In Japan, music includes a wide array of distinct genres, both traditional and modern. The word for "music" in Japanese is 音楽 (ongaku), combining the kanji 音 on (sound) with the kanji 楽 gaku. Japan is the world's largest market for music on physical media and the second-largest overall music market, with a retail value of US$2.7 billion in 2017.
Glay is a Japanese rock band formed in Hakodate in 1988. The core four members, vocalist Teru, guitarists Takuro and Hisashi, and bassist Jiro, have been together since 1992. Primarily composing songs in the rock and pop genres, they have also arranged songs using elements from a variety of other genres, including progressive rock, punk, gothic rock, electronic, R&B, folk, gospel, reggae, and ska. Originally a visual kei band, the group slowly shifted to less dramatic attire through the years. With five million copies sold, Glay's 1997 compilation album Review is the fifth best-selling album of all time in Japan. Their July 1999 concert "Expo '99" at Makuhari Messe was attended by 200,000 people, making it the largest-ticketed concert ever held by a single act at the time. As of 2008, Glay had sold an estimated 51 million records; 28 million singles and 23 million albums, making them one of the top ten best-selling artists of all time in Japan.
Gilles Jérôme Moehrle MBE, better known as Gilles Peterson, is a French broadcaster, DJ, and record label owner. He founded the influential labels Acid Jazz and Talkin' Loud, and started his current label Brownswood Recordings in 2006. He was awarded an honorary MBE in 2004, the AIM Award for Indie Champion and the Mixmag Award for Outstanding Contribution To Dance Music in 2013, the PRS for Music Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music Radio in 2014, and The A&R Award from the Music Producers Guild in 2019.
Gerald Rydel Simpson, better known as A Guy Called Gerald, is a British record producer and musician. He was an early member of the electronic group 808 State, contributing to their debut LP Newbuild (1988) and hit single "Pacific State" (1989). He also achieved solo success with his 1988 hit single "Voodoo Ray", which became a touchstone of Manchester's acid house scene and reached No. 12 in the UK charts. He embraced breakbeat production in the 1990s, with his 1995 album Black Secret Technology becoming a "much-touted candidate for 'best jungle album ever.'" He also ran the London-based independent record label Juice Box Records from 1991 to 1998.
Shibuya-kei is a microgenre of pop music or a general aesthetic that flourished in Japan in the mid-to-late 1990s. The music genre is distinguished by a "cut-and-paste" approach that was inspired by the kitsch, fusion, and artifice from certain music styles of the past. The most common reference points were 1960s culture and Western pop music, especially the work of Burt Bacharach, Brian Wilson, Phil Spector, and Serge Gainsbourg.
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is a brass band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The ensemble was established in 1977, by Benny Jones and members of the Tornado Brass Band. The Dirty Dozen incorporated funk and bebop into the traditional New Orleans jazz style, and since has been a major influence on local music. They won the Grammy Award for Best American Roots Performance in 2023.
John Maurice Hartman was an American jazz singer, known for his rich baritone voice and recordings of ballads. He sang and recorded with Earl Hines' and Dizzy Gillespie's big bands and with Erroll Garner. Hartman is best remembered for his collaboration in 1963 with saxophonist John Coltrane, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, a landmark album for both him and Coltrane.
Soil & "Pimp" Sessions is a Japanese club jazz sextet who formed in Tokyo, Japan, in 2001. They are known for their energetic live performances, having coined the term "death jazz" to describe their music.
Japanese jazz is jazz played by Japanese musicians, jazz connected to Japan or Japanese culture, or both. The term often refers to the history of jazz in Japan, which has the largest proportion of jazz fans in the world, according to some estimates. Jazz was first introduced in Japan in the 1910s through transpacific ocean liners, where Filipino musicians took influences from jazz, with the Philippines being an American colony at the time. Following the music recording industry's rise in the 1920s, the lyrics of popular jazz records like "The Sheik of Araby" and "My Blue Heaven" were translated into Japanese. Jazz was associated with native counterparts to flappers and dandies in Japan, often being played in dance halls. Although considered "enemy music" in Japan during World War II, due to its American roots, the genre was far too popular for the complete ban of the music to be viable, and many disobeyed the state mandated destruction of jazz records. Following the surrender of Japan in the second World War, there was a large demand for entertainment for American troops, and jazz was particularly popular. By the 1970s, the Japanese economic miracle paved way for Japanese jazz musicians to achieve international fame, along with new musical genres such as city pop, kankyō ongaku, and japanese folk music. Japanese jazz musicians also began to evolve past Blue Note mimicry, and instead experimented with free jazz, fusion funk, and bebop, among others. This furthered the distinct sound of Japanese jazz. During the 1980s, digital music technology began to influence the Japanese jazz scene.
Music in Omaha, Nebraska, has been a diverse and important influence in the culture of the city. Long a home to jazz, blues, funk and rock, today Omaha has dozens of subgenres represented, including Latin, alternative rock and hip hop. Omaha's historical music contributions include being the home of a thriving African American music scene from the 1920s. More recently, it is home to indie rock's "Omaha Sound" and the birthplace of one of pop music's most successful producers, Terry Lewis.
Nik Weston is a DJ, music producer, record label owner of Mukatsuku Records and music buyer for Juno Records. Based out of London, UK, he was from the late 1990s to 2007 a key player in the promotion and distribution of Japanese recording artists and their releases outside of the country, as part of the late 1990s into 2000s revival in the jazz dance, soul-jazz and electronic Japanese music scene. He is a keen advocate of the vinyl record format.
Mark de Clive-Lowe is an American-based Japanese-New Zealand DJ, musician, composer and producer raised in Auckland and now based in Los Angeles, California.
B ZONE Incorporated, formerly known as Being Incorporated, is a Japanese private entertainment conglomerate and recording label based in Tokyo's Roppongi district, founded on November 1, 1978 by music producer Daiko Nagato. The company and its subsidiaries are the main supplier of theme music for the anime series Detective Conan. As of May 2023, over 130 theme songs have been supplied to the anime television series and movies by the B ZONE Group. On 4 April 2023, Being changed company name to B Zone.
Emi Meyer is an American jazz pianist and singer-songwriter who is based in Seattle and Tokyo and active in both the Japanese and American markets.
Rasmus Peter Faber is a Swedish pianist, DJ, remixer, composer, record producer, sound engineer, and founder of the record label Farplane Records. He is notable in the electronic dance music genre, and performs solo as a DJ and pianist, and live with his band the RaFa Orchestra. Over the last decade Rasmus has become better known as a composer of music for anime, computer games, advertising and virtual reality worlds.
Scott Murphy is an American musician and singer-songwriter. He is best known for his work as bassist, vocalist, and songwriter in the pop punk band Allister, as well as his solo work released through Universal Music, and his collaboration with Weezer frontman and vocalist Rivers Cuomo through the name Scott & Rivers. Scott is also currently bassist/ vocalist for the Japanese band MONOEYES.
City pop is a loosely defined form of Japanese pop music that emerged in the late 1970s and peaked in popularity during the 1980s. It was originally termed as an offshoot of Japan's Western-influenced "new music", but came to include a wide range of styles – including funk, disco, R&B, AOR, soft rock, and boogie – that were associated with the country's nascent economic boom and leisure class. It was also identified with new technologies such as the Walkman, cars with built-in cassette decks and FM stereos, and various electronic musical instruments.
Clockhammer was an alternative metal group from Nashville, Tennessee, active during the late 1980s through mid 1990s, once described as "a cross between Frank Sabbath and Black Sinatra."
Winterplay (Korean: 윈터플레이) is a pop-jazz artist from South Korea currently consisting of one member: Juhan Lee as producer, songwriter and trumpet player. Winterplay debuted in 2007 and has 4 full albums out, with the last album titled, “Jazz Cookin’” 2019 (https://vibe.naver.com/album/2903136). Juhan created the project in November 2007 and by 2008, Juhan succeeded signing an International distribution deal with Universal Music Japan for worldwide distribution. Winterplay has not only earned attention from Korea, but also creating waves in Japan and rest of the world as a first leader of "Jazz Hallyu". Debuting in 2007, Juhan Lee is a producer, songwriter and trumpet player. His latest jazz ballad, “Gganbu ” was inspired by Netflix Drama “Squid Games” featuring the Korean instrument, Haegum. Winterplay was the Music Show Runner for International Jazz Day 2022, which was funded by the City of Seoul, and produced by Loudpigs Music, where he also served as the music producer. In the 90 mins show, Winterplay hosted the show, performed under the band he formed for the International Jazz Day 2022 occasion and directed over 30 jazz musicians in 4 venues in Seoul.
Since the mid-2000s, a counterculture has taken place where numerous netlabels, online labels that release their music for free, located in Japan have been formed and garnered a huge amount of publicity which, according to writer Patrick St. Michel, has shaped how popular Japanese music is produced. Japan's netlabel phenomenon was the first time in the history of the nation's music industry where underground musicians could produce their works however they wanted to and have their music noticed by the public; this is an aspect that was previously absent at a time when major labels in the country followed a conservative method where they managed how artists would produce their music. Starting in the 2010s, the netlabel scene has crossed over to the mainstream music landscape and all across the world, with netlabel producers transitioning into working for bigger labels and western producers like Cashmere Cat and Ryan Hemsworth being influenced by the music of Japanese netlabels.
