Recommendations
 

I know there are already a lot of threads like this but I figured I might as well ask for some recommendations for other artist to listen to, J-Pop or K-pop. I've been looking for other singers who have a similar style to the singers I listen to already plus some people completely different. Here is a list of singers and groups I already listen to:

Solo Female (I would definitely like some suggestions for K-Pop here)
Ayumi Hamasaki
Koda Kumi
Namie Amuro
Maki Goto
BoA
Hitomi Shimatani
AILI
Becky♪♯
Shion
alan
KOKIA
HYNA
Miliyah Kato
Miho Fukuhara
Meisa Kuroki
Kana Nishino
Yuka Masaki
Superfly
Angela Aki
JUJU
JASMINE
lecca
miwa
ICONIQ
YUI
Hikaru Utada

Solo Male (I really need some good recommendations here)
Kiyokiba Shunsuke
blanc.
Blaise Plant

Groups/Bands (again, I need some good recommendations)
Every Little Thing
Do As Infinity
mihimaru GT
MONKEY MAJIK
FLOWER
Love
Happiness
Dream
After School (E-Young is my fav!)
NERDHEAD
T-ARA

Also something that might help me is if you put why you like the singer or group. You don't have to though :) I can't wait to see who people recommend!

Fairies? I personally do not like them and find their style atrocious, but since you liked FLOWER, the concept is similar. I also recommend Nakagawa Shoko or Mizuki Nana. Highly underrated. Also, I dunno where she's gone and flopped to, but Ito Yuna has the most amazing voice ever...definitely worth a try.

Thanks for the suggestions! I went and listened to a bit of everyone you suggested. Fairies was okay but they really didn't grab my attention. Yuna was awesome! I completely forgot I've heard some of her music before! Nana Mizuki is pretty awesome. I'm kinda addicted to her songs Black Diamond, Dancing in the Velvet Moon, FEARLESS HERO and BRIGHT STREAM. As for Nakagawa Shoko, wow, she's really good! I really like her songs Ray of Light and Flying Humanoid

Eiko Shimamiya

Stuff from her O and Hikari Nadeshiko albums

Her music may be different from a lot of what you listen to but it is really beautiful and looking at a couple artists you like, I think you can potentially enjoy her too. She's a bit lesser known. I think people on the forum like me and emi like her and a few others :) it's gorgeous stuff though.

Nice to see that you like Nakagawa Shoko. Don't hesitate to come in her thread^^

I suggest you Kalafina. If you already heard Yuki Kajiura's music, it's one of her band. Their voices are really stunning & enchanting.

Maybe you can try Breakerz, it's a good pop/rock band.

I hands down definitely will recommend BREAKERZ as they're my most fave artiste to promote . I don't know if you like rock music but if you do , they're definitely someone I would recommend

I noticed that you don't really listen to a lot of male solo artistes so here're some recommendations from me

Not sure if you like male R&B soloists but anyway :3

- Matsushita Yuya
- Ken Hirai
- Shota Shimizu

Male rock soloists :

- Acid Black Cherry
- Himuro Kyosuke (ex frontman of the legendary rock band BOOWY)
- Saito Kazuyoshi
- Fukuyama Masaharu
- DAIGO STARDUST

Acid Black Cherry is awesome . They didn't kicked ayumi's butt beginning earlier this year & denying her the #1 spot for nothing :innocent

Some female soloists recommendations :

- Kanon Wakeshima
- Kuriyama Chiaki
- Anna Tsuchiya
- OLIVIA
- Mika Nakashima

Tommy February6- she's an 80s pop chick. Just delicious if you ask me.
Ami Suzuki- her old works are Tetsuya Komuro trash but her latest works (AROUND THE WORLD onward) are electronic gold.
Halcali- a Japanese rap duo. Their first album, Halcali Bacon, is gold.

I'm not sure if the three recommendations I wrote above are what you're looking for. To be honest, their lyrical content isn't far different from ayu and such. Tommy february6 is guilty of cliche but lovable love songs.

One more recommendation: ayaka
She's the Mariah carry of Japan with her voice. She's exactly like Angela aki BUT she uses... *shudder* the acoustic guitar. Angie used it once *thank god*

I'm always up for a something different! Not to mention sometimes I like lesser known artists because sometimes they have the most amazing work!

I'll definitely stop by Shoko's thread, I want to be more active on here again and start talking with other fans more than I have in the past.

I'll add Kalafina to my list of groups to try right now! I've actually never heard of Yuki Kajiura...:paperbag

I'll also give Breakerz a shot as well!

I definitely like the songs Shota Shimizu has done with Miliyah so I will definitely look into his music. Thank you for the list of Male artist! I love rock music and I've been getting into R&B so I'm so happy you gave those recommendations! Time for sampling this weekend!

I'll definitely look into the females you have listed! But I'm definitely going to look into the males first. I'm now every interested Acid Black Cherry since 1) He beat Party Queen and 2) When I was in Japan her a collaboration going on with one of the stores in MEN'S 109, I kinda wish I would have picked up some of the collaboration clothes because they were really cool.

I'll definitely give them all a try. I haven't listen to much Japanese Rap but I'm definitely up for something new. They may not be like Ayu but I definitely think listening to a wide range of different artist will broaden my musical horizons!

OMG I completely forgot to list ayaka as someone I listen to! But it's always nice to see other people who love her too and want others to give her a try!


Thanks for the recommendations everyone! I've doing to try everyone that you suggest and come but with what I think about them! Also please keep the recommendations coming!

You haven't listened to OLIVIA yet? Go do that now! :D

Well seeing that you have someone with pretty music like KOKIA up there, I think you might enjoy some of Eiko's stuff. :)

From how you describe them I hope I do like them! They sound amazing!

Not yet but I'll get right on it! :D

KOKIA is just so amazing, she has to be one of the best singers in the world. I wish she was more popular in Japan though. I'm listen to some of Eiko's stuff now and wow...

I'll post soon with some of artist I've tried out so far!

Sorry to double post but here are my opinions so far:

Eiko Shimamiya: :heart:heart:heart:heart:heart:smitten I love her voice and her musical style! I've been looking for a artist like her!
Kalafina: :heart:heart:heart:heart:heart:blove These girls are epic! I love the blend of Classical music into their work
Breakerz: :heart:heart:heart:heart:love They're pretty good and I definitely see them being in the industry for a while
Matsushita Yuya: :heart:heart:heart:heart:blove
Ken Hirai: :heart:heart:heart:heart :laugh bye my melody PV...epic!
Shota Shimizu: :heart:heart:heart:heart:heart:smitten I love his voice, enough said
Acid Black Cherry: :heart:heart:heart:heart:luv2 I can see why 2012 beat Party Queen and I really like Party Queen.
Himuro Kyosuke: :heart:heart:heart I'm not sure how I completely feel about him yet but he's not half bad
Saito Kazuyoshi: :heart:heart:heart I'm not sure how I feel about his music yet either, I think I need a little more time for it to sink in

So far I am really liking everyone's recommendations! I wish I had created this thread sooner! Looks like I'll have to start ordering some CDs now!

Female solo
Tomomi Kahala
YU-A
BENI
Akina Nakamori
Seiko Matsuda

Group
B'z (Awesome music.. I'd start with either MONSTER or GREEN. Both are superb albums! <3)
BRIGHT
globe
2NE1

Male solo
Koshi Inaba (Usually, I would recommend listening to Shian first. But, I'm recommending Hadou to start off with instead. It's an album that has a YUI vibe to it. Especially the song "The Morning Call"! :heart)

Eiko is like my third favorite artist under Ayu and Hikki and above JASMINE

I really lover her music. Like it was another world for me lol. I love songs like Taiyou, Scheherazade, All Alone, Diorama, I Need You, and so many others lol

I'm so glad you like her :heart

yay xD & since BREAKERZ will be releasing their 1st best album next month , maybe it's fitting for you to order a copy :innocent

And all 3 of them in the group have been in the industry for a really long time , especially frontman DAIGO . This year's his 15th year in the business :O

MY - His mentor is Jin Nakamura who composed some of the best hits around , such as EXILE's Ti Amo , LOVERS AGAIN

Ken Hirai - :roflmao , yeah bye my melody is epic if not hilarious :laugh

Shota - Outta all the studio albums he released so far , COLOURS is my fave as it's so musically versatile

ABC - yeah 2012 is my fave album outta the 3 albums ABC has released . I don't really like BLACK LIST & Q.E.D. that much but 2012 is very enjoyable + his 5 singles 5 months project was done so well

Also if you're in ABC or BREAKERZ's fandom or vice versa , chances of you being in their fandoms either 1 or both is very high since DAIGO & yasu are very chummy together xD

Himuro - I'm not very familiar with his older solo works but his ex band BOOWY , 1 of their most known songs is Marionette

Saito - he can play a lot of instruments , not just the guitar & he does look & sound as though he's a drunkard :roflmao

Here are my thoughts on the rest:

Fukuyama Masaharu: :heart:heart:heart:heart:heart:inlove His voice is so amazing!
DAIGO STARDUST: :heart:heart:heart:heart :D
Kanon Wakeshima: :heart:heart:heart:heart:love She has an excellent voice and like Kalafina I love hearing the classical music!
Kuriyama Chiaki: :heart:heart:heart:heart :love I definitely like what I'm hearing. If I'm not mistaken, is she the young woman who played Go Go in Kill Bill?
Anna Tsuchiya: :heart:heart:heart:heart:heart:inlove Her style is amazing! I love a female rocker!
OLIVIA: :heart:heart:heart:heart She's so amazing! I wish she would start releasing music again
Mika Nakashima: :heart:heart:heart So far it's been hit and miss but the hit has always been great.
Tommy February6/Heavenly6: :heart:heart:heart:heart:luv2 I decided to give both Tommy's a shot and I have to say they are both fun and have great music! It's fun that I can choose whether I want to listen to either pop or rock with the same artist
Ami Suzuki: :heart:heart:heart:heart:love So far I'm liking her early work with Avex but I really love her albums DOLCE and Supreme Show
Halcali: :heart:heart:heart:heart:heart:smitten Ok, I'm in!
Singer Sen: :heart:heart:heart:heart :luv2 Wow! Her music is pretty cool!
MAA: :heart:heart:heart:heart:heart:inlove:smitten Can her music get any more epic! I think I might be in love!
MADEMOISELLE YULIA: :heart:heart:heart:heart:heart:inlove I love her music! It's so fun and for me very catchy!

Time to start sampling again! Thanks for the recommendations!

I really do. It's wonderful having artist like Eiko and KOKIA to listen to!

I'll definitely order Breakerz's Best of album! Along with a slew of other CDs now!

Now I need to start visiting the artist's threads and get to know more fans! Thanks for all the recommendations so far! Please keep the recommendations coming!

yes that's right , she's the same person that acted in Kill Bill . I think her music's not bad but it's just that she hasn't really released anything new after she released her debut album CIRCUS ._.

ahahaha that's great to know so :laugh & yes if you have time , please stop by the BREAKERZ thread

it can be quite lonely for me sometimes to talk to myself about them . Really , people have no idea what they're missing out on seriously , be it their music or the guys themselves but eh I'm not complaining :innocent

I thought that was her!

I'll join you soon then!

Tomomi Kahala: Not bad but not my cup of tea.
YU-A: :heart:heart:heart:heart:heart:blove:smitten So amazing!
BENI: :heart:heart:heart:heart :D She's really good! I can't wait to hear what else she releases in the future!
Akina Nakamori: She's pretty good but I'm not a huge fan but that could always change.
Seiko Matsuda: Hmm...gave her a shot but I couldn't get into her songs. Thanks for the recommendation though
B'z: :heart:heart:heart Not bad!
BRIGHT: :heart:heart:heart:heart:heart:love These girls are amazing! I love their songs Girls Be Ambitious, BAD GIRL, lonely tears, and hana!
globe: :heart:heart:heart:heart:ybiggrin I've always seen people talking about them but I've never taken the time to listen to them but now that I have they are pretty good!
2NE1: :heart:heart:heart:heart:luv2 Thank you for coming into my life.
Koshi Inaba: :heart:heart:heart:heart:D Adding him to the list of artist I now listen to!

The :hearts in this thread warm my heart lol

So much Eiko love :shughug and yey for MAA and Mademoiselle Yulia~

you are totally stellar for listening to all of those *_*


Have you listened to SNSD?

BRIGHT also sang a couple of songs with Matsushita Yuya as well . Last year they sang with him in Secret Love which's a B-side track in his Paradise single , alongside with rapper SHUN

And most recently , in their 1st best album BRIGHT BEST , Matsushita returned the favour by singing with them in a new song titled Forever which's well recommended

Maybe you'll like Miura Daichi? He does upbeat pop music. He's not you know those super pretty guys but the music is supposed to be what's first, right? LoL. He's an AMAZING dancer.

Some Kpop suggestions for female solo artists

Lee Hyori
G.NA
HyunA (she's from 4minute but she also have some solo singles).
Son Dam Bi (same company as After School)
IU


Solo Male (Kpop)

PSY (he's from the same company as 2NE1 :D)

Group (Kpop)

Big Bang (same company as 2NE1)
4minute
Hello Venus (sister group of After School, they have a more cute image)
NU'EST (also same company as After School)
Wonder Girls
Girls' Generation (aka So Nyuh Shi Dae or SNSD)
KARA
Nine Muses
Super Junior

:D

I think you might like immi. She's making electro/pop music.
And since you liked Karen's rock recommendations, I recommend L'Arc~en~Ciel lol They are my favorite band.

Also Crystal Kay. Her latest album, VIVID, was AWESOME!
mini, MiChi, ONE OK ROCK, ikimono-gakari and Aoyama Thelma are great as well.

And some Kpop: miss A, Ivy (especially her 'I Be..' album) and Lee Jung Hyun.

^ lol thanks Aurelie , I think xD & rock is my fave music genre so x)

Other rock music recommendations from me aside from the ones you already have gotten

- abingdon boys school ; they were the very 1st Jrock band I supported/listened to . I still have a lot of respect for them but obviously now , BREAKERZ are my pride & joy x)

- SPYAIR ; they're my 2nd fave JRock band now & their debut album Rockin' the World is awesome . A few months back , they released O GAME which was used in the Japan promo for The Amazing Spiderman movie :heart . They will release their 2nd album Just Do It on 19th Sept

- SID ; they were very visuel kei in their indie days but since I don't listen to their earlier stuff , go with their main labelled stuff from Monochrome no Kiss onwards

- GLAY ; very influential rock band , been around forever & probably as long as L'Arc~en~Ciel

- flumpool ; their earlier works are still the best . Unreal EP is highly recommended . Their recent releases I feel are not as good as before but for them , old is gold

- Aqua Timez ; they produce very inspirational & melodic songs . Tsubomi which's their latest single is a perfect prime eg. of it

- school food punishment ; sadly they have disbanded this year but if you want something different/indie , they might be just the band for you to check out

- WEAVER ; I'm going to see this group live in less than 2 weeks alongside with flumpool when both of them make their way down here to perform . But anyway , their debut single HARD TO SAY I LOVE YOU is really good *_*

- Kobukuro ; I remembered a lot of people flipped out when 5296 kicked GUILTY's butt way back then but they're good & after listening to some of their songs , I can understand why now they were able to stop ayumi from attaining #1 with GUILTY

- UVERworld ; not the biggest fan of them but they do have some good songs in their discography such as Colours of the Heart , Gekidou & NO.1 (which's pure ace)

That should all for now I guess xD

There needs to be more artist out there like Eiko, MAA and Mademoiselle Yulia! They are just super amazing!

I decided to have a listening party yesterday! I'm a music junky and music inspires me A LOT!

I've heard Mr. Taxi (Korean Ver.) and Paparazzi and I really like both of those songs. I'll check out their material too! Which would you suggest first? Their Korean or Japanese Music?

Ooh! I'm go to go listen to that now!

Music is what should come first! I honestly could care less how an artist looks, to me what's important is the music. I've heard him before from a duet with Miho Fukuhara and now after listening to the song you posted I'm going to go try out some more of his stuff.

Thank you for all the K-Pop recommendations! I can't wait to try them all out!

You definitely should try out some of these artist as well! You will not be disappointed!

Oooh! thanks! I'll try out all of them as well!

Wow! Thanks for the other recommendations! I'm so excited to hear what they sound like!

Thanks you everyone! I know it sounds silly but these recommendations mean a lot to me. I guess it's time for me to start sampling music again! Please keep the recommendations coming!

^If you want I can even send you some good songs of those artists (well by good songs I mean songs I like :roflmao). Just let me know if you feel like it :D

^Go right ahead!

I'm glad that you like Kalafina. & As you like them you can try FictionJunction too. It's also a Yuki Kajiura's band & solo (my favourite is FictionJunction Yuuka).

I forgot to suggest you moumoon. I wonder how I could forget them. Their ballads are amazing & YUKA's voice is so fresh when she sings pop songs as sunshine girl or Chu Chu.

As you like Jrock you can try The Sketchbook too. It's an avex band that was created from Sket Dance anime. Their music is not revolutionary but it's pleasant for the ears.

^FictionJunction YUUKA is lovely. I'd suggest that too.

I sent you a PM :D

Honestly, a good album is their "Girls Generation ~The Boys~ Repackaged album. Because it has good Japanese songs like Mr. Taxi, but it also has some of their Korean hits, like Hoot, Genie, and Gee, and Run Devil Run.

Even though....I prefer the Korean versions...the japanese versions are pretty much the same. I also...LOVE the song "Oh!" :heart

I also love the 2nd Korean album, Run Devil Run. It has those korean originals~

If you want to see a tour that has like every good song they ever created, watch the First Japan Tour :D

This *guy* turned me into snsd super fan omg lol look at this post hahaha

Glad to know that you like Koshi's stuff (even though, he rarely releases) and B'z! :D As for Kahala, I like her 90's stuff (mainly because those songs are composed by Komuro). As for both Seiko and Akina, I prefer their 80's stuff myself. ^^;; Anyway, I have some more artist recommendations.

Group
Porno Graffitti (They have some seriously catchy songs! <3 I don't even know where to start, honestly. I would say start off with <TRIGGER or their latest album PANORAMA PORNO.)
SCANDAL
B.A.P (They're also amazing! <3 Especially their song WARRIOR! :heart:heart)
the brilliant green
moumoon (Honestly? They're soothing, really. I highly recommend starting off with their mini album SPARK! :heart)

Male solo
Shirota Yu (or U) (Highly recommend his latest album UNO! He's got some amazing songs on that album too! :heart)
Hata Motohiro

Female solo
Kitano Kie
Mai Kuraki
Erica Hashimoto
Ms.OOJA
Tomomi Itano

Check out JAMOSA:

I'll add FunctionJunction and FunctionJunction YUUKA to the list of artist to try out! :yes
They are actually pretty amazing! I live what I've heard so far!
Time to add more to the list!
She sounds like someone I could get into! I'll have to list to more of her work!

Unfortunately I didn't get to listen to as many as I thought I was going to but here are my thoughts so far. As of right now I'll leave it like this, I'm a little too tired to write much else:

Miura Daichi: :heart:heart:heart:heart:luv2
Lee Hyori: :heart:heart:heart:heart:love
G.NA: :heart:heart:heart:heart:heart:smitten
HyunA: :heart:heart:heart:heart:heart:inlove
Son Dam Bi: :heart:heart:heart:heart:heart:smitten
IU: :heart:heart:heart:heart:blove
PSY: :heart Not really my cup of tea but his MV for gangnam style was funny
Big Bang: :heart:heart:heart:heart:love
4minute: :heart:heart:heart:heart:heart:blove
Hello Venus: :heart:heart:heart:heart:love
NU'EST: :heart:heart:heart:heart:heart:smitten
Wonder Girls: :heart:heart:heart:heart:luv2
Girls' Generation: :heart:heart:heart:heart:inlove I really like they them, not as much as I do After School but these girls are super talented!
KARA: :heart:heart:heart:heart:luv2
Nine Muses: :heart:heart:heart:heart:luv2
Super Junior: :heart:heart:heart:heart:heart:love

I don't think anyone has recommended these female solo j-pop artists to you but I definitely highly recommend them!

Ayaka Hirahara (her voice is gorgeous, she is my favorite female solo artist as of now). I think this song is her strongest vocally, her voice is so beautiful..
Her latest album "Doki!" is one of my favorite J-pop albums. :D I like her "My classics" albums a lot too (she has 3 of them). Highly recommended!

Maiko Fujita - Beautiful voice too. I'd recommend starting out with this song, it's one of my favorites :D.

Looks like we have similar tastes ^^

recommending
Solo females: Alan and Kana Nishino. Both have the voice of an angel. Alan does ballad/traditional and Kana does pop.

Bands: (male) L'Arc~en~Ciel. Try songs XXX, HONEY, Bless, The Fourth Avenue Café... Hyde has the most beautiful voice.