J-pop (often stylized inall caps; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively known simply aspops (ポップス,poppusu), is the name for a form ofpopular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in traditionalmusic of Japan, and significantly in1960spop androck music. J-pop replacedkayōkyoku ("Lyric Singing Music"), a term for Japanese popular music from the 1920s to the 1980s in the Japanese music scene.[2]
The origin of modern J-pop is said to be Japanese-languagerock music inspired by the likes ofThe Beatles.[3] Unlike the Japanese music genre calledkayōkyoku, J-pop uses a special kind of pronunciation, which is similar to that ofEnglish.[12] One notable singer to do so isKeisuke Kuwata, who pronounced the Japanese wordkarada ("body") askyerada.[12] Additionally, unlike Western music, themajor second (sol andla) was usually not used in Japanese music, exceptart music, before rock music became popular in Japan.[13] When theGroup Sounds genre, which was inspired by Western rock, became popular, Japanese pop music adopted the major second, which was used in the final sounds of The Beatles' song "I Want to Hold Your Hand" andThe Rolling Stones' song "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction".[13] Although Japanese pop music changed from music based on Japanesepentatonic scale and distortionaltetrachord to the more occidental music over time, music that drew from the traditional Japanese singing style remained popular (such as that ofRingo Shiina).[13]
At first, the termJ-pop was used only for Western-style musicians in Japan, such asPizzicato Five andFlipper's Guitar, just after Japanese radio stationJ-Wave was established.[2] On the other hand, Mitsuhiro Hidaka ofAAA fromAvex Trax said that J-pop was originally derived from theEurobeat genre.[14] However, the term became ablanket term, covering other music genres—such as the majority of Japanese rock music of the 1990s.[2]
In 1990, the Japanese subsidiary ofTower Records defined J-pop as all Japanese music belonging to theRecording Industry Association of Japan except Japaneseindependent music (which they term "J-indie"); their stores began to use additional classifications, such as J-club, J-punk,J-hip-hop,J-reggae,J-anime, andVisual kei by 2008, after independent musicians started to release works via major labels.[15] Ito Music City, a Japanese record store, adopted expanded classifications including Group Sounds,idol of the 1970s–1980s,enka,folk and established musicians of the 1970s–1980s, in addition to the main J-pop genres.[15]
Whereas rock musicians in Japan usually hate the term "pop", Taro Kato, a member ofpop punk bandBeat Crusaders, pointed out that the encodedpop music, likepop art, was catchier than "J-pop" and he also said that J-pop was thepops (ポップス,poppusu) music, memorable for its frequency of airplay, in an interview when the band completed their first full-length studio album under a major label,P.O.A.: Pop on Arrival, in 2005.[16] Because the band did not want to perform J-pop music, their album featured the1980s Pop ofMTV.[16] According to his fellow band member Toru Hidaka, the 1990s music that influenced him (such asNirvana,Hi-Standard, andFlipper's Guitar) was not listened to by fans of other music in Japan at that time.[16]
In contrast to this, although many Japanese rock musicians until the late 1980s disrespected thekayōkyoku music, many of Japanese rock bands of the 1990s—such asGlay—assimilatedkayōkyoku into their music.[2] After the late 1980s,breakbeat andsamplers also changed the Japanese music scene, where expertdrummers had played good rhythm becausetraditional Japanese music did not have the rhythm based on rock or blues.[2]
Hide ofGreeeen openly described their music genre as J-pop. He said, "I also love rock, hip hop and breakbeats, but my field is consistently J-pop. For example, hip hop musicians learn 'the culture of hip hop' when they begin their career. We are not like those musicians and we love the music as sounds very much. Those professional people may say 'What are you doing?' but I think that our musical style is cool after all. The good thing is good."[17]
One term recently coined in relation to "J-pop" isgacha pop (ガチャポップ,gachapoppu) coming from the industry's association with other popular cultures within Japan that has gained international attention likecity pop,anisong,Vocaloids andVTubing.[18]
Japanese popular music, calledryūkōka before being split intoenka andpoppusu,[19]has origins in theMeiji period, but most Japanese scholars consider theTaishō period to be the actual starting point ofryūkōka, as it is the era in which the genre first gained nationwide popularity.[20][21] By the Taishō period, Western musical techniques and instruments, which had beenintroduced to Japan in the Meiji period, were widely used.[21] Influenced by Western genres such asjazz andblues,ryūkōka incorporated Western instruments such as theviolin,harmonica, andguitar. However, the melodies were often written according to the traditional Japanesepentatonic scale.[20] In the 1930s,Ichiro Fujiyama released popular songs with histenor voice.[22] Fujiyama sang songs with a lower volume thanopera through themicrophone (the technique is sometimes calledcrooning).[23][dubious –discuss]
Jazz musicianRyoichi Hattori attempted to produce Japanese native music which had a "flavor" ofblues.[24]He composedNoriko Awaya's hit song "Wakare no Blues" (lit. "Farewell Blues").[25] Awaya became a famous popular singer and was called "Queen of Blues" in Japan.[26] Due to pressure from theImperial Army during the war, the performance of jazz music was temporarily halted in Japan. Hattori, who stayed inShanghai at the end of the war, produced hit songs such asShizuko Kasagi's "Tokyo Boogie-Woogie" andIchiro Fujiyama's "Aoi Sanmyaku" (lit. "Blue Mountain Range").[25] Hattori later became known as the "Father of Japanesepoppusu".[25][27]Boogie-woogie,Mambo,Blues, andCountry music were performed by Japanese musicians for the American troops.Chiemi Eri's cover song "Tennessee Waltz" (1952),Hibari Misora's "Omatsuri Mambo" (1952), andIzumi Yukimura's cover song "Till I Waltz Again with You" (1953) also became popular. Foreign musicians and groups, includingJATP andLouis Armstrong, visited Japan to perform. In the mid-1950s,Jazz kissa (ジャズ喫茶,Jazu Kissa, literally "Jazz cafe") became a popular venue for live jazz music.[27] Jazz had a large impact on Japanesepoppusu, though "authentic" jazz did not become the mainstream genre of music in Japan.[28] In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Japanese pop was polarized between urbankayō and modernenka.[29]
Modern J-pop is also sometimes believed to have had its roots withChinese immigrant jazz musicians who had fledShanghai during thecommunist takeover, and were collaborating with American soldiers to help introduce a variety of new genres to the Japanese public. In 1949, when thecommunists took over and established thePeople's Republic of China on themainland, one of the first actions taken by thegovernment was to denounce popular music (specifically both Chinese pop music, known asMandopop, and Western pop music) asdecadent music, and for decades afterwards the Communist Party would promoteChinese revolutionary songs while suppressing Chinese folk songs, Chinese pop songs and Western pop songs.[30] Dissatisfied withChairmanMao Zedong's new music policies, a number of Shanghainese jazz musicians fled to theBritish colony ofHong Kong and establishedCantopop, which is pop music sung in theCantonese dialect ofChinese.[31] However, a few musicians instead settled in Japan, where they became members of theFar East Network and collaborated with theAmerican soldiers to help expose the Japanese public to a wide variety of western genres. This eventually lead to the establishment of modern Japanese pop music, known askayōkyoku.
During the 1950s and 60s,yakuza managerKazuo Taoka reorganized the concert touring industry by treating the performers as professionals. Many of these performers later became key participants in the J-pop genre.[32]
In 1956, Japan'srock and roll craze began, due to the country music group known asKosaka Kazuya and the Wagon Masters; their rendition ofElvis Presley's song "Heartbreak Hotel" helped to fuel the trend. The music was called "rockabilly" (orrokabirī) by the Japanese media.[33] Performers learned to play the music and translate the lyrics of popular American songs, resulting in the birth ofCover Pops (カヴァーポップス,Kavā poppusu).[34] The rockabilly movement would reach its peak when 45,000 people saw the performances by Japanese singers at the first Nichigeki Western Carnival in one week of February 1958.[35]
Kyu Sakamoto, a fan of Elvis, made his stage début as a member of the bandThe Drifters at the Nichigeki Western Carnival in 1958.[36] His 1961 song "Ue wo Muite Arukō" ("Let's Look Up and Walk"), known in other parts of the world as "Sukiyaki", was released to the United States in 1963. It was the first Japanese song to reach the Number One position in the United States, spending four weeks inCash Box and three weeks inBillboard. It also received agold record for selling one million copies.[37] During this period, female duoThe Peanuts also became popular, singing a song in the movieMothra.[38] Their songs, such as "Furimukanaide" ("Don't Turn Around") were later covered byCandies on their albumCandy Label.[39] Artists like Kyu Sakamoto and The Peanuts were calledWasei Pops (和製ポップス,Wasei poppusu, "Japan-made pop").[34][40]
After frequently changing members,Chosuke Ikariya re-formed The Drifters in 1964 under the same name. At a Beatles concert in 1966, they acted as curtain raisers, but the audience generally objected.[41] Eventually, The Drifters became popular in Japan, releasing "Zundoko-Bushi" ("Echoic word tune") in 1969.[41] Along withenka singerKeiko Fuji, they won "the award for mass popularity" at the12th Japan Record Awards in 1970.[42] Keiko Fuji's 1970 albumShinjuku no Onna/'Enka no Hoshi' Fuji Keiko no Subete ("Woman in Shinjuku/'Star ofEnka' All of Keiko Fuji") established an all-time record in the history of the JapaneseOricon chart by staying in the Number One spot for 20 consecutive weeks.[43] The Drifters later came to be known as television personalities and invitedidols such asMomoe Yamaguchi and Candies to their television program.[41]
Most Japanese musicians felt that they could not sing rock inJapanese, so the popularity of Japanese rock gradually declined.[3] As a result, there were debates such as "Should we sing rock music in Japanese?" and "Should we sing in English?" betweenHappy End andYuya Uchida about Japanese rock music.[49] This confrontation was called "Japanese-language rock controversy" (日本語ロック論争,Nihongo Rokku Ronsō).[50] Happy End proved that rock music could be sung in Japanese, and one theory holds that their music became one of the origins of modern J-pop.[3] The Beatles also inspiredEikichi Yazawa, who grew up in an underprivileged family, his father dying when he was a child.[51]Keisuke Kuwata, who grew up in a dual-income family, was influenced by the Beatles through his older sister, then an avid fan.[52]Yōsui Inoue was also a fan of The Beatles, but he said that his music style was not particularly related to them.[53] After Happy End disbanded in 1973,Haruomi Hosono, a former member, began a solo career and later formedYellow Magic Orchestra.[54]
In the early 1960s, some Japanese music became influenced by theAmerican folk music revival; this was calledfōku (フォーク, "folk"), although the genre of music was mostly covers of original songs.[55] In the late 1960s,the Folk Crusaders became famous and the underground music around that time became calledfōku.[56] As withenka, Japanesefōku singers Wataru Takada performed social satires.[57]
In the early 1970s, the emphasis shifted fromfōku's simple songs with a single guitar accompaniment to more complex musical arrangements known asnew music (ニューミュージック,nyū myūjikku).[58] Instead of social messages, the songs focused on more personal messages, such as love. In 1972, singer-songwriterTakuro Yoshida produced a hit song "Kekkon Shiyouyo" ("Let's marry") without decent television promotion, though fans offōku music became very angry because his music seemed to be a low effort or low quality form of music.[59] The highest-selling single of the year was theenka song byShiro Miya and the Pinkara Trio, "Onna no Michi".[59] The song eventually sold over 3.25 million copies.[60] On December 1, 1973,Yōsui Inoue released the albumKōri no Sekai, which topped the Oricon charts and remained in Top 10 for 113 weeks.[61] It spent 13 consecutive weeks in the number-one spot, and eventually established a still-standing record of a total 35 weeks at the number-one position on the Oricon charts.[43][62]Yumi Matsutoya, formerly known by her maiden name Yumi Arai, also became a notable singer-songwriter during this period In October 1975, she released a single "Ano Hi ni Kaeritai" ("I want to return to that day"), making it her first number-one single on the Oricon charts.[63]Miyuki Nakajima,Amii Ozaki, andJunko Yagami were also popular singer-songwriters during this period. At first, only Yumi Matsutoya was commonly called a new music artist, but the concept of Japanesefōku music changed around that time.[64] In 1979,Chage and Aska made their debut, and folk bandOff Course (with singerKazumasa Oda) released a hit song "Sayonara" ("Good-bye").
Saki Kubota was described as the standard bearer of new music.[65]
In 1978,Eikichi Yazawa's rock single "Jikan yo Tomare" ("Time, Stop") became a smash hit that sold over 639,000 copies.[70] He is regarded as one of the pioneers of Japanese rock.[71] He sought worldwide success, and in 1980 he signed a contract with the Warner Pioneer record company and moved to the West Coast of the United States. He recorded the albumsYazawa,It's Just Rock n' Roll, andFlash in Japan, all of which were released worldwide, but were not very commercially successful.Keisuke Kuwata formed the rock bandSouthern All Stars (SAS), which made their debut in 1978. Southern All Stars remains very popular in Japan today.
In the same year,Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) also made their official debut with theirself-titled album. The band, whose members wereHaruomi Hosono,Yukihiro Takahashi andRyuichi Sakamoto, developedelectropop,[72] ortechnopop as it is known in Japan,[73] in addition to pioneeringsynthpop andelectro music.[74][75] Their 1979 albumSolid State Survivor reached number one on theOricon charts in July 1980,[76] and went on to sell two million records worldwide.[77] At around the same time, the YMO albumsSolid State Survivor andX∞Multiplies held both the top two spots on theOricon charts for seven consecutive weeks, making YMO the only band in Japanese chart history to achieve this feat.[78] Young fans of their music during this period became known as the "YMO Generation" (YMO世代,YMO sedai).[79][80] YMO had a significant impact on Japanese pop music, which started becoming increasingly dominated byelectronic music due to their influence,[81] and they had an equally large impact on electronic music across the world.[82][83] Southern All Stars and Yellow Magic Orchestra symbolized the end of New Music and paved the way for the emergence of the J-pop genre in the 1980s.[4] Both bands, SAS and YMO, would later be ranked at the top ofHMV Japan's list of top 100 Japanese musicians of all time.[84]
In the early 1980s, with the spread ofcar stereos, the term city pop (シティーポップ,shitī poppu) came to describe a type of popular music that had a big city theme.[85]Tokyo in particular inspired many songs of this form. During this time, music fans and artists in Japan were influenced byalbum-oriented rock (especiallyadult contemporary) andcrossover (especiallyjazz fusion).[85][86] City pop was affected by new music, though its origins have been traced back to the mid-1970s, with the work of the Japanese rock bandHappy End and its former memberHaruomi Hosono,[87] as well asTatsuro Yamashita.[88]
Boøwy became an especially influential rock band, whose members included singerKyosuke Himuro and guitaristTomoyasu Hotei. Their three albums reached number one in 1988, making them the first male artists to have three number-ones within a single year.[91] Subsequent Japanese rock bands were modeled on this band.[92] GuitaristTak Matsumoto, who supported TM Network's concerts, formed rock duoB'z with singerKoshi Inaba in 1988.[93]
In the late 1980s,girl bandPrincess Princess became a successful pop-rock band. Their singles "Diamonds" and "Sekai de Ichiban Atsui Natsu" ("World's Hottest Summer") were ranked at the number-one and number-two spots, respectively, on the 1989 Oricon Yearly Single Charts.[94]
In the late 1980s, a new trend also emerged in Japanese rock music: thevisual kei, a movement notable by male bands who wore makeup, extravagant hair styles, and androgynous costumes. The most successful representatives of the movement areX Japan (formerly known as "X") andBuck-Tick. X Japan released their first albumVanishing Vision on the indie labelExtasy Records in 1988; their albumBlue Blood was released onCBS Sony in 1989.Blue Blood sold 712,000 copies, and their 1991 albumJealousy sold over 1.11 million copies.[95] Surprisingly, X Japan were aheavy metal band, but guitaristhide later came under the influence ofalternative rock, releasing his first solo albumHide Your Face in 1994 and launching his successful solo career.[96]
In the 1970s, the popularity of femaleidol singers such asMari Amachi,Saori Minami,Momoe Yamaguchi, andCandies increased. Momoe Yamaguchi was one of the firstkayōkyoku singers to use the special pronunciation characteristic of J-pop.[12] In 1972,Hiromi Go made his debut with the song "Otokonoko Onnanoko" ("Boy and Girl").[59] Hiromi Go originally came fromJohnny & Associates.[97] In 1976, female duoPink Lady made their debut with the single "Pepper Keibu". They released a record nine consecutive number-one singles.[98]
In the 1980s, Japanese idols inherited New Music, though the term fell out of usage.[58]Seiko Matsuda especially adopted song producers of previous generations.[58] In 1980, her third single "Kaze wa Aki Iro" ("Wind is autumn color") reached the number-one spot on the Oricon charts.[98]Haruomi Hosono also joined the production of her music.[58][verification needed] She eventually became the first artist to make 24 consecutive number-one singles, breaking Pink Lady's record.[98] Other female idol singers achieved significant popularity in the 1980s, such asAkina Nakamori,Yukiko Okada,Kyōko Koizumi,Yoko Minamino,Momoko Kikuchi,Yōko Oginome,Miho Nakayama,Minako Honda, andChisato Moritaka. Okada received the Best New Artist award from theJapan Record Awards in 1984. Nakamori won the Grand Prix award for two consecutive years (1985 and 1986), also at the Japan Record Awards. Japanese idol bandOnyanko Club made their debut in 1985, and produced popular singerShizuka Kudō. They changed the image of Japanese idols.[99]
Around 1985, however, people began to be disenchanted with the system for creating idols.[100] In 1986, idol singerYukiko Okada's song "Kuchibiru Network" ("Lips' Network"), written by Seiko Matsuda and composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto, became a hit song, but she committed suicide immediately after that.[101]Hikaru Genji, one of theJohnny & Associates bands, made their debut in 1987. They became a highly influential rollerskating boy band, with some of their members gaining their own fame as they got older. Their song "Paradise Ginga", written byAska, won the Grand Prix award at the30th Japan Record Awards in 1988. Some of the group's backing dancers later formedSMAP. The late 1980s also saw the rise of the female duoWink. They did not laugh, unlike Japanese idols of former eras. Wink debuted in 1988, surpassing the popularity of the then-most popular female duo,BaBe. Wink's song "Samishii Nettaigyo" won the grand prix award at the31st Japan Record Awards in 1989.
Popular singerHibari Misora died in 1989, and manykayōkyoku programs, such asThe Best Ten, were closed.[102]CoCo made their hit debut with the 1989 single "Equal Romance" for the hitanime seriesRanma ½.Tetsuya Komuro, a member of TM Network, broke Seiko Matsuda's streak of 25 consecutive number-ones by making his single "Gravity of Love" to debut at number-one in November 1989.[103]
In the 1990s, the termJ-pop came to refer to all Japanese popular songs exceptenka.[2] During this period, the Japanese music industry soughtmarketing effectiveness. Notable examples of commercial music from the era were thetie-in music from the agencyBeing and the follow-on,Tetsuya Komuro'sdisco music.[104] The period between around 1990 and 1993 was dominated by artists fromthe Being agency, includingB'z,Tube,B.B.Queens,T-Bolan,Zard,Wands,Maki Ohguro,Deen, andField of View. They were called the Being System (ビーイング系,Bīingu kei).[105] Many of those artists topped the charts and established new records,[105][106] notably B'z, which eventually established a new record for consecutive number-one singles, surpassing Seiko Matsuda's record.[107] B'z is the Japanese biggest selling artist of all time, according to Oricon charts and RIAJ certifications. On the other hand, Wands, regarded as a pioneer of the "J-pop Boom" of the 1990s, had trouble because member Show Wesugi wanted to playalternative rock/grunge.[108]
Many artists surpassed the two-million-copy mark in the 1990s.Kazumasa Oda's 1991 single "Oh! Yeah!/Love Story wa Totsuzen ni",Chage and Aska's 1991 single "Say Yes" and 1993 single "Yah Yah Yah",Kome Kome Club's 1992 single "Kimi ga Iru Dake de",Mr. Children's 1994 single "Tomorrow Never Knows" and 1996 single "Namonaki Uta", andGlobe's 1996 single "Departures" are examples of songs that sold more than 2 million copies.[60][109]Dreams Come True's 1992 albumThe Swinging Star became the first album to sell over 3 million copies in Japan.[110] Mr. Children's 1994 albumAtomic Heart established a new record, selling 3.43 million copies on Oricon charts.[109][111] The duo Chage and Aska, who started recording in late 1979, became very popular during this period. They released a string of consecutive hits throughout the early 1990s; in 1996, they took part inMTV Unplugged, making them the first Asian group to do so.[112]
AfterTM Network disbanded in 1994,Tetsuya Komuro became a serious song producer. The period between 1994 and 1997 was dominated by dance and techno acts from the "Komuro family" (小室ファミリー,Komuro Famirī), such asTRF,Ryoko Shinohara,Yuki Uchida,Namie Amuro,Hitomi,Globe,Tomomi Kahala, andAmi Suzuki. In that time, Komuro was responsible for 20 hit songs, each selling more than a million copies.[113] While Globe's 1996 albumGlobe sold 4.13 million copies, establishing a record at the time, Namie Amuro's 1997 song "Can You Celebrate?" sold 2.29 million copies, is the best selling single of all time by the female solo artist in the history of Jpop.[109] His total sales as a song producer reached 170 million copies.[114][115] By 1998, Komuro's songs had become less popular. By the middle part of the first decade of the 21st century, Komuro's debt lead him to attempt the sale of his song catalog—which he did not actually own—to an investor. When the investor found out and sued, Komuro tried to sell the catalog toanother investor in order to pay the 600,000,000Japanese yen judgement he owed the first investor.[113]
Namie Amuro, who was arguably the most popular solo singer in the period, came from the "Okinawa Actors School", which also incubated the bandsMAX andSpeed. At first, while still a part of the Komuro Family, Amuro remained in the dance music genre, but she slowly changed her music style tocontemporary R&B and ended her partnership with Tetsuya Komuro.[116] Komuro's band Globe became atrance band after their 2001 albumOuternet.[117]
The sales in the Japanese music market continued to increase. In October 1997,Glay released their albumReview -The Best of Glay, which sold 4.87 million copies, breaking Globe's earlier record.[109] However, it was surpassed in the next year byB'z's albumB'z The Best "Pleasure", which sold 5.12 million copies.[109] The Japanese market for physical music sales peaked in 1998, recording sales of¥607,000,000,000.[118] In March 1999,Hikaru Utada released her first Japanese album,First Love, which sold 7.65 million copies, making it the best-selling album inOricon history.[109]
The late 1990s saw the popularity of rock bands, such asGlay,Luna Sea, andL'Arc-en-Ciel, most of them related to thevisual kei movement, though they later changed their style. At the time, rock musicians in Japan were absorbingkayōkyoku music after the genre vanished.[2] Glay became especially successful, with massive exposure in the media, comparable to that of the most popular pop singers produced by Tetsuya Komuro.[119] In July 1999, Glay played a concert to a record audience of 200,000 people at theMakuhari Messe, certified byGuinness World Records as the biggest solo concert in Japan.[120][121] In July 1999, L'Arc-en-Ciel released two albums,Arc andRay, at the same time; they sold over 3.02 million combined copies in the first week of release.[122]
X Japan announced their disbandment in September 1997 and their guitaristhide died in May 1998. His funeral had a record attendance of 50,000 people, breaking the record ofHibari Misora, whose funeral was attended by 42,000 people.[123] After his death, his single "Pink Spider" and albumJa, Zoo were certified million-sellers by theRecording Industry Association of Japan.[124]
Johnny & Associates produced many all-male groups:SMAP,Tokio,V6,KinKi Kids andArashi. SMAP hit the J-pop scene in a major way in the 1990s through a combination of TV "Tarento" shows and singles, with one of its singers,Takuya Kimura, becoming a popular actor commonly known as "Kimutaku" in later years.
By the late 1990s, the girl groupSpeed was very popular; they announced their disbandment in 1999. The group returned to the music scene in 2008. Another all-female band,Morning Musume, produced byTsunku, former leader of bandSharam Q became very popular, with a string of releases that were sales hits before even being released. The group's popularity gave origin to theHello! Project. Following the pattern set a decade before by the 1980s all-femaleOnyanko Club, Morning Musume spawned several splinter bands.
In the late 1990s and early 21st century, female singers such asHikaru Utada,Ayumi Hamasaki,Misia,Mai Kuraki, andRingo Shiina became chart-toppers who write their own songs or their own lyrics. Hikaru Utada is the daughter ofKeiko Fuji, a popular singer of the 1970s. Ayumi Hamasaki was made Utada's contemporary rival, though both women claimed the "competition" was merely a creation of their record companies and the media.[125]
Ayumi Hamasaki won Grand Prix awards for three consecutive years—the first time inJapan Record Award history—between 2001 and 2003.[128] Although Hamasaki became very famous,Tom Yoda, then-chairman of her record companyAvex Group, argued that her tactics were risky, because Avex disregarded themodern portfolio theory.[129] This concern disappeared when the company's other singers (such asAi Otsuka,Kumi Koda, andExile) also reached a certain level of popularity in the mid-2000s under Yoda's management policy.[129]BoA, a Korean singer also a part of Avex group, also achieved high levels of success although being Korean in Japan. She opened the Hallyu door to other Korean artists so that they may achieve varying levels of success in Japan as well.
In December 2002, the digital-download market for ringtone songs (着うた,chaku-uta) was created by mobile-phone companyau.[130] The market for digital downloads grew rapidly, andHikaru Utada's 2007 song "Flavor of Life" sold over 7 million downloaded copies.[131] In October 2007,EMI Music Japan announced that Utada was the world's first artist to have 10 million digital sales in one year.[132] According to theInternational Federation of the Phonographic Industry's 2009 digital music report,Thelma Aoyama's digital single "Soba ni Iru ne" andGreeeen's digital single "Kiseki" sold 8.2 million copies and 6.2 million copies, respectively, in the 2008 download rankings.[133]
In the first decade of the 21st century,hip hop music andcontemporary R&B influences in Japanese music started to gain attention in popular mainstream music. In November 2001, R&B duoChemistry's debut albumThe Way We Are sold over 1.14 million copies in the first week, and debuted at the number-one position on the Oricon weekly album charts.[134] Hip hop bands such asRip Slyme andKetsumeishi were also at the top of theOricon charts. Rock bandOrange Range featured several elements of hip hop in their music.[135] Orange Range's albummusiQ sold over 2.6 million copies, making it the number one album of 2005 on the Oricon charts.[citation needed]
Pop/R&B singerKen Hirai topped the Oricon yearly album chart in 2006 with the release of his greatest hits album10th Anniversary Complete Single Collection '95-'05 Utabaka, selling over 2 million copies.[citation needed] The pop/hip-hop duo,Halcali, have the honor of being the first Japanese female hip-hop artists to break theOricon top 10 charts.[citation needed] They have also performed overseas two times in 2008, once at theAnime Central festival in Chicago, and once more atCentral Park, NYC on Japan Day.[citation needed]Exile, the dance-vocal group under Avex's sublabelRhythm Zone, had several million-seller albums. Their albumExile Love topped the Oricon yearly album chart in 2008.[citation needed] Veteran rapperDohzi-T collaborated with popular singers such asShota Shimizu,Hiromi Go,Miliyah Kato, andThelma Aoyama in his successful 2008 album12 Love Stories.[136] Although there were only 132 new artists in Japan in 2001, according to theRecording Industry Association of Japan, the number increased to 512 in 2008.[137] In 2008, 14 new artists, such as Thelma Aoyama, attended theNHKKōhaku Uta Gassen for the first time.[138]
Popularity of live performances and veteran musicians
Rock musicians such asMr. Children,B'z,Southern All Stars,L'Arc-en-Ciel, andGlay still topped the charts in the first decade of the 21st century. Mr. Children's song "Sign" won the Grand Prix award at the46th Japan Record Awards in 2004. When the group released their albumHome in 2007, they passed 50 million albums and singles sold, making them the second-highest selling artist of all time in Japan since the origin of Oricon—just behind B'z, who held the number-one position with more than 75 million records sold until then.[139]Home topped the 2007 Oricon yearly album charts.
The sales of physical CDs declined, but audiences to see live performances increased.[140]Eikichi Yazawa took part inrock festivals, and, in 2007, he became the first artist to have performed 100 concerts at theNippon Budokan.[141]
Other artists, such asNamie Amuro, also continued their long-running careers with successful releases in this period. Her live tour,Namie Amuro Best Fiction tour 2008-2009, not only became the biggest live tour by a Japanese solo female artist—attended by 450,000 fans in Japan—but was also attended by 50,000 fans inTaiwan andShanghai.[142][143] WhileKazumasa Oda's 2005 albumSōkana topped the Oricon weekly album charts, his 2007 single "Kokoro" reached the weekly single charts, breakingYujiro Ishihara's record and making him the then-oldest singer to top the single charts.[144]Mariya Takeuchi's greatest hits albumExpressions topped the Oricon album chart in 2008, making her the oldest female singer with the longest active career to reach the number-one position.[145]
Johnny & Associates's all-male groups remained well-known. In 2001,SMAP released their greatest-hits albumSMAP Vest, which sold over a million copies in the first week.[146] In November 2001, Johnny & Associates established the labelJ Storm for their bandArashi. SMAP's 2003 single "Sekai ni hitotsu dake no hana" sold more than two million copies, being the number-one single in the Oricon yearly single charts for that year. In 2007, Guinness World Records honoredKinKi Kids for holding a world record for the number of singles debuting at the number-one position since their debut: 25.[147] SMAP was said to fight a lonely battle at theKōhaku Uta Gassen, as seen from the viewpoint of its audience share.[148] In 2008, male musicians established a record of four consecutive wins at the Kōhaku Uta Gassen.[149] Arashi's greatest hits albumAll the Best! 1999–2009 topped the 2009 Oricon yearly album charts.[150]
Johnny & Associates also produced new groups such asHey! Say! JUMP,Tackey & Tsubasa,NEWS,Kanjani Eight, andKAT-TUN. In 2006, KAT-TUN's debut single "Real Face", written byShikao Suga and composed byTak Matsumoto, sold over one million copies and topped the Oricon Yearly Charts.[151] In 2007, temporaryJohnny's Jr. groupHey! Say! 7 broke a record as the youngest male group to ever top Oricon charts, with an average age of 14.8 years. Later that year,Hey! Say! JUMP broke a record as the largest group to debut inJohnny's history, with ten members. They also became the youngest group ever to perform in Tokyo Dome with the average age of 15.7 years old.[152] On the 2008 yearly singles charts, only one single ranked in the top 30 was sung by a female (Namie Amuro's single "60s 70s 80s") except gender-mixed groups, partly because the boy bands enjoyed an advantage in physical single sales.[153] In 2009, Johnny's Jr. artistYuma Nakayama w/B.I.Shadow became the youngest artist to have their first single to debut at the number-one spot, as the band had an average age of 14.6 years, breaking the former record set by female groupMinimoni, 14.8 years.[154]
In February 2001,Ulfuls released theircover version ofKyu Sakamoto's 1963 song "Ashita Ga Arusa". Their cover version debuted at the number-five position, behind Utada, Kinki Kids, Hamasaki and Hirai.[155] In March,Yoshimoto Kogyo's special band "Re: Japan" also released their cover version of "Ashita Ga Arusa". When Ulfuls's cover version of this song remained at number eight, Re: Japan's version topped the Oricon weekly single charts.[156]
In 2003, Man Arai released the single "Sen no Kaze ni Natte" ("As A Thousand Winds") based on the Western poem "Do not stand at my grave and weep". In Japan, the poem was known forRokusuke Ei's reading at the funeral of Kyu Sakamoto in 1985.[157] Japanese tenor singerMasafumi Akikawa covered the song in 2006. Akikawa's cover version of the song became the firstclassical music single to top the Oricon charts, and sold over one million copies.[158] On the 2007 Oricon Yearly Charts, the single became the best-selling physical single, scoring a victory over Utada's "Flavor of Life".[158] Oricon claimed that the song was not J-pop.[159] On the other hand, sheet music from theZen-On Music Company Ltd classified the song as J-pop.[160]
Hideaki Tokunaga covered many female songs on his cover album series,Vocalist. He releasedVocalist,Vocalist 2,Vocalist 3,Vocalist 4 andVocalist Vintage (Vocalist 5) in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010, and 2012 respectively. In August 2007,Vocalist 3 became Oricon weekly number-one cover album with 2 weeks (tied the record in Japan), and in May 2010,Vocalist 4 became the Japan first Oricon monthly number-one cover album.[161]
In 2010, other singers also released cover albums of Japanese songs such asJuju'sRequest and Kumi Koda'sEternity: Love & Songs.Superfly released a single that came with a cover album of Western rock songs, titledWildflower & Cover Songs: Complete Best 'Track 3', ultimately becoming the band's third consecutive album to debut at number one on the Oricon weekly album charts.[162]
Folk duos, such as19,Yuzu andKobukuro, became popular during the period.[163] Their music was called "neofolk". In October 2007, Kobukuro's double-albumAll Singles Best became the first male album to ship three million copies in the 21st century in Japan.[164] In January 2008, their album5296 beat out Ayumi Hamasaki's albumGuilty on the Oricon charts, though she previously had eight consecutive number-one studio albums.[165]
Electronic music bands such asPlus-Tech Squeeze Box andCapsule were called "neo Shibuya-kei".Yasutaka Nakata, a member of Capsule, became the song producer for girl groupPerfume.[166] In April 2008, for the first time as a technopop band in 25 years since Yellow Magic Orchestra's 1983 albumNaughty Boys, Perfume achieved a number-one albumGame on the Oricon charts. In July 2008, their single "Love the World" debuted at number one, making it the first technopop song to reach number one in Oricon history.[167] Other Japanese female technopop artists soon followed, includingAira Mitsuki,immi,Mizca,SAWA,Saoriiiii, andSweet Vacation.[168]
During the late 2000s and the early 2010s, theanime music industry, such as voice actors andimage songs, added weight to Japanese music. Though anime music was formerly influenced by J-pop andvisual kei music, Japanese indie music apparently influenced the genre at the 2006FanimeCon.[169] In 2007, aftersampling voice actressSaki Fujita's voice to develop it,VocaloidHatsune Miku was released, and many songs featuring Hatsune Miku were shown on theNico Nico Douga.[170] Some of the musicians featuring Hatsune Miku, such asLivetune andSupercell, joined large record companies in Japan. Livetune releasedRe: Package onVictor Entertainment on August 27, 2008,[171] and Supercell releasedSupercell onSony Music on March 4, 2009.[172] The albumsRe: Package andSupercell were not brought under the control of thecopyright system of theJapanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC), breaking the tradition that the musicians under the major labels affiliated with the system.[171]
In June 2009, voice actressNana Mizuki's albumUltimate Diamond became the first voice actor album to reach number one on the Oricon weekly charts.[173] The fictional all female band Hōka-go Tea Time, from the anime seriesK-On!, released the mini-albumHōka-go Tea Time on July 22, 2009. The mini-album debuted at number one on the Oricon weekly album charts, becoming the first album by anime characters to reach number one.[174] In May 2010,Exit Tunes Presents Vocalogenesis feat. Hatsune Miku became the first album featuring Vocaloids to reach number one on the Oricon weekly charts, replacing Hideaki Tokunaga'sVocalist 4, which had topped the charts for four consecutive weeks.[175]
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, aHarajuku-based fashion model, made her musical debut in 2011 and gained international popularity with her debut single "Pon Pon Pon", recognized by some Western celebrities such asKaty Perry[180] andAriana Grande.[181] She is produced by Yasutaka Nakata, who also produces the group Perfume. She subsequently gained success through her songs "Ninja Re Bang Bang" and "Fashion Monster". During 2014, about 486,000 people attendedMomoiro Clover Z's live concerts, which was the highest recorded concert attendance for any female musician in Japan.[182]
In 2019, AKB48 announced the postponement of its general election,[183] and Arashi announced the group's hiatus.[184]
There have been attempts to create "age free music" (Japanese: エイジ・フリー・ミュージック) that is neitherenka orkayōkyoku or J-pop, and therefore transcends generations. There was a campaign by 15 record companies. Age free music is supported by music criticIssei Tomizawa, who has a radio programme calledAge Free Music!.[185][186][187][188][189][190]
Some Japanese pop artists are extremely popular in Japan, and some also have fanbases in other countries—especially in Asia, but also in Western countries. They influence not only music, but also fashion. As of 2016, the top five best-selling artists in the JapaneseOricon charts history areB'z,Mr. Children,Ayumi Hamasaki,Southern All Stars, andDreams Come True.[139] Among the five, Hamasaki holds the record for being the only solo artist.[204]
^Keizai, Kokusai & Zaidan, Kōryū (cont.) "Japan Spotlight: Economy, Culture & History, Volume 23". Page 24 (Ng Wai-ming: "The Rise of J-Pop in Asia and Its Impact"). Japan Economic Foundation & the University of California. 2004. Quote: "JAPANESE pop music is commonly I referred to as "J-pop", a term coined byKomuro Tetsuya, the "father of J-pop", in the early 1990s. The meaning of J-pop has never been clear. It was first limited to Euro-beat, the kind of dance music that Komuro produced. However, it was later also applied to many other kinds of popular music in the Japanese music chart, Oricon, including idol-pop, rhythm and blues (R&B), folk, soft rock, easy listening and sometimes even hip hop."
^ab"New Music" (in Japanese). Who.ne.jp. Archived from the original on June 3, 2009. Retrieved2011-06-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) ()
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^Hashimoto, Shohei (2023-06-15)."「Gacha Pop」はJ-POPに代わる新ジャンルになるのか？" [Will "Gacha pop" become a new genre that will replace J-pop?].Natalie (in Japanese).Archived from the original on June 22, 2023. Retrieved2023-08-01.
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^"ザ'60s ポップス・ヒッレード" [The 60s' pops hit parade] (in Japanese). Victor family club. Archived fromthe original on 2008-12-07. Retrieved2008-11-18.
^abc荒井注さん全のため死去 [Mr. Chu Arai has died from hepatic failure].Nikkan Sports (in Japanese). 2000. Archived fromthe original on 2009-02-06. Retrieved2009-01-04.
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^ab"SMAP「世界に一つ」、 シングル売上歴代9位に！！" [SMAP's "The Only Flower In The World" becomes the ninth best-selling single in the history!!] (in Japanese). Oricon. 2004-08-03. Retrieved2008-11-21.
^"Korino Sekai" (in Japanese). Universal Music. Archived fromthe original on 2009-02-06. Retrieved2009-01-12.
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^第15回 ＧＬAY 「おれたち4人の"いま"伝えたい」 [No. 15. Glay "We want people to know the 'present' of our four members"].Mainichi Shimbun (in Japanese). 2007-10-26. Archived fromthe original on 2008-12-26. Retrieved2009-01-12.
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