Posts Tagged ‘music’
Top 3 J-Pop Stars
Music is an important part of our culture no matter what part of the world you are from. There are a variety of genres that have reached our ears as artists have shown us their talent. In today’s society, one of the biggest genres of music that has graced countries around the world is Pop. Pop stars and groups have risen in numerous counties like the United States, England and even now, Japan.
Pop has become very popular among the Japanese people. There have been several Japanese pop stars and groups that have caught the attention and have risen to the top. The top three Japanese Pop stars and groups of today’s society are AKB48, Tegomass, and Kobukuro. Each of these groups have risen to the top of the charts with their amazing and unique talent.
AKB48 was founded in 2005 and is an all female Japanese theater/idol group. The group is divided up into 3 different teams, A, B, and K. There are a total number of forty-eight girls in AKB48. The group actually holds the Guiness Book of World Record for the “Pop group with the greatest number of members.”
Tegomass is a duo group, which was founded in 2006. They started produced their first single in Sweden and later in the year produced and released it in Japan. That single reached number one on the charts when it was released. This group has been very popular and has released number one singles since it started.
Kobukuro is a band that was founded in 1998, with members Kentaro Kobuchi and Shunsuke Kuroda. They worked hard on their band and landed themselves into a label and made their major label debut in 2001. Since then, they have performed in venues all over Asia and have released 12 albums, with 5 of those albums reaching number one.
These three groups of artists are just a few of the greatest of today’s Japanese Pop Stars. Keep them in mind when searching for J-Pop artists to listen to.
New Releases from Japan
November 24th is an interesting day for fans of Utada Hikaru, as it will see the release of two “greatest hits” albums. The first entitled – Utada Hikaru: Single Collection Vol. 2, the other “Utada the Best”, which is a collection of songs from two of her English language albums. What makes this particularly interesting is that Utada herself said of the latter album: “The release of ‘Utada the best’ is entirely against my will. I wish that my fans won’t have to buy it. There’s no new material in it”. The former album will come with an EP featuring five brand new recordings.
The lead single of the collection is the song “Hymne à l’amour (Ai no Anthem),” which is a cover version of the 1950’s song by French singer Edith Piaf. Utada sings the song both in French and Japanese, using her personally written translation. Check out the table below for track listings and information about these new releases!
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utada_Hikaru_Single_Collection_Vol._2