Japanese singer and rapper Daoko began her career at the age of fifteen by uploading her own music clips to the video platform Nico Nico Douga. She started writing and recording songs with her family's shared iMac in the living room, using the computer's GarageBand software and built-in microphone to record her voice. Daoko selected various free tracks, such as Vocaloid songs, from the Internet and tried to reshape them in her own style by following the melody and ly…

Japanese rock music as a whole was in a creative crisis for a long time. For decades, there was little sign of anarchy, change or even revolution; the genre's participants were content to pluck away on their guitars as a copy of a copy of a copy, delivering a run-of-the-mine sound that drew no one outside the Land of the Rising Sun from the woodwork. Hitsujibungaku also want no destruction, no downfall, no hate. But that doesn't matter. The alternative rock band, con…

It's fair to say that Enon Kawatani is a musical genius. Born in Nagasaki in 1988 and not completely averse to social scandals, he is a singer, guitarist and songwriter for the bands Indigo la End, Gesu no Kiwami Otome and the instrumental group Ichikoro, and also works as a writer for other musicians. One of my favorite bands of his, however, is Genie High. Genie High was formed in 2018 after guitarist Ikkyu Nakajima, keyboardist Takashi Niigaki, and bassist Kunihir…

Founded in 2005 by Yasushi Akimoto, the Japanese band AKB48 is one of the most successful artists of the present day. With songs like Beginner, River, and Heavy Rotation, the members led by Atsuko Maeda sang, danced, and jumped their way into the hearts of East Asian residents overnight and triggered puberty in many a teenager with a revealing music video or two. Andrew Joyce and Kenneth Maxwell of the Wall Street Journal once described AKB48's works as „sugary…

Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has made a deep impression with his remarkable combination of top-level musicianship and visionary programming. Born in Reykjavík in 1984, the artist's almost frighteningly perfectly crafted pieces know how to delight both audiences and otherwise cynical critics. The Daily Telegraph called Víkingur Ólafsson „the new superstar of classical piano“, and the New York Times described him as „Iceland's Glenn Gould..

When Avril Lavignes's debut single Complicated first hit MTV in 2002, it was like Cupid himself was trying to murder me with a bag full of love arrows. The then seventeen-year-old Canadian was not only downright sassy, perky and outrageous, no, her songs were also really good - especially the ones written by Los Angeles singer-songwriter trio Matrix. Let Go and Under My Skin were, without a doubt, among the most listened-to albums on my green iPod Mini, even if some…

The self-titled debut album of the Japanese band Millennium Parade is on repeat since release on my phone. After all, there are only absolute bangers on there. Bon Dance? Great! Fly With Me? Stunning! Familia? Fabulous! Just the genre is difficult to explain, because Millennium Parade simply throw everything available, such as pop, hip hop, electro, dance, rock, funk, jazz and rap, into a pot, stir vigorously and then slap the motley mash against the wall. „The…

Sure, everyone is always celebrating the seventies, eighties or nineties for their respective style, fashion and music output. But my great love is probably for the magical period around the millennium. When people were on the brink of the digital revolution with their first flip phones, had no idea what Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were, and were both anxious and curious about the future after the big 2000. In Japan in the mid-nineties, the style of music now kno…

While the world collectively celebrates South Korea's cultural output, one very special troop should not be forgotten alongside Blackpink, Red Velvet and BTS: Balming Tiger, the quirky pioneers of Seoul's idiosyncratic rap scene. The group is a collection of multimedia misfits who kick K-pop down from the poppy, colorful glittery world into the abyss: Girls' Generation meets Brockhampton, Keith Ape meets Abra. And I so hope I get to see them live sometime soon. Demol…

Japanese music label Wack, part of J-pop giant Avex, is known for its quirky bands like BiSH, EMPiRE and Gang Parade. Founded by Junnosuke Watanabe in 2014, the company's mission is to give a platform to somewhat more experimental artists, but one that is trimmed for success despite their otherness. ASP is one of the newer bandwagons at Wack, which has had to reorient itself after the breakup of the exceptional formation BiSH and is now opening up to even more altern..