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Pop angela is a pop group who sing theme songs for a lot of anime such as Stellvia in Space, Soukyuu no Fafnir & JINKI:EXTEND. Atsuko (Yamashita Atsuko) is the lead singer/songwriter & Katsu (Hirasato Katsunori) is the keyboardist, guitarist, DJ, and arranger. Official site Imai Eriko was part of a girl group called SPEED (along with Hiro, Uehara Takako, & Hitoe), but they broke up in 2000 & the girls each had their own solo career, but later got back together momentarily to release a 2003 album "Bridge." Imai Eriko's career has been ok, but is probably at a standstill now that she got pregnant & married (yes, in that order). The release of her singles collection signals a long break from her music career. "stairway" is the only new song from that collection & it's a poppish R&B type of song. Official site Okamoto Mayo debuted in 1995 with her single "Tomorrow" which was the theme song from the J-drama Second Chance, which made her popular. She has since then released 9 albums and numerous singles. Mayo's music is more on the poppish side. She writes all the lyrics & music for her songs and also writes for other artists like Hirosue Ryoko ("Daisuki"). Official site melody. Official site Mitsunaga Ryota is a pop singer, who also has a few R&B songs, and he is my favorite Japanese male singer. Before I heard of him, I thought Hirai Ken was the best, but ever since I heard Ryota's debut song "Always" from the J-drama "itsumo futari de," I was hooked. Ryota has a deeper voice than Ken, which I really like. Besides his great voice, he looks pretty good too, as you can tell from the cover of his "Independent" album. ^^ http://www.geocities.com/ojochan2/albums/mitsunagaryota-independent.html http://www.mitsunagaryota.com/ SAYAKA Official site Sonim used to be one-half of the duo EE JUMP, along with ex-MoMusu member Goto Maki's brother Yuki. After Yuki had fun at the cabarets, he was shunned for his behavior & got kicked out of EE JUMP. Sonim went solo & released some singles & an album, but didn't meet the expectations of her record company, so she got canned. There was a time when she performed on the streets of Japan, hoping to gain an audience, which was pretty heartbreaking to her fans. Since then, she released several songs under an indies label (or rather, via her management company), so she's not going anywhere. ^^ If you're new to Sonim, check out her "Curry Rice no Onna" PV. I'm sure a lot of guys will like that one. ;p Sebastian's site (this site is in French, but it's a great site) YUKI Official site Dance BoA Official site Kouda Kumi Official site MAX Official site Amuro Namie Official site Pop rock Aikawa Nanase has been in the biz since ?? with her first single, "". Official site Do As Infinity Official site HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR are a electronica band with a female singer (Ma-ki-) and a male rapper (Yusuke), kind of reminds me of globe. Official site Kimura Kaela is a new artist. I think she's a cross between aiko & Ootsuka Ai--not as mellow as aiko, but not as hyper as Ai. A happy medium, if you will. Kaela's music is mostly pop-rock and her voice is really cute like the 2 artists I mentioned. Her album "Kaela" is another 2004 favorite of mine. Official site Miz is a new artist on the pop rock side. Though she lists some of artists like Blondie, The Cardigans, & Lauryn Hill as her favorites, her music kind of reminds me a little of Do As Infinity & (don't send me hate emails) Avril Lavigne, but the songs are a little more cheerful. She debuted with the song "New Day,"had a 2nd single called "Waiting for" & recently released her album, which has a lot of great songs, which you can hear on her site: Official site Easy listening Fayray was born on April 18, 1976 in Tokyo. From the age of 4, she learned how to play classical piano. When she was young, she moved to America with her parents, who listened to a lot of '80s music. In July 1998, she made her debut when she was in college. She graduated, but focused on her career as a singer/songwriter, releasing the song "My Eyes," which she also self-produced. She then released another single called "tears" then an album "EVER AFTER," followed by the album "genuine" & had a string of other singles. Though she's not really known, she is a really great artist with many beautiful ballads, which her soft, sensual voice is perfect for, but she also has occasional upbeat songs. Because her English is perfect, she also tends to include covers of many American songs. Official site Lyrico is vocally comparable to Mariah Carey (she sometimes does those squeaking too). She released her first single in 1995 under her real name Tsuyuzaki Harumi. Her style was more on the R&B side with occasion pop songs. After releasing 14 singles and 8 albums, she changed her name to Lyrico and released a single in late 2001. As Lyrico, she focused more on singing ballads and the occasional upbeat song. Official site (Sony) / Official site Tsuyuzaki Connection (fansite, JP) Rie fu was born in Tokyo on January 11, 1985. She moved to Maryland, USA from the age of 7-10. During that time, she was influenced by 70's American pop music, hymns, and the like. Afterwards she returned to Tokyo. She learned to play the piano & made a demo tape playing guitar. Rie fu's music is more on the light pop, acoustic guitar side, comparable to Core of Soul & Onitsuka Chihiro. Official site Takei Shiori sings mostly medium-paced songs with a tropical sound. Here is some info on her: Birthplace: Osaka Birthdate: February 6, 1985 Blood type: AB Height: 163 cm Strenghts: cheerful, does her own thing Weaknesses: very forgetful Fave artists: Carole King, Joao Gilberto, Joyce, Norah Jones, Port of Notes, etc Fave foods: ice, meat, crab Fave actors: Nakama Yukie Fave movies: I am Sam, Life is Beautiful Official site (has sound samples) Yamaguchi Hikari is best described as the Japanese Enya. Her voice is soothing and blends well with the mellow music. Unfortunately, it seems that she wasn't too popular--she released only 1 album in 2002 under the record label Giza. When Hikari was young, she loved fairytales & drawing pictures. She studied & majored in art in high school and college. She also was influenced by such artists as Enya, Sarah Brightman, Secret Garden, etc, which really reflects in her music. Official site J-R&B/Hip Hop/Hip Pop/Reggae Crystal Kay Crystal Kay Williams, better known as Crystal Kay, has been in the Japan music biz for 5 years, but she got popular after a little collaboration with m-flo's rapper Verbal in the song "Ex-boyfriend." Since then, she's released 3 more albums, and has been part of the "m-flo loves" project. Contrary to what people think, Crystal is half Korean (mom) & half African-American (dad), NOT Japanese. She was born & raised in Yokohama, where she went to international school. She has recently graduated from high school & will go to college, but she will continue to focus on her musical career as well. http://www.c-kay.com/ Official site Double is an R&B artist, but her recent collaboration with m-flo & Toku (from m-flo's "Astromantic" album) was a jazz song, which laid way for her latest album "Life is Beautiful," of the same title as the song. It's mostly a cover album (plus an original song--"You took my heart away") featuring quite a number of English classics such as "Diamonds are a girl's best friend" & "Moon River," while resurrecting a few Japanese classics such as "Wine Red no kokoro" and Double's own songs "Bed" and "Sweet Time," which were first recorded with Takako's sister, the other half of Double, who died prematurely from a brain hemorrhage. This album is one of my faves of 2004, not just because Double's one of my favorite artists, but because the songs are simply great & her voice is as sweet as ever. Official site Hirai Ken Official site kazami is an R&B artist. Before she had a record deal, she was toting around a shabby demo tape entitled "I want to sing." For 1 year she did this & caught the attention of someone who actually made time to listen to it. Though there was a lot of tapes sent in by aspiring artists, when he heard kazami, he thought that she was different & was surprised that she was only 14 years old. 3 days later, they did a voice check just to see if she was the one who actually sung on the tape. Though she was a little plain, she transformed when she sang. She got a big break doing a song for a "kissmark" snowboard commercial. Born on April 8, 1986 Height: 156 cm Birthplace: Kyuushuu Fave artists: Lauryn Hill, Jessica Simpson, Aretha Franklin Fave author: Miura Ayako, Torey Hayden Fave movies: Lovesong to an angel(?), Roman Holiday Fave things: reading, watching her dog Things she dislikes: preaching Future dreams: she wants to debut in America Official site debuted in 2000 with the song "TAKE BACK." Even though her English isn't really the greatest, she also released an English version of "TAKE BACK" in America, which made the dance charts, but didn't really make an impact. Her popularity really shot up when she had tie-ins with Final Fantasy X-2, with the songs "Real Emotion" & "1000 no kotoba." Kumi's style is more on the sexy side compared to a lot of Jpop artists, which is evident from her PVs, pics in her CDs, some of the songs she sings, and her lower voice, which reminds me a lot of Amuro Namie's. On an interesting note, Kumi's younger sister Misono is the lead singer of day after tomorrow. For more info, please check out Rinny's site: http://www.freewebs.com/kuness/index.htm MEGUMI Official site SOUL'd OUT Official site Steady & Co is made up of KJ and Bots from Dragon Ash & Shigeo from SKB and ILMARI from Rip SLyme, which is why S&C haven't released anything in a while. I honestly think that S&C's stuff is a lot better than DA or Rs's, but maybe that's just me. "Chambers" is a pretty good intro to their music. Official site Hello! Project Berryz Koubou is part of the Hello! Project, so you know it's full of cutesy pre-adolescent girls who have diabetes-inducing music. There are 8 members which rivals the Morning Musume. They are: Shimizu Saki, Ishimura Maiha, Kumai Yurina, Sudou Maasa, Sugaya Risako, Natsuyaki Miyabi, Tokunaga Chinami, & Tsugunaga Momoko. Official site |