Music

Haruna Kimishima knew her music had found an audience overseas when her Twitter DMs began to fill up with English. "Japanese fans tend to not react to me directly, especially when compared to foreign listeners," says the 23-year-old artist, who records as Haru Nemuri. "They ...

If you were a musician and your death was imminent, what piece of music would you like to cover before you die? Maybe you'd want to play a Sex Pistols track on the guitar, or perhaps try mastering a trumpet solo by Dizzy Gillespie? Pianist ...

I first heard Ami Yamasaki's voice in 2016 at a studio where I hosted a radio show in New York. She popped by to promote an upcoming performance at the Japan Society with composer Mamoru Fujieda, koto player Kayoko Nakagawa and shō (free ...

Last month, the return of Ultra Japan to Tokyo provoked the usual eye-rolls with its parade of EDM superstars gallivanting onstage to obviously pre-recorded sets. But trust Takahide Higuchi — the Nagoya-based producer better known as Shokuhin Matsuri aka Foodman — to see the ...

Pop music often opts for positivity rather than confronting the uncomfortable, but Seiko Oomori has never really adhered to J-pop norms. "The bad things that happen to you can also be attractive, almost kawaii," she says from one of the upper floors at the headquarters ...

For the first decade of his career, the Canadian composer and sound artist Tim Hecker specialized in transmuting digital audio into thick miasmas of sound that combined orchestral richness with the sensory assault of noise music. But after reaching an apotheosis — and his ...

WWWβ — a subterranean space under Shibuya's WWW and WWWX venues dedicated to "club alternative" — is a frequent stop for DJs and producers at the cutting edge of electronic music. But when a large crowd packed itself into the venue on April 20 ...

On Sunday fans across the country flocked to events paying tribute to pop diva Namie Amuro, marking the day she will step out of the spotlight. In her home prefecture of Okinawa, thousands of fans gathered in Ginowan to attend events commemorating the end of ...

A Japanese piano trio won first prize in the prestigious ARD International Music Competition on Saturday, the organizer said. The Aoi Trio, formed by graduates of Tokyo University of the Arts, is the first from Japan to win any prize in the category at ARD ...

For millions of Japanese music fans in the 1990s, Namie Amuro wasn't just the Heisei Era's defining pop star, she was someone they grew up with. This relationship is clear in the year-long documentary series, "Finally," which has been streaming on Hulu since the 40-year-old ...

From 'Sweet 19 Blues' to '_genic,' Namie Amuro covered a lot of musical ground.

When pop diva Namie Amuro took the music scene by storm, she not only captivated throngs of girls and women with her performances but also inspired their fashion, spawning the "Amuraa" look of the mid-1990s. Clad in a miniskirt and thick-soled boots, with her hair ...