Sony artists have tie-ins with shounen anime produced by Sony). That is to say nothing of the copious amounts of Gratuitous English that are a hallmark of the genre. Also note that many voice actors have singing careers too but most focus on the niche anison market and a rare few actually attempt to break into the mainstream market (although some, notably Noriko Hidaka, started as singers with voice acting careers coming later, and anime series such as Creamy Mami and Sasurai no Taiyou have served as vehicles for aspiring pop stars).

Your Mileage May Vary on the usage of the term J-pop as it technically isn't a genre and only tells one where the artist is from. Some music fans get irritated by its treatment as a defined genre as it is really just regular pop, but happens to be Japanese. Same goes for J-rock, J-urban, J-metal and any other genre that has the letter j thrown in front of it to describe Japanese artists. Of course, the same can technically also be said of anime or "anison".

While Gratuitous English is, as noted, common in Japanese pop, occasionally an artist will do an entire album in English with the hope of breaking into the international market. Success is usually limited at best (as with Pink Lady in 1979 or Seiko Matsuda in 1990), and it's ironic that the only Japanese artist ever to reach #1 in the U.S. did it with a song entirely in Japanese without so much as a hint of Gratuitous English (Kyu Sakamoto's "Ue o Muite Aruko," aka "Sukiyaki").

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Notable J Pop artists:

• Abingdon Boys School
• aiko
• Jin Akanishi
• AKB48
• Akeboshi
• Namie Amuro
• Anna Tsuchiya
• Angela
• Aqua Timez
• Arashi
• Asian Kung-Fu Generation
• ayaka
• AZU
• Be For U
• BENI
• Boa (It should be noted that she is ethnically Korean.)
• B'z
• Crystal Kay
• DREAMS COME TRUE
• EXILE
• Faylan
• FLOW
• Gackt
• GLAY
• GReeeeN
• Ayumi Hamasaki
• Megumi Hayashibara
• Hello! Project
  • Laura Vanamo's single "Se tunne", is outright made in the style of Hello! Project member Kusumi Koharu's song "Koi kana". Down to pronouncing her Finnish in a way that sounds like Japanese.
• High And Mighty Color
• Ken Hirai
• hitomi
• I've Sound
• Johnny's Jimusho has many popular groups featuring artists such as Yamapi (of NEWS), Kamenashi Kazuya (of KAT-TUN), Matsumoto Jun Arashi, Ikuta Toma and Japan's Most Beloved Boyband, SMAP, among many many others.
  • They also branch out into acting and talk shows - being, in many cases, better at acting than at singing.
• Kanjani 8
• Tomoko Kawase, front woman of The Brilliant Green. She's also known as Tommy february6 and later Tommy heavenly6.
• Crystal Kay
• Kobukuro
• Koda Kumi, made famous from Final Fantasy X-2. Regarded as the Japanese Britney Spears due to the fact that she usually wears almost nothing but a smile on stage.
  • Actually it was her cover of the Cutey Honey theme song that brought her up from one hit-wonder status and "Butterfly" that sealed it.
• L'Arc~en~Ciel
• m-flo
• M.O.V.E.
• May'n
• Melocure
• Mi Chi
• Miliyah Kato
• Nana Mizuki is literally the ONLY seiyuu that is actually on a household name basis for her singing career, sad to say. Sales figures and being invited to perform in the Kouhaku Uta Gassen back it up.
• Mika Nakashima
• miwa
• NEWS
• nobodyknows+
• Perfume
• OLIVIA, real name: Olivia Lufkin
• Orange Range
• Pink Lady (peak period 1976-78 in Japan with a minor US hit, "Kiss in the Dark," following in 1979)
• Porno Graffitti
• Puffy AmiYumi
• Rie Fu
• Kyu Sakamoto (the only Japanese artist to reach #1 in the U.S. charts, with "Sukiyaki" in 1963, also a Top 10 hit in the UK)
• Sambomaster
• Scandal
• See-Saw
  • Chiaki Ishikawa
• Seiko Matsuda (in the '80s; she also did a U.S. album in 1990 with her Donnie Wahlberg duet "The Right Combination" reaching the Billboard charts)
• Shota Shimizu
• SPEED
• Spontania
• Sugawara Sayuri
• Eriko Tamura (the i
• Tohoshinki / Dong Bang Shin Ki A Boy Band which originated in Korea before gaining popularity in Japan.
• T.M.Revolution, though his focus switched to his rock project abingdon boys school for a while, it's shifted back to TMR now.
• Nami Tamaki
• Utada Hikaru, made famous in America from the Kingdom Hearts series. She also did an album for the U.S. market and topped Billboard magazine's Dance Club chart with "Easy Breezy."
• UVER World
• V 6
• YUI
• Yuna Ito