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The ukulele, also called a uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings.
L'Arc-en-Ciel, stylized as L'Arc〜en〜Ciel and abbreviated as Laruku, is a Japanese rock band formed in Osaka in 1991 by bassist tetsuya and vocalist hyde. Following the departure of original members hiro and pero, guitarist ken and drummer sakura were recruited to replace them in 1992 and 1993, respectively. While they first got their start as a visual kei band, L'Arc-en-Ciel have not had any association with the movement since their major label debut in 1994. Sakura left the band in 1997 and was replaced by yukihiro in January 1998, completing the current line-up.
Kyu Sakamoto was a Japanese singer and actor.
Shonen Knife is a Japanese pop-punk band formed in Osaka in 1981. Influenced by 1960s girl groups, pop bands, the Beach Boys, and early punk rock bands such as the Ramones, the band crafts stripped-down songs with simple yet unconventional lyrics sung both in Japanese and English.
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.
A cover band is a band that plays songs recorded by someone else, sometimes mimicking the original as accurately as possible, and sometimes re-interpreting or changing the original. These remade songs are known as cover songs. New or unknown bands often find the format marketable for smaller venues, such as pubs, clubs or parks. The bands also perform at private events, for example, weddings and birthday parties, and may be known as a wedding band, party band, function band or band-for-hire. A band whose covers consist mainly of songs that were chart hits is often called a top 40 band. Some bands, however, start as cover bands, then grow to perform original material. For example, the Rolling Stones released three albums consisting primarily of covers and then recorded one with their own original material.
Christopher Hillman is an American musician. He was the original bassist of the Byrds.
Jake Shimabukuro is a Hawaiian ukulele virtuoso and composer known for his fast and complex finger work. His music combines elements of jazz, blues, funk, rock, bluegrass, classical, folk, and flamenco. Shimabukuro has written numerous original compositions, including the entire soundtracks to two Japanese films, Hula Girls (2007) and Sideways (2009), the Japanese remake of the same name.
Kazuyuki Sekiguchi is a Japanese musician, best known for playing the bass guitar for Southern All Stars. As a solo artist, he has played ukulele. He is a fan of Hawaiian music, and is the founder of the annual Ukulele Picnic music festival in Hawaii. For over thirty years, Sekiguchi has worked with Akira Sakuma in the Momotaro Dentetsu video game series as a music composer.
Sister Benten Online is a record label based in Japan. It is predominantly female, and features Oi! music. The operator of the label is Audrey Kimura. Since 1994, The record label has produced over 30 releases.
Gregory A. Hawkes is an American musician who is best known as the keyboardist and founding member of the American new wave band The Cars. Hawkes is credited with helping popularize new wave and synth-pop in American popular music as a member of The Cars. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest keyboardists of all time.
Melody Ishikawa, known mononymously as Melody, stylized as melody., is a Japanese American J-pop singer. She debuted in February 2003 with the song "Dreamin' Away", under Toy's Factory. In October 2008, Melody announced on her blog ending her career as a music artist to focus on pursuing a career as a fashion designer.
TsuShiMaMiRe is an all-girl Japanese rock trio. Their style is eclectic punk rock, mixing noisy and pop instrumental sounds with idiosyncratic, quirky, often funny or disturbing lyrics. They are one of the many bands to have become famous in the United States through the Austin, Texas South by Southwest music festival, and also through their performances at anime conventions, with the Suicide Girls, and at Benten Label's "Japan Girls Nite" U.S. tours.
Lisa Furukawa is a Japanese American pianist, singer, arranger, and songwriter based in Seattle, Washington. She has self-published 4 albums on the Yume label: Signal (2009), Reaching the Dragon (2006), Pearl Diver (2005), and This Moment is the Show (2001).
Red Bacteria Vacuum (レッドバクテリアバキューム) is an all-girl Japanese punk band from Osaka formed in 1998 consisting of Ikumi (guitar/vocals), Kassan, and Jasmine (drums/vocals). The band relocated to Tokyo in 2000.
Julia Nunes is an American singer-songwriter from Fairport, New York. Her career has progressed online through her videos of pop songs on YouTube, in which she sings harmony with herself and plays acoustic instruments, primarily the ukulele, guitar, melodica, and piano.
Pamela Anna Polland is an American singer-songwriter who made three albums for Epic and Columbia Records in the 1960s and 1970s and whose songs have been recorded by a number of popular artists. In the 1980s, she re-emerged as an independent recording artist and vocal coach, later working in film and TV scoring and Hawaiian music.
Victoria Davitt, better known by stage name Victoria Vox, is a singer, songwriter and musician specialising in the ukulele. A native of Green Bay, Wisconsin, Vox now resides in Costa Mesa, California when not on tour.
Bill Griffin is widely known as a musician in both bluegrass and Hawaiian music genres. A luthier and veteran mandolinist, he is also the inventor of the "mandolele", which is a nylon-stringed mandolin that he first crafted in 1986. Born in Glendale, California, Griffin's first exposure to music came through his father, a pianist in a Dixieland jazz band. Griffin began playing ukulele at age five, guitar soon thereafter, and mandolin at age nineteen. He also plays piano and bass.
Sandi A. Hohn, professionally known as Sandii, is a Japanese singer and vocalist who was a member of the Japanese band Sandii & the Sunsetz. Hohn is also notable for her work on the Japanese animated television series Lupin III Part II.
