BIG BANG (빅뱅)? Who the heck are they? BIG BANG is the biggest boy band act in Korea at the moment. They released their first album in 2007, and just recently released their second album, “Remember”. Korea isn’t the only place where they’re a hit… They returned to Japan for their single, “Number 1″ off [...]

Remember the sites I blogged about last year about getting your hands on indie music from Japan and Korea? One of my favorite websites mentioned in the post, Muzie, recently had the site redesigned! The site is now easier to understand and navigate, especially for those who don’t much Japanese. The revamp happened not to [...]

The next Ni-Ongaku Spotlight features Jero (ジェロ), who made a strong impression among young and old Enka fans alike — even overseas. Enka is a style of music in Japan that is similar to country music in the United States. When a Enka singer preforms, he/she wears a kimono. Jero’s choice of clothes is special [...]

The next song in the Ni-Ongaku Spotlight series are the Heartsdales featuring Soul’d Out with “Candy Pop”. Soul’d Out consists of MC Diggy Mo, the Human Beatbox, Bro Hi, and DJ Shinnosuke. They provided beats for the Japanese version of The Boondocks, and did the ending theme for the anime Yakitate JAPAN! with the song [...]

The Coconut Boys’ (or CCB for short) is next in Ni-Ongaku Spotlight. For those who are into the current generation of J-Pop will get to check out the J-Pop artists in the 80s! The song “Romance ga Toremanai” was featured in the popular J-Dorama, Densha Otoko. CCB is a Japanese New Wave band with that [...]