J-Pop: Koda Kumi

In the summer of 2009 (as mentioned before) I decided to do a YouTube search for Japanese music. I had just seen a rerun of Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift on TV and became interested in the music. One of the first hits to pop up in the YouTube search for "J-Pop" was Juicy, by Koda Kumi. I liked the video, for obvious reasons, and decided to delve further into this artist. What I found was probably the most diverse Japanese singer of the past decade, and I became an instant fan. Kumi started out in December 2000 with her first single Take Back, not a great song but you have to start somewhere. After that she released around 20 singles and 4 albums before she really broke trough in 2005/06 when she started the 'ero-kakkoii' trend as shown for instance in Candy or the more recent Pink Spider. Ero-kakkoii which translates into 'sexy cool' can be seen as the opposite of the in Japan popular 'ero kawaii' sexy cute, although Kumi has also mastered this latter one, as shown in Lovely. Besides the sexy and cute concepts Kumi has a third distinct song style; love ballads (see Yearn for You). As I said she's a diverse and well rounded singer, something I've experienced myself when I attended one of her 2014 concerts during my internship in Tokyo.

In total Kumi has released 57 singles and 12 albums, of which 8 have reached the #1 chart position in Japan. Last year she celebrated her 15 years in the music business and, luckily for me, she doesn't show signs of stopping anytime soon.

Other favourites:             Cute: Lick Me, Superstar and Everyday

                                        Sexy/Cool: Crazy 4 U, Taboo, and POP DIVA

                                        Ballad: Fate, I Love and Only You

Check out more of her songs on the avex trax YouTube channel.

Glam Metal: Black Veil Brides

Several years ago I was very much into pro wrestling (everybody has their crazy periods right?!). Every week I'd watch the muscular guys and busty girls put on their best performances to gain title belts or end rivalries. Besides these weekly shows once in a while there would be a larger show where story lines were ended or started, so called Pay-Per-Views. As the name implies these shows need to be paid for to watch, therefore the WWE always started promoting these events well in advance to maximize the amount of viewers willing to pay. Thus the same promos would be aired week after week, of course accompanied by a captivating song. For their Hell in a Cell 2012 PPV the WWE used the song In the End by Black Veil Brides. I hadn't heard of the band before but this song made me an instant fan of theirs. The beginning of the song consisting of strings and a choir, later joined by the guitar and drums, hooked me right in. As you can probably guess from watching their early music videos like Perfect Weapon, the band was highly inspired by glam metal acts of the 1980s like Kiss and Mötley Crüe. Lately however they've stopped using the face paint in favour of a more serious look, as can be seen in Goodbye Agony. The band is currently in the process of writing a new album although no release date has been announced yet.

Other favourites: Legacy, Revelation and Heart of Fire

For more videos check out the bands YouTube VEVO channel.

Electro Swing: ProleteR

In an earlier post I described my fondness of jazz music. And although I love it very much, sometimes I'm just in the mood for something with a bit more beat to it. Luckily for me some British and French producers felt the same, and in the late 90's early 00's started to mix the classical jazz and swing music with house or hip hop beats. At first the style did not attract a lot of attention, but by the 2010's thanks to YouTube mixes, the genre became popular and got its name: Electro Swing. One of the most famous electro swing songs is arguably We No Speak Americano from Yolanda Be Cool which became a number 1 hit in 35 countries.

In this post however I want to highlight a French producer called ProleteR.

ProleteR started out in 2011 and adds a laid-back hip hop beat and fresh bass lines to a song, making sure it swings again in this day and age. Some songs, like Hello, Dolly!, only get some minor touch ups. Others, like Not Afraid, get some more extensive editing. His collaborations with rapper Taskrok, like Throw It Back, are also definitely worth a listen.

Other favourites: April Showers, Red Soap and No Place I Can Go

Check more of ProleteR's songs on his official YouTube channel.

Latin Pop: Anitta

Since tonight the Euro 2016 finals will be played between Portugal and France it seemed appropriate to highlight an artist from one of these countries. Given that I already showcased a French singer in an earlier post I decided to pick a Portuguese artist today. The only problem is that my vast music collection does not contain any Portuguese artists.

Fortunately I've got the next best thing; a Brazilian artist (they speak Portuguese, so close enough...).

Anitta debuted in 2013 but only gained some attention in her own country Brazil, Spain, Portugal and Argentina. Her big breakthrough came with the release of Bang, which currently has over 200 million views on YouTube. This was also the first video I saw of Anitta. In the beginning I was a bit sceptical of it since the video clearly focused on other 'features' besides her singing. But later that week I still couldn't get the song out of my head, so I decided to check out other songs of her. Many of her songs are happy and upbeat while some, like her most recent single Cravo e Canela, have a more slow R&B beat. I would describe them as perfect summer songs.

Other favourite songs: Deixa Ele Sofrer, Essa Mina É Louca, and Volta Amor.

For more songs, check out her YouTube channel.

K-Pop: BoA

The summer of 2009 was a great time for me, musically. I had just graduated high school and had plenty of time to roam the internet looking for new music. One of the genres I discovered that summer was K-Pop. At that time Korean pop music was just starting to get more popular globally, a phenomenon known as the Korean Wave (or Hallyu). And riding that wave was Boa Kwon, simply known as BoA. Although the singer already debuted in 2000 at age 14 and became a major star in both Korea and Japan, it was not until 2008 that she released her first English singles. It was one of these songs, Energetic, that caught my eye. Admittedly it is probably not her best song but I was hooked regardless (I cannot exclude her looks played a part as well :p). The States however didn't work out for BoA so she returned to Japan where she released Bump Bump!! and has been releasing music from there and Korea ever since. Her most recent single is called No Matter What and was released last month. It has a cool house-beat and seems perfect for the time of the year.

Other personal favourites: Hurricane Venus, The Shadow & Kiss My Lips

Check out more songs at her YouTube playlist.

Hardstyle: Defqon.1

Almost to the day four years ago I was on the bus driving home to my parents house. As we were about to enter the small town of Biddinghuizen I started to notice several traffic signs indicating the way to Defqon.1 At this time I had never heard of Defqon, I only knew of DEFCON (defence readiness condition of the US) thanks to several action-movies, but I figured this event had nothing to do with military strategy. That night however I was about to find out what Defqon.1 was all about. Bass... lots of bass.

Defqon.1 is one of the largest music festivals known for the harder electronic styles like: Hardcore, Rave, Frenchcore and Hardstyle, and attracts 55,000 visitors from all over the world.

Since my bedroom window is less than 4 km from the event an (un)favourable wind sends all the bass sounds right in.

Even though that night I got a bit less sleep than I was hoping for I became very interested in what lured all these people to our small village. By the time I ended watching the 25 minute Endshow video on YouTube I knew. The nice melodies, dreamy vocals and hard kicks created an atmosphere unlike any I'd heard before. I became hooked instantly. Especially the anthem of that edition World Of Madness is to date still one of my favourite hardstyle songs.

Other favourites:

               Brennan Heart & JonathanMendelsohn - Imaginary

               Da Tweekaz ft. Ghost Wars - RanAway

               Noisecontrollers & BassModulators - Solar

Visual Kei: Versailles

If you look at the picture above you might think that these people are impersonating their favourite Final Fantasy characters. This is however the normal getup of Visual Kei band Versailles. Visual Kei (ヴィジュアル系) is a Japanese genre that is characterized by its looks: fancy costumes, crazy hair styles and lots of make-up resulting sometimes in rather androgynous characters. The genre first started to appear in the early 1980s and can be compared to the western Glam Rock. Although many Visual Kei bands like Versailles play metal music, some bands focus more on an electronic sound.

The first song of Versailles I ever heard was perhaps one of their most famous songs, called The Revenant Choir. I was hooked instantly, the elaborate drum parts, Kamijo's almost opera sounding voice and of course Hizaki's awesome guitar solos. That guy really knows how to play the guitar. Yes, you read that right the person with the long blond hair and nice dress is actually a dude. It took some time for me to find out as well. After releasing four albums Versailles decided to disband in 2012. Kamijo started as a solo artist while the remaining four members went on to form the band Jupiter. And although both released some nice songs, none were at the same level as that awesome first song.

Other songs:

               Versailles:           Philia, Truth

               Kamijo:               Lion of the Dark Night

               Jupiter :               Arcadia, Topaz