[News] Utada Hikaru named the most influencial artist of the decade by Japan Times

[Mr. Goto]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

If we reaaally want to argue about who first brought the R&B style to Japan, I think a case can actually be made for Mariah Carey. At the time that I lived there in the mid-90s her albums were everywhere - it was basically the Mariah Carey + Namie Amuro show over there then. She was quite influential and is the only non-Japanese artist to have overall sales in the top 50 of the Oricon charts. I agree though that Hikaru was the first Japanese person though to make it popular, but the seed had already been planted by Mariah and to a lesser extent Amuro who did have some R&B influenced things going on at the time, especially in her album tracks.

True about Mariah. Also prior to Utada there was already quite a few popular songs and artists using R&B and rap influences. The Bubble Gum Brothers, ZOO, m.c-A-T (lol), a ton of TK produced people excluding namie, Morning Musume, MISIA, etc.

With the way some people act you would think R&B was nonexistent in Japan before Utada lol.