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54 albums · 1971–2022

Music of Japan, from Happy End and YMO to city pop, Shibuya-kei and today

· 2 min read · by 1001 Albums

Yellow Magic Orchestra in a 1981 publicity photograph, Yukihiro Takahashi, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Haruomi Hosono
The front of the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo with the banner of a Sakanaction concert over the doorsPerfume on stage at the Tokyo Dome under a fan of light beams
Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1981: Yukihiro Takahashi, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Haruomi Hosono. Photo: Kenji Miura, for A&M Records, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. · The Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, Sakanaction playing, January 2022. Photo: Reiwafish, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Perfume at the Tokyo Dome, December 2013. Photo: twoitle, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Japan's popular music has a stage of its own, the Nippon Budokan, and a studio tradition that runs from Hibari Misora's enka through Happy End's Kazemachi Roman, Haruomi Hosono, Yumi Arai and Yosui Inoue, the city pop of Taeko Onuki, Eiichi Ohtaki and Mariya Takeuchi, Yellow Magic Orchestra and Ryuichi Sakamoto, Southern All Stars, RC Succession and Boøwy, X Japan's metal, the Shibuya-kei of Flipper's Guitar, Pizzicato Five and Cornelius, Fishmans, Number Girl and Supercar, Sheena Ringo and Hikaru Utada, Nujabes, Boris, Mono and toe, Perfume and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Babymetal, Kikagaku Moyo and Ichiko Aoba, the jazz of Toshiko Akiyoshi and Hiromi, to Kenshi Yonezu, Fujii Kaze, Yoasobi and Ado today. The list has 54 records from 1971 to 2022, one or two by each of the names above and only a small part of what they made; Tatsuro Yamashita, Mr. Children, The Blue Hearts and Namie Amuro are missing because Deezer does not have them, and gagaku and the old court and theatre music, most of the classical tradition beyond Ozawa's Takemitsu, idol pop beyond a nod to Seiko Matsuda, enka beyond Hibari and the anime scores would each need a list of their own. About 46 hours of music, 5 days of a few records each.

By genre

Rock 21%Pop 16%Electronic 8%Other 55%
  • Rock 21%
  • Pop 16%
  • Electronic 8%
  • Other 55%

The genres named most: japanese, pop, rock, electronic, jazz, ambient.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 1 country: Japan 54. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

The 2020s

More lists

Lists of Countries first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.