Monday, August 3, 2009

Japanese Music

Anyone who knows me well knows that most of my music listening revolves around classic rock from the 60's and 70's...mostly from British bands like The Beatles, The Who, and Pink Floyd. That certainly hasn't changed with time, but I feel since this is a Japan-themed blog, I should take a little time to introduce some music from Japan that I enjoy.


The Yoshida Brothers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RERXiliJfdI.

These guys specialize mostly in instrumental music involving traditional Japanese instruments called shamisen, which is kinda like a 3-stringed guitar with its own distinct sound. Both of the Yoshida Brothers are very skilled at playing shamisen and like to mix their playing with other styles of music, including rock. As far as I know they are quite popular in Japan, as well they should be.

The Pillows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYGNM_gJrV4

J-rock at its finest. These guys know how to rock, and not just by being loud. I liked The Pillows way before I started learning Japanese thanks to a 6-episode Japanese animated series called Fooly Cooly, which featured The Pillows' music exclusively as its soundtrack. The sad thing is, almost every Japanese person who I have talked to about music seems to know nothing about these guys! Such a pity, but I'm sure the band is getting along just fine all the same.

Puffy AmiYumi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1KbwPnZn24

Okay, so maybe this is considered pop music...but I feel like these girls have really got a good thing going on. Unlike most Japanese pop music that I have heard, which mostly involves singing in cutesy voices and features catchy choruses (not unlike pop music in the states), Puffy's music has soul and is about the music itself. Sure Puffy have a lot of catchy songs, but much of their work feels like more than just saccharine pop melodies, and sometimes they manage to sound more like a rock band than anything else.

I think that'll do it for now. There's certainly more Japanese music out there that I enjoy, but I tire of typing it all out! Ciao.