Music

In the dimly lit Under Deer Lounge in Shibuya, jazz trumpeter Takuya Kuroda conducts an impromptu ensemble with raucous enthusiasm. Preceded by his Afro, he bounces around stage, announcing soloists and welcoming new musicians to the front. The music is undoubtedly Kuroda's, but the rotating ...

Koharu Matsunaga used to be a fixture on Tokyo's busking circuit, belting out tunes on her button accordion with her gypsy brass band at popular tourist stops like Ueno Park. The main songwriter and the older half of the sister duo Charan-Po-Rantan rarely performs on ...

It's rare that a concert has so much impact that people still talk about it 100 years later. However, that's certainly the case for a performance a century ago by some German prisoners of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in Tokushima Prefecture. It ...

English singer-songwriter Nick Heyward, probably best known as the frontman of early 1980s pop band Haircut 100, has for two decades resisted the urge to milk the nostalgia circuit, in Japan at least. The affable 56-year-old from Beckenham, southeast London, who has also penned and ...

Aiko Goto is excited to be going home. The violinist has been a member of the Australian Chamber Orchestra since 1998 and it has been a while since she and her fellow musicians have visited Japan. "We haven't played there since 2011," she says. "When ...

If you wanted to pinpoint the moment Cero broke the glass ceiling of Japan's indie music scene, it would be March 7, 2016. That's when the group — still cresting on the buzz generated by its "Obscure Ride" album the previous year — performed ...

This summer's slate of music festivals are putting more of a spotlight on American hip-hop. Fuji Rock Festival announced Kendrick Lamar and the group N.E.R.D as headliners, while Summer Sonic features Chance the Rapper on its main stage. It's a considerable showcasing moment for ...

During the summer of 2013, when millions of viewers tuned in every morning to catch the latest installment of NHK's "Amachan," the show's sprightly 19-year-old star, Rena Nonen, seemed destined for big things. But her breakout role quickly became a cautionary tale about the ...

Nariaki Obukuro bristles at the suggestion he makes J-pop. He prefers his music being described as J-pop-adjacent.

On the evening of May 2, 1998, as most of Japan was basking in the annual Golden Week holidays, a few dozen young women had gathered outside an apartment building in Tokyo's Minamiazabu neighborhood. Earlier that day, the musician Hideto Matsumoto, better known by his ...

Club music usually gets you pumped up for a night out. Music about clubs? Those songs are just as likely to focus on the come down from the good vibes: There's Robyn being ignored in the corner on "Dancing on My Own" or Morrissey ...

It has been nearly two years since Japan revised an archaic law banning late-night dancing, but don't expect any celebrations to mark the occasion. Over the past few months, the Metropolitan Police Department has quietly renewed its campaign against unauthorized boogying, because Lord knows ...