I am a major believer in opening one’s mind to the world and that includes enjoying pop culture from other countries.
That includes music.
And I hope that by sharing what I’m listening to this week, may influence some of you to go out and seek the music or going on YouTube to check these artists, groups or bands out!
The first group is PERFUME, a female pop group which consists of Ayano Omoto (Nocchi), Yuka Kashino (Kashiyuka) and Ayaka Nishiwaki (A-chan). A trio that originally are from Hiroshima and have worked their way since 2000 to becoming internationally known. And eventually signing a global contract with Universal Music Group.
I am listening to their 25th single “Mugen Mirai” (Infinity Future), the theme song to the upcoming film “Chihayafuru: Musubi”.
I got the CD+DVD version which comes with the music video and DoCoMo CM’s and it came with a poster. But love listening to this single plus the c/w song, “FUSION”.
We are used to seeing pop stars who have had a consistent track record of becoming fashion icons and having #1 hits, and while Madonna and Kylie Minogue are one who has had a legendary career in the world. For Japan, Amuro Namie is a pop star who has had major success since she was a member of THE SUPER MONKEYS to going solo and creating the fashion trend known as “Amura” during the mid-’90s. And she is one of Japan’s well-known pop stars that has dominated in her teens, her 20’s and her 30’s and now she’ll be retiring from the entertainment industry this fall.
Amuro has had a wonderful career and in November 2017, Amuro Namie released her first best album in her career. While, she has numerous best albums to her name, such as songs when she was with the SUPER MONKEYS and singles collections, a ballad best album and a collaboration best album, “Finally” is a true best album that covers 25-years of music by Amuro Namie from 1992-2017.
ZARD is a band that featured Izumi Sakai as the lead vocalist. Rarely will you see the members of the band but primarily Sakai, may it be on television, music videos or on the album and single jackets.
ZARD was one of the few bands that rarely appeared on television and many of their singles would be at #1 on the charts or debut in the top 10. They are considered one of Japan’s top bands but towards the 2000’s, Sakai would have challenges in her life from ovarian carcinoma, cervical cancer, and she would be hospitalized in April 2007. While she hoped to get out of the hospital and work on new music, on May 26th, while walking from the hospital, at 5:40 p.m., Sakai fell from the stairs and fell on her back. She was rushed to ICU and died at 3:10 p.m. on Many 27th due to a brain contusion.
I am a huge fan of ZARD and I am listening to their original 11th album. The band’s last album released in September 2005.
Unfortunately, music videos for ZARD are hard to come by but the album features the the band’s 38-40th singles.
Recently, m-flo, which consists of DJ Taku Takahashi, MC Verbal reunited with their original vocalist LISA.
The group which began back in 1997, would go through many different guest female vocalists after LISA pursued a solo career in 2002.
So, this reunion for their e.p. titled “the tripod e.p.2” which was released in March 2018 was not only a surprise but made many fans happy to see the three reunite once again.
And their new songs from the e.p. are just fantastic!
