J-Rock

It's considerably trite to say that I like music, considering that most people do, but it's a straightforward truth. I like music, and I was unsure how I'd like Japanese music, because if you live outside of Japan, chances are you know J-Pop and that's it. And J-Pop is some of the most irritating music I've heard, but I think American pop is pretty irritating too, so maybe it's just me.

Anyway, now that I've been watching TV pretty regularly, I've seen a couple of music countdown shows, which basically review the best singles and albums of the week. Most of it is J-Pop, and my general rule is that if it looks like a girl or boy band, it's probably going to make me want to hit the mute button as fast as possible. This is especially true in the case of such groups like Perfume and Speed; calling them bands would be a misnomer because these girls don't play instruments, they just sing shrilly. Boy groups aren't much better because they're kinda sappy and do a lot of coordinated dancing and often look a little too effeminate for my tastes.

BUT. All is not lost when it comes to Japanese music. I have thus far discovered two groups that I not only like but have enjoyed so much that I went out and purchased their cds. I have also compiled a list of singers/bands that I want to learn more about because I think I might like them too. Most of them are very "rockish" and utitilize real instruments and not a bunch of electronica.

The first is Naifu, a group that is making their debut. They are an actual band that plays actual instruments (which I've noticed is the first step in catching my interest), and they have a definite "rock" sound. Their second single, "Mysterious," is in the top ten and has been used as an opening theme to an anime show called "Detective Conan," which I've seen a couple episodes of and plan to watch from now on. It's kind of a rock-love ballad, and I've found a couple of translations online, and I like the lyrics. (nota bene: a lot of Japanese music uses English in small ways, usually as titles or with a word thrown in here and there in the lyrics - in this case, the song title is actually in English, but the rest of the song is 98% Japanese.)

The second band is Asian Kung-Fu Generation, which I've decided is just downright awesome. They write almost 100% of their music themselves, and some of it is just plain brilliant. Their most recent album was released this year, and after hearing the single "Fujisawa Loser," I went out and bought it, and I've listened to it pretty much non-stop for the past three days. All of their songs are sung in Japanese, but they also supply English translation lyrics with their album. "Fujisawa Loser" is my favorite, but I also like "Inamuragasaki Jane" (which references the Beatles) and "Kamakura Goodbye." All of the songs are named for stops on a train line, and it's really just a great cd. There's a lot of indie and alternative influence in their style, and that's something I can appreciate.

My only complaint? iTunes has next to nothing when it comes to J-Rock, even in the Japanese store (which I can't buy from anyway, so maybe that's a good thing). Also, my iPod is nearly full, so I won't be able to add much more music to it - not that this is inherently a bad thing, considering I could play music on it for 5.5 days before songs started repeating themselves.

Bottom line: Japanese music is more than just J-Pop, and that makes me happy.