Utada Hikaru , who has also gone by Hikaru Utada and the mononym Utada, is a Japanese-American singer-songwriter and producer. Born in the United States to Japanese parents, record producer Utada Teruzane and enka singer Keiko Fuji, Utada began to write music and lyrics at an early age and often traveled to Tokyo, as a result of her father's job. Eventually, a recording contract with Toshiba-EMI was signed and, under the stage name "Cubic U", Utada released her English-language début album Precious in early 1998, but was a commercial failure. In the following year, heavily influenced by R&B and dance-pop, her Japanese-language début First Love was released and became an instant success. Backed by the massive success of singles "Automatic", "Time Will Tell" and "Movin' On Without You", the album sold two million copies in its first week in Japan, topped the Oricon charts for six non-consecutive weeks and went on to sell six million more throughout the rest of 1999. First Love eventually became the country's best-selling album of all time.
J-pop, natively also known simply as pops , is a musical genre that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in traditional Japanese music, but significantly in 1960s pop and rock music, such as The Beatles and The Beach Boys, which led to Japanese rock bands such as Happy End fusing rock with Japanese music in the early 1970s. J-pop was further defined by new wave groups in the late 1970s, particularly electronic synth-pop band Yellow Magic Orchestra and pop rock band Southern All Stars.
Mai Kuraki is a Japanese pop and R&B singer-songwriter and producer. Kuraki debuted in 1999 with the single, "Love, Day After Tomorrow". In 2000, she released her debut album, Delicious Way, which debuted at number-one and sold over 2,210,000 copies in its first week. Kuraki is one of a few female artists in Japan to have their first four studio albums to debut at top of the Oricon album chart.
Toshinobu "Toshi" Kubota is a Japanese singer, songwriter, musician, music producer, and radio personality. Toshinobu Kubota has produced six million-seller records and thirty-three Top 40 singles during his career. He is currently part of Sony Music Japan. In addition, Kubota has composed and written songs for many singers including Iwasaki Hiromi, Misia, Toshinori Yonekura, Koizumi Kyoko, and many other recording artists.
Kumiko Kōda , known professionally as Koda Kumi , is a Japanese singer from Kyoto, known for her urban and R&B songs. After debuting with the single "Take Back" in December 2000, Koda gained fame in March 2003 when the songs from her seventh single, "Real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba", were used as themes for the video game Final Fantasy X-2. Her popularity grew with the release of her fourth studio album Secret (2005), her sixteenth single "Butterfly" (2005), and her first greatest hits album Best: First Things (2005), reaching the number-three, number-two, and number-one spots respectively.
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.
Crystal Kay Williams is a Japanese singer, songwriter, actress and radio host.
TVXQ, an initialism for Tong Vfang Xien Qi, is a South Korean pop duo consisting of U-Know Yunho and Max Changmin. They are known as Tohoshinki in Japanese releases, and are sometimes referred to as DBSK, an abbreviation of their Korean name Dong Bang Shin Ki (Hangul: 동방신기). Their name roughly translates to "Rising Gods of the East".
Yui, stylized as YUI or yui, is a Japanese singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and actress. Born and raised in Fukuoka prefecture, she played live at various locations in her hometown before being noticed by Sony Music Japan when she was 17 years old, and released her debut single months later. Her singles, however, were only met with moderate success until the breakout "Good-bye Days", which charted for 44 weeks on Oricon and marked her as one of the Japanese music industry's rising stars.
Hands is Japanese R&B-turned-pop star Koda Kumi's 14th domestic single. The single charted #7 and remained on the charts for eight weeks.
"Our Days" is the 8th single released by Japanese singer Ami Suzuki under label Sony Music Japan.
World of Our Own is the third studio album recorded by Irish boy band Westlife. It was released through RCA Records on 1 November 2001. It reached number one in the United Kingdom and includes the singles "Queen of My Heart", "World of Our Own", "Bop Bop Baby", and the final single from the group's last album, "Uptown Girl". "Evergreen" was later covered by Will Young as his winner's single for the 2002 Pop Idol competition. It is their first album to have a title track.
CNBLUE is a South Korean pop rock band formed in 2009. The band consisted of Jung Yong-hwa, Lee Jong-hyun, 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.
"Sexy, Free & Single" is a song by South Korean boy band Super Junior, released as their thirteenth Korean and lead single from their sixth studio album, Sexy, Free & Single digitally on July 1, 2012 by SM Entertainment in South Korea.
HEAT is Kim Hyun-joong's second Japanese single. There are five available versions of this single, three of which include the song "Let's Party" in addition to the CD's title track "Heat".
Tonight is Kim Hyun-joong's third Japanese single. There are five available versions of this single which has five completely different image concepts for each of the single covers. Each version includes different limited editions that may include a DVD with the music video to the three new songs.
Pray/XXX is the thirteenth single by the female duo Soulhead from their third studio album Naked. The main track, "Pray," was an R&B mix, while "XXX" was an upbeat pop/hip-hop mix featuring artist Koda Kumi. The single charted at #22 on Oricon Weekly.
The Oricon Singles Chart is the Japanese music industry standard singles popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Chart rankings are based on physical singles' sales. Oricon does not include download sales. In Japan, physical sales decreased sharply in the 2000s, while download sales hit three to four times the amount of single sales.
"Guts!" is the 43rd single released by Japanese boy band Arashi. It was released on April 30, 2014. "Guts!" was used as the theme song for the drama Yowakutemo Katemasu starring Arashi member Kazunari Ninomiya. It was the sixth best-selling single of the year in Japan, with 604,654 copies. It was certified Double Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan.
With is the eighth Japanese studio album by South Korean pop duo Tohoshinki, released by Avex Trax on December 17, 2014. The record was released in four physical versions – Version A, a CD+DVD version with music videos and live performances; Version B, another CD+DVD version with off-shot movies; Version C, a CD only version with two bonus tracks; and Version D, a fan club limited edition with a CD-Extra. Recording and writing for the album roughly began in the summer of 2013. With is described to be an album composed of nostalgic dance-pop songs that are influenced by disco and jazz, accompanied by marching drumbeats. Its lyrical content explores the general concept of love and friendship.
