So who can recommend some good J-Pop or J-Rock?

[Yancakes]

I can never emphasize how amazing Shiina Ringo is. The playlist at my wedding (which, admittedly, was over 4 hours long), had about four Shiina Ringo songs on it. Between her solo and joint albums, and her rock band Tokyo Jihen, she plays jrock, jpop, jazz, blues, and a few other genres to boot.

Dir en Grey are fantastic if you avoid their most rececnt stuff- anything released after, say, 2005 or so just comes off as a crappy Japanese version of KoRn. Their earlier stuff is pretty creative metal.

Speaking of metal, Volcano are a GREAT speed/thrash band. Fast, hard and aggressive. Good stuff. X Japan were mentioned earlier on in this thread, too, if you want something that sounds a bit more vintage.

There's also a few Japanese based bands that sing mostly or partially in English. Guitar Wolf is one of my top favourite bands. If you like punk, and like LOUD punk, you'll like them. They open and close most of their songs with feedback, and on top of that they have a great movie called Wild Zero- one of the best zombie movies of all time.

Finally, there's Sigh, one of the most creative death metal bands I've ever heard and another one of my favourites.

[J T]

This is a crazy video of a live performance from a completely fabricated j-pop star. Miku Hatsune is not a real person. Her voice is created using the Yamaha Vocaloid technology that allows you to type in lyrics and program melodies that the software will then sing back. Sega created a hologram of Miku Hatsune's anime representation and had "her" perform live in concert.

[Breetai]

The boobie song from Radwimps entertains me.^[[][

[Czernobog]

I like these guys just because they're a bit different and I kinda dig it:

[Betamax001]

Well most of my favorite Jrock bands, so i will mention two other people I like: T.M. Revolution and Malice Mizer. TMR did some songs for Gundam Seed including Invoke ( I also really like the track Albireo ( and his song he did for RuroKen ( My favorite LP by him is Coordinate. It was at one point released in the USA so it shouldn't be too hard to find.

Malice Mizer is nothing like TMR. Merveilles is probably their best album. and their later single Best of Blood are probably my favorite

[Croooow!]

I was really into Japanese music in high school and back then my favorite was Dir en grey. They've definitely become a Nu Metal band and since I am no longer a fan of that genre I can only listen to their early stuff. I also highly recommend X Japan, Art of Life is one of my favorite songs but I haven't listened to it in years as I simply don't have 30 minutes to listen to a song like I used to.

Malice Mizer is nothing like TMR. Merveilles is probably their best album. and their later single Best of Blood are probably my favorite

I loved Malice Mizer as well. Beast of Blood still impresses me but I was also a fan of their lighter stuff like Syunikiss and Madrigal. Did you check out Moi Dix Mois? Shadow's Temple and Monophobia are great and definitely feel like late Malice Mizer.

As for J-Pop I suggest you check out M-Flo and Def Tech. They have more hip hop influences but they are really catchy without irritating vocals. Glay's song Scream is another one of my favorites and it's one of those hip hop/rock mashups: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9wHA7OFUPY

[J T]

I've been trying to listen to some of this music again. Here's a few fun, super-poppy songs:

Perfume: Laser Beam
Morning Masume: Jyosei Kashimashi Monogatari
AKB48: Everyday

[BoneSnapDeez]

I really like Luna Sea.

I also dig X Japan, along with a bunch of other random Japanese hardcore and extreme metal bands (Original_Name already covered all that pretty thoroughly).

[pierrot]

Perfume: Laser Beam

I got HEAVILY into Perfume (mostly Nocchi) back in my Senior year of college. (Consequently Capsule, COLTEMONIKHA and Suzuki Ami as well.) Lazer Beam is kinda meh, to me. All of their stuff is pretty 'meh' to me now, but for anyone who actually wanted to investigate Perfume, I'd recommend starting with Polyrhythm. After that obligatory track, the good stuff, is Ceramic Girl, Computer City, Love the World, Fushizen na Girl, Spice, Perfect Star Perfect Style, The Best Thing. Fake It--. (I could recommend more from them, but I'll stop there.)

Overall, Capsule is a far better act than Perfume, but Perfume has been extremely popular for the last four years or so, so they're a bit more accessible.

I'm going to recommend my old standby for J-pop: Utada Hikaru. I've always respected her as a bilingual act who also writes and composes all of her own music. (Aside from a handful of tracks.) I've always found her monstrous success in Japan to be kind of peculiar considering how unlike other Japanese artists her music tends to be. (Mid to later career, that is.)

A lot of people like UVERworld. I got really tired of them, though.

I used to listen to a lot of Visual Kei in high school too, and one group not many people outside of Japan (even in Japan) know of is Janne De Arc. They're a much more pop styled rock compared to some of the harder Visual Kei acts, but they're still pretty good.

YUKI is kind of a Bjork-esque singer.

Zwei is kind of a cool, novelty, girl duo rock band.

Ikimono Gakari is another group that I was really into for a while, and then kind of didn't care about anymore. Still some good, semi-folksy pop.

Nakashima Mika is a really great singer who does a lot of Jazz inspired stuff.

He's an old classic, but Oda Kazumasa has a really unique voice, and I enjoy a lot of his singles.

I agree with others that Hirasawa Susumu is excellent, also.

[MrPopo]

I'm a fan of Scandal: