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79-398: Anime song ( アニメソング , anime songu , also shortened to anison ( アニソン ) ) is a genre of music originating from Japanese pop music . Anime songs consist of theme, insert, and image songs for anime , manga , video game, and audio drama CD series, as well as any other song released primarily for the anime market, including music from Japanese voice actors . The anime song genre

158-490: A gold record for selling one million copies. During this period, female duo The Peanuts also became popular, singing a song in the movie Mothra . Their songs, such as "Furimukanaide" ("Don't Turn Around") were later covered by Candies on their album Candy Label . Artists like Kyu Sakamoto and The Peanuts were called Wasei Pops ( 和製ポップス , Wasei poppusu , "Japan-made pop") . After frequently changing members, Chosuke Ikariya re-formed The Drifters in 1964 under

237-731: A "flavor" of blues . He composed Noriko Awaya 's hit song "Wakare no Blues" (lit. "Farewell Blues"). Awaya became a famous popular singer and was called "Queen of Blues" in Japan. Due to pressure from the Imperial Army during the war, the performance of jazz music was temporarily halted in Japan. Hattori, who stayed in Shanghai at the end of the war, produced hit songs such as Shizuko Kasagi 's "Tokyo Boogie-Woogie" and Ichiro Fujiyama 's "Aoi Sanmyaku" (lit. "Blue Mountain Range"). Hattori later became known as

316-488: A Japanese record store, adopted expanded classifications including Group Sounds, idol of the 1970s–1980s, enka , folk and established musicians of the 1970s–1980s, in addition to the main J-pop genres. Whereas rock musicians in Japan usually hate the term "pop", Taro Kato, a member of pop punk band Beat Crusaders , pointed out that the encoded pop music , like pop art , was catchier than "J-pop" and he also said that J-pop

395-543: A band who were active outside of the anime industry, received media attention when their 1987 song "Get Wild" was released as the ending song to City Hunter . As a result of the song's popularity, TM Network were invited to the 72nd Kohaku Uta Gassen to perform it. From then on, mainstream artists releasing tie-in songs for anime became common. Following the collapse of the bubble economy in Japan, labels exclusively dedicated to exclusively producing anime songs were formed, most notably King Records ' Starchild label. This

474-633: A fictional band from the series K-On! , became the first anime characters to receive simultaneous #1 and #2 rankings on the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart with the release of both their singles. In the following years, idol-themed multimedia projects, such as Love Live! , The Idolmaster , and Uta no Prince-sama , became popular. Billboard Japan launched the Billboard Japan Hot Animation chart on December 1, 2010 exclusively for anime and video game music releases. Since

553-600: A former member, began a solo career and later formed Yellow Magic Orchestra . In the early 1960s, some Japanese music became influenced by the American folk music revival ; this was called fōku ( フォーク , "folk") , although the genre of music was mostly covers of original songs. In the late 1960s, the Folk Crusaders became famous and the underground music around that time became called fōku . As with enka , Japanese fōku singers Wataru Takada performed social satires. In

632-501: A hit song, but she committed suicide immediately after that. Hikaru Genji , one of the Johnny & Associates bands, made their debut in 1987. They became a highly influential rollerskating boy band, with some of their members gaining their own fame as they got older. Their song "Paradise Ginga", written by Aska , won the Grand Prix award at the 30th Japan Record Awards in 1988. Some of

711-591: A low effort or low quality form of music. The highest-selling single of the year was the enka song by Shiro Miya and the Pinkara Trio, " Onna no Michi ". The song eventually sold over 3.25 million copies. On December 1, 1973, Yōsui Inoue released the album Kōri no Sekai , which topped the Oricon charts and remained in Top 10 for 113 weeks. It spent 13 consecutive weeks in the number-one spot, and eventually established

790-685: A member of the band The Drifters at the Nichigeki Western Carnival in 1958. His 1961 song "Ue wo Muite Arukō" ("Let's Look Up and Walk"), known in other parts of the world as " Sukiyaki ", was released to the United States in 1963. It was the first Japanese song to reach the Number One position in the United States, spending four weeks in Cash Box and three weeks in Billboard . It also received

869-409: A million copies. While Globe's 1996 album Globe sold 4.13 million copies, establishing a record at the time, Namie Amuro's 1997 song " Can You Celebrate? " sold 2.29 million copies, is the best selling single of all time by the female solo artist in the history of Jpop. His total sales as a song producer reached 170 million copies. By 1998, Komuro's songs had become less popular. By

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948-510: A still-standing record of a total 35 weeks at the number-one position on the Oricon charts. Yumi Matsutoya , formerly known by her maiden name Yumi Arai, also became a notable singer-songwriter during this period In October 1975, she released a single "Ano Hi ni Kaeritai" ("I want to return to that day"), making it her first number-one single on the Oricon charts. Miyuki Nakajima , Amii Ozaki , and Junko Yagami were also popular singer-songwriters during this period. At first, only Yumi Matsutoya

1027-426: Is cool after all. The good thing is good." One term recently coined in relation to "J-pop" is gacha pop ( ガチャポップ , gachapoppu ) coming from the industry's association with other popular cultures within Japan that has gained international attention like city pop , anisong , Vocaloids and VTubing . Japanese popular music, called ryūkōka before being split into enka and poppusu , has origins in

1106-546: Is known in Japan, in addition to pioneering synthpop and electro music . Their 1979 album Solid State Survivor reached number one on the Oricon charts in July 1980, and went on to sell two million records worldwide. At around the same time, the YMO albums Solid State Survivor and X∞Multiplies held both the top two spots on the Oricon charts for seven consecutive weeks, making YMO

1185-462: Is said to be Japanese-language rock music inspired by the likes of The Beatles . Unlike the Japanese music genre called kayōkyoku , J-pop uses a special kind of pronunciation, which is similar to that of English . One notable singer to do so is Keisuke Kuwata , who pronounced the Japanese word karada ("body") as kyerada . Additionally, unlike Western music, the major second ( sol and la )

1264-481: The Far East Network and collaborated with the American soldiers to help expose the Japanese public to a wide variety of western genres. This eventually lead to the establishment of modern Japanese pop music, known as kayōkyoku . During the 1950s and 60s, many Kayōkyoku groups and singers gained experience performing on US military bases in Japan. Around the same time, yakuza manager Kazuo Taoka reorganized

1343-657: The Japan Record Awards in 1984. Nakamori won the Grand Prix award for two consecutive years (1985 and 1986), also at the Japan Record Awards. Japanese idol band Onyanko Club made their debut in 1985, and produced popular singer Shizuka Kudō . They changed the image of Japanese idols. Around 1985, however, people began to be disenchanted with the system for creating idols. In 1986, idol singer Yukiko Okada 's song "Kuchibiru Network" ("Lips' Network"), written by Seiko Matsuda and composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto, became

1422-636: The Meiji period , but most Japanese scholars consider the Taishō period to be the actual starting point of ryūkōka , as it is the era in which the genre first gained nationwide popularity. By the Taishō period, Western musical techniques and instruments, which had been introduced to Japan in the Meiji period , were widely used. Influenced by Western genres such as jazz and blues , ryūkōka incorporated Western instruments such as

1501-426: The anime series Detective Conan . As of May 2023, over 130 theme songs have been supplied to the anime television series and movies by the B ZONE Group. On 4 April 2023, Being changed company name to B Zone. Nowadays production-based record company are no longer a rare thing, however the B ZONE Group has established a dedicated record company and label system in quick succession since 1991. Label companies under

1580-505: The communist takeover , and were collaborating with American soldiers to help introduce a variety of new genres to the Japanese public. In 1949, when the communists took over and established the People's Republic of China on the mainland , one of the first actions taken by the government was to denounce popular music (specifically both Chinese pop music, known as Mandopop , and Western pop music) as decadent music , and for decades afterwards

1659-669: The group sounds genre in Japan. Most Japanese musicians felt that they could not sing rock in Japanese , so the popularity of Japanese rock gradually declined. As a result, there were debates such as "Should we sing rock music in Japanese?" and "Should we sing in English?" between Happy End and Yuya Uchida about Japanese rock music. This confrontation was called "Japanese-language rock controversy" ( 日本語ロック論争 , Nihongo Rokku Ronsō ) . Happy End proved that rock music could be sung in Japanese, and one theory holds that their music became one of

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1738-437: The violin , harmonica , and guitar . However, the melodies were often written according to the traditional Japanese pentatonic scale . In the 1930s, Ichiro Fujiyama released popular songs with his tenor voice. Fujiyama sang songs with a lower volume than opera through the microphone (the technique is sometimes called crooning ). Jazz musician Ryoichi Hattori attempted to produce Japanese native music which had

1817-648: The "Father of Japanese poppusu ". The United States soldiers—who were occupying Japan at the time—and the Far East Network introduced a number of new musical styles to the country. Boogie-woogie , Mambo , Blues , and Country music were performed by Japanese musicians for the American troops. Chiemi Eri 's cover song " Tennessee Waltz " (1952), Hibari Misora 's "Omatsuri Mambo" (1952), and Izumi Yukimura 's cover song " Till I Waltz Again with You " (1953) also became popular. Foreign musicians and groups, including JATP and Louis Armstrong , visited Japan to perform. In

1896-530: The 1960s–1970s as well, and it still has appeal due to the work of musicians like Charlie Nagatani and Tomi Fujiyama , along with venues like Little Texas in Tokyo . Japanese hip hop became mainstream with producer Nujabes during the 1990s–2000s, especially his work on Samurai Champloo , and Japanese pop culture is often seen with anime in hip hop . In addition, Latin music , CCM , and gospel music have scenes within J-pop. The origin of modern J-pop

1975-431: The 1960s–1970s. J-pop was further defined by new wave and crossover fusion acts of the late 1970s, such as Yellow Magic Orchestra and Southern All Stars . Popular styles of Japanese pop music include city pop and technopop during the 1970s–1980s, and J-Euro (such as Namie Amuro ) and Shibuya-kei during the 1990s–2000s. Japanese country had popularity during the international popularity of Westerns in

2054-456: The 1970s, the popularity of female idol singers such as Mari Amachi , Saori Minami , Momoe Yamaguchi , and Candies increased. Momoe Yamaguchi was one of the first kayōkyoku singers to use the special pronunciation characteristic of J-pop. In 1972, Hiromi Go made his debut with the song "Otokonoko Onnanoko" ("Boy and Girl"). Hiromi Go originally came from Johnny & Associates . In 1976, female duo Pink Lady made their debut with

2133-694: The 1980s, rock bands such as Southern All Stars , RC Succession , Anzen Chitai , The Checkers , The Alfee , and The Blue Hearts became popular. Anzen Chitai came from Yosui Inoue 's backup band. On December 1, 1983, rock singer Yutaka Ozaki debuted at the age of 18. In 1986, The Alfee became the first artists to play a concert in front of an audience of 100,000 people in Japan. Some Japanese musicians, such as Boøwy , TM Network , and Buck-Tick , were influenced by New Romanticism . Boøwy became an especially influential rock band, whose members included singer Kyosuke Himuro and guitarist Tomoyasu Hotei . Their three albums reached number one in 1988, making them

2212-530: The 1989 single "Equal Romance" for the hit anime series Ranma ½ . Tetsuya Komuro , a member of TM Network, broke Seiko Matsuda's streak of 25 consecutive number-ones by making his single "Gravity of Love" to debut at number-one in November 1989. In the 1990s, the term J-pop came to refer to all Japanese popular songs except enka . During this period, the Japanese music industry sought marketing effectiveness . Notable examples of commercial music from

2291-524: The 2000s, Yui Horie , Yukari Tamura , and Nana Mizuki , who were signed with King Records, were produced and marketed as idol singers and voice actors by the record label. During the mid-2000s, there was a "voice actor boom", in addition to a period known as the "Idol Warring Period", a phenomenon named after a rapid growth in the idol industry. Mizuki's " Eternal Blaze " reached #2 on the Oricon Weekly Single Charts in 2005, and shortly after,

2370-464: The 2020s, anime songs have experienced a rapid growth in global online popularity due to their widened availability on music streaming services like Spotify and promotion by fans and artists on social media. In 2020, " Homura ", a theme song for animated film Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train , rose to number eight on the Billboard Global 200 . In 2023, the opening theme of

2449-626: The Beatles came to Japan and sang their songs at the Nippon Budokan , becoming the first rock music band to perform a concert there. The public believed that the Beatles would cause juvenile delinquency . The Japanese government deployed riot police against young rock fans at the Nippon Budokan. John Lennon felt that they were not well regarded in Japan, but Beatlemania has never really died there. The Beatles inspired Japanese bands, creating

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2528-623: The Communist Party would promote Chinese revolutionary songs while suppressing Chinese folk songs, Chinese pop songs and Western pop songs. Dissatisfied with Chairman Mao Zedong 's new music policies, a number of Shanghainese jazz musicians fled to the British colony of Hong Kong and established Cantopop , which is pop music sung in the Cantonese dialect of Chinese . However, a few musicians instead settled in Japan, where they became members of

2607-418: The Japanese media. Performers learned to play the music and translate the lyrics of popular American songs, resulting in the birth of Cover Pops ( カヴァーポップス , Kavā poppusu ) . The rockabilly movement would reach its peak when 45,000 people saw the performances by Japanese singers at the first Nichigeki Western Carnival in one week of February 1958. Kyu Sakamoto , a fan of Elvis, made his stage début as

2686-550: The Japanese music market continued to increase. In October 1997, Glay released their album Review -The Best of Glay , which sold 4.87 million copies, breaking Globe's earlier record. However, it was surpassed in the next year by B'z 's album B'z The Best "Pleasure" , which sold 5.12 million copies. The Japanese market for physical music sales peaked in 1998, recording sales of ¥ 607,000,000,000. In March 1999, Hikaru Utada released her first Japanese album, First Love , which sold 7.65 million copies, making it

2765-586: The United States. He recorded the albums Yazawa , It's Just Rock n' Roll , and Flash in Japan , all of which were released worldwide, but were not very commercially successful. Keisuke Kuwata formed the rock band Southern All Stars (SAS), which made their debut in 1978. Southern All Stars remains very popular in Japan today. In the same year, Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) also made their official debut with their self-titled album . The band, whose members were Haruomi Hosono , Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto , developed electropop , or technopop as it

2844-505: The anime industry began performing theme songs for anime. In 1984, the single " Ai Oboete Imasu ka ", which was released for Macross under the character Lynn Minmay 's name, charted at #7 on the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart . Furthermore, Cat's Eye (1983) received widespread media attention for having Anri , a singer whose activities had no connection to the anime industry, perform its theme songs. Likewise, TM Network ,

2923-549: The anime series Oshi no Ko , " Idol " by Yoasobi , topped the Billboard Global Excl. US , becoming the first Japanese song and anime song to do so, alongside reaching number seven on the Billboard Global 200, the highest peak by a Japanese act. "Idol" also topped on the global charts of Apple Music and YouTube Music . In the same year, Kenshi Yonezu 's " Kick Back ", an opening theme for Chainsaw Man , became

3002-464: The best-selling album in Oricon history. Being Inc. B ZONE Incorporated (aka B ZONE Group), formerly known as Being Incorporated (aka Being Giza Group), is a Japanese private entertainment conglomerate and recording label based in Tokyo's Roppongi district, founded on November 1, 1978 by music producer Daiko Nagato . The company and its subsidiaries are the main supplier of theme music for

3081-470: The charts and established new records, notably B'z, which eventually established a new record for consecutive number-one singles, surpassing Seiko Matsuda's record. B'z is the Japanese biggest selling artist of all time, according to Oricon charts and RIAJ certifications. On the other hand, Wands, regarded as a pioneer of the "J-pop Boom" of the 1990s, had trouble because member Show Wesugi wanted to play alternative rock / grunge . Many artists surpassed

3160-476: The concert touring industry by treating the performers as professionals. Many of these performers later became key participants in the J-pop genre. In 1956, Japan's rock and roll craze began, due to the country music group known as Kosaka Kazuya and the Wagon Masters; their rendition of Elvis Presley 's song " Heartbreak Hotel " helped to fuel the trend. The music was called " rockabilly " (or rokabirī ) by

3239-499: The early 1970s, the emphasis shifted from fōku ' s simple songs with a single guitar accompaniment to more complex musical arrangements known as new music ( ニューミュージック , nyū myūjikku ) . Instead of social messages, the songs focused on more personal messages, such as love. In 1972, singer-songwriter Takuro Yoshida produced a hit song "Kekkon Shiyouyo" ("Let's marry") without decent television promotion, though fans of fōku music became very angry because his music seemed to be

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3318-521: The electronic music group "Yellow Magic Band" (later known as Yellow Magic Orchestra) in 1977. In 1978, Eikichi Yazawa 's rock single "Jikan yo Tomare" ("Time, Stop") became a smash hit that sold over 639,000 copies. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of Japanese rock. He sought worldwide success, and in 1980 he signed a contract with the Warner Pioneer record company and moved to the West Coast of

3397-625: The end of New Music and paved the way for the emergence of the J-pop genre in the 1980s. Both bands, SAS and YMO, would later be ranked at the top of HMV Japan 's list of top 100 Japanese musicians of all time. In the early 1980s, with the spread of car stereos , the term city pop ( シティーポップ , shitī poppu ) came to describe a type of popular music that had a big city theme. Tokyo in particular inspired many songs of this form. During this time, music fans and artists in Japan were influenced by album-oriented rock (especially adult contemporary ) and crossover (especially jazz fusion ). City pop

3476-512: The era were the tie-in music from the agency Being and the follow-on, Tetsuya Komuro 's disco music. The period between around 1990 and 1993 was dominated by artists from the Being agency , including B'z , Tube , B.B.Queens , T-Bolan , Zard , Wands , Maki Ohguro , Deen , and Field of View . They were called the Being System ( ビーイング系 , Bīingu kei ) . Many of those artists topped

3555-449: The first Asian group to do so. After TM Network disbanded in 1994, Tetsuya Komuro became a serious song producer. The period between 1994 and 1997 was dominated by dance and techno acts from the "Komuro family" ( 小室ファミリー , Komuro Famirī ) , such as TRF , Ryoko Shinohara , Yuki Uchida , Namie Amuro , Hitomi , Globe , Tomomi Kahala , and Ami Suzuki . In that time, Komuro was responsible for 20 hit songs, each selling more than

3634-468: The first album to sell over 3 million copies in Japan. Mr. Children's 1994 album Atomic Heart established a new record, selling 3.43 million copies on Oricon charts. The duo Chage and Aska, who started recording in late 1979, became very popular during this period. They released a string of consecutive hits throughout the early 1990s; in 1996, they took part in MTV Unplugged , making them

3713-442: The first male artists to have three number-ones within a single year. Subsequent Japanese rock bands were modeled on this band. Guitarist Tak Matsumoto , who supported TM Network's concerts, formed rock duo B'z with singer Koshi Inaba in 1988. In the late 1980s, girl band Princess Princess became a successful pop-rock band. Their singles "Diamonds" and "Sekai de Ichiban Atsui Natsu" ("World's Hottest Summer") were ranked at

3792-569: The first-ever song with Japanese lyrics to be certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The anime song genre became the direct influence of genres such as denpa song and moe song. The following record labels are exclusively for anime song music: This is a list of singers and bands who primarily perform anime songs, including groups created from media mix anime projects. This list does not count singers or bands who release incidental songs for

3871-445: The genre, nor group names that the voice actors are credited under solely for performing the theme songs in the anime they are starring in. This is a list of songwriters who primarily compose and produce anime songs. This list does not count composers who produce incidental releases for the genre. Japanese pop music Japanese rock bands such as Happy End fused the Beatles and Beach Boys -style rock with Japanese music in

3950-483: The genre. The Dull Sword (1917), by Jun'ichi Kōuchi , is regarded as the earliest surviving animated film in Japan. Noburō Ōfuji 's Kuroi Nyago (1929) is the first Japanese animated work to include music. The film includes characters dancing to a prerecorded song, retroactively seen as the prototype of anime songs. Following World War II , the 1950s and 1960s saw a revival in entertainment and cultural development. In 1963, Astro Boy premiered and subsequently,

4029-514: The group's backing dancers later formed SMAP . The late 1980s also saw the rise of the female duo Wink . They did not laugh, unlike Japanese idols of former eras. Wink debuted in 1988, surpassing the popularity of the then-most popular female duo, BaBe . Wink's song " Samishii Nettaigyo " won the grand prix award at the 31st Japan Record Awards in 1989. Popular singer Hibari Misora died in 1989, and many kayōkyoku programs, such as The Best Ten , were closed. CoCo made their hit debut with

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4108-527: The history of the Japanese Oricon chart by staying in the Number One spot for 20 consecutive weeks. The Drifters later came to be known as television personalities and invited idols such as Momoe Yamaguchi and Candies to their television program. The Ventures visited Japan in 1962, causing the widespread embrace of the electric guitar called the " Ereki boom". Yūzō Kayama and Takeshi Terauchi became famous players of electric guitar. In 1966,

4187-439: The indie label Extasy Records in 1988; their album Blue Blood was released on CBS Sony in 1989. Blue Blood sold 712,000 copies, and their 1991 album Jealousy sold over 1.11 million copies. Surprisingly, X Japan were a heavy metal band, but guitarist hide later came under the influence of alternative rock , releasing his first solo album Hide Your Face in 1994 and launching his successful solo career. In

4266-454: The label companies that are part of the group are also subsequently owned by the holding company. It includes indies labels as well. Notes: The B ZONE Group official website has listed in the Japanese alphabetical order its "Music Creators". In June 2001, the company (then named Being) and its subsidiary B+U+M (now merged into Vermillion Records) was found to have failed to declare 840 million yen in income. They were acquitted after

4345-411: The lack of public appearances from the singers, theme songs from the series Mazinger Z , Space Battleship Yamato , and Candy Candy became known to the Japanese public, even outside of fans who watched the shows. At the same time, Mobile Suit Gundam voice actors Toshio Furukawa and Toru Furuya gained a large female fanbase with through Slapstick, a vocal unit consisting of voice actors from

4424-493: The mid-1950s, Jazz kissa ( ジャズ喫茶 , Jazu Kissa, literally "Jazz cafe" ) became a popular venue for live jazz music. Jazz had a large impact on Japanese poppusu , though "authentic" jazz did not become the mainstream genre of music in Japan. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Japanese pop was polarized between urban kayō and modern enka . Modern J-pop is also sometimes believed to have had its roots with Chinese immigrant jazz musicians who had fled Shanghai during

4503-410: The middle part of the first decade of the 21st century, Komuro's debt lead him to attempt the sale of his song catalog—which he did not actually own—to an investor. When the investor found out and sued, Komuro tried to sell the catalog to another investor in order to pay the 600,000,000 Japanese yen judgement he owed the first investor. Namie Amuro , who was arguably the most popular solo singer in

4582-418: The more occidental music over time, music that drew from the traditional Japanese singing style remained popular (such as that of Ringo Shiina ). At first, the term J-pop was used only for Western-style musicians in Japan, such as Pizzicato Five and Flipper's Guitar , just after Japanese radio station J-Wave was established. On the other hand, Mitsuhiro Hidaka of AAA from Avex Trax said that J-pop

4661-449: The number-one and number-two spots, respectively, on the 1989 Oricon Yearly Single Charts. In the late 1980s, a new trend also emerged in Japanese rock music: the visual kei , a movement notable by male bands who wore makeup, extravagant hair styles, and androgynous costumes. The most successful representatives of the movement are X Japan (formerly known as "X") and Buck-Tick . X Japan released their first album Vanishing Vision on

4740-456: The only band in Japanese chart history to achieve this feat. Young fans of their music during this period became known as the "YMO Generation" ( YMO世代 , YMO sedai ) . YMO had a significant impact on Japanese pop music, which started becoming increasingly dominated by electronic music due to their influence, and they had an equally large impact on electronic music across the world. Southern All Stars and Yellow Magic Orchestra symbolized

4819-454: The origins of modern J-pop. The Beatles also inspired Eikichi Yazawa , who grew up in an underprivileged family, his father dying when he was a child. Keisuke Kuwata , who grew up in a dual-income family, was influenced by the Beatles through his older sister, then an avid fan. Yōsui Inoue was also a fan of The Beatles, but he said that his music style was not particularly related to them. After Happy End disbanded in 1973, Haruomi Hosono ,

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4898-459: The period, came from the " Okinawa Actors School ", which also incubated the bands MAX and Speed . At first, while still a part of the Komuro Family, Amuro remained in the dance music genre, but she slowly changed her music style to contemporary R&B and ended her partnership with Tetsuya Komuro. Komuro's band Globe became a trance band after their 2001 album Outernet . The sales in

4977-487: The production of her music. She eventually became the first artist to make 24 consecutive number-one singles, breaking Pink Lady's record. Other female idol singers achieved significant popularity in the 1980s, such as Akina Nakamori , Yukiko Okada , Kyōko Koizumi , Yoko Minamino , Momoko Kikuchi , Yōko Oginome , Miho Nakayama , Minako Honda , and Chisato Moritaka . Okada received the Best New Artist award from

5056-491: The release of " Hare Hare Yukai " in 2006 led to the " Haruhi boom" mainly because of the animated dance sequence in the show's ending. In the following years, there was a substantial increase of voice actors in anime, and anime songs as a whole became more widely known to the general public. The anime song industry shifted to recruit young girls who were able to have an "idol" presence, naming Riisa Naka , Koharu Kusumi , and Aya Hirano as examples. In 2010, Ho-kago Tea Time,

5135-446: The rhythm based on rock or blues. Hide of Greeeen openly described their music genre as J-pop. He said, "I also love rock, hip hop and breakbeats, but my field is consistently J-pop. For example, hip hop musicians learn 'the culture of hip hop' when they begin their career. We are not like those musicians and we love the music as sounds very much. Those professional people may say 'What are you doing?' but I think that our musical style

5214-572: The same name. At a Beatles concert in 1966, they acted as curtain raisers, but the audience generally objected. Eventually, The Drifters became popular in Japan, releasing "Zundoko-Bushi" ("Echoic word tune") in 1969. Along with enka singer Keiko Fuji , they won "the award for mass popularity" at the 12th Japan Record Awards in 1970. Keiko Fuji's 1970 album Shinjuku no Onna/'Enka no Hoshi' Fuji Keiko no Subete ("Woman in Shinjuku/'Star of Enka ' All of Keiko Fuji") established an all-time record in

5293-402: The show meant to its theme songs. While anime theme songs originally used the name and settings from the series of which they were based, this led to the lyrics of anime songs being centered on the characters' thoughts and feelings for more universal appeal and allowing for context outside of the original animated work. At the height of Japan's bubble economy , in the 1980s, musicians outside of

5372-402: The single " Pepper Keibu ". They released a record nine consecutive number-one singles. In the 1980s, Japanese idols inherited New Music, though the term fell out of usage. Seiko Matsuda especially adopted song producers of previous generations. In 1980, her third single "Kaze wa Aki Iro" ("Wind is autumn color") reached the number-one spot on the Oricon charts. Haruomi Hosono also joined

5451-404: The theme song "Theme of Astro Boy" became well-known to the Japanese public due to it being used as the departure song at Takadanobaba Station . The song was also notable due to the lyrics being written by poet Shuntarō Tanikawa . Japan's economic growth in the 1970s led to more cultural development, and people who exclusively sang theme songs for anime were known as "anime song singers." Despite

5530-492: The two-million-copy mark in the 1990s. Kazumasa Oda 's 1991 single "Oh! Yeah!/Love Story wa Totsuzen ni", Chage and Aska 's 1991 single " Say Yes " and 1993 single "Yah Yah Yah", Kome Kome Club 's 1992 single " Kimi ga Iru Dake de ", Mr. Children 's 1994 single " Tomorrow Never Knows " and 1996 single " Namonaki Uta ", and Globe 's 1996 single "Departures" are examples of songs that sold more than 2 million copies. Dreams Come True 's 1992 album The Swinging Star became

5609-478: Was affected by new music, though its origins have been traced back to the mid-1970s, with the work of the Japanese rock band Happy End and its former member Haruomi Hosono , as well as Tatsuro Yamashita . The popularity of city pop plummeted when the Japanese asset price bubble burst in 1990. Its musical characteristics (except its "cultural background") were inherited by 1990s Shibuya-kei musicians such as Pizzicato Five and Flipper's Guitar . Throughout

5688-633: Was commonly called a new music artist, but the concept of Japanese fōku music changed around that time. In 1979, Chage and Aska made their debut, and folk band Off Course (with singer Kazumasa Oda ) released a hit song "Sayonara" ("Good-bye"). Saki Kubota was described as the standard bearer of new music. Rock music remained a relatively underground music genre in the early 1970s in Japan, though Happy End managed to gain mainstream success fusing rock with traditional Japanese music . Several Japanese musicians began experimenting with electronic music , including electronic rock . The most notable

5767-436: Was first defined as a musical category in the 1970s. It later gained popularity from the public when mainstream artists begin releasing songs as tie-ins for anime series. By the 1990s, it became redefined as a separate genre when companies began creating record labels that would exclusively produce anime songs for their series and artists. The increase in voice actors beginning in the mid-2000s led to growing market interest in

5846-1016: Was in part due the " Being Boom  [ ja ] " phenomenon named after Being Inc. , which gained a fanbase after their artists Zard and Maki Ohguro released songs that were well-received by the public. Yoko Takahashi , who was part of the Starchild label, released " A Cruel Angel's Thesis " as the theme song for Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995), and the song's popularity led to audiences outside of anime fans to recognize it. In addition, as popular music from Japan shifted from kayōkyoku to J-pop , anime song singers, such as Masami Okui , began incorporating J-pop sounds into her music. Among others, voice actors such as Hekiru Shiina , Mariko Kouda , and Megumi Hayashibara were also active in singing in addition to voice acting. Some voice actors also formed their own groups and perform theme songs to other anime series, such as Minami Takayama with Two-Mix . As more late-night anime series were being produced in

5925-470: Was not listened to by fans of other music in Japan at that time. In contrast to this, although many Japanese rock musicians until the late 1980s disrespected the kayōkyoku music, many of Japanese rock bands of the 1990s—such as Glay —assimilated kayōkyoku into their music. After the late 1980s, breakbeat and samplers also changed the Japanese music scene, where expert drummers had played good rhythm because traditional Japanese music did not have

6004-672: Was originally derived from the Eurobeat genre. However, the term became a blanket term , covering other music genres—such as the majority of Japanese rock music of the 1990s. In 1990, the Japanese subsidiary of Tower Records defined J-pop as all Japanese music belonging to the Recording Industry Association of Japan except Japanese independent music (which they term "J-indie"); their stores began to use additional classifications, such as J-club, J-punk, J-hip-hop , J-reggae , J-anime , and Visual kei by 2008, after independent musicians started to release works via major labels. Ito Music City,

6083-468: Was the pops ( ポップス , poppusu ) music, memorable for its frequency of airplay, in an interview when the band completed their first full-length studio album under a major label, P.O.A.: Pop on Arrival , in 2005. Because the band did not want to perform J-pop music, their album featured the 1980s Pop of MTV . According to his fellow band member Toru Hidaka, the 1990s music that influenced him (such as Nirvana , Hi-Standard , and Flipper's Guitar )

6162-472: Was the internationally renowned Isao Tomita , whose 1972 album Electric Samurai: Switched on Rock featured electronic synthesizer renditions of contemporary rock and pop songs . Other early examples of electronic rock records include Inoue Yousui 's folk rock and pop rock album Ice World (1973) and Osamu Kitajima 's progressive psychedelic rock album Benzaiten (1974), both of which involved contributions from Haruomi Hosono, who later started

6241-554: Was usually not used in Japanese music, except art music , before rock music became popular in Japan. When the Group Sounds genre, which was inspired by Western rock, became popular, Japanese pop music adopted the major second, which was used in the final sounds of The Beatles' song " I Want to Hold Your Hand " and The Rolling Stones ' song " (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction ". Although Japanese pop music changed from music based on Japanese pentatonic scale and distortional tetrachord to

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