Yamaha Corporation is a Japanese multinational corporation and conglomerate with a very wide range of products and services. It is one of the constituents of Nikkei 225 and is the world's largest piano manufacturing company. The former motorcycle division was established in 1955 as Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd., which started as an affiliated company but later became independent, although Yamaha Corporation is still a major shareholder.
The Yamaha DX7 is a synthesizer manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1989. It was the first successful digital synthesizer and is one of the best-selling synthesizers in history, selling more than 200,000 units.
Arabesque was an all-girl trio formed at the height of the European disco era in 1977 in Frankfurt, West Germany. The group's changing lineup worked with the German composer Jean Frankfurter and became especially popular in Japan and the Soviet Union.
Vocaloid is a singing voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project led by Kenmochi Hideki at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, in 2000 and was not originally intended to be a full commercial project. Backed by the Yamaha Corporation, it developed the software into the commercial product "Vocaloid" that was released in 2004.
Kate Gulbrandsen is a Norwegian singer. In 1986 she represented Norway at the Yamaha Song Festival in Tokyo with the song "Carnival". She won the Norwegian national final Melodi Grand Prix 1987 in a very close regional vote, giving her the opportunity to compete for Norway at the Eurovision Song Contest 1987 with the song "Mitt liv", written by Rolf Løvland and Hanne Krogh. There, in Brussels, she came a respectable ninth.
The World Popular Song Festival, also known as Yamaha Music Festival and unofficially as the "Oriental Eurovision", was an international song contest held from 1970 until 1989. It was organised by the Yamaha Music Foundation in Tokyo, Japan from 1970 until 1989. The first edition of the World Popular Song Festival (WPSF) took place on 20, 21 and 22 November 1970 with 37 participating countries from all continents. The concert was cancelled in 1988 due to the illness of the Shōwa Emperor; the final year was a charity concert for UNICEF, after which the contest was formally ended.
Kayōkyoku is a Japanese pop music genre, which became a base of modern J-pop. The Japan Times described kayōkyoku as "standard Japanese pop" or "Shōwa-era pop".
Swing Girls is a Japanese 2004 teen comedy film directed and co-written by Shinobu Yaguchi. The plot follows a group of inept high school girls who form a big band. The cast includes Juri Ueno, Yuta Hiraoka, Shihori Kanjiya, Yuika Motokariya and Yukari Toyashima. The film ranked 8th at the Japanese box office in 2004, and won seven prizes at 28th Japan Academy Prize, including "Most Popular Film" and "Newcomer of the Year" for Yuta Hiraoka and Juri Ueno.
Miyuki Nakajima is a Japanese singer-songwriter and radio personality. She has released 43 studio albums, 46 singles, 6 live albums and multiple compilations as of January 2020. Her sales have been estimated at more than 21 million copies.
Seiji Kameda is a Japanese music producer, arranger and bass guitarist. He has worked extensively with Ringo Shiina, serving as her producer and touring bassist for many years, including his tenure with their band Tokyo Jihen from 2005 to 2012.
The Yamaha Music Foundation is an organization established in 1966 by the authority of the Japanese Ministry of Education for the purpose of promoting music education and music popularization. It continued a program of music classes begun by Yamaha Corporation in 1954. Its unique, systematic teaching method and teacher training programs are highly valued in Japan and other countries.
Sandii & the Sunsetz were a Japanese synthpop band that collaborated from 1979 until the 1990s. The Sunsetz, led by Makoto Kubota, and Sandii started as separate artists, and each have a separate discography. However, their collaboration provided a particular body of work that is representative of the period, and which successfully blended Eastern, Western and pop influences.
Osvaldo Rodríguez is a Cuban musician.
"Girl Like Me" is the nineteenth single by Dutch girl group Luv', released in early 1990 by the labels Toco/Beaver Records/Alfa International. It appears on their 1989 EP For You. The song was only released in Japan as a commercial single, especially for discos and clubs, where it was marketed as a Eurobeat track.
Manuel Mijares is an adult-contemporary pop singer who is billed simply as "Mijares". He began his career at age 23 and achieved high popularity from the mid-80s to mid 90s in Hispanic-America and Japan mainly. From 1997 to 2011 he was married to Mexican singer/actress Lucero, with whom he has two children.
The Yamaha Popular Song Contest, generally known as Popcon, was a Japanese popular music contest which ran from 1969 to 1986. It was sponsored by the Yamaha Music Foundation and was held annually at the Yamaha Resort Tsumagoi in Kakegawa, Shizuoka, Japan.
9mm Parabellum Bullet is a Japanese rock band, formed in March 2004 in Yokohama. It consists of vocalist and rhythm guitarist Takuro Sugawara, guitarist and backing vocalist Yoshimitsu Taki, bassist Kazuhiko Nakamura, and drummer Chihiro Kamijo, who came up with the band's name. Piano pieces included in some songs are performed by Taki, while the characteristic shouts are provided by Nakamura.
Race is the third studio album released by Australian new wave band, Pseudo Echo. It was released via EMI Australia in 1988 and RCA Records internationally in 1989. Race resulted in a musical change for the group as it mirrored the music landscape at the time; dominated by big hair, big guitars and rock. While the album no doubt alienated the majority of the band's fan base, it equally attracted a new breed of rock loving fans.
Shinji Takashima is a Japanese musician, composer, and music producer. He is known for being the guitarist of Omega Tribe. Takashima was the only member of Omega Tribe who was in all versions of the band, excluding Brand New Omega Tribe.
"Shōnan Heartbreak" is the 18th single by Japanese singer Yōko Oginome, released on June 7, 1989 by Victor Entertainment. Written by Masao Urino and Yūji Ōtaguro, it is a cover of Chika Takeuchi's 1988 single "No, No, No" with different lyrics.
