I will never stop spreading the good word of Oomori Seiko. She fuses Punk, Folk, and Idol J-Pop into a wonderful bizarre mess. Most of her albums are distinct from one another, but my favorite is Tokarefu as its basically a grunge album. Her lyrics are intense and dense. My understanding is extremely rough but I’d say they’re often about womanhood and femininity, and how to carve out her own version of femininity of her own, while being extremely aware of the crushing weight of society’s expectations and demands. I love her with all my heart. May be some sort of cult leader for idol-models???
Otoboke Beaver is a wonderful punk band who named themselves after a love hotel near their school. Short, fun, energetic songs. Also (rightfully) angry about women’s issues.
Wednesday Campanella, or Suiyōbi no Kampanera, is an eclectic . . . hip hop? EDM? J-Pop? group. They have a super unique sound. They recently got a different vocalist and I feel like their sound has shifted more towards being “normal”, but is still good. KOM_I is the on most of the tracks. Check out their music videos, they’re really fun and creative.
Kinoco Hotel is another all-girl rockband who has a sound, feel, and style of a 70s b-grade exploitation film, but not in a gross or upsetting way.
Perfume is a j-pop group that is never ending GOAT. Absolutely unbeatable. They’re produced by Yasutaka Nakata, the man who produces pretty much everyone else in J-pop, notably including Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. Yasutaka Nakata is also one half of the long-lasting duo CAPSULE, whose sound has changed many times in its history. Started as sorta jazzy loungish sound, turned to EDM, and apparently is on an 80s kick right now.
DEMPA Gumi Inc. is likely the most well known dempa j-pop and has super high energy, fun, songs. Beware: here we enter the land of the mega-otaku. I really like them but will not admit it to most normie Japanese. Otaku might be a generally positive term on the internet in the west but it still, as far as I can tell, is generally not a good thing to be in Japan. Think of how nerds were viewed in the early 2000s, before consumer-capitalism realized that nerds bought anything you put in front of them and made it the default position and superhero movies became the biggest thing of all time, and you’ll get the idea.
CY8ER is a j-pop group that was founded by long time idol Ichigo Rinahamu but was recently disbanded, but I absolutely absolutely love them. I remember her describing a version of kawaii that was “Kawaii with a drop of poison”, which I thought was “yume-kawaii” but I may be mistaken. Moe, pastels, soft, but also with hint of danger and sickness and despair. Also good music videos. Some of their songs represent the event-horizon of moe, beyond which I cannot stomach anything more.
Tricot is a good math rock group. Not much to say about them, but I do like them.
Shisamo is another light rock group. Again, not much to say, but they’re worth checking out.
Polysics is a wonderful new wave group that have been around forever. Absolutely frantic energy, nearly feral in concert. Often reductively called Japanese Devo
I don’t know what I would describe Mass of Fermenting Dregs as (shoegaze?), I think they’re the type that changes sound frequently, but I really like their EP World Is Yours.
Seconding Daoko. She’s great J-pop.
Sheena Ringo is incredible, an absolute power house that will cave your skull in. GOAT. Her nurse outfit in an early music video inspired Haruko from FLCL’s nurse outfit. Again, hard to describe her sound. I believe shes well known and respected in Japan, and her influence is all over the place.
Yunomi is another yume-kawaii moe producer / group / singer / something. Dunno. I believe its a guy making tracks and getting various moe vocalists to sing the lyrics, but it could be a whole group. Good EDM.
Ningen Isu is a heavy metal band formed in 1987 that does classic style heavy metal. They’re still active and are now just three old dude metal heads absolutely shredding, singing songs about like, mystical gods in heaven above and the colors from space. From wikipedia: " The band often writes about Japanese classical literature . . . They often take up topics such as hell, Buddhism, the universe, samurai and gambling. Cool old dudes, something to aspire to.
Band Ja Nai Mon! is another ultra kawaii dempa group (i’d say) who are a bit much for my taste, but they have a song called Sakepparadaishu about loving booze and getting wasted and it speaks deeply to my heart and life in Tokyo.
I think Moe Shop is a western producer but he often works with Japanese groups and makes good music. The EP Moe Moe is one of my favorites, always feel good listening to it.
The original V-Tuber, Kizuna AI, has a music career and has some fun songs.
I know nothing about it other than the existence of an album called Yume no Kissaten, but I think theres a music composer named Mitsukiyo that seems like they’re doing some fun things. Yume no Kissaten is like the soundtrack to a cheerful Anime Coffee shop. Its on spotify, and makes for nice background music.
Also, the Yuru Camp OST is absolutely beautiful, and has a wonderful feeling of peace and serenity to it.
Tofu Beats is a producer who has been around a lot and worked with lots of people. Mostly EDM, worth checking out.
Oh, also Dexied The Emons. Don’t know a lot about them but if you want a 70s feel they have it in spades, although I believe they’re from the 90s.
