Cowboy Bebop is a 1998 Japanese anime television series animated by Sunrise featuring a production team led by director Shinichirō Watanabe, screenwriter Keiko Nobumoto, character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto, mechanical designer Kimitoshi Yamane, and composer Yoko Kanno.The twenty-six episodes ("sessions") of the series are set in the year 2071, and follow the lives of a bounty hunter crew traveling in their spaceship called the Bebop. Although it covers a wide range of genres throughout its run, Cowboy Bebop draws most heavily from western and noir films, and its most recurring thematic focal points include adult existential ennui, loneliness and the difficulties of trying to escape one's past.
Jamiroquai are an English funk and acid jazz band from London, formed in 1992. Fronted by singer-songwriter Jay Kay, the band rose to international fame in the 1990s as one of the most prominent components in the London-based funk/acid jazz movement. They are best known for the song "Canned Heat" (1999), featured in Napoleon Dynamite, and for the iconic music video for the 1996 single "Virtual Insanity".
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, known in Japan as Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door, is a 2001 Japanese animated science fiction film based on the 1998 anime series Cowboy Bebop created by Hajime Yatate. Multiple staff from the original series worked on the film, including director Shinichirō Watanabe, writer Keiko Nobumoto, character designer/animation director Toshihiro Kawamoto, and composer Yoko Kanno. The original Japanese and English voice cast also reprised their roles.
Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann Music Group. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music Entertainment, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout of the remaining 50% held by Bertelsmann AG. BMG was instead rebuilt as BMG Rights Management on the basis of 200 remaining artists.
Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is a multinational video game and digital entertainment company that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the central hub for Sony's American businesses.
Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American global music conglomerate owned by Sony and incorporated as a general partnership of Sony Music Holdings Inc. through Sony Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, which in turn is a subsidiary of the Japanese Sony Corporation. It was originally founded in 1929 as American Record Corporation and renamed as Columbia Recording Corporation in 1938, following its acquisition by the Columbia Broadcasting System. In 1966, the company was reorganized to become CBS Records, and Sony Corporation bought the company in 1988, renaming it under its current name in 1991. In 2004, Sony and Bertelsmann established a 50-50 joint venture known as Sony BMG Music Entertainment, which transferred the businesses of Sony Music and Bertelsmann Music Group into one entity. However, in 2008, Sony acquired Bertelsmann's stake, and the company reverted to the SME name shortly after; the buyout allowed Sony to acquire all of BMG's labels, and led to the dissolution of BMG, which instead relaunched as BMG Rights Management.
Tomoyasu Hotei, also known simply as Hotei is a Japanese musician, singer-songwriter, composer, record producer and actor. With a career spanning more than 35 years, Hotei claims record sales of over 40 million copies and has collaborated with acclaimed artists from around the world. Hotei first rose to prominence in the 1980s as the guitarist for Boøwy, one of Japan's most popular rock bands, before starting a solo career.
The Return of the Space Cowboy is the second album by British funk/acid jazz band Jamiroquai. The album was released on 17 October 1994 in the United Kingdom under Sony Soho Square and on 9 May 1995 under Work Group in the United States.
Crystal Kay Williams is a Japanese singer, songwriter, actress and radio host.
Avex Inc. is an entertainment conglomerate led by founder Max Matsuura and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Avex manages J-pop talents like Ayumi Hamasaki and internet sensation PikoTaro. It has also shifted into other business domains like anime, video games and live music events like partnering with Ultra Music Festival and hosting the annual A-nation.
Puffy or Puffy AmiYumi, are a Japanese pop rock band formerly signed to Sony Music Japan under Epic Records and Ki/oon Music, later transferred to Warner Music Japan in 2015. The group continues to go by the moniker of PUFFY in Japan, but in order to avoid legal naming conflicts with Sean Combs, have adopted the name Puffy AmiYumi in the United States. They sing in Japanese and English.
The Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969.
Michiko Sellars, known by her stage name MiChi, is a Japanese British pop singer who began her career as an independent artist, but later signed to Sony Music Entertainment.
Heartbreaker is the debut album of South Korean singer-songwriter and rapper G-Dragon, member of Big Bang. The chart-topping single "Heartbreaker", became one of the best selling singles in South Korea of all time, having sold over 4 million copies since its release. The album is the best-selling by a South Korean solo artist since its release.
Digital Rock is the third studio album by French-English musician Space Cowboy. It was released digitally on 31 July 2006 in Japan and physically on 29 January 2007 in the United Kingdom by Tiger Trax Records.
Risa Oribe, better known by her stage name LiSA, is a Japanese singer, songwriter and lyricist from Seki, Gifu, signed to Aniplex under Sony Music Artists. After aspiring to become a musician early in life, she started her musical career as the vocalist of the indie band Chucky. Following Chucky's disbandment in 2005, LiSA moved to Tokyo in order to pursue a solo career, making her major debut in 2010 singing songs for the anime television series Angel Beats! as one of two vocalists for the fictional band Girls Dead Monster. In April 2011, she made her solo debut with the release of her mini-album Letters to U. She performed at Animelo Summer Live in August 2010, Anime Expo in 2012, and is a regular guest at Anime Festival Asia.
Space Cowboy is a French disc jockey. He has released four studio album, two extended plays, five singles, and one music video.
Winner (Hangul: 위너), stylized as WINNER, is a South Korean boy band formed in 2013 by YG Entertainment and debuted in 2014. It currently consists of four members, Jinwoo, Seunghoon, Mino and Seungyoon. A fifth original member, Taehyun, departed from the group in November 2016.
iKon (Hangul: 아이콘), stylized as iKON, is a South Korean boy band formed in 2015 by YG Entertainment. The group was first introduced in the reality survival program WIN: Who is Next as "Team B". After that, Team B went on to appear in the 2014 reality survival program Mix & Match, which determined the final seven-member lineup of iKon: B.I, Bobby, Jinhwan, Ju-ne, Yunhyeong, Donghyuk and Chanwoo.
