[Pieces_of_SEVEN]

So I was thinking the other day...I haven't listened to any NEW jpop artists lately. Why is that? Well, I'm not into boy bands or girl groups. I don't like music that's too ridiculously poppy or things like KPP or hatsune miku. I've tried to get into some other female soloists like Nishino Kana, who just released an album while I was touring Japan, but I don't think I found any songs that made me really excited or wanted to check her other music out. Am I really out of the loop, or is there really just not much new that's worthwhile?

I was thinking about my favorite artists, and they all debuted over a decade ago. Some are still releasing, some have pretty much faded into obscurity. It's sad.

Also, an account I follow on Twitter stated that the #2 album for the week on Oricon sold only little more than 6k. That's depressing as hell. I understand that Oricon is basically meaningless since it doesn't take any digital sales into account, but it's still a shocking number to see.

I guess I'm just worried about where my favorite genre of music is going to be in a few years. I know my favorite artists can't possibly release music FOREVER, so I wonder what's next.

I've been a huge fan of the following for some time:

ayu
namie
koda kumi
utada hikaru
BoA
MINMI
JASMINE
JAMOSA
Crystal Kay
BENI
Otsuka Ai
DOUBLE
EMI MARIA
Miliyah Kato
lecca
AI
Sowelu
Meisa Kuroki
thelma aoyama
yuna ito
jay'ed
emi hinouchi

So I suppose I'm wondering...what are your opinions on the current jpop scene? The future of jpop? Who are the artists that you enjoy who may be relatively new and why do you like them?