Yusuke Kobayashi, singer and guitarist of rock band The Novembers, is wearing a black Pink Floyd T-shirt and sipping a tea as I sit down to chat with him in a cafe in Tokyo’s Ebisu neighborhood. Outside, Typhoon Mindulle is causing a bit of ...

LDH, the company behind Exile, Sandaime J Soul Brothers and E-girls, seems to be on a mission to win the J-pop crown. Its latest salvo is themultimedia project High & Low, which consists of a drama, film, album and tour. The album portion of ...

Kana Nishino has been a marquee name since debuting in 2008, but this July she finally owned the spotlight with “Just Love.” Nishino started her career performing mid-tempo R&B, but switched it up a few years back, embracing acoustic guitars, ukulele and a lot ...

A quirky mix of electronica and hip-hop has taken Suiyoubi no Campanella from indie darling to major label signee (and “SMAP x SMAP” guest) in the course of three years. Major label debut “Uma” doesn’t quite match up to the group’s final indie effort, ...

Over the past year, an online-centric style of music dubbed “kawaii bass” (“cute bass”) has grown in popularity among Japanese producers. Inspired by the playroom bops of Tomggg and the colorful sounds of Yoshino Yoshikawa, artists embracing this microgenre overload on the sugar, loading ...

Grime hip-hop artist Skepta was awarded Britain’s prestigious Mercury Prize on Thursday for his album “Konnichiwa” in recognition of a resurgent homegrown genre, muscling out late rock legend David Bowie. As he presented the prize, Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker paid tribute to David Bowie ...

In a new documentary on DJ Steve Aoki, his wife sums him up when he is out of sight: his frenetic career is an attempt to prove himself to his father. The characterization is startling in that it is unlikely Aoki would utter it ...

On Feb. 6, 2014, composer Takashi Niigaki faced a crowd of reporters at the Hotel New Otani in Tokyo and took a deep and apologetic bow. He had just revealed that he was ghostwriter for Mamoru Samuragochi, who was celebrated as “Japan’s Beethoven” before ...

I’ve just mentioned to Elvis Costello the publicity stunt he pulled on his first trip to Japan in 1978. “Ah, our attempt to get ourselves in the papers,” Costello recalls over the phone from his Vancouver home. It had seemed like such a fiendishly ...

Music in 2016 is every bit as focused on the eyes as it is the ears. Videos play a pivotal role in helping artists stand out in the digital age. One viral clip can break a previously unknown name, or bling up existing acts. ...

The Tokyo Jazz Festival is a varied event, featuring artists of every age and from all corners of the globe. Yet, like most mainstream jazz festivals, the lineups can be somewhat middle of the road, inoffensively safe in a way that keeps more underground ...