Japanese Music
Music in Japanese is Ongaku which literally mean "Enjoy Sound". One of the oldest traditional Japanese music is said to be Gagaku. Gagaku is a classical Japanese music played at the Imperial Court. Gagaku was usually played together with dancers who wore traditional Japanese Kimono type of costume. Gagaku has no upbeat and very calm music that heals people's mind or make you sleep well. (- -) In recent years, Japanese Hip Hops known as J-Pop has increasingly dominated modern Japanese music scene. Many Japanese youngsters enjoy singing J-Pops which is relatively easy to sing compared to Hard Rocks or Enka at Karaoke venues and downloading it to their mobile that plays their favorite J-Pop music when someone calls or e-mails their mobiles.
Enka
Enka literally means "Performance Song". Enka is one of the Japanese music genre and it is popular particularly among old generation. Enka is often played in traditional Japanese musical instruments such as Shamisen, a traditional Japanese guitar. Enka's theme is often about overcoming difficulties in life. For instance,women Enka singer sings about her impermissible love toward someone who is happily married. Most women Enka signers wears Kimono and most male Enka singers wear formal dress and some wear Kimono to perform their passionate feeling of their songs.
Although Enka has been popular mostly among old generation, but young generation became more interested in Enka due to an emerge of young Enka star such as Kiyoshi Hikawa and Jero. Kiyoshi Hikawa won the Japan Record Award, the biggest music award in Japan, with his big hit song "Ikken" in 2006. Jero is an African American Enka singer who made a debut in 2008 and he quickly became popular for his Japanese like performance and his hip hop street fashion which is very unique for Enka singers.
Rock
In the midst of rapid economic growth and more interactions with western society, rock music became popular specially among young generation in Japan in 1960's. Major group sounds bands such as the Tigers and The Spiders attracted many dedicated women fans. In 1970's, rock music became one of the major music genre in terms of sales helped by super popular bands like Carol, starred by Eikichi Yawaza who is a legendary vocal. In 1980's, several rock bands emphasized their visual fashion with distinctive fashion and make ups similar to America band, Kiss. They are categorized as "Visual Kei" and bands like X-Japan and L'Arc-en-Ciel became very popular.
J-Pops
In 1990's, the term J-Pops began to be used widely to describe popular Japanese songs. In early 1990's, J-Pops singers such as B'z produced mega hit songs selling millions of CDs. B'z continues to breaking their own record of consecutive No.1 singles in Oricon music chart in Japan. Other pioneers of J-Pops boom in early 1990's are Zard, Mr, Children, Dream Comes True and Masaharu Fukuyama.
In mid 1990's, so-called Komuro family singers dominated Japanese music scene. Testuya Komuro who used to be a part of popular rock band, TM Network became a music producer and generated mega hit musicians like Namie Amuro, Ryoko Shinohara, TRF and Globe. The J-Pops peak in 1990's came at the peak when Hikaru Utada released her first album called "First Love" which sold more than 7 millions copies in 1999. Today it is still the best selling record in Japanese music history. First Love is very romantic song and I tend to fall in love with anyone who can sing this song very well at Karaoke.
