To rectify my wrongdoings, this week's post deals with human singers in Japan. In my experience, Japanese music seems to be fond of cuteness, kawaii things, and school uniforms, which isn't to my taste.
However, a lot of well-known Kpop bands have a history of doing well in the Japanese music industry, especially Big Bang and SNSD. For example, SNSD has just released a new music video in Japanese, Flower Power.
But I want to talk about a Japanese artist. A while back, I discovered a Japanese-American singer named Hikaru Utada. Her debut album, First Love, is the all-time best selling album on the Oricon charts, the equivalent of the American Billboard charts. She also sung the theme song of Disney's Kingdom of Hearts. The reason Utada stood out to me was her emotive voice and the scope of her vocals, ranging from acoustic songs to fast-paced video game theme songs.
Simple & Clean by Hikaru Utada
Utada is definitely worth checking out. Some other notable Japanese artists are:
- AKB48
- Kumi Koda (who is currently topping the Oricon chart)
- Kalafina
- Ayumi Hamasaki
- Arashi
- KAT-TUN
- Namie Amuro
Julia, I look forward to checking out the clip you've offered here some time (when I'm not in a quiet room with people working). But I'd like to see you expand this a bit. Any time you offer a clip, you should provide some kind of commentary on it, and in general this post could be expanded to tell us more (and in more detail) about what you like about Utada's voice and style (and perhaps talk a bit about this song, or other specific songs she sings).
ReplyDeleteI'll keep that in mind for the next post, thanks Mrs. Majerus :)
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