#JMusicFriday is a musical hashtag by @ThePop offering a weekly prompt to post a related toot involving Japanese music. Here are the entries I’ve participated in:

#ThenAndNow

• Ami Suzuki / 鈴木あみ / 鈴木亜美

  • love the island

    KISS KISS KISS

#Iconic

• Ayumi Hamasaki / 浜崎あゆみ - “Dearest”

#Sleep

• HALLCA - “Fall Back Asleep”

#PowerOfFriendship

• Youjeen - “Dear My Friend”

#TheVoice

• Mika Nakashima / 中島 美嘉 - “FAKE”

#HappyGoLucky

• Aya Matsuura / 松浦 亜弥 - “Ne~e?” / “ね～え?”

#SadOrDeath

• Anna Tsuchiya - “Kuroi Namida (deep sadness version)” / 土屋 アンナ - “黒い涙 (deep sadness version)”

#ChillSongs

• BENI - “PULLBACK”

#CrazySongs

• Stereo Japan - “Sidechain Love”
  • I’ve already suggested my go-to bonkers song of “UPPER ROCK” before, so I’ll go with the second song that comes to mind

#TheCover

• I completely fell in love with “Ihōjin” by Saki Kubota (“異邦人” - 久保田早紀), and went on a spree a few months ago looking for covers as I was fascinated by how others had reworked such a classic:
  • Original
  • Ms.OOJA / ミス・オオジャ
  • Yuki Koyanagi / 小柳 ゆき
  • Tomoyo Harada / 原田 知世

#AnimeEndings

• Ayumi Hamasaki / 浜崎あゆみ - “Dearest”
  • I don’t really watch much anime! But I do know many songs are anime endings, so, digging through… Looks like “Dearest” was an anime ending song? I’ll go with that!

#CertifiedBanger

• Crystal Kay - “Private Dancers featuring Mummy-D and KREVA”
  • Unfortunately, a queen of Certified Bangers™, Namie Amuro / 安室 奈美恵, does not have most of her music on YouTube. Otherwise, I quite like how Crystal Kay’s track here is pretty Namie Amuro-esque

#Idol

• 1970s: Momoe Yamaguchi - “Sentimental Hurricane” / 山口 百恵 - “センチメンタル・ハリケーン”
• 1980s: Akina Nakamori - “Yokohama A Ku Ma” / 中森 明菜 - “ヨコハマA・KU・MA”
• 1990s: Morning Musume - “Summer Night Town” / モーニング娘。- “サマーナイトタウン”
• 2000s: Perfume - “Ceramic Girl” / パフューム - “セラミックガール”
• 2010s: Especia - “No 1 Sweeper”
  • Gone for five picks for five decades!

#GuiltyPleasure

• BoA - “抱きしめる” / “Dakishimeru”
  • I don’t feel guilty about a lot of my music choices as even silly and fun songs are fulfilling a purpose. So my mind goes to songs which I know aren’t great, but I enjoy them anyway. This song is a relatively mindless mid-2000s J-Pop song with questionable English lyrics, but oh boy, do I absolutely love it!

#OldButGold

• GO!GO!7188 - “Ukifune” / “浮舟”
  • I’ve got literally thousands to choose from! But I thought I’d just share one of my all time favourite songs from over twenty years ago.

No Theme!

• Up Up Girls (Kakko Kari) / アップアップガールズ（仮）- “UPPER ROCK”
  • No theme this week so I’m whipping out a song which has had a grasp on my mind ever since I first heard it many years ago. I present to all the utterly bonkers UPPER ROCK!

#FavoriteOfYourFavorite

• Shiina Ringo - “Gamble” / 椎名 林檎 - “ギャンブル”
  • Well this is pretty much impossible! I guess I’ll go with this as I remember it blowing me away the first time I heard it, and still love it every time I hear it, I never skip it. The emotion in her voice always gets me, and the instruments are so lush and layered, coming together to create a spectacular piece of music.

#AnimeOpenings

• Anna Tsuchiya - “rose”
• Olivia Lufkin - “a little pain”
  • I don’t watch a lot of anime, and even when I do, I don’t pay attention to the opening and ending titles… But! I paid a lot of attention to the music of Anna Tsuchiya and Olivia Lufkin in the mid-to-late 2000s, and loved their soundtrack albums to the anime NANA! Turns out these two tracks were used in the openings!