Other Japanese Pop & Indie Rock Official Thread

[CopiousX]

Got two more to add to the set.


Production quality for Vaundy is really good. Track is about not being able to let go of your main chick, getting to the point of breaking up with her, but then being hooked back in.



(I only wish JPnese would take their music videos as seriously as their American, Latin, and even Korean counterparts. I know he was going for the vintage look , but execution could’ve been better.)







‘The second one is by LovelySummerChan. It’s a light hearted track about saying good bye to your old spot(and old memories) when you move to a new place. It’s like the mirror opposite of Ari Lennox’s “new apartment”.




202 was her literal apartment number, btw.

 

[MischievousMonkey]

Got two more to add to the set.


Production quality for Vaundy is really good. Track is about not being able to let go of your main chick, getting to the point of breaking up with her, but then being hooked back in.



(I only wish JPnese would take their music videos as seriously as their American, Latin, and even Korean counterparts. I know he was going for the vintage look , but execution could’ve been better.)







‘The second one is by LovelySummerChan. It’s a light hearted track about saying good bye to your old spot(and old memories) when you move to a new place. It’s like the mirror opposite of Ari Lennox’s “new apartment”.




202 was her literal apartment number, btw.

Both of them are nice Great songs to listen to while I'm drawing

I like the rap-like part of the 2nd one too. Don't know what she was saying precisely but it sounded like she was spitting lol. I would have never guessed it was about moving to a new place.

My apartment number used to be 202 as well

 

[CopiousX]

We back in here!!!



I got two more tracks to add to the collection. First one by twice, it was their most successful venture into the JPnese market. I must say, the main message here has got to be the most stereotypicaly Japanese phrase to have as your hook. I bet you somebody out there is doing overtime with this playing in the background…



I’m a little sad that they had to tone down their videography for Japan tho. TWICE ‘s home market obviously rips their music off of us, but hands down they got the best music videos outside of the US.







Next. The second track is from a group that was really popping in JP last summer. Sakana Action makes good stuff. Really professional group with a nice discography. What really drew me to this track is their use of bongo(s) . I mean seriously. Who does that any more? And also makes it sound good as they do it too?



I recommend headphones for this one in particular to truly hear the bongo effect I’m talking about.…










You can also see the stark difference in JPnese video standards when compared to the first one from twice. I don’t know how to describe it, but JPnese music videos are so stiff. They might even be a little pretentious with their “artsy”-ness.

 

[CopiousX]

Dropping in one more. Love this track. So chill and laid back. Its by "awesome city club". Very creative group; but i will admit that their albums are a little hit or miss. But there are some gems in their discography.





Also at @Grand Conde this one is from 2021. They dropped the album in april

 

[Grand Conde]

Thanks breh, let me check it out later when I'm free.

 

[MischievousMonkey]

Spoiler

We back in here!!!



I got two more tracks to add to the collection. First one by twice, it was their most successful venture into the JPnese market. I must say, the main message here has got to be the most stereotypicaly Japanese phrase to have as your hook. I bet you somebody out there is doing overtime with this playing in the background…



I’m a little sad that they had to tone down their videography for Japan tho. TWICE ‘s home market obviously rips their music off of us, but hands down they got the best music videos outside of the US.







Next. The second track is from a group that was really popping in JP last summer. Sakana Action makes good stuff. Really professional group with a nice discography. What really drew me to this track is their use of bongo(s) . I mean seriously. Who does that any more? And also makes it sound good as they do it too?



I recommend headphones for this one in particular to truly hear the bongo effect I’m talking about.…










You can also see the stark difference in JPnese video standards when compared to the first one from twice. I don’t know how to describe it, but JPnese music videos are so stiff. They might even be a little pretentious with their “artsy”-ness.

Spoiler

Dropping in one more. Love this track. So chill and laid back. Its by "awesome city club". Very creative group; but i will admit that their albums are a little hit or miss. But there are some gems in their discography.





Also at @Grand Conde this one is from 2021. They dropped the album in april

Nice contributions! The bongos sound good

I need to check out more of awesome city club too.

 

[MischievousMonkey]

Instant relaxer Brings a smile to my face

The ending part is also a nice addition

 

[CopiousX]

Winter has me depressed. I was playing indigo la end's "natsu yo no magic", to recapture the vibes of warmer times.








But Then remembered this thread. Might as well add some contributions....





One more track by sakana action







And my new favorite from polkadot stingray....

 

[jensyao]

Spoiler

some of the new age music is alright (i prefer the live acoustic versions of the new age stuff because some use too much studio version vocal enhancements yet the melody is definitely there, if people would just shed that and naturally sing) but the oldies are what i'm interested in without this indie hipster label americans label music that suddenly gets a bunch of random hype when a rapper decides to sample it or a random anime promotes it as a soundtrack...as if people today can't listen and pick out music they like by themselves without social reinforcement that others like it too to make an opinion by themselves

 

[MischievousMonkey]

Winter has me depressed. I was playing indigo la end's "natsu yo no magic", to recapture the vibes of warmer times.








But Then remembered this thread. Might as well add some contributions....





One more track by sakana action







And my new favorite from polkadot stingray....

Those two tracks hitting right now perfect drawing session material!!

 

[MischievousMonkey]

v



some of the new age music is alright (i prefer the live acoustic versions of the new age stuff because some use too much studio version vocal enhancements yet the melody is definitely there, if people would just shed that and naturally sing) but the oldies are what i'm interested in without this indie hipster label americans label music that suddenly gets a bunch of random hype when a rapper decides to sample it or a random anime promotes it as a soundtrack...as if people today can't listen and pick out music they like by themselves without social reinforcement that others like it too to make an opinion by themselves

Love this type of shyt. Those melancholic rhythms with full instrumental parts (especially with accordions) remind me of long forgotten french songs I'd daydream on back then, or old anime's endings that had the same effect

I don't think people can't make an opinion for themselves when it comes to this type of music. I think anime just is an easy gateway. Unless you look for it (and even if you do), algorithms won't lead you to much japanese music depending on your localization. At least they don't do it for me. Add to that the language barrier that makes it a hassle to find again titles that you like, and there you go.

 

[CopiousX]

Hey M.M , Its been a while. Im Glad you enjoyed those 2 tracks. Sakana Action has really been growing on me too. They utilize such a wide variety of styles which always makes their music dynamic. And of course the lead singler of polkadadot is always on point.




I have 2 more tracks to add to the thread, the first is “rain” (ame ) by skana action. Its an older track from them tho




Also one more group named Kirinji. I highly reccomend headphones for this one. The Track’s English transalation is actually heard in the songs bridge, “signs of love”. Here is Koi no Kehai by Kirinji.

 

[jensyao]

ima spoiler my shyt, site's lagging hard

Spoiler

people have different taste, also, the japanese copyright police has only allowed concert audio to be paired with mostly karaoke or concert footage, so the youtube audio doesn't hit as hard as the studio version, making people buy the official versions, so a lot of people who sample straight from youtube don't realize the depreciated qualities that they skipped over hit harder on CDQ quality unless they are just covers or indie. also, people should listen to japanese songs for their flair not for their attempt on recreating american trends, but some of the fusion tracks are indeed fire or otherwise hilarious

 

[CopiousX]

Ive got 2 more to add to the list.





Ive had this track by Oral Cigarettes on repeat all day. Very catchy for me. Its about having an uncertain future but still forging forward despite it. Track is called Redemption Story.






And one more by kirinji. In romanji, the track is called “Kyujutsu no sugoshikakata” which literally translates to “how the holidays were spent”.

I don't think people can't make an opinion for themselves when it comes to this type of music. I think anime just is an easy gateway. Unless you look for it (and even if you do), algorithms won't lead you to much japanese music depending on your localization. At least they don't do it for me. Add to that the language barrier that makes it a hassle to find again titles that you like, and there you go.

And @MischievousMonkey , i totally get what you meant earlier by the inaccessibility of japanese music , for example if you happened to stumble on that kirinji track once, but couldnt read the kanji to that track, then it would be lost forever the minute the browser window closed. So i totally get why many people stick to either word of mouth reccomendations or anime sound tracks.

Before i could speak their language i was fortunate enough to stumble on a reddit poster’s suggestion. From that suggestion, i was lead to a chinese app, xaomi, to build my first playlist cause the chinese suggestion algorithms work exponentially better than both apple and google at finding japanese music. And once you had your inital playlist from there, you could then return to US algorithms and feed those tracks into (google, spotify, apple, tidal, etc) like a parameter variable.



And its gotten much much better in the last decade. I remember an era back in 2018 when US apps would just give you any random track, in any random genre as long as it was in japanese. And they were so damn lazy about it that they would sometimes throw kpop in there cause they grouped all of Asia in one music bucket.

people have different taste, also, the japanese copyright police has only allowed concert audio to be paired with mostly karaoke or concert footage, so the youtube audio doesn't hit as hard as the studio version, making people buy the official versions, so a lot of people who sample straight from youtube don't realize the depreciated qualities that they skipped over hit harder on CDQ quality unless they are just covers or indie.

I agree. Their copyright rules suck. They have a concept of “fair use” but its extremely narrow in scope Most of these japanese labels have gone to war with youtube over the silly rules.


Also , its hilarious that thundercat has fans in japan covering his meme songs





@jensyao , you really seem to like showa era tracks

 

[jensyao]

Before i could speak their language i was fortunate enough to stumble on a reddit poster’s suggestion. From that suggestion, i was lead to a chinese app, xaomi, to build my first playlist cause the chinese suggestion algorithms work exponentially better than both apple and google at finding japanese music. And once you had your inital playlist from there, you could then return to US algorithms and feed those tracks into (google, spotify, apple, tidal, etc) like a parameter variable.



And its gotten much much better in the last decade. I remember an era back in 2018 when US apps would just give you any random track, in any random genre as long as it was in japanese. And they were so damn lazy about it that they would sometimes throw kpop in there cause they grouped all of Asia in one music bucket.





I agree. Their copyright rules suck. They have a concept of “fair use” but its extremely narrow in scope Most of these japanese labels have gone to war with youtube over the silly rules.





@jensyao , you really seem to like showa era tracks

oh damn, i need to make a playlist and find more songs that way...does it still work?

kanji is like pulling teeth for me, wasn't the japanese language initially made of like 3 different kingdoms that merged or something, so that's why they borrowed some characters from chinese and the rest are curvy?...wish it was easier but need to grind out the learning process and do those duolingo/rosetta stone/random language paired chat rooms

not sure, i just did some layups tbh...this is my playlist so far, give or take a few, accumulated over time...i think the language barrier is what is making me come back to them because when i translate the lyrics, some of them are basic AF if it wasn't for the melody...every other song talks about shiawase and (a couple other phrases not popping in my head atm) almost like crutch filler words to fill in the melody because the language itself doesn't rhyme, plus the haiku structure that the songs are based on makes run ons that sound more complicated than basic dr seuss rhyme schemes...i just comb the oricon charts once in a while but i've been stuck for while coming up with new old songs i haven't discovered

www.reddit.com/r/japanesemusic/comments/pkbpp6/more_songs_that_i_like_and_why_other_similar/
www.reddit.com/r/japanesemusic/comments/pj08bu/looking_for_japanese_songartist_recommendations/

japanese appreciation of music in the creme de la creme tier, at least in the late 70s to early 90s, was at its purest creativity while taking the finest tunes from every culture and transforming it to their language comprehension in the likes of japanese jazz fusion, new jack swing fusion, bossa nova fusion, doo wop/soul fusion, etc and then capitalistic greed happened and they fell backwards into stooping down to the level of other gimmicks and digitizing voices until they are unrecognizable for what melodies they were trying to sing unless they were played live

...like when japanese snacks were the shyt but was expensive AF because of the excessive labor costs and individual packaging for the presentation the snack was a part of the 'opening experience' but ended up as inedible throwaway, but then korean snacks basically just remade the same japanese snacks in bulk size, less cost, and far less individual packaging...this is analogous to k-pop overtaking j-pop....k-pop would never surpass j-pop from the 90s given how surface level k-pop is comparably, but k-pop just copied j-pop's exact formula with way less overhead along with government sponsored funding and got comparably a lot more success copying the japanese formula verbatim. j-pop has yet to find its footing and regain its dominant presence and singing songs for the sheer creative talent and music appreciation of it without any gimmicks if it wasn't for anime OSTs

also, been trying to get an invite to jpopsuki and sugoimusic for the longest