Arashi is a Japanese boy band consisting of five members formed under the Johnny & Associates talent agency. The members are Satoshi Ohno, Sho Sakurai, Masaki Aiba, Kazunari Ninomiya, and Jun Matsumoto. Arashi officially formed on September 15, 1999, in Honolulu, Hawaii, and made their debut CD on November 3, 1999. The group was initially signed to Pony Canyon and released one studio album and six singles—beginning with their 1999 eponymous debut single before moving to the Johnny's subsidiary label J Storm in 2001, which was initially set up for their succeeding releases. While their debut single sold close to a million copies, the group took a mixture of pop and alternate/contemporary approach to its music which attracted core followers, but subsequently faced commercially slow sales.
Asian Kung-Fu Generation is a Japanese alternative rock band formed in Yokohama in 1996. For its entire career, the band has consisted of vocalist Masafumi Gotoh, guitarist Kensuke Kita, bassist Takahiro Yamada, and drummer Kiyoshi Ijichi. Starting out as a college band, Asian Kung-Fu Generation released a series of independent EPs featuring lyrics mostly sung in English. In 2002, they released their major-label EP debut Hōkai Amplifier, from that point singing their lyrics in Japanese. The band's musical style is influenced by seminal Western alternative rock acts as well as their own local Japanese indie-rock and punk scene. Their songs incorporate various aspects of the genres, most typically expressing fast tempos and prominent power chord guitar riffs in addition to rhythmic groove and emotional lyrics. Despite the indie nature of their music, the band has enjoyed worldwide commercial success in addition to critical acclaim. Asian Kung-Fu Generation has been cited as one of the best, most balanced modern rock bands to emerge from Japan in the 2000s.
Chihiro Onitsuka is a Japanese singer-songwriter.
Kumiko Kōda, known professionally as Koda Kumi, is a Japanese singer from Kyoto, known for her urban and R&B songs.
D'espairsRay was a Japanese visual kei rock band active from 1999 to 2011. The lineup of Hizumi on vocals, Karyu on guitar, Zero on bass and Tsukasa on drums remained the same, with the group having released four full-length records, three EPs and thirteen singles. Outside Japan, D'espairsRay have toured Europe and North America and had domestic releases in those territories.
Orange Range are a 5-member Japanese rock band, based in Okinawa, Japan. Formed in 2001, the band began with Spice Music and later signed with Sony Music Japan's gr8! records division in 2003. The band left gr8! records in 2010 to start their own label, Super Echo. In 2012, they signed with Victor Entertainment's Speedstar Records label.
Ai Otsuka is a Japanese singer-songwriter from Suminoe-ku, Osaka, Japan. She is a popular artist on the Avex Trax label and is best known for her 2003 hit "Sakuranbo", which stayed in the Top 200 Oricon Weekly Singles Chart for 103 weeks.
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.
Yui, stylized as YUI or yui, is a Japanese singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. In her solo career, she sold more than 5 million physical copies in Japan. She is popular in Japan and in surrounding countries, ranking number one in 2011 Count Down TV "Dearest Female Artist" and Music Station "Artist You Most Want to Marry" polls, as well as Radio Television Hong Kong's "Most Popular Japanese Artist".
The Gazette, formerly known as Gazette, is a Japanese visual kei rock band, formed in Kanagawa in early 2002. The band is currently signed to Sony Music Records.
Affection is the debut studio album by Japanese pop and R&B singer Koda Kumi. It was released on March 27, 2002. It has been her only album to not chart in the Top 10, debuting at No. 12 on Oricon and staying on the charts for six weeks, making it her lowest-charting studio album. During its run, it had only sold 91,360 copies. The limited editions of the album contained remixes for "Take Back" and "Trust Your Love", which had previously been released on her North American release of the singles.
Uverworld is a Japanese rock band consisting of six members and originating from Kusatsu, Shiga. They have released eleven studio albums and over thirty singles and have sold over three million records worldwide.
Flumpool are a Japanese rock band. The band, originally from Osaka Prefecture, was formed in January 2007. The band's name is a portmanteau of the words four, lump, and pool. Thus, the name could be interpreted to mean "collective mass of four" or a "quartet".
CNBLUE is a South Korean pop rock band formed in 2009. The band consists of Jung Yong-hwa, Kang Min-hyuk (drums), and Lee Jung-shin (bass). First bassist Kwon Kwang-jin left the band after they released their debut Japanese extended play Now or Never in 2009, and was replaced by Lee Jung-shin. Lee Jong-hyun left the band on August 28, 2019.
Vivid was a five-member Japanese visual kei rock band from Tokyo. The band was formed in March 2009 and is currently signed with Sony Music Japan's Epic Records Japan label. Vivid had announced on Jan 28, 2015, that they will be disbanding after the last stop of their final tour in April.
The discography of Japanese R&B singer Toshinobu Kubota consists of nineteen studio albums, ten compilation albums, two tribute albums, and over seventy singles. In 1985, Kubota signed with Sony Japan and began producing and writing songs for many of label's singers and groups. Under the label, Kubota released his first single, "Shitsui no Downtown" in June 1986, followed by "Time Shower ni Utarete" in December. Both songs were well received by radio, placing fifty-three and thirty-five on the Oricon Singles Chart. In September 1986, his debut album, Shake It Paradise, peaked at number twenty-two and remained on the Oricon Albums Chart for seven consecutive weeks. Shake It Paradise became certified million. The following year in 1987, Kubota's second studio album, Groovin', debuted at number thirty-three and was certified million. In February 1988, Kubota released "You Were Mine", which debuted at number two. In September 1988, Kubota released his third album, Such A Funky Thang!. The album peaked at number one and was certified million. The album also spawned the top-charted single "Dance If You Want It", which peaked at number three. In 1989, Kubota released his compilation album, The Baddest. The album also peaked at number one and was certified million.
Babymetal is the debut studio album by Japanese heavy metal idol group Babymetal. It was first released on February 26, 2014, in Japan through BMD Fox Records, and was re-released on May 29, 2015, in Europe through earMusic, and June 16, 2015, in the United States through RED Associated Labels (RAL) and Sony Music Entertainment. Music from the album dates back to the origins of the band in 2010, and incorporates tracks from their earliest released singles, back when the band was a sub-unit of the Japanese idol group Sakura Gakuin.
The Best is the first Japanese compilation album by South Korean girl group Girls' Generation. It was released on July 23, 2014, in Japan through EMI Records Japan. The album was released in three different editions, regular and two limited, with the latter containing a DVD or Blu-ray, an extra CD and a photobook. The album originally contains all of the group's previous Japanese singles, while including a previously unreleased Japanese version of "Mr.Mr." and an original track, titled "Indestructible".
Dogma is the eighth studio album by Japanese visual kei rock band the Gazette, released on August 26, 2015, in Japan and September 4, 2015, in the US by Sony Music and October 2, 2015, in the UK, Europe and Russia by JPU Records.
Mass is the tenth studio album by Japanese visual kei rock band the GazettE, which saw release on May 26, 2021, in the US and Japan by Sony Music Records and in the UK, Europe and Russia by JPU Records. Before the album was released, the single "Blinding Hope" was released on March 10, 2021.
