My Top 100 J-Pop Songs Of All Time

Having watched Kngdmhrts55′s Top 200 J-pop PV’s (Part 2 of the Youtube videos coming up soon) I thought I’d make my own favorite Top 100 J-pop song countdown. Some of the songs are album tracks only (I’ll put an asterisk by the song title to differentiate from those that have been released as singles). It’s quite a varied list with idol groups, boybands, rock groups and so forth all featuring in it. So here we go with my all time fav J-pop songs starting with:

100: Morning Musume – Kanashimi Twilight
99: Yousui Inoue – Shonen Jidai
98: Yamashita Tomohisa – Daite Senorita
97: Aimmy – Blue Vibration
96: AKB48 – Iiwake Maybe
95: Sawa – Stars
94: L’arc En Ciel – Forbidden Lover
93: Thyme – Hello
92: Perfume – GAME
91: Mai Kuraki – Never Gonna Give You Up
90: Southern All Stars – I Am Your Singer
89: Exile – Fly Away
88: Yui – Cherry
87: Stereopony – Namida no Mukou
86: Exile – Fireworks
85: Wink – Ai Ga Tomaranai
84: SweetS – Sky
83: L’arc En Ciel – Driver’s High
82: X-Japan – Tears
81: Miho Fukuhara – Love!Winter Song
80: KAT-TUN – Keep The Faith
79: Dreams Come True – Sono Sake E
78: Perfume – Electro World
77: Rina Aiuchi – Navy Blue
76: L’arc En Ciel – My Heart Draws A Dream
75: Namie Amuro – Do Me More *
74: Hyde – The Cape Of Storms
73: Ami Suzuki – Potential Break Up Song
72: Meisa Kuroki – Shock ~Unmei~
71: UVERworld – Shamrock
70: RSP – A Street Story
69: Rie Tanaka – Fields Of Hope
68: angela – Dear My Best Friend *
67: Momoi Haruka – Mail Me
66: The Possible – Shiawase no Katachi
65: Perfume – Polyrhythm
64: NEWS – Bambina
63: My Little Lover – Otono nai Sekai
62: Hitomi Shimatani – Camellia
61: Olivia – Starless Night
60: NEWS – Summer Time
59: Dreams Come True – Goodbye My School Days
58: alan – Sora Uta
57: Buck Tick – Heaven
56: Perfume – Take Me Take Me *
55: Ai Otsuka – Yumekui
54: marino – Flavor
53: Maki Goto ft Sweet Black – Lady Rise
52: Ayumi Hamasaki – Fairyland
51: Koda Kumi – Taboo
50: Aiko – Kabutomushi
49: Hikaru Utada – Take 5 *
48: Shuuchushin – Yowamushi Santa
47: M.O.V.E – Romancing Train
46: Chihiro Onitsuka – Memai
45: Angela Aki – Tegami
44: Tokio – Sorafune
43: Lindberg – Believe In Love
42: Yui – My Generation
41: The Brilliant Green – Kuroi Tsubasa *
40: Namie Amuro – Rock Steady
39: Koda Kumi – No Tricks *
38: Jasmine – Sad To Say
37: Miki Fujimoto – Okitegami
36: M.O.V.E – Dogfight
35: MiCHi – Promise
34: Takashi Sorimachi – Poison
33: AKB48 – River
32: K – Almost Human
31: Erika Sawajiri – Free
30: Ayumi Hamasaki – Days
29: Yui – Tomorrow’s Way *
28: Kotoko – We Survive
27: Hikaru Utada – Passion
26: Scandal – Space Ranger
25: Namie Amuro/Double – Black Diamond
24: Hikaru Utada – Prisoner Of Love
23: Mr Children – Hanabi
22: Dream – I Love Dream World
21: Koda Kumi – Freaky
20: Nana Mizuki – Heaven Knows
19: MiCHi – Change The World
18: AKB48 – Sakura no Hanabiratachi
17: Perfume – Secret Secret
16: Acid Black Cherry – Nemure Hime
15: Mika Nakashima – Glamorous Sky
14: Perfume x Momoi Haruko – Akihabalove *
13: Ami Suzuki – True *
12: D.D.D – Heart
11: Zone – Secret Base
10: Namie Amuro – Baby Don’t Cry
9: Erika Sawajiri – Destination Nowhere
8: Yuna Ito – Brand New World
7: hitomi – Wish
6: Yumi Matsutoya – Hello My Friend
5: Hikaru Utada – Flavor Of Life
4: Lindberg – Mine *
3: Soulja feat Thelma Aoyoma – Koko ni Iruya
2: Hikaru Utada – Heart Station
1: Perfume – Dream Fighter

Yes, Perfume are at no.1 with Dream Fighter. I adore the song, listened to it so many times and I don’t think Perfume will ever top that song with whatever they release in the future.

Feel free to tell me what you think about the countdown.

Top 10 J-pop November 2009

Here’s another Top 10 J-pop songs for this month. It’s got some great tunes which includes AKB48!

Songs I Liked During My Holiday

I heard quite a lot of good tunes in Japan this month but these are the ones I enjoyed the most:

Shuchishin – Yowamushi Santa. This male trio regularly appear on Fuji’ TV’s quiz show Hexagon II. They mostly goof about and give stupid answers to the questions asked. They created this group specifically for the show just like the female version called Pabo.

Exile – Last Christmas. The Japanese version of the classic Wham hit.

Ayumi Hamasaki – Days. Another great song by Ayu.

Miho Fukuhara – Love~Winter Song~. This is probably the song I loved listening to the most during my holiday in Japan. I really like this tune.

and finally we have Beni Arashino although she simply calls herself Beni these days with her latest single Mou Nido To

Hope you enjoy the PV’s

When Is Maki Goto Going To Release Any New Material?

It’s been quite a while since former H!P singer Maki Goto released anything of significance and here we are nearing the end of 2008 with still no news if she’ll be putting out an album or single anytime soon. Gocchin signed up with AVEX’s Rhythm Zone label in June and I really thought by now that a new single would have been out.

Maki Goto

The only new material we’ve heard is the song she wrote and debuted at this Summer’s a-nation tour called Hear Me. You can hear the track on Youtube but it’s poor quality. The song itself sounds fantastic and I would like to see it being released soon. If it’s any indication of what we’re expected to hear from her in the future then I’m excited. It carries on in the same vein somewhat as her last album with H!P – How To Use Sexy which I thought was her best album to date. The semi-urban feel to the album suited her and I’m happy that she’s may be moving onto a more mature r’n'b style like her stablemate Koda Kumi. It’s just a shame that the crowd on the a-nation tour weren’t too enthusiastic about her but it’ll change over time. They’ve just got to get over the fact that she’s not the idol from Morning Musume anymore. She’s got a new music identity, writes her own stuff and wants to go in a new direction musicwise. I just hope her new material will win over the fans as I’d love to see her be successful with AVEX.

I’m sure in early 2009 there’ll be an announcement regarding something being released by her but for now all we’ve got is her performance on the a-nation tour on DVD.

Classic J-Pop PV’s

I love modern J-pop/rock but over the past 6 months I’ve also started to listen to classic Japanese music from the late 80′s and the 90′s and I’ve got to say there’s a lot of brilliant songs that was released during that time so I give to you 5 of those songs I think warrant your attention. If they manage to interest you then why not seek out some more.

1. Lindberg – Believe In Love

2. Wink – Ai Ga Tomaranai (this’ll be familiar to many as it’s a cover of Kylie Minogue’s Turn It Into Love done Japanese style. Puffy Amiyumi have also covered this song.)

3. Onyanko Club – Kaiin Bango no Uta. Without this idol group there’d be no Morning Musume or AKB48. In fact it was Akimoto the current producer of AKB48 that came up with the concept of Onyanko Club so we have a lot to thank this man.

4. Pink Sapphire – Dakishimetai

5. Yumi Matsutoya – Hello My Friend