25 Days Of Christmas Countdown Day #2: Top J-Pop of All Time

So last year when I did this one, I didn't really know many J-pop songs outside of idol groups. This year I've gone more out of my way to find J-pop songs from soloists and bands. I still have a long way to go to get into other J-pop, but it's improving lol. Because of expanding my horizons, this list is much different than last year's. As with last year, this will not feature any songs from H!P or 48G (minus one) because the entire list would be from them otherwise.

#10

One Ok Rock - Mighty Long Fall (2014) (NEW)

Yeah blah blah this isn't technically J"pop" but I don't technically care. The only reason I checked this song out was because I saw their Taking Off video uploaded on the Fueled By Ramen YouTube & I was so confused because I knew they were a Japanese group and didn't know why they were being uploaded on an American YouTube channel. I'm glad I did decide to check it out though because it's such a great song. Reminds me a lot of Fall Out Boy who I love.

#9

Minako Honda - Dramatic Escape (1988) (NEW)

One thing I've really been trying to do over the past year is focus on 80s J-Pop. I really love the sound of it. Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to check out too many CDs, but one that I have is Minako's Lips album. It's SO good. I'm a sucker for great 80s music and it really is awesome.

No YT video, sorry. But you can listen to it on my 8Tracks playlist! (<---Clicky Clicky)

#8

Galette - Brand New Style (2013) (-6)

I DON'T WANNA TALK ABOUT IT GUYS. IT'S JUST NOT FAIR. I was devastated by the news of their disbanding. Well, at least as devastated as I can get with music. I don't get super attached to groups even if I love them so it's not like I was crying over it but I was still upset. They had SO MUCH POTENTIAL. Wasted. Utterly wasted. To be honest I'm more pissed off at their company than upset that they disbanded. But ANYWAY. This song has slipped a lot for me recently. Probably because I overplayed it to death. Still an absolutely amazing song though.

#7

Ayumi Hamasaki - Real Me (2002) (-4)

One of the very few non-English songs I enjoy primarily for its lyrics. Just a lovely song.

#6

Predia - Maboroshi wa Xanadu (2014) (NEW)

So. I feel as though I should be ashamed of myself for not knowing this song earlier. I actually owned it for a year before listening to it. I bought Predia's first album because I liked the singles and then never got around to actually listening to the album itself (which is absolutely fantastic by the way if you like dance pop & good vocals). I either like this or Yakou Chou best on the album but I couldn't decide which so I just went with which one I loved first lol.

No video

#5

Hangry & Angry - Top Secret (2009) (+1)

This really only has a placing because of nostalgia, but I remember this being my first real J-pop song addiction outside of Morning Musume.

#4

Momoiro Clover Z - Mouretsu Uchuu Koukyoukyoku Dainana Gakushou "Mugen no Ai"(2012) (-2)

Another song that's fallen because I played it completely to death. Still love the insane wackiness of the whole thing.

#3

Osaka Shunkashuto - Cameleon Shoujo (2015) (NEW)

When are they going to release a new single? Seriously they need to release something and not just perform all the time. I hate when I fall in love with a group and then they hardly ever release music (looking at you Coco Decoru. One release since 2014.) But at the same time Osaka Shunkashuto is one of the few groups that I actually have watched a couple live performances of, mainly because Maina is an absolute star and owns any stage she walks on.

#2

Galette - Air Summer (2015) (NEW)

Man I miss them. Their whole discography is flawless. They should've released one last single or an album before their end.

#1

Nogizaka46 - Harukanaru Bhutan (2016) (NEW)

This is my one exception. I only put this here because it is my actual favorite J-pop song of all time. It only came out this year, but it's one of those genre defining songs for me. The music is absolutely gorgeous and everything is just wonderful about it. It's actually surprising to me how much I love it as Nogizaka is one of my least favorite groups in 48G. However, when they have good songs, those songs are incredible.

No video :(

Seiko Matsuda - Citron

This is the post I've been wanting to do! I've been attempting to get into 80s J-Pop over the past year (which would work out so much more if I had more time), so I wanted to showcase one of the CDs I bought here for other people to discover some older J-Pop too! I'm sure most people who have been into J-Pop for a little while know who Seiko Matsuda is. Which is one of the reasons why I chose her to showcase first on older J-Pop since she's one of the biggest names of that time period. For those who may not of heard of Seiko Matsuda, or may have just heard bits and pieces, she's called "the eternal idol" and for good reasons. She was huge in the 1980s and has continued her singing career to this day. She even tried to break into the US market in the early 1990s. This album probably isn't one of her more well loved albums, but I bought it because the word Citron is awesome xD Probably a bad idea to buy stuff just by the name, but because of her absolutely huge discography, I decided just to jump right in with something that sounded interesting to me. This album was released in 1988 and was entirely produced by the American producer David Foster. He has produced for many American artists like Celine Dion & Michael Jackson. Looking through his writing credits on Wikipedia, I think a song the he produced that most people would recognize would be Toni Braxton's "Un-Break My Heart" which was a hit in the 1990s. Due to the album being written and produced by an American producer, it does sound exactly like American pop music of the late 1980s and early 1990s. This isn't really a bad thing though. Because of this, the album could be very accessible to those who are unfamiliar with Seiko, but knows American 80s music. Granted, I haven't heard much from her beyond this album so this could be very much her style as it is, but that still doesn't change the fact that it's production allows it to be easy to get into for people not interested in J-Pop. For example, I played some of the songs for my mother (who was in her 20s in the 1980s), and she couldn't get over how much the music sounded like she remembered from that era.

Track #1: Blue

The album begins with your pretty conventional 1980s pop album opener. It sounds a lot like something you'd listen to on Whitney Houston's Whitney album. It's a very relaxing midtempo track that sets the flow of the rest of the album. Although I personally like it, if you're not a huge fan of 80s music, then it likely won't make much of an impression as the song tends to stay fairly steady through its entirety without becoming very lively. 4/5.

Track #2: Marrakech

If you're more of an uptempo person, this is the song on the album you should start with. It serves as one of the singles from the album. What I enjoy about this song is that it has a slight Middle Eastern undertone to the music which is pretty cool because Marrakech is a city in Morocco which although not in the Middle East itself, was influenced greatly by it's culture due to the Arabic people controlling the area for many years much like Spain had been. 4/5.

Track #3: Every Little Hurt

I'm never sure what I think when there's a ballad song only 3 songs into an album. What is interesting about this song though is that it features David Foster singing a duet with Seiko. And it's in English. David Foster has a pretty indistinguishable voice from other 80s singers like Phil Collins or the Wham! guy (dang it can't remember the name xD). But then again, most male singers sound very similar to me. The song really does sound like something you would've heard on American radio at the time and shows why it was possible for Seiko to attempt to break into the American market. 3/5.

Track #4: You Can't Find Me

This track is reminiscent of something you'd find on Michael Jackson's Thriller album. In fact, the beat in the beginning reminds me quite a lot of the beat in Thriller the song. This is one of my more favorite upbeat tracks on the album. While I like Marrakech, this just seems to have much more energy and is more dancey. 5/5.

Track #5: Daite...

There's a piece of me that almost wishes she wasn't singing this. Not because I don't like her voice, but the instrumental of this song seems to drown out her voice because it seems more structured for a female singer with a strong & loud voice. More like Pat Benetar or Heart, especially with the power ballad sounds of the song. However, even though her voice isn't necessarily strong enough to make the song as powerful as it could be, it's still a wonderful 80s power ballad. These are the kind of ballads we're missing nowadays. 4/5.

Track #6: We Never Get To It

Another song fully sung in English. In my opinion, this is the most "late 80s" sounding song on the album. It sounds so much like early Mariah Carey upbeat stuff as well as Whitney Houston's 90's material. However, it is much more difficult to understand what she's saying in this song than in Every Little Hurt because of how the music and background singers tend to drown her out. It's catchy, but not one of the better upbeat songs on the album. 3.5/5.

Track #7: Zoku Akai Sweet Pea

No, Hello Project is not the original company to do this track lol. Actually, this is a new version of her incredibly popular single. I personally have never listened to the original and don't even have this version of the song in my library because of it being a remake so I won't really talk about it as I can't really give it a fair write up.

Track #8: No. 1

This is another early 90s feeling track. It's pretty minimalist in terms of actual instruments and instead has a lot of background acapella singing. The background singers remind me so much of this Christian acapella group that my mom used to play on cassette tape back in the early 90s. Although the song is very nostalgic sounding for me, it might not be all that interesting for others because the background singers have a much larger part in the song than Seiko herself. And really, after I listen to this, I remember very little of Seiko, but everything from the acapella hook. 4/5.

Track #9: Shigatsu wa Kaze no Tabibito

This is probably my least favorite non-ballad on the album. It just seems very flat to me and her voice is very unpleasant in this song. By this point in the album, everything that this song offers has been heard before in other (and better) tracks. 3/5.

Track #10: Ringoshu no Hibi

I have to say I really dislike when albums end in a ballad. It'd rather leave an album feeling happy than bored as there are very few ballads that can serve as competent openers or closers. However, this is one of those rare ballads where I feel it works to an extent. The reason I feel it works isn't because of the lyrics or singing, but the stunning piano pieces and the way it is structured like a symphony. It's uniqueness is it's strength. 4/5.

Seiko Matsuda - Citron [Album Playlist] (Doesn't include You Can't Find Me, Zoku Akai Sweet Pea, No. 1, Shigatsu or Ringoshu because they weren't on YouTube.)

As someone who really loves 80s music, I can say I really enjoy this album, even if it does sound like a very dated 80s album. If you aren't very interested in a walk through the stereotypical sounds of the 80s, this probably isn't the album that you should attempt to dive into 80s J-pop with. Especially if you're more of a dance pop lover like I am. Even though there are a lot of uptempo & midtempos on the album, none of the songs are particularly high energy which could leave you a little bored by the end. But if you do love the 80s, this is certainly an easy album to get into. 4/5.

Music Discovery Mondays (October 19, 2015)

I like to call this edition, "I'm running out of good unknown songs to posts so time for a mishmash of older songs!" I think that's really how MDMs are going to run from now on because I've run out of songs I would consider "unknown" that I know of to share. However, I still think this new approach stays true to what my original intention of this corner was: to showcase songs that I personally enjoy so people can perhaps find something new to love or be reminded of a song they may have forgotten about.

Track #1: Paula Abdul - Straight Up

So this song has been stuck in my head all week. There's a trolley system at my university and the drivers always choose their own radio stations to listen to. Unlike the other drivers who play country stations, there's one that plays the local 80s to now station and this song was playing on my way to work last week and has been stuck with me ever since lol. It was a megahit and for good reason.

Track #2: Marina & The Diamonds - Froot

I really wish Marina was more popular than she is. I get that her music is more niche than someone like Katy Perry, but she has such a lovely voice and a great catalog of catchy tracks. This song was her lead single from her latest album, Froot. Unlike the lead single from her last album, this song is more laid back but it's still such an earworm.

Track #3: Rainbow - Mach

I can't believe this never had a video! I thought it did but I guess I was thinking of the Japanese version. Rainbow was so great at their debut. It's too bad that they were mismanaged so much because they could have been big like their labelmates KARA. This song in particular seems like it could've been a megasmash. It's got the same sound as other popular 2010 K-pop songs.

Enjoy!