Happy End was a Japanese folk rock band active from 1969 to 1972. Composed of Haruomi Hosono, Takashi Matsumoto, Eiichi Ohtaki and Shigeru Suzuki, the band's pioneering sound was regarded as avant-garde to most Japanese at the time. They are considered to be among the most influential artists in Japanese music, with Mikiki crediting them with laying the foundation for Japanese rock. MTV described Happy End's music as "rock with psych smudges around the edges."
Haruomi Hosono, sometimes credited as Harry Hosono, is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is considered to be one of the most influential musicians in Japanese pop music history, credited with shaping the sound of Japanese pop for decades as well as pop music outside of Japan. He also inspired genres such as city pop and Shibuya-kei, and as the leader of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, contributed to the development and pioneering of numerous electronic genres.
Jun Matsumoto, often called by the portmanteau nickname MatsuJun (松潤), is a Japanese singer, actor, radio host, and model. He is a member of the boy band Arashi, and is Arashi's concert producer as well as production advisor for other groups. He is best known to Japanese television drama audiences for his portrayal as Dōmyōji Tsukasa in the Hana Yori Dango series, for which he won GQ Japan's Man of the Year Award under the singer/actor category for his work in the drama.
Takashi Matsumoto is a Japanese lyricist and former musician. After several years playing the drums in the rock bands Apryl Fool and Happy End during the late 1960s and early 1970s, Matsumoto decided to focus on writing lyrics for others in 1974. As of 2015, he had written over 2,100 songs, 130 of which entered the top 10 on the Oricon chart. Total sales of the singles he has written exceed 49.8 million copies, making him the third best-selling lyricist in Japan. In 2017, he was awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon from the Japanese government for his work in music.
Airi Suzuki is a Japanese singer, actress, model, and radio personality associated with Up-Front Works. In 2002, she joined Hello! Project as a member of Hello! Project Kids and later debuted as the lead vocalist of the Japanese idol girl group Cute in 2005. Throughout her singing career, Suzuki also became a vocalist for the girl group Buono! From June 2015 onwards, she became an exclusive model for the fashion magazine Ray.
Ami Suzuki is a Japanese recording artist, DJ, and actress from Zama, Kanagawa, Japan. Having been discovered at the talent TV show Asayan, she was one of the most popular female teen idols in the late 1990s. However, in 2000, Suzuki faced legal problems with her management company resulting in a controversial blacklisting from the entertainment industry. Suzuki attempted to resurrect her career under her own steam with two indie singles before signing to Avex Trax in 2005. She released "Delightful", a dance song that reached No. 3 on the Japanese Oricon charts with a style similar to electronic club music, significantly different from her pop idol days. Since her appearance in the 2006 film Rainbow Song, Suzuki has gradually made a name for herself in the acting field, starring in various movies, television series, and musicals.
Toshiko Mariano and Her Big Band is a jazz album recorded in Tokyo by Toshiko Akiyoshi in July 1964 and released in the US on the Vee-Jay Records label. It was also released on the Nippon Columbia label in Japan under the title, Toshiko and Modern Jazz. In addition to the 4 big band arrangements featuring a full 16 piece jazz orchestra, there are also three smaller combo tracks on this album.
Takashi Higuchi, known exclusively by his stage name Toll Yagami, is a Japanese musician, best known as the drummer of the rock band Buck-Tick since 1985. He is the older brother of Yutaka Higuchi, Buck-Tick's bassist.
Kazemachi Roman is the second album by Japanese folk rock band Happy End, released on URC Records in 1971. In this concept album, Happy End attempted to paint a musical picture of Tokyo before the 1964 Summer Olympics, through which sweeping changes transformed the city forever.
Motoharu Sano, is a Japanese singer-songwriter and musician. A graduate of Rikkyo University, Sano is a frontman with a history of performing in several bands which feature music both in Japanese and occasionally, English, playing songs that often have a rock and roll sound to them. In 2007, Rolling Stone Japan ranked his album Someday number 11 on a list of the greatest Japanese rock albums of all time.
Happy End is the self-titled debut album by Japanese folk rock band Happy End. Because their third album is also self-titled, although written in English, this first album is also known by the name Yudemen (ゆでめん) after the sign depicted in the cover art.
A Long Vacation is an album by Japanese musician Eiichi Ohtaki, released on March 21, 1981. It sold over a million copies and won Best Album at the 23rd Japan Record Awards. It has been called one of the greatest Japanese rock albums of all time, including by Rolling Stone Japan.
Beautiful World is the tenth studio album of the Japanese boy band Arashi. The album was released on July 6, 2011, in Japan under their record label J Storm in two editions: a limited edition version with a 48-page booklet and a regular CD version with a 32-page booklet. The album debuted at number-one on the Oricon weekly album chart, selling 631,000 copies, making it their third consecutive album to reach sales of more than half a million copies. As of December 2011, the album has sold more than a million copies. According to Oricon, Beautiful World is the best-selling album of 2011 in Japan. It was released digitally on February 7, 2020.
Happy End is the third and final album by Japanese folk rock band Happy End. It was recorded in Los Angeles, produced by Van Dyke Parks and features several American session musicians such as Lowell George and Bill Payne of the band Little Feat.
Shigeru Suzuki is a Japanese musician, songwriter and guitarist. He first became known as a member of the influential rock band Happy End in the early 1970s, before starting a solo career and becoming a prolific session musician. As of 2006, Suzuki had contributed to 588 recordings. In 2019, Suzuki's high school band Skye reunited and released their first album.
Hi Izuru Tokoro, also known as Sunny, is the fifth studio album by Japanese musician Ringo Sheena released on November 5, 2014 by Universal Music Japan sublabel Virgin Records. It is a compilation studio album compiling singles released since 2009 as well as new compositions.
The year 2015 in Japanese music.
Glim Spanky is a Japanese rock band from Nagano Prefecture, consisting of vocalist and rhythm guitarist Remi Matsuo and lead guitarist Hiroki Kamemoto. Originally formed by Matsuo as a quartet for a high school festival in 2007, the group became a duo when they moved to Tokyo to pursue music professionally in February 2010. Glim Spanky signed to Virgin Music in 2014, and released their first full-length album, Sunrise Journey, the following year. They have since released six studio albums, with 2017's Bizarre Carnival being their highest-charting to date.
Kazuyoshi Saito is a Japanese singer-songwriter. Making his professional debut in 1993, Saito's popularity exploded in 2007 after 15 years in the music industry. He is also one-half of the rock duo Mannish Boys with Tatsuya Nakamura and a member of the supergroup the Curling Sitones. In 2013, Saito became the first Japanese musician to have a signature model acoustic guitar with Gibson. As of 2020, he had six signature models with them and one with Epiphone.
Takashi Masuzaki, is a Japanese guitarist, composer and arranger under Being Inc. agency and member of the fusion band DIMENSION. He is a former member of the pop group B.B.Queens and Bluew.
