Well-known Japanese songs 日本の名曲

[Jembru]

HELP!!! I know so little about Japanese music that I don't even know where to start.

It looks like the oshaberikai is heading off for more box karaoke in the very near future. It's always great for a laugh, but the English and Japanese offerings leave a lot to be desired (it's mainly Chinese music). I can't read well enough to follow Japanese lyrics and I can't sing songs I've never heard before even in English. So there is just one Japanese song (mirai e) that I know by heart on those machines, and there are only so many times I can sing the same song in one night!

So, I'm wondering if those of you who are into Japanese music could recommend some female vocal karaoke classics that have a very good chance of being in the listing. Some anime music seems to be there: JP sings some song from One Piece or some show or other, but it would have to be very mainstream. I know the song from Princess Mononoke by heart and they didn't have that. The only other songs I know in Japanese are Disney translations (they don't even have the English lyric versions) and silly little children's songs (like the thing you sing when making a pinky promise..).

We could be going as soon as Sunday, so I couldn't learn a new song in time (and don't really want to in case the songs aren't there), but I've learnt if you paste Japanese into google translate, it gives you romaji! That means I could print off a few different songs in romaji and at least get used to how they sound  by Sunday. If it's famous enough to be on the machine, my Japanese friends will surely know it, so we can all get on the sofa and scream it out together!! ^^

[Jembru]

Oh and I forgot to add.. these are the same machines they use in Japan, so maybe someone will know this: How does the USB thing work? Do you have to download the whole song and video and if so, are there websites you can buy them from? Or do you just play mp3s? We tried the latter and it didn't seem to work and none of us can read Mandarin Chinese well enough to know why not.

[Bokusenou]

Hmm, well known Japanese songs huh?
I'll list some I can think of.

世界に一つだけの花 by Smap is pretty well known. It has male vocals, but it's really easy to sing.

UFO by Pink Lady is probably one of the most well known jpop songs ever, though it's from the 70s, and sounds kind of dated.

ブルーライトヨコハマ is a pretty well known song from the 60s.

上を向いて歩こう is well known too, male vocals, but really kind of high ones.

Also, since you mentioned anime songs, one of the most well known ones is 残酷な天使のテーゼ, fun to sing too.
I'm sure you can find all of these on Youtube, or similar sites.

Note that I usually sing songs originally done by guys, or women with lower voices, since I tend to have a lower singing voice, so I haven't tried singing all of these myself.

Also, unfortunately I have absolutely no clue about the USB thing. I've only been to カラオケボックス type places where they have a tv and remote control all set up for you already.

[Jembru]

Wow, thanks so much for those. I'll check them out when I'm home! 70's is fine actually. Nice and cheesy.

Was the karaoke you went to one where you get a big thick book and have to punch the numbers into a keypad on the handle of the mics? The ones I went to in Japan were usually like that, but I was there a long time ago now. The one we go to in Newcastle is a more modern machine, where you pick your tracks from a touch screen. That machine has a USB slot and apparently people who are really serious about karaoke, take their own songs.

Actually, I MUST take some photos of the room this time. There are some pics on my FB page and laptop, but they're mainly of our sexy cocktails! Lol


EDIT: 

Home now.. checking these out before bed...

Singing ability is preferred but not essential when it comes to Japanese pop isn't it? ^^ 

They're all okay.. worth learning for a few laughs with pals. It looks like there are only 2 or 3 kanji in the SMAP song, that I can't already read (I like, literally just learnt 争 the week before last, so I was really pleased to see that pop up), and it's just about slow enough that I could probably manage it without needing romaji lyrics. I'll test that fact before hand though!

[魔]

Here are the top ranking Karaoke songs.

link
link

I haven't learned any Japanese karaoke song yet. Was planning to learn Rain by rise and Bink's sake, but haven't got around to doing that.

[Jembru]

Hey, thanks for those Demonhead. You really are the supreme master of internet searches! They're all a bit too new for these machines to have them I think, but you never know. They might update them more often than I think. It's a great way for someone like me to get an idea about what's hot in Japan music-wise though.

Learning songs is fun. The songs I know, were all learnt 5 or 6 years ago. That was the last time I'd dabbled with the language before I started learning German. My boyfriend at the time was into Japanese music. I still have some mega compilation CD's he put together for me, although I never listen to them. I was between a rock and a hard place at the time, because I wanted to improve my Japanese to impress him, but also had to learn German so I could move there to be with him. I thought if I at least learnt some Japanese songs, I could kind impress him with that.

What really surprised me though, is how much songs stick in your mind. It's a great way to remember lots of new vocab in one go. For a long time though, I couldn't shake my friend's warning when we first met. She was actually my teacher back then and she warned me not to learn Japanese with songs. She said they use words that are never used in every day conversational Japanese, and are creative with the grammar. Back then though, I wasn't as internet savvy. I think these days, I am better able to check out new words in use and get a feel for whether or not I should use them. I've been saying this for a while and doing nothing about it, but I'm tempted to start learning songs a little more often.

[Bokusenou]

Jembru Yeah, I don't think anyone will expect you to be super great at singing or anything.

Glad they helped! The SMAP song is from 2003, so I hope it's old enough to be on there. If not, they'll probably have at least a few SMAP songs. SMAP is like *the* generic Japanese boy band. They've been around since the 80s, and most of their songs feel like they were written to be easily sung at karaoke.

The buttons were on a separate remote control-like device which we passed around, but otherwise yeah, it sounds like the karaoke place I went to. Touch screens huh? That's interesting.

[Jembru]

Well, it looks like we're going on Wednesday night now! Hoorah.

Well, I don't think I could learn a whole bunch of SMAP songs by Wedensday, but what I might do, is pick out a handful of songs I'm interested in learning (from other artists too) and play about on the machine to see what they have for next time.

Oh the comment about singing talent was actually aimed at the singers of the songs I had been checking out. Some of those singers really shouldn't be allowed near a microphone, never mind a recording studio. There are so many amazing voices in Japan and yet those people got to make records?

Hey this made me think of something... have Pop Idol, X Factor and -'s Got Talent made it over to Japan? They seem to have gone global (I sincerely apologise on behalf of my country for creating this format), but Japan seems to be in its own bubble when it comes to pop music. They've pretty much decided that teens with child-like bodies in cute clothes are the way to go. The only way you can improve on this format is to have even more teens with child-like bodies in cute clothes*! In the case of boy bands, they seem to like their pop stars as effeminate as possible (I guess we in the West are suckers for a pretty-boy too though).

*I'm kidding of course. I know there are lots of talented acts over there, besides just the teen bands.

[MidoriAbby]

Jembru
I don't know much about karaoke, but Hanamizuki is a very well known song in Japan, everyone knows it, and it's one of my favorites. Also anything by Utada Hikaru is going to be well known...
But listen to Rin on this she knows better. YES 世界に一つだけの花 and UFO and 上を向いて歩こう are actually regulars on my iPod lol I first heard them at Japanese camp during dance/sing-along time and they're so good....

[Jembru]

I'll check them out too! We ended up not going last weekend because I got a text just as I was pulling into Newcastle, telling me one of our friends couldn't make it. We decided to wait until there was more of us, to spread the cost of the room hire (it's just £15 per hour, but has a 3 hour minimum!). Instead we went to.. what's the word again? You know that Korean style table-top grill that are popular in Japan? Yeah, that!

We plan to try again to go to karaoke really soon though.

[Jembru]

It is now 4 hours past my bed time, but I can't sleep. Really sunny day today too. I wish I'd thought to do some laundry in all this wasted time. Ah well...

Anyway, I have finally found a Japanese song I really like. I could listen to this on a loop and not tire from it. It's a graduation song (aren't most 'sakura' songs about graduation?), but I can still identify with its message of hope and continued friendship. It's nice, it's powerful.. it brings a little tear to my eye.



So far, this is definitely my favourite Japanese song.

Edit: Btw, if anyone happens to know where I could find English lyrics, I'd love to check I've understood the song. It seems more or less straight forward, but there are bits I can't catch. If there aren't any English lyrics for this song, could we maybe make this another line by line translation thread? We could post the time as 'next line' maybe. It would be so much fun! 

[Bokusenou]

Congrats on finding one! Wow, I started playing it and his voice sounded familiar. Turns out, I really like a song by the same guy:



It's Ode to Joy, Jpop version. It sounds surprisingly good. That song really helped me get through the slog of N1 study.

[Jembru]

Yummy yummy.. he has a very nice voice. I'm not usually that into operatic style (hilarious considering that's how I used to sing when I was in a kind of West-End style Christian stage show group called 'Ten Sing' in my teens... I was openly pagan, but somehow allowed into a Christian group because I could sing lol ^^).

Anyway, I think I'm in love with this guys voice. I really need to go to Japan. Seriously, I'm thinking of making a plan with JP to always book our holidays at the same time so we can try our chances each time it comes round and see if we can bag a last minute deal.. I just need a few days.. just long enough to fill an empty suitcase with goodies (I'm not kidding either, I've done exactly this before... and posted a box of 100 yen store stuff to myself via surface mail ^^).. although if we're going to do that, maybe I should wait until Anna is there. How awesome would it be to have an offline encounter in Japan itself? Very awesome.. that's how... lol

[Bokusenou]

Wow, you used to sing in operatic style? That's impressive! I love singing and such, but can't do higher notes that well, so I either end up singing songs sung by guys, lower voiced women, or needing to take the song down a few octaves.

Yeah, I'm normally not that into operatic style either, but his mixing of that, choir filled choruses, and regular jpop style make his songs sound strangely epic to me.

[Jembru]

It was more like west end musical style... Startlight express and that kind of thing, so strong voices, but not quite opera. I'm not much of a singer these days, but my voice is still powerful (as my karaoke friends would testify, lol), but no where near what it was when I was younger.