J-Pop acts you've recently (re)discovered

[Sai]

Are there some older J-pop singers or groups that you never really paid attention to, but then decided to give their discography a listen and ended up loving them? Let's talk about this! It's always bittersweet, too, when the act in question is no longer active, and you just happened to fall in love with their stuff after they've stopped releasing.

I've recently been exploring hitomi's discography and loving a lot of it. I always had a handful of her songs ('I am', which she sang for Inuyasha, as well as a few others that were sent my way by friends) but I never really took the time to listen to any of her albums. I decided to change that! I'm not surprised that I love a lot of it: she was one of the female J-pop greats from the late 90s/early 2000s (which is clearly my preferred demographic) and there've been a lot of comparisons between her and Ayu, which makes sense.

So which older acts have you delved into recently?

[relmy]

I LOVE hitomi! I don't really know why she isn't talked about more online, especially with her Namie-esque career plan and Ayu musical style. I think a lot of Ayu fans would like to think hitomi 'copied' Ayu's style, but they're just that enough different, and generally, hitomi doing certain things predates Ayu... which is also why you don't see her talked about a lot? (I think you all know that I *love* Ayu, so hopefully nobody takes that wrong...)

My favourites by her are IS IT YOU?, the single version of MARIA, Kimi no Tonari, there is..., basically I just adore the thermo plastic album. It's a Jpop classic. I jokingly said to a friend once that 'it's sad she only sells, what, 1000 copies now!!!' when we were talking about CANDY GIRL... and Mobius only sold 800 copies. EIGHT HUNDRED. When the next Nana sales come out all, spare a thought for hitomi and those 800 CDs. AKB fans probably buy more than that individually...

I've been listening to a lot of Akiko Yano, ACO, Cocco, Akina Nakamori... I'm in the solo female camp like Sai!

[Sai]

Leave it to me to forget about a thread I myself created I just watched my first hitomi concert (well, the only one I could get ahold of: hitomi Japanese girl collection 2005 ~LOVE MUSIC,LOVE FASHION~) and wanted to talk about her somewhere, then remembered that this thread existed!

Anyway, hitomi is really, really awesome. I'm similarly baffled by the lack of talk about her - now more than ever! She just released an EP last month, which I guess would count as a comeback? But I still haven't found a single download or even that many people talking about it, haha. And the lack of concert downloads really pains me </3

So yeah, I think she's great, and I have a newfound appreciation for her after seeing that concert. She has so much charisma and magnetism and kind of... exudes sexiness. Not in the same tittilating 'ero' way that Koda Kumi does, but in a more effortless, confident way. I can't really explain it, but I think the PV for MARIA kind of embodies it. There's just something about her! She's simultaneously retro but rarely seems out-of-touch or dated, she's sexy and confident but also kind of weird and an oddball, she's both a pop princess but rocks out really hard. It's all really paradoxical but enchanting!

And guess who happened to be performing with her at this concert?



Surprise! The drummer was Daichi Yamazaki, who tours with Ayu as well. The Japanese music world can be so incestuous~

And finally, my favourite songs are there is..., MARIA (<-- My two absolute faves), Taion, re-make, SAMURAI DRIVE, Love angel, and a few others.

Anyway, I didn't mean to turn this into a hitomi thread, but I have had a lot of thoughts and feelings about her recently!