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Read more about the article Music Spotlight: L’arc~En~Ciel – Hurry Xmas

Music Spotlight: L’arc~En~Ciel – Hurry Xmas

I know what you’re thinking. Christmas was last week. Yes, it was. However, this draft has been sitting in my archives from 2007! Can I have an award for longest sitting draft under 300 words? Well, it might go over 300 words since I do have something to say about this post. Anyway, moving on! To end out the decade, and to finally give this post the light of day(break’s bell), I am highlighting a beloved Christmas song from one of Japan longest running J-Rock groups, L’arc~En~Ciel.

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Read more about the article Music Spotlight: kemu – イカサマライフゲム (Ikasama Life Game)

Music Spotlight: kemu – イカサマライフゲム (Ikasama Life Game)

The next Vocaloid Song of the Month is from kemu, which different from the previous post about love throughout one’s childhood. Instead, let’s imagine this song as a candidate for a new anime series involving notes and diaries with serious consequences.

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Continue ReadingMusic Spotlight: kemu – イカサマライフゲム (Ikasama Life Game)
Read more about the article Music Spotlight: Kim Sarang – 무죄 (Innocence)

Music Spotlight: Kim Sarang – 무죄 (Innocence)

This week’s Music Spotlight highlights a song from Korean solo artist Kim Sarang. I discovered one of his songs over a decade ago, thanks to being a regular player of World of Warcraft. However, this song has no direct connection to WoW itself, but it was used in a fan made video of a fellow player of the Horde, an Undead Warlock rocking it out and killing everything in sight.

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Continue ReadingMusic Spotlight: Kim Sarang – 무죄 (Innocence)
Read more about the article Music Spotlight: Last Note – “オサナナブルー (Childhood Blues)”

Music Spotlight: Last Note – “オサナナブルー (Childhood Blues)”

As someone who is new-ish to the Vocaloid fandom, I would like to share my findings with those who are also curious of Vocaloid music, especially in 2019. For the first Vocaloid entry in the Music Spotlight series, here is an original song featuring Vocaloid GUMI by composer Last Note.

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Continue ReadingMusic Spotlight: Last Note – “オサナナブルー (Childhood Blues)”
Read more about the article Music Spotlight: Kay-G – So Good
Korean Solo artist Kay-G (Image Source: Melon)

Music Spotlight: Kay-G – So Good

For this edition of Music Spotlight, here is an indie K-Pop artist that I came across a couple of years back during my personal hunts to fill my phone with a plethora of Korean Music. One of the songs I came across was by Kay-G (케이지), who previously released his debut track back in 2017.

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Read more about the article Music Spotlight: Male J-Pop Groups (As Heard By a K-Pop Fan)

Music Spotlight: Male J-Pop Groups (As Heard By a K-Pop Fan)

I came across a video the other day that was created by YouTube user “just a black guy who likes j-pop” featuring the latest of what Japan has to offer when it comes to Male J-Pop Groups. As someone who has been exposed to K-Pop for more than 15 years, this is familiar territory.

Watching the video, I couldn’t help but notice the familiar soundscape of each group presented in the video. What I heard in the video sounds–and looks–like a modern K-Pop group. Only if I pay attention to what I hear, it’s what modern J-Pop sounds like in the sound of many groups on the way of becoming global superstars, such as BTS, or even NCT 127.

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Ni-Ongaku Spotlight – October 2018 Roundup

Welcome to another collection of songs for the month of October that we’ve posted on our Twitter and Facebook pages for Ni-Ongaku Spotlight! This is also the final post filed under Ni-Ongaku Spotlight, in which going forward, in an effort to shift content from solely Japanese culture interests, Ni-Ongaku Spotlight will be simply be called Music Spotlight.

Since launching the original blog in 2007, “Ni-Ongaku Spotlight” (a play on “Nihon” (Japan) and “Ongaku” (Music) in Japanese) was a way to get back in touch with my discoveries of the Japanese music scene, after being caught in the Korean Wave in 2004. Now that I’m in a place where I can catch up on the latest in Japanese, and Korean music, you can now check out more than what you can find on the Oricon charts!

Without further ado, on to this month’s Music Spotlight!

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Continue ReadingNi-Ongaku Spotlight – October 2018 Roundup