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J-pop (Japanese: ジェイポップ, jeipoppu; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviation for Japanese pop), natively also known simply as pops (ポップス, poppusu), is a musical genre that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the s.^[1] Modern J-pop has its roots in traditional Japanese music, but significantly in spop and rock music, such as The Beatles and The Beach Boys, which led to Japanese rock bands such as Happy End fusing rock with Japanese music in the early s.^[2] J-pop was further defined by new wave and crossoverfusion acts of the late s such as Yellow Magic Orchestra and Southern All Stars,^[3] then Eurobeat in the early s, namely Namie Amuro.^[4]

Eventually, J-pop replaced kayōkyoku ("Lyric Singing Music", a term for Japanese pop music from the s to the s) in the Japanese music scene.^[5] The term was coined by the Japanese media to distinguish Japanese music from foreign music and now refers to most Japanese popular music. Popular styles of Japanese pop music included technopop during the s–s, city pop in the s, and Shibuya-kei in the s.

Form and definition[edit]

The origin of modern J-pop is said to be Japanese-language rock music inspired by the likes of The Beatles.^[2] Unlike the Japanese music genre called kayōkyoku, J-pop uses a special kind of pronunciation, which is similar to that of English.^[6] One notable singer to do so is Keisuke Kuwata, who pronounced the Japanese word karada ("body") as kyerada.^[6] Additionally, unlike Western music, the major second (sol and la) was usually not used in Japanese music, except art music, before rock music became popular in Japan.^[7] When the Group Sounds genre, which was inspired by Western rock, became popular, Japanese pop music adopted the major second, which was used in the final sounds of The Beatles' song "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and The Rolling Stones' song "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction".^[7] Although Japanese pop music changed from music based on Japanese pentatonic scale and distortional tetrachord to the more occidental music over time, music that drew from the traditional Japanese singing style remained popular (such as that of Ringo Shiina).^[7]

At first, the term J-pop was used only for Western-style musicians in Japan, such as Pizzicato Five and Flipper's Guitar, just after Japanese radio station J-Wave was established.^[5] On the other hand, Mitsuhiro Hidaka of AAA from Avex Trax said that J-pop was originally derived from the Eurobeat genre.^[8] However, the term became a blanket term, covering other music genres—such as the majority of Japanese rock music of the s.^[5]

In , the Japanese subsidiary of Tower Records defined J-pop as all Japanese music belonging to the Recording Industry Association of Japan except Japanese independent music (which they term "J-indie"); their stores began to use additional classifications, such as J-club, J-punk, J-hip-hop, J-reggae, J-anime, and Visual kei by , after independent musicians started to release works via major labels.^[9] Ito Music City, a Japanese record store, adopted expanded classifications including Group Sounds, idol of the s–s, enka, folk and established musicians of the s–s, in addition to the main J-pop genres.^[9]

Whereas rock musicians in Japan usually hate the term "pop", Taro Kato, a member of pop punk band Beat Crusaders, pointed out that the encoded pop music, like pop art, was catchier than "J-pop" and he also said that J-pop was the pops (ポップス, poppusu) music, memorable for its frequency of airplay, in an interview when the band completed their first full-length studio album under a major label, P.O.A.: Pop on Arrival, in ^[10] Because the band did not want to perform J-pop music, their album featured the s Pop of MTV.^[10] According to his fellow band member Toru Hidaka, the s music that influenced him (such as Nirvana, Hi-Standard, and Flipper's Guitar) was not listened to by fans of other music in Japan at that time.^[10]

In contrast to this, although many Japanese rock musicians until the late s disrespected the kayōkyoku music, many of Japanese rock bands of the s—such as Glay—assimilated kayōkyoku into their music.^[5] After the late s, breakbeat and samplers also changed the Japanese music scene, where expert drummers had played good rhythm because traditional Japanese music did not have the rhythm based on rock or blues.^[5]

Hide of Greeeen openly described their music genre as J-pop. He said, "I also love rock, hip hop and breakbeats, but my field is consistently J-pop. For example, hip hop musicians learn 'the culture of hip hop' when they begin their career. We are not like those musicians and we love the music as sounds very much. Those professional people may say 'What are you doing?' but I think that our musical style is cool after all. The good thing is good."^[11]

History[edit]

s–s: Ryūkōka[edit]

Ichiro Fujiyama, influential ryūkōka singer

Japanese popular music, called ryūkōka before being split into enka and poppusu,^[12] has origins in the Meiji period, but most Japanese scholars consider the Taishō period to be the actual starting point of ryūkōka, as it is the era in which the genre first gained nationwide popularity.^[13][14] By the Taishō period, Western musical techniques and instruments, which had been introduced to Japan in the Meiji period, were widely used.^[14] Influenced by Western genres such as jazz and blues, ryūkōka incorporated Western instruments such as the violin, harmonica, and guitar. However, the melodies were often written according to the traditional Japanese pentatonic scale.^[13] In the s, Ichiro Fujiyama released popular songs with his tenor voice.^[15] Fujiyama sang songs with a lower volume than opera through the microphone (the technique is sometimes called crooning).^{[16][dubious &#; discuss]}

Jazz musician Ryoichi Hattori attempted to produce Japanese native music which had a "flavor" of blues.^[17] He composed Noriko Awaya's hit song "Wakare no Blues" (lit. "Farewell Blues").^[18] Awaya became a famous popular singer and was called "Queen of Blues" in Japan.^[19] Due to pressure from the Imperial Army during the war, the performance of jazz music was temporarily halted in Japan. Hattori, who stayed in Shanghai at the end of the war, produced hit songs such as Shizuko Kasagi's "Tokyo Boogie-Woogie" and Ichiro Fujiyama's "Aoi Sanmyaku" (lit. "Blue Mountain Range").^[18] Hattori later became known as the "Father of Japanese poppusu".^[18] The United States soldiers—who were occupying Japan at the time—and the Far East Network introduced a number of new musical styles to the country.^[20]Boogie-woogie, Mambo, Blues, and Country music were performed by Japanese musicians for the American troops. Chiemi Eri's cover song "Tennessee Waltz" (), Hibari Misora's "Omatsuri Mambo" (), and Izumi Yukimura's cover song "Till I Waltz Again with You" () also became popular. Foreign musicians and groups, including JATP and Louis Armstrong, visited Japan to perform. In the mids, "Jazz Kissa" (ジャズ喫茶, Jazu Kissa, literally "Jazz cafe") became a popular venue for live jazz music.^[20] Jazz had a large impact on Japanese poppusu, though "authentic" jazz did not become the mainstream genre of music in Japan.^[21] In the late s and early s, Japanese pop was polarized between urban kayō and modern enka.^[22]

Modern J-pop is also sometimes believed to have had its roots with Chinese immigrant jazz musicians who had fled Shanghai during the communist takeover, and were collaborating with the U.S.-occupied forces to help introduce s variety of new genres to the Japanese public. In , when the communists took over and established the People's Republic of China on the mainland, one of the first actions taken by the government was to denounce popular music (specifically both Chinese pop music, known as Mandopop, and Western pop music) as decadent music, and for decades afterwards the Communist Party would promote Chinese revolutionary songs while suppressing Chinese folk songs, Chinese pop songs and Western pop songs.^[23] Dissatisfied with ChairmanMao Zedong's new music policies, a number of Shanghainese jazz musicians fled to the British colony of Hong Kong and established Cantopop, which is pop music sung in the Cantonese dialect of Chinese.^[24] However, a few musicians instead settled in Japan, where they became members of the Far East Network and collaborated with the American soldiers to help expose the Japanese public to a wide variety of western genres. This eventually lead to the establishment of modern Japanese pop music, known as kayōkyoku.

s: Origin of modern style[edit]

Rokabirī Boom and Wasei pops[edit]

During the s and 60s, many Kayōkyoku groups and singers gained experience performing on US military bases in Japan. Around the same time, Yakuza manager Kazuo Taoka reorganized the concert touring industry by treating the performers as professionals. Many of these performers later became key participants in the J-pop genre.^[25]

In , Japan's rock and roll craze began, due to the country music group known as Kosaka Kazuya and the Wagon Masters; their rendition of Elvis Presley's song "Heartbreak Hotel" helped to fuel the trend. The music was called "rockabilly" (or rokabirī) by the Japanese media.^[26] Performers learned to play the music and translate the lyrics of popular American songs, resulting in the birth of Cover Pops (カヴァーポップス, Kavā poppusu).^[27] The rockabilly movement would reach its peak when 45, people saw the performances by Japanese singers at the first Nichigeki Western Carnival in one week of February ^[28]

Kyu Sakamoto, a fan of Elvis, made his stage début as a member of the band The Drifters at the Nichigeki Western Carnival in ^[29] His song "Ue wo Muite Arukō" ("Let's Look Up and Walk"), known in other parts of the world as "Sukiyaki", was released to the United States in It was the first Japanese song to reach the Number One position in the United States, spending four weeks in Cash Box and three weeks in Billboard. It also received a gold record for selling one million copies.^[30] During this period, female duo The Peanuts also became popular, singing a song in the movie Mothra.^[31] Their songs, such as "Furimukanaide" ("Don't Turn Around") were later covered by Candies on their album Candy Label.^[32] Artists like Kyu Sakamoto and The Peanuts were called Wasei Pops (和製ポップス, Wasei poppusu, "Japan-made pop").^[27][33]

After frequently changing members, Chosuke Ikariya re-formed The Drifters in under the same name. At a Beatles concert in , they acted as curtain raisers, but the audience generally objected.^[34] Eventually, The Drifters became popular in Japan, releasing "Zundoko-Bushi" ("Echoic word tune") in ^[34] Along with enka singer Keiko Fuji, they won "the award for mass popularity" at the 12th Japan Record Awards in ^[35] Keiko Fuji's album Shinjuku no Onna/'Enka no Hoshi' Fuji Keiko no Subete ("Woman in Shinjuku/'Star of Enka' All of Keiko Fuji") established an all-time record in the history of the Japanese Oricon chart by staying in the Number One spot for 20 consecutive weeks.^[36] The Drifters later came to be known as television personalities and invited idols such as Momoe Yamaguchi and Candies to their television program.^[34]

Ereki boom and group sounds[edit]

Nippon Budokan, legendary place for Japanese musicians

The Ventures visited Japan in , causing the widespread embrace of the electric guitar called the "Ereki boom".^[37]Yūzō Kayama and Takeshi Terauchi became famous players of electric guitar.^[38] In , the Beatles came to Japan and sang their songs at the Nippon Budokan, becoming the first rock music band to perform a concert there.^[39] The public believed that the Beatles would cause juvenile delinquency.^[2] The Japanese government deployed riot police against young rock fans at the Nippon Budokan.^[40]John Lennon felt that they were not well regarded in Japan, but Beatlemania has never really died there.^[41] The Beatles inspired Japanese bands, creating the group sounds genre in Japan.^[2]

Most Japanese musicians felt that they could not sing rock in Japanese, so the popularity of Japanese rock gradually declined.^[2] As a result, there were debates such as "Should we sing rock music in Japanese?" and "Should we sing in English?" between Happy End and Yuya Uchida about Japanese rock music.^[42] This confrontation was called "Japanese-language rock controversy" (日本語ロック論争, Nihongo Rokku Ronsō).^[43] Happy End proved that rock music could be sung in Japanese, and one theory holds that their music became one of the origins of modern J-pop.^[2] The Beatles also inspired Eikichi Yazawa, who grew up in an underprivileged family, his father dying when he was a child.^[44]Keisuke Kuwata, who grew up in a dual-income family, was influenced by the Beatles through his older sister, then an avid fan.^[45]Yōsui Inoue was also a fan of The Beatles, but he said that his music style was not particularly related to them.^[46] After Happy End disbanded in , Haruomi Hosono, a former member, began a solo career and later formed Yellow Magic Orchestra.^[47]

s: Development of "new music"[edit]

Fōku and new music[edit]

In the early s, some Japanese music became influenced by the American folk music revival; this was called fōku (フォーク, "folk"), although the genre of music was mostly covers of original songs.^[48] In the late s, the Folk Crusaders became famous and the underground music around that time became called fōku.^[49] As with enka, Japanese fōku singers Wataru Takada performed social satires.^[50]

In the early s, the emphasis shifted from fōku's simple songs with a single guitar accompaniment to more complex musical arrangements known as new music (ニューミュージック, nyū myūjikku).^[51] Instead of social messages, the songs focused on more personal messages, such as love. In , singer-songwriter Takuro Yoshida produced a hit song "Kekkon Shiyouyo" ("Let's marry") without decent television promotion, though fans of fōku music became very angry because his music seemed to be a mersh^{[clarification needed]} music.^[52] The highest-selling single of the year was the enka song by Shiro Miya and the Pinkara Trio, "Onna no Michi".^[52] The song eventually sold over &#;million copies.^[53] On December 1, , Yōsui Inoue released the album Kōri no Sekai, which topped the Oricon charts and remained in Top 10 for weeks.^[54] It spent 13 consecutive weeks in the number-one spot, and eventually established a still-standing record of a total 35 weeks at the number-one position on the Oricon charts.^[36][55]Yumi Matsutoya, formerly known by her maiden name Yumi Arai, also became a notable singer-songwriter during this period In October , she released a single "Ano Hi ni Kaeritai" ("I want to return to that day"), making it her first number-one single on the Oricon charts.^[56]Miyuki Nakajima, Amii Ozaki, and Junko Yagami were also popular singer-songwriters during this period. At first, only Yumi Matsutoya was commonly called a new music artist, but the concept of Japanese fōku music changed around that time.^[57] In , Chage and Aska made their debut, and folk band Off Course (with singer Kazumasa Oda) released a hit song "Sayonara" ("Good-bye").

Emergence of Japanese rock and electronic music[edit]

Rock music remained a relatively underground music genre in the early s in Japan,^[51] though Happy End managed to gain mainstream success fusing rock with traditional Japanese music.^[2] Several Japanese musicians began experimenting with electronic music, including electronic rock. The most notable was the internationally renowned Isao Tomita, whose album Electric Samurai: Switched on Rock featured electronic synthesizer renditions of contemporary rock and pop songs.^[58] Other early examples of electronic rock records include Inoue Yousui's folk rock and pop rock album Ice World () and Osamu Kitajima's progressivepsychedelic rock album Benzaiten (), both of which involved contributions from Haruomi Hosono,^[59][60] who later started the electronic music group "Yellow Magic Band" (later known as Yellow Magic Orchestra) in ^[61]

In , Eikichi Yazawa's rock single "Jikan yo Tomare" ("Time, Stop") became a smash hit that sold over , copies.^[62] He is regarded as one of the pioneers of Japanese rock.^[63] He sought worldwide success, and in he signed a contract with the Warner Pioneer record company and moved to the West Coast of the United States. He recorded the albums Yazawa, It's Just Rock n' Roll, and Flash in Japan, all of which were released worldwide, but were not very commercially successful. Keisuke Kuwata formed the rock band Southern All Stars (SAS), which made their debut in Southern All Stars remains very popular in Japan today.

In the same year, Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) also made their official debut with their self-titled album. The band, whose members were Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto, developed electropop,^[64] or technopop as it is known in Japan,^[65] in addition to pioneering synthpop and electro music.^[66][67] Their album Solid State Survivor reached number one on the Oricon charts in July ,^[68] and went on to sell two million records worldwide.^[69] At around the same time, the YMO albums Solid State Survivor and X∞Multiplies held both the top two spots on the Oricon charts for seven consecutive weeks, making YMO the only band in Japanese chart history to achieve this feat.^[70] Young fans of their music during this period became known as the "YMO Generation" (YMO世代, YMO sedai).^[71][72] YMO had a significant impact on Japanese pop music, which started becoming increasingly dominated by electronic music due to their influence,^[73] and they had an equally large impact on electronic music across the world.^[74][75] Southern All Stars and Yellow Magic Orchestra symbolized the end of New Music and paved the way for the emergence of the J-pop genre in the s.^[3] Both bands, SAS and YMO, would later be ranked at the top of HMV Japan's list of top Japanese musicians of all time.^[76]

s: Fusion with "kayōkyoku"[edit]

City pop[edit]

In the early s, with the spread of car stereos, the term city pop (シティーポップ, shitī poppu) came to describe a type of popular music that had a big city theme.^[77]Tokyo in particular inspired many songs of this form. During this time, music fans and artists in Japan were influenced by album-oriented rock (especially adult contemporary) and crossover (especially jazz fusion).^[77][78] City pop was affected by new music, though its origins have been traced back to the mids, with the work of the Japanese rock band Happy End and its former member Haruomi Hosono,^[79] as well as Tatsuro Yamashita.^[80]

The popularity of city pop declined when the Japanese asset price bubble burst in Its musical characteristics (except its "cultural background") were inherited by s Shibuya-kei musicians such as Pizzicato Five and Flipper's Guitar.^[77]

Growth of the Japanese rock industry[edit]

Throughout the s, rock bands such as Southern All Stars, RC Succession, Anzen Chitai, The Checkers, The Alfee, and The Blue Hearts became popular. Anzen Chitai came from Yosui Inoue's backup band. On December 1, , rock singer Yutaka Ozaki debuted at the age of In , The Alfee became the first artists to play a concert in front of an audience of , people in Japan.^[81] Some Japanese musicians, such as Boøwy, TM Network, and Buck-Tick, were influenced by New Romanticism.^[82]

Boøwy became an especially influential rock band, whose members included singer Kyosuke Himuro and guitarist Tomoyasu Hotei. Their three albums reached number one in , making them the first male artists to have three number-ones within a single year.^[83] Subsequent Japanese rock bands were modeled on this band.^[84] Guitarist Tak Matsumoto, who supported TM Network's concerts, formed rock duo B'z with singer Koshi Inaba in ^[85]

In the late s, girl bandPrincess Princess became a successful pop-rock band. Their singles "Diamonds" and "Sekai de Ichiban Atsui Natsu" ("World's Hottest Summer") were ranked at the number-one and number-two spots, respectively, on the Oricon Yearly Single Charts.^[86]

In the late s, a new trend also emerged in Japanese rock music: the visual kei, a movement notable by male bands who wore makeup, extravagant hair styles, and androgynous costumes. The most successful representatives of the movement are X Japan (formerly known as "X") and Buck-Tick. X Japan released their first album Vanishing Vision on the indie label Extasy Records in ; their album Blue Blood was released on CBS Sony in Blue Blood sold , copies, and their album Jealousy sold over &#;million copies.^[87] Surprisingly, X Japan were a heavy metal band, but guitarist hide later came under the influence of alternative rock, releasing his first solo album Hide Your Face in and launching his successful solo career.^[88]

Golden age, decline and transfiguration of Idols[edit]

In the s, the popularity of female idol singers such as Mari Amachi, Saori Minami, Momoe Yamaguchi, and Candies increased. Momoe Yamaguchi was one of the first kayōkyoku singers to use the special pronunciation characteristic of J-pop.^[6] In , Hiromi Go made his debut with the song "Otokonoko Onnanoko" ("Boy and Girl").^[52] Hiromi Go originally came from Johnny & Associates.^[89]

In , female duo Pink Lady made their debut with the single "Pepper Keibu". They released a record nine consecutive number-one singles.^[90]

In the s, Japanese idols inherited New Music, though the term fell out of usage.^[51]Seiko Matsuda especially adopted song producers of previous generations.^[51] In , her third single "Kaze wa Aki Iro" ("Wind is autumn color") reached the number-one spot on the Oricon charts.^[90]Haruomi Hosono also joined the production of her music.^{[51][verification needed]} She eventually became the first artist to make 24 consecutive number-one singles, breaking Pink Lady's record.^[90]

Other female idol singers achieved significant popularity in the s, such as Akina Nakamori, Yukiko Okada, Kyōko Koizumi, Yoko Minamino, Momoko Kikuchi, Yōko Oginome, Miho Nakayama, Minako Honda, and Chisato Moritaka. Okada received the Best New Artist award from the Japan Record Awards in Nakamori won the Grand Prix award for two consecutive years ( and ), also at the Japan Record Awards; she made a suicide attempt in

Japanese idol band Onyanko Club made their debut in , and produced popular singer Shizuka Kudō. They changed the image of Japanese idols.^[91]

Around , however, people began to be disenchanted with the system for creating idols.^[92] In , idol singer Yukiko Okada's song "Kuchibiru Network" ("Lips' Network"), written by Seiko Matsuda and composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto, became a hit song, but she committed suicide immediately after that.^[93]

Hikaru Genji, one of the Johnny & Associates bands, made their debut in They became a highly influential rollerskating boy band, with some of their members gaining their own fame as they got older. Their song "Paradise Ginga", written by Aska, won the Grand Prix award at the 30th Japan Record Awards in Some of the group's backing dancers later formed SMAP.

The late s also saw the rise of the female duo Wink. They didn't laugh, unlike Japanese idols of former eras. Wink debuted in , surpassing the popularity of the then-most popular female duo, BaBe. Wink's song "Samishii Nettaigyo" won the grand prix award at the 31st Japan Record Awards in

Popular singer Hibari Misora died in , and many kayōkyoku programs, such as The Best Ten, were closed.^[94]

CoCo made their hit debut with the single "Equal Romance" for the hit anime series Ranma ½. Tetsuya Komuro, a member of TM&#;Network, broke Seiko Matsuda's streak of 25 consecutive number-ones by making his single "Gravity of Love" to debut at number-one in November ^[95]

s: Coining of the term "J-pop"[edit]

– Growing market[edit]

In the s, the term J-pop came to refer to all Japanese popular songs except enka.^[5]

During this period, the Japanese music industry sought marketing effectiveness. Notable examples of commercial music from the era were the tie-in music from the agency Being and the follow-on, Tetsuya Komuro's disco music.^[96]

The period between around and was dominated by artists from the Being agency, including B'z, Tube, rushbrookrathbone.co.uk, T-Bolan, Zard, Wands, Maki Ohguro, Deen, and Field of View. They were called the Being System (ビーイング系, Bīingu kei).^[97] Many of those artists topped the charts and established new records,^[97][98] notably B'z, which eventually established a new record for consecutive number-one singles, surpassing Seiko Matsuda's record.^[99] B'z is the Japanese biggest selling artist of all time, according to Oricon charts and RIAJ certifications. On the other hand, Wands, regarded as a pioneer of the "J-pop Boom" of the s, had trouble because member Show Wesugi wanted to play alternative rock/grunge.^[]

Many artists surpassed the two-million-copy mark in the s. Kazumasa Oda's single "Oh! Yeah!/Love Story wa Totsuzen ni", Chage and Aska's single "Say Yes" and single "Yah Yah Yah", Kome Kome Club's single "Kimi ga Iru Dake de", Mr. Children's single "Tomorrow Never Knows" and single "Namonaki Uta", and Globe's single "Departures" are examples of songs that sold more than 2&#;million copies.^[53][]Dreams Come True's album The Swinging Star became the first album to sell over 3&#;million copies in Japan.^[] Mr. Children's album Atomic Heart established a new record, selling &#;million copies on Oricon charts.^[][]

The duo Chage and Aska, who started recording in late , became very popular during this period. They released a string of consecutive hits throughout the early s; in , they took part in MTV Unplugged, making them the first Asian group to do so.^[]

After TM Network disbanded in , Tetsuya Komuro became a serious song producer. The period between and was dominated by dance and techno acts from the "Komuro family" (小室ファミリー, Komuro Famirī), such as TRF, Ryoko Shinohara, Yuki Uchida, Namie Amuro, Hitomi, Globe, Tomomi Kahala, and Ami Suzuki. In that time, Komuro was responsible for 20 hit songs, each selling more than a million copies.^[] While Globe's album Globe sold &#;million copies, establishing a record at the time, Namie Amuro's song "Can You Celebrate?" sold &#;million copies, is the best selling single of all time by the female solo artist in the history of Jpop.^[] His total sales as a song producer reached &#;million copies.^[][] By , Komuro's songs had become less popular. By the middle part of the first decade of the 21st century, Komuro's debt lead him to attempt the sale of his song catalog—which he didn't actually own—to an investor. When the investor found out and sued, Komuro tried to sell the catalog to another investor in order to pay the ,, Japanese yen judgement he owed the first investor.^[]

Namie Amuro, who was arguably the most popular solo singer in the period, came from the "Okinawa Actors School", which also incubated the bands MAX and Speed. At first, while still a part of the Komuro Family, Amuro remained in the dance music genre, but she slowly changed her music style to contemporary R&B and ended her partnership with Tetsuya Komuro.^[]

Komuro's band Globe became a trance band after their album Outernet.^[]

– Commercial peak[edit]

The sales in the Japanese music market continued to increase. In October , Glay released their album Review -The Best of Glay, which sold &#;million copies, breaking Globe's earlier record.^[] However, it was surpassed in the next year by B'z's album B'z The Best "Pleasure", which sold &#;million copies.^[] The Japanese market for physical music sales peaked in , recording sales of ¥,,,^[] In March , Hikaru Utada released her first Japanese album, First Love, which sold &#;million copies, making it the best-selling album in Oricon history.^[]

The late s saw the popularity of rock bands, such as Glay, Luna Sea, and L'Arc-en-Ciel, most of them related to the visual kei movement, though they later changed their style. At the time, rock musicians in Japan were absorbing kayōkyoku music after the genre vanished.^[5] Glay became especially successful, with massive exposure in the media, comparable to that of the most popular pop singers produced by Tetsuya Komuro.^[] In July , Glay played a concert to a record audience of , people at the Makuhari Messe, certified by Guinness World Records as the biggest solo concert in Japan.^[][] In July , L'Arc-en-Ciel released two albums, Arc and Ray, at the same time; they sold over &#;million combined copies in the first week of release.^[]

X Japan announced their disbandment in September and their guitarist hide died in May His funeral had a record attendance of 50, people, breaking the record of Hibari Misora, whose funeral was attended by 42, people.^[] After his death, his single "Pink Spider" and album Ja, Zoo were certified million-sellers by the Recording Industry Association of Japan.^[]

Johnny & Associates produced many all-male groups: SMAP, Tokio, V6, KinKi Kids and Arashi. SMAP hit the J-pop scene in a major way in the s through a combination of TV "Tarento" shows and singles, with one of its singers, Takuya Kimura, becoming a popular actor commonly known as "Kimutaku" in later years.

By the late s, the girl group Speed was very popular; they announced their disbandment in The group returned to the music scene in Another all-female band, Morning Musume, produced by Tsunku, former leader of band Sharam Q became very popular, with a string of releases that were sales hits before even being released. The group's popularity gave origin to the Hello! Project. Following the pattern set a decade before by the s all-female Onyanko Club, Morning Musume spawned several splinter bands.

In the late s and early 21st century, female singers such as Hikaru Utada, Ayumi Hamasaki, Misia, Mai Kuraki, and Ringo Shiina became chart-toppers who write their own songs or their own lyrics. Hikaru Utada is the daughter of Keiko Fuji, a popular singer of the s. Ayumi Hamasaki was made Utada's contemporary rival, though both women claimed the "competition" was merely a creation of their record companies and the media.^[]

Zeebra introduced hip hop music to Japanese mainstream music.^[] In , Zeebra was featured by Dragon Ash in their song titled "Grateful Days", which topped the Oricon charts.^[]

s: Diversification[edit]

Avex group[edit]

Ayumi Hamasaki won Grand Prix awards for three consecutive years—the first time in Japan Record Award history—between and ^[] Although Hamasaki became very famous, Tom Yoda, then-chairman of her record company Avex Group, argued that her tactics were risky, because Avex disregarded the modern portfolio theory.^[] This concern disappeared when the company's other singers (such as Ai Otsuka, Kumi Koda, and Exile) also reached a certain level of popularity in the mids under Yoda's management policy.^[]BoA, a Korean singer also a part of Avex group, also achieved high levels of success although being Korean in Japan. She opened the Hallyu door to other Korean artists so that they may achieve varying levels of success in Japan as well.

Chaku-uta[edit]

In December , the digital-download market for ringtone songs (着うた, chaku-uta) was created by mobile-phone company au.^[] The market for digital downloads grew rapidly, and Hikaru Utada's song "Flavor of Life" sold over 7&#;million downloaded copies.^[] In October , EMI Music Japan announced that Utada was the world's first artist to have 10&#;million digital sales in one year.^[] According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's digital music report, Thelma Aoyama's digital single "Soba ni Iru ne" and Greeeen's digital single "Kiseki" sold &#;million copies and &#;million copies, respectively, in the download rankings.^[]

Japanese hip hop and urban pop[