J-Pop!

J-Pop, how do I begin. It's pop music, yet done the Japanese way.
Amy helped suck me into the world of J-Pop. Some of it is really fun and even bi-lingual. Many of the artists incorporate some english into their lyrics. I find it fun and catchy. I have purchased 2 different J-Pop CDs so far. One is by a group named Def Tech. Basically it's two guys, one Japanese and one English that do kind of a rap singing thing. It's not bad. It's kind of got a tropical surfer feel to it. The other CD I purchased is the "Queen of Hip Pop". Notice it's Pop and not Hop. Namie Amuro is the singer. The girl is easily in her late 20s/early 30s and has put out a ton of music here in Japan. Amy had this CD in her car and was playing it often. I finally broke down and bought it for myself because I enjoyed it so much. There is one track that I swear has a Lil' Jon knock off. I've checked the CD insert and it isn't Lil' Jon, but the guy does a great imitation. It makes me laugh everytime I hear it. He actually says, "What", "OOKAYY", and "Yea" all in a similar fashion to Lil' Jon. I love it. Click here for more information and a sampling from "The Queen of Hip Pop". Warning - the site is mostly in Japanese, but you can hear some of her music and get an idea about her style.

The only thing that really sucks about J-Pop is the price of the CDs; 3,000 yen which is about $30 USD. Yikes! I have also bought a couple of imports and surprisingly they are cheap. The are cheap b/c the haven't had the inserts redone in Japanese, which is perfect for me. I actually can purchase an import for the same price or less than what I pay for it back in the states. I actually plan on trying to slowly increase my J-Pop collection. It would be a good reminder of my life here in Japan.