that foreign music blog🌎

Given how COVID has canceled live concerts and the like, the blog has been left a bit dry. I haven’t even really gone out to buy any CDs, though there are plenty I still need to write on. However, what I’ve been doing instead is desperately wishing I could go to karaoke. Karaoke, whether it be alone or with friends, is often when I boast my vast knowledge of Japanese music, bringing natives to stare wide-eyed as I start singing a song they hadn’t heard since they were children. I learned about these songs through both friends and my own study, and I figured that it’d be fun to share how you, too, can impress your Japanese friends. That is, once we’re all allowed to have karaoke parties again…

モーニング娘。 『ザ☆ピース！』
Morning Musume “The Peace”

Morning Musume, or ‘Momusu’, is an extremely popular J-Pop group under the Hello!Project label, commonly called ‘Hello!Pro’. The group consistently changes out members and adjusts their sound to suit the era. The era of this video, the early 2000s, consists of members from the late nineties like Kaori Iida and Maki Goto, as well as fresh faces like Ai Kago and Nozomi Tsuji. This was probably my favorite generation of girls, as it’s difficult to resist their fun, vibrant sound and videos. The last time I heard Morning Musume, they were shifting into a more cutesy electronica stage, which isn’t REALLY my taste, but if you like that sound, it might be worth seeing what they’re up to these days.

松浦亜弥 – 『Yeah！めっちゃホリディ』
Aya Matsuura “Yeah! Super Holiday”

When I was first learning about J-pop, Aya Matsuura had become one of my favorites. She’s a soloist from Hello!Project and started at just fourteen years old. She has an energetic, colorful image that slowly matures into something more sensual as she gets older. Her vocal range and unique way of singing has maintained throughout the years, though I’m not sure she’s active these days.

Yamapi and Kamenishi Kazuya (Shuji and Akira) 『青春アミーゴ』(“Youthful Friend”)

This is a song from the drama ‘Nobuta wo Produce’ that solidified the two Johnny’s Entertainment performers as stage buddies—or perhaps real life buddies—from when they were teenagers. With a refreshing Spanish guitar against the duo’s gentle vibratos about friendship, this song will definitely get at least one of your Japanese friends clapping along with a gesture or two from the choreography. The chorus is really the most famous segment, hand motions and all. I guarantee that you only have to sing a line for someone to know how to follow.

Arashi- 『A.RA.SHI』

Since the announcement that the five-piece J-pop legends would be retiring, their popularity has skyrocketed to a global level. Hell, their label, Johnny’s Entertainment, only RECENTLY started posting their videos on the internet. I remember when I was still getting into Japanese music and I had to search the deepest, darkest depths of the internet to find Arashi’s songs. Now, I don’t think there’s a person who doesn’t know of them. This is their debut song and has memorable choreography that will liven the karaoke room.

銀杏BOYZ　『Baby Baby』
Gingnang Boyz “Baby Baby”

If you’re looking for something more rock, 銀杏BOYZ is a hardcore punk band from the early two-thousands. Contrasting the loudness and vulgarity of the rest of the album, the easy melody and sweet lyrics to ‘Baby Baby’ have made it a crowd favorite. I want to say that this band is pretty famous, but it seems that this song is mostly what put them in the spotlight. They’re still active and, while they aren’t nearly as wild as they used to be, the roughness of their early years can still be heard in their more recent soft punk love songs.

Hi-STANDARD 『Stay Gold』

This three-piece nineties punk band is kind of like the Japanese Green Day. They’ve survived into the modern age and released their album, ‘The Gift”, about three years ago. The members each have side projects that are also quite big, but Hi-STANDARD as a band is probably the most well-known. Luckily for English speakers, almost all their songs are in English, so if your Japanese isn’t quite up to par, but you still want to relate to your Japanese friends, Hi-STANDARD would be a good way to bridge that gap.

THE BLUE HEARTS 『リンダリンダ』
The Blue Hearts “Linda Linda”

This band is from the late eighties and has that distinctive sound of raspy vocals against power chords. They’re some of the punk legends in Japan, making this song a karaoke go-to, even if you don’t know all the lyrics. In fact, I sang this with one of my students during a school party and he only knew the chorus. It’s one of those songs that I think millennials will have heard from their parents, but—like my student—only vaguely recognize it. That being said, if you’re not that confident with Japanese, but want to have fun, this is the song for you. No one will care up until the chorus: “LINDA LINDA. LINDA LINDA LINDAAAAAAAAAA~~~”

GReeeeN – 『愛唄』
GReeeeN -　”Love Song”

This J-pop group of faceless dentists is so popular that I almost didn’t even bother putting their song here. They debuted with this song in 2007 and became identifiable by their heartfelt lyrics, complemented by their warm videos about love and life. I was actually introduced to this song five years ago while I was studying abroad in Kyoto. A boy I had a big crush on sang it during karaoke and, since then, I’ve tried to learn as many of their songs as I can.

While I know there are plenty of other songs that others would consider nostalgic, these are just some songs that I often sing when I’m with my Japanese friends. Since I listen to mostly rock, it’s through these songs and artists that we’re able to find common ground, so I hope you can have as much fun with them as I do~