{"id":4652,"date":"2018-11-08T21:59:23","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T20:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/?p=4652"},"modified":"2018-11-08T21:59:23","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T20:59:23","slug":"japanese-pop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/2018\/11\/08\/japanese-pop\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese pop"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Although I haven&#8217;t watched the film yet, I have listened to quite a bit of the soundtrack to the film <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Your_Name\"><i>Your Name<\/i><\/a> by Japanese band <a href=\"https:\/\/radwimps.jp\">RADWIMPS<\/a>. In particular, the uptempo lead song Zenzenzense stuck with me, and was one of my favourite tracks of last year:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"RADWIMPS - \u524d\u524d\u524d\u4e16 (movie ver.) [Official Music Video]\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PDSkFeMVNFs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Perhaps because of this, Spotify has regularly been suggesting Japanese pop music to me in my weekly discover playlists. And I don&#8217;t remember where I came across it, but a couple of weeks ago I came across <a href=\"https:\/\/pitchfork.com\/features\/rising\/meet-chai-the-eclectic-japanese-rock-band-redefining-what-it-means-to-be-cute\/\">an article on Pitchfork about Neo-Kawaii band Chai<\/a>, and I started listening to them:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"CHAI - N.E.O. - Official Music Video  (subtitled)\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YMGf3zyhG94?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Their album <a href=\"http:\/\/burgerrecords.11spot.com\/chai-pink.html\"><i>Pink<\/i><\/a> is fantastic. (My favourite tracks right now are &#8220;Fried&#8221; and &#8220;Walking Star&#8221;.) Since then, I&#8217;ve basically fallen down a rabbit hole of Japanese pop, and it&#8217;s <em>amazing<\/em>. I have no idea what they&#8217;re singing, but when I listen to music I rarely listen to lyrics anyway. To me, the human voice is mostly an instrument \u2014 possibly the most versatile instrument of all. Not being able to understand the words can sometimes actually be a <em>benefit<\/em> for me, because the words don&#8217;t distract me if I&#8217;m doing work on something that requires verbal reasoning, like reading or writing a document.<\/p>\n<p>So here are some of my favourites that I&#8217;ve been listening to recently.<\/p>\n<p>I love this song and the video for it by FRIENDS, &#8220;Dance in the night&#8221;. Something about it reminds me of (sadly disbanded) Los Angeles group <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=j4mYXT-8_sQ\">Big Moves<\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u30d5\u30ec\u30f3\u30ba\u300c\u591c\u306b\u30c0\u30f3\u30b9\u300d\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/P20NA5_nMfw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In Our Life Steps&#8221; by NEIGHBORS COMPLAIN is deliciously funky:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NEIGHBORS COMPLAIN - In Our Life Steps [Official Music Video]\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QU7_sMECdHo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>New track &#8220;Dancing Fighter&#8221; by AWESOME CITY CLUB is bouncy and catchy:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1LEIOvSfnS4\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1LEIOvSfnS4<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Lonely Lonely&#8221; by LUCKY TAPES is right up my street with its sweet and soulful hip-hop groove:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"LUCKY TAPES \u2013 Lonely Lonely feat. Chara (Official Music Video)\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/y8XAexF10So?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;New Era&#8221; by Nulbarich sounds like a mellow funky cross between Maroon 5 and CeeLo Green:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Nulbarich - NEW ERA (Official Music Video)\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5pkBqmX2ymc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yumewomiyou&#8221; by HARU NEMURI is driving, hypnotic, and intense:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u6625\u306d\u3080\u308a HARU NEMURI\u300c\u3086\u3081\u3092\u307f\u3088\u3046\u300d\uff08Official Music Video\uff09\uff0d yume wo miyou\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/12zrVL1llh4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>So I&#8217;m all about the J-pop right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although I haven&#8217;t watched the film yet, I have listened to quite a bit of the soundtrack to the film Your Name by Japanese band RADWIMPS. In particular, the uptempo lead song Zenzenzense stuck with me, and was one of my favourite tracks of last year: Perhaps because of this, Spotify has regularly been suggesting &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/2018\/11\/08\/japanese-pop\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Japanese pop&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4653,"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4652\/revisions\/4653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}