Asian Pop/Rock (And Connections to U2)

[bigbang]

I've been reading interference for a while and been dying to ask if anyone here listens to any Asian
pop music, be it KPop, JPop, CPop, etc.

maybe names like Wonder Girls, Utada Hikaru, Jay Chou, Seo Taiji, DBSK, Girls' Generation, Leehom Wang,
Rain, Koda Kumi or KARA sound familiar?

U2 is my favorite artist but sometimes I need some grooves like Big Bang and 2NE1 to get me goin'.
It would be so wild to see if there are others who can make the U2 and Asian Pop connection.

It's an odd but fair question in the spirit of "beaming across borders," as Bono once said in a ZooTV interview.

 

[bigbang]

And some connections between Asian artists and U2 that I've dug up over some time.
(I'm Korean so most of these are Korean artists, if anyone knows more please add!):

• Kang Hyun Min of Korean rock band Loveholic, Teru of Japanese Rock Band GLAY and KPop singer Lena Park all list U2 as influences.

• People probably know about Sunhwa Jung (the little kid) playing With or Without You fingerpicked.

• Faye Chan of Taiwanese Band FIR is a huge U2 fan.

• Popular Korean Actress Kim Hye Soo is a fan, and named one of her dogs The Edge! (Link is in Korean)

• Will.i.Am is producing the international debut album of Korean girl group 2NE1, probably at the same time he's working on U2's new album. (Link)

• Jaeson Ma, a pastor/rapper who is involved in the Asian Pop Scene, is a fan and went to the Soldier Field Chicago U2360 show.

• Korean Band Cherry Filter once had a website link to U2.com, and they have one song, "Touch The Ruins Inside Me", that has an undeniably Edge-style delay riff: link

• Covers: Some are pretty decent, it's def. interesting to hear.
Utada Hikaru's Cover of With Or Without YouYoon Do Hyun and Kim Sarang GLAY Korean Singer Yi Sung Yol's Cover of One

 

[Jive Turkey]

No need to be intimidated

I'm not familiar with any of the bands you mentioned. The last Asian band that I've ever listened to was Shonen Knife and even then, I only knew a couple songs.
Oh, theres also that song that goes "Woohooo woo hoo hoooo wooohooo woo hoo hoo". I think they're Japanese.

Anyway, maybe post some Youtube links or something to the bands you mentioned

 

[bigbang]

Thanks for your kind reply! Makes me feel at ease. Shonen Knife have got some good stuff, I'll be adding Youtube links any minute.

 

[lazarus]

Shonen Knife was awesome (I saw them back in the early 90's), but you never got into Pizzicato Five?

YouTube - Pizzicato 5 "Baby Portable Rock" (Mexican Rock Mix) HD 1996

 

[Jive Turkey]

^I've never heard that, but I like it

 

[bigbang]

Shonen Knife was awesome (I saw them back in the early 90's), but you never got into Pizzicato Five?

YouTube - Pizzicato 5 "Baby Portable Rock" (Mexican Rock Mix) HD 1996

I've never heard of them but this is pretty sweet!

 

[Jive Turkey]

I also like these guys

YouTube - U900 -Walk Don't Run (Isogabamaware)

again, I only know a couple songs

 

[Jive Turkey]

YouTube - U900 -Diamond Head

 

[bigbang]

Those two music videos sum up so much about Asia to me: you've gotta have your cute animal characters!

 

[u2popmofo]

Utada Hikaru did a fantastic cover of With or Without You years back (which I guarantee Glay were trying to capitalize on). This is the only decent video link I can find of it, just wait for it to start.

With Or Without You (Live)_在线视频观看_土豆网视频 With Or Without You 宇多田光

 

[bigbang]

Utada Hikaru did a fantastic cover of With or Without You years back (which I guarantee Glay were trying to capitalize on). This is the only decent video link I can find of it, just wait for it to start.

With Or Without You (Live)_在线视频观看_土豆网视频 With Or Without You 宇多田光

Thank you so much for finding that, I'll add it to the list if you don't mind. I can't find this on YouTube anymore.

 

[u2popmofo]

I believe it was pulled for copyright reasons, you can only find audio links on Youtube now.

Completely unrelated to U2 wise.... While I suppose they could have been considered an American group, even though their singers were Japanese, I remember thinking this was one of the funniest things ever when I first saw it on 120 Minutes back in the day:

YouTube - Cibo Matto - Know Your Chicken (Video)

 

[bigbang]

I believe it was pulled for copyright reasons, you can only find audio links on Youtube now.

Completely unrelated to U2 wise.... While I suppose they could have been considered an American group, even though their singers were Japanese, I remember thinking this was one of the funniest things ever when I first saw it on 120 Minutes back in the day:

Just from looking at the awful font of those titles, I knew this was going to
be the most surreal thing I've seen all day. Totally fits with the videos Jive Turkey posted.

 

[u2popmofo]

Cibo Matto were actually relatively "popular", at least in the then alternative / indie circles.

I lived in Japan for a few years in the late '90's. I admittedly didn't listen to a ton of J-pop though, so I really only knew what was on the radio at the moment. Not surprisingly, essentially none of those groups are still popular. This song was literally on the radio constantly, and you heard it every where you went for half a year. It's actually sorta hard to listen to for me because of that, as it brings back weird memories:

Kiroro - 'Nagai Aida'
YouTube - 長い間/KIRORO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Len_AlCXWnA

 

[bono_212]

I know exactly two Japanese songs, one from when I went to Japan and it was my host sister's favorite song:

YouTube - Hanamizuki - Hitoto Yo

I had a hard time finding that just now because I couldn't remember the name, and searching for Japanese lyrics isn't the easiest thing, but there it is. Not a stellar song, but it makes me happy. We actually sang it together (my host sisters and I) at a karaoke bar the night before I left them to go to Kyoto with the rest of my class. I'm not 100% positive that's the original version of the song, there are a shit ton of covers, and it's been a while since I've heard it. If anyone knows, feel free to correct.

And then, this was a song on a mixtape my Japanese teacher gave me at the end of my senior year (he didn't make it for me, but he gave it to me because it was my favorite one that he would play during our exams). And it seems to have disappeared off of my computer, and that makes me really sad, because I haven't the slightest clue who sang it or what the name was .

 

[u2popmofo]

These are the only bands I remember liking while I was there.

YouTube - the brilliant green ~~冷たい花 [HD]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5sPFmPDb1k

Can't find a proper video of this, but I"m sure it exists somewhere.

YouTube - globe Wanderin Destiny

 

[kingofsorrow]

my favorite asian artist is utada. when she did her cover off WOWY, i was blown away.

these guys aren't too bad either

YouTube - L'Arc~en~Ciel - MY HEART DRAWS A DREAM

 

[MissVelvetDress_75]

Utada Hikaru did a fantastic cover of With or Without You years back (which I guarantee Glay were trying to capitalize on). This is the only decent video link I can find of it, just wait for it to start.

With Or Without You (Live)_在线视频观看_土豆网视频 With Or Without You 宇多田光

 

[lazarus]

So has Lance not appeared in this thread yet because he is:

1. Not home yet
2. Unconscious from fainting after discovering it
3. Masturbating himself into oblivion to the various posted clips

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

One of my best friends was big into the Japanese animated series FLCL (fooly cooly, however the hell it's pronounced) and the music on the show was done by a Japanese band called The Pillows.

He started collecting some of their music, and I'd have to hear it in the car, and I eventually started liking some of it.

YouTube - FLCL-Hybrid Rainbow
YouTube - Little Buster - The Pillows

Those are the two songs that I really remember. I still like both of them, after having just revisited them for the first time in years. I don't know how big The Pillows actually are/were in Japan, and I wasn't into them nearly as much as my friend was, but that's about all my knowledge of Asian popular music.

FLCL - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Pillows - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[bigbang]

Definently lovin' everything that's been posted. Brilliant Green are great, they remind me in an odd way of Oasis around the time of What's The Story (Morning Glory), L'arc is classic and The Pillows! Very strange band but groovy tracks.

 

[Canadiens1131]

17/f/cali here.

Listen 2 a lot of jpop n jrock. Love InuYasha!!

Thinkin' about teaching ESL in Japan once I finish my Forensic Science degree at community college. Feel like North american guys just don't understand me.

 

[IWasBored]

YouTube - Little Buster - The Pillows
]

this sounds like something i heard once which i guess must have made me happy. that's the only explanation i can come up with as to why i might like it as much as i do right now.





i like these guys:

only chinese punk rock band i've ever heard of, but i can't say i've put a lot of effort into looking into chinese punk rock. saw em live a couple times a few years ago. they were good.

 

[kingofsorrow]

in know he might not qualify as j-pop, but ryuichi sakamoto is phenomenal artist as well.

 

[bigbang]

Brain Failure - I just listened to their Coming Down to Beijing song
and I'm totally hooked! And it has the dude from The Mighty
Mighty Bosstones on it! Epic win.

I've heard of Ryuichi Sakamoto, didn't he win an Oscar for his
work on "The Last Emperor"?

Bono_212, "Hanamizuki - Hitoto Yo" reminds me a little of Angela Aki,
def worth a listen!

 

[bigbang]

Speaking of L'arc-En-Ciel, this song's guitar riff sounds like its from U2's "Streets":

Sunadokei

Thought I'd throw in some Korean stuff into the mix:

Here's that Korean rock song by Cherry Filter with a definitive Edge style-delay riff (starting at 0:09)Cherry Filter - Touch The Ruins Inside Me

Loveholic - Sad Story

Seo Taiji - I Know

and something much poppier but still melodic:

Big Bang - Sunset Glow

 

[IWasBored]

Brain Failure - I just listened to their Coming Down to Beijing song
and I'm totally hooked! And it has the dude from The Mighty
Mighty Bosstones on it! Epic win.

 

[cobl04]

so one average Saturday night I was flicking between Spin City (not nearly as funny as I remembered), some shithouse movie called Without a Paddle and RAGE, the music video clip program that's been running on ABC for years and years and years. Anyway Foals were the guest programmers this night, and they played this song:

YouTube - ‪cornelius「Drop」‬‏

I was intrigued by the video and thought the song was pretty good, so I got the trusty iphone out and shazam'd it, and then read up a bit, and then illegally downloaded the album Point, which contains this song.

Anyway turns out the album is pretty fucking great! I was delighted. If you're in the mood for an eclectic, sometimes instrumental/ambient, sometimes hard rocking, sometimes weird album, you can do a lot worse than listen to this.

 

[rileybug]

Sorry I never found this thread before

I'm a longtime U2 die-hard since the 80's, and I LOVE JPOP and JROCK!

I absolutely love L'arc en Ciel, they are my favorite, and HYDE's solo work as well.

I also love Utada Hikaru, TM Revolution, Gackt, Yoko Kanno, B'z, Glay, Gazette, Fukuyama Masaharu, I could go on and on, but I probably have more Japanese music on my iPod now than any other type. You are not alone.

I got into Japanese music from watching Japanese TV dramas, and after watching them I started downloading the soundtracks, which had a lot of JPOP on them of course. From there I got into Japanese rock as well.

I am currently heavy into Korean dramas, but haven't found KPOP to be quite as interesting to me yet. Japan has all the Johnny's boy bands, but it seems boy bands and girl bands are even more prominent in Korea than Japan and I just can't get into that stuff.

What are some good Korean rock bands?