What are your favorite Japanese Bands/Artists and Songs?

General Off-Topic
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Another long winded post from me :sweat_smile: I thought it would be cool to have a place for anyone to share their favorite Japanese music to listen to, and I didn’t see another topic like this so I decided to make one myself. It can be hard to find new artists to listen to even in your native language so this could hopefully also be a place to discover some new music to listen to.

I generally prefer to listen to multi-piece bands over solo artists/singers, but there are a lot of exceptions. Also the genres I listen to are generally more ‘indie’ but definitely not exclusively; there’s a bit of variety in what I like. My favorites in no particular order being:

  • きのこ帝国(Kinoko Teikoku) and the band’s singer 佐藤千亜妃(Satō Chiaki)
  • リュベンス(Reubens)
  • andymori
  • ポルカドットスティングレイ(Polkadot Stingray)
  • チャットモンチー(Chatmonchy)
  • Lucie,Too
  • and of course L’Arc〜en〜Ciel, Vamps, and Hyde

Some of the somewhat obscure or newer artists I like to listen to are:

  • Clams
  • Oeil
  • Roly Poly Rag Bear
  • cephalo
  • アマイワナ
  • Altar Klee
  • and again リュベンス

Some of my recommendations by a few of the above artists are:

  • 「Summer Gate」by 佐藤千亜妃 (This artist also did the theme song for Ghost Cat Anzu)
  • 「天使さん」(Tenshi San) by リュベンス
  • 「革命」by andymori
  • 「Lucky」by Lucie,Too
  • 「かすみ草」(Baby’s Breath) by Altar Klee
  • 「恋泥棒」by アマイワナ

As far as my top favorite Japanese songs go:

  1. 「夜が明けたら」by きのこ帝国
  2. 「Sunrise&Sunset」by andymori
  3. 「ほがらかな呪い」(Serene Curse) by リュベンス
  4. 「Sentimental Bus」by Roly Poly Rag Bear
  5. 「See the Brightest Star」by Clams

Picking favorites is difficult especially keeping it to one song per band, and this is kind of off the top of my head :sweat_smile: That first song is definitely my absolute favorite song in general though. I’m curious to hear anyone else’s favs, I’m always happy to find new stuff I might like to listen to.

I don’t really use music to learn Japanese and I’m not entirely sure how efficient it would be if I did, but it’s a really amazing feeling understanding songs I like just a teensy bit more the longer I learn. It’s also very motivating!

I would love to hear about why you like the bands you share, but you can also just drop a list of them without worrying about saying anything else :blush:

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I am really someone who listens to specific artists that often. I like listen to music in the background, while doing other things, so it’s often some kind of instrumental music without any lyrics.
However there are a few japanese tracks I really like:

YOASOBI - Gunjo ( ‘The first Take’ is in general a great source to discover new artists )

ATARASHII GAKKO! - OTONABLUE ( that lead singer has such a cool and unique voice )

ACIDMAN - 赤橙

ヨルシカ - ブレーメン

That last one is kinda special for me, as I live in a german town called Bremen and that song has the same title and loosely touches the subject of a local folklore from here, the “Town Musicians of Bremen” . I actually read about that song in a local newspaper and thought that’s pretty cool that a japanese song, which has a connection to my howtown exists. ^^

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Amazing picks, I really like all of these! All of those artists have been on my radar I just haven’t gotten around to checking out their stuff; so thank you for getting me to do it finally haha. The exception being YOASOBI who I’ve listened to on occasion for a while now.

That’s awesome about that ヨルシカ song as well, it’s always real cool to find a song from another country about your home country or hometown. I am kind of familiar with that story! I think I learned about it from Grimm’s Fairy Tales :thinking:

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Leaving this one here > https://open.spotify.com/track/5rpjOYav3yLcWspvPZ5Crd?si=VYrUn-afTOisELs2eNDyRQ

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Yeah, I think it’s kinda famous due to being among the Gimm Tales. Did not expect it to be even know in Japan, though.

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Oh this song is gonna worm its way into my head haha, thanks for sharing!

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Rock: Boris, Melt Banana, Les Rallizes Denudes, Number Girl/Zazen Boys (same front man and songwriter), Boredoms, Afrirampo

Non-rock: Ken Ishii, Nujabes, Cornelius, Susumu Yokota