 | | A French-named yet Japanese rock act, L'Arc-en-Ciel came together in 1991, formed by bassist Tetsuya Ogawa. |
 | | Dir en Grey have become the top band of the post-visual kei era, especially for the Western audience -- in the 2000s they were arguably the most successful metal act without English lyrics since Rammstein (though they never rivaled the popularity of the Germans). |
 | | Gackt, also known as Gackt Camui, is Japan's polyglot pop/rock star, forging a career in the 2000s with his hard-rocking but slick songs performed in Japanese, English, French, Korean, Cantonese, and Mandarin. |
 | | Asian Kung-Fu Generation are one of the most successful indie rock bands of Japan ("indie" standing for the genre, not the recording label), with their Weezer/punk tinged sound enjoying a popularity that even Weezer themselves hardly ever had on their side of the Pacific. |
 | | No superlative seems too great in describing the success achieved by Ayumi Hamasaki in the decade since her debut in 1998. |
 | | She dominates the charts in Japan whenever she releases a single or album, but to call her a J-pop singer ignores Utada's American roots and her desire to break all the rules of the genre. |
 | | One of the top J-rock bands of the mid-2000s, Orange Range achieved fame and multiple animé credits invitations due to their ability to carefully interlace heavy riffs and commercial hip-hop elements in their predominantly pop/rock songs. |
 | | T.M. Revolution (born Takanori Nishikawa) is something of an heir to the Japanese synth rock megastars TMN. |
 | | Formed in Japan's northernmost province of Hokkaido at a time when most of their Tokyo contemporaries were in thrall to the sounds of Seattle, Japanese three-piece the Pillows sidestepped the loud-soft dynamic to provide a more wholesome take on the alternative rock scene, inspired by the lyrical folk-rock of Simon & Garfunkel and classic British pop, from the Beatles to the Jam. |
 | | Industrial rock and nu metal band D'espairsRay were founded and have risen to popularity in Japan, but have spent quite a while courting Western audiences, with some degree of success. |
 | | Members of the Japanese visual kei movement of the 2000s, Mucc have managed to stand out from the rest of the pack due to their flexible approach to songwriting, which has incorporated nu-metal, industrial, technical thrash, and even disco, all laden with catchy hooks. |
 | | Yoko Kanno is the closest person to being the international face of the anime music industry, thanks to her involvement with high-profile projects such as Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell. |
 | | Puffy AmiYumi are a Japanese pop group who have achieved the status of a minor industry in their homeland, where their records have sold over fourteen million units, they've successfully marketed a dizzying variety of merchandise (from the traditional T-shirts and souvenir books to dolls, bow ties, and underwear) and starred in not one but two successful television shows. |
 | | Alice Nine are an exemplary J-rock band, combining some heavy guitars with pop hooks, emotional singing, and a general '80s rock influence, as well as the "visual kei" image, i. |
 | | The roots of High and Mighty Color emerged via a Metallica cover band that played the clubs of Okinawa in the early 2000s, entertaining the soldiers of the (in)famous U. |
 | | South Korean vocalist BoA is a rarity in that she is as big a star in Japan, Asia's largest music market, as she is in her homeland. |
 | | After starting his career as lead guitarist for the metal group X-Japan, Hide (real name: Hideto Matsumoto) went on to become an iconic musician in Japan during the 1990s. |
 | | Luna Sea were the definitive visual kei band of the '90s, rivaling even X-Japan, with whom they had a master-pupil relationship -- two members of X-Japan, which itself split in mid-'90s, discovered Luna Sea in 1990. |
 | | Glay rank among Japan's most successful artists, having a knack for effective pop/rock songs that allowed the band to sell 35 million records in less than a decade and a half (and that's to say nothing of the other merchandise, with which the band is proficient even by Japanese standards). |
 | | With roots in jazz and classic R&B and music employing touches of techno, the Japanese pop/rockers Dreams Come True became one of the country's biggest stars in the '90s, when they sold most of the total 50 million units they shifted during their career. |
 | | Kumi Koda is a J-pop singer who had some moderate chart success in the United States with her single "Take Back. |
 | | Tokyo's Do as Infinity enjoyed a six-year streak in the upper echelons of the pop charts before disbanding in 2006. |
 | | Named after the famed all-boys academy in England that gained late-20th century notoriety for being the school that the members of Radiohead attended, Abingdon Boys School (also known as a. |
 | | Namie Amuro is Japanese pop's most resilient idol. Debuting in 1992 with the all-girl five-piece Super Monkey's, where she first caught the attention of Tetsuya Komuro, the producer/songwriter who would go on to shape her early career, Amuro has bounced back from hurdles that have felled lesser J-pop idols (namely raising a family and divorce) to remain on top. |
 | | Yui's rise to Japanese stardom is as simple in retelling as it was difficult in execution, deserving a manga adaptation or a movie of its own. |
 | | Formed in 1997 by two friends at Toyko's Aoyama Gakuin University, singer/guitarist Kumi and guitarist/bassist/keyboardist Naoki Sato spent a few years self-releasing their music before they were signed to Japanese label Victory in 1999. |
 | | Mika Nakashima became one of the prime challengers to Ayumi Hamasaki, the undisputed queen of Japanese pop of the '90s. |
 | | |
 | | Known primarily as a voice actress for a series of massive anime hits in Japan, Aya Hirano carved out a small side career as a singer, as many successful voice actresses have. |
 | | Originally formed in 1979 as a straight up heavy metal act, France's Nightmare would see their fortunes flag by 1987, and the band went on hiatus until reforming in 1999, as a more power metal-centric band. |
 | | Nami Tamaki's energetic techno-pop, which infuses the sound of Madonna and Britney Spears with a dose of Japanese dramatics, proved a great fit for the anime/gaming industry, and so her success can be largely credited to such high-profile cartoon series as Gundam SEED and D. |
 | | Japanese dance-rockers Flow are the top anime credits band, recognized in both hemispheres for their work for such mainstays of the Japanese cartoon industry as Naruto, Eureka Seven, and Code Geass. |
 | | The fact that B'z are the biggest rock act in Japan and the entirety of Asia is well evidenced by their induction into the Hollywood Rock Walk -- they are the only band from Asia to get this honor. |
 | | The Brilliant Green are a rock trio from Kyoto, Japan. Comprised of Tomoko Kawase (vocals), Shunsaku Okuda (bass), and Ryo Matsui (guitar), the Brilliant Green are rounded out on their recordings and in live performances with various drummers, guitarists, and keyboard players. |
 | | Nominally a quartet of dentists (with one still a dental student), the vocal group Greeeen began recording while all were students at a dental school in Fukushima, a couple of hours from Tokyo by train. |
 | | Ayaka is a J-pop artist specializing in acoustic music with bluesy elements -- both Sheryl Crow and Japanese pop stars Hirai Ken and Dream Come True are often named as influences. |
 | | Beat Crusaders (abbreviated as BECR) are a band with the slightly off-kilter approach to commercial rock, mixing synth pop and punk in their music and practicing a postmodern gimmick in their promo shoots, always covering their faces with portraits of themselves done on a dot matrix printer. |
 | | As a qualified kindergarten teacher, it's little surprise that Osaka-born singer/songwriter Ai Otsuka was able to make a connection with young Japanese music fans so quickly into her career. |
 | | Named after the Japanese word for storm, Arashi were meant to take the world by storm, and they did that, at least for its East Asian part. |
 | | With their combination of hip-hop and club music and an assured pop sensibility, m-flo have clocked up considerable sales in Japan since debuting in 1999. |
 | | Bump of Chicken was a highly successful Japanese rock act that formed in 1994 for a high school "cultural festival. |
 | | One of the nation's leading bands, Japanese pop/rockers Spitz sold more than 20 million records (albums and singles combined) over the course of their career and scored no less than 14 number one hits on the Oricon charts, and are still showing no signs of letting up. |
 | | A J-pop take on the Menudo style of running a pop group, Morning Musume are more the product of their mastermind, producer and manager Tsunku, than of the group's individual members. |
 | | Nana Mizuki is part of the large contingent of Japanese pop stars who began among the ranks of anime voice actors. |
 | | One of the legends of the Japanese rock world, Tomoyasu Hotei was one of the founding members of the seminal J-rock outfit Boowy, and later became a successful solo artist, collaborator, and actor. |
 | | V6 hit the Japanese charts in 1996 with its Greeting LP, recorded for Avex Trax. Nature Rhythm followed in 1997. |
 | | Aiko's cheerful love songs made her one of the prime forces of J-pop of the early and mid-2000s, when she wooed teenage fans all over East Asia and topped the Oricon favorite singer poll twice in a row in 2005 and 2006. |
 | | Mai Kuraki became one of the biggest J-pop stars of the 2000s, right up there with Ayumi Hamasaki and Hikaru Utada. |
 | | A violently energetic amalgam of fractured punk rock and vintage video game sound effects, Polysics gained recognition quickly due to their spastic live shows and trademark uniforms: matching orange or yellow boiler suits, straight-bar sunglasses, and badges stamped with the letter P. |
 | | The male Japanese pop/R&B duo Chemistry got their start via the highly popular TV show Ayasan, and then went on to become one of the top-selling J-pop artists of the 2000s. |
![Blue Blood [Limited Edition] Album Cover](http://images.slacker.com/isv1/album/v1/1218890/aol/1/center/5,0/70.jpg "Blue Blood [Limited Edition] Album Cover")
