Last month popular rock band Southern All Stars released their first new song in three years, “Tatakau Monotachi e Ai wo Komete”, as a digital single.  Now the group have published the full-length music video for the track to their Youtube channel.

Notably, this PV is the first in SAS’ repertoire to be fully animated, featuring a stylized and somewhat tongue-in-cheek version of Japan.  The video itself centers around the struggles of salarymen and the larger survival competition that is daily life, portraying both to exaggerated effect as they attempt to show that there is a bit of darkness in everyone’s heart.

“Tatakau Monotachi e Ai wo Komete” will be included on the band’s upcoming compilation album “Umi no Oh, Yeah!!“, which is scheduled to be released on August 1st.  In the meanwhile, you can find the full PV for this track right after the cut.

It was recently announced that pop-rock band back number will be providing the theme song for the upcoming film “Gintama 2 Okite wa Yaburu Tame ni Koso Aru”.  The track, titled “Daifuseikai”, has been described as a confident, upbeat number which the group believes will fit Gintama perfectly.

“Daifuseikai” will be released as the group’s latest single next month on August 22nd, roughly a week after the movie is scheduled to hit theaters.  The release’s Limited Edition will include a DVD containing the lead song’s music video and making-of footage, plus an exclusive video from the band.

Read on below to find both the cover and track list for “Daifuseikai”, as well as the latest trailer for “Gintama 2” – which features a preview of its theme song.

Barely a month after the release of their latest album “Future Soundtrack“, alternative rock band Straightener are back with a new digital single.  The song, titled “Braver”, has already been selected as the opening theme for the currently airing anime “Angolmois: Genkou Kassenki”.

To further support this release, the group have also made the short PV for the track available on their label’s Youtube channel.  Directed by Takayuki Kojima, who has also worked on the band’s videos for “The Place Has No Name” and “The Future Is Now”, this music video is focused around an intense performance of the song inside a dark room.

“Braver” will likely be included on the group’s upcoming compilation album, which will be released on October 17th, but you can find the song’s short PV right after the jump.

My appreciation of Japanese rap has always been tainted with a bit of bitterness because I feel like this scene never really got the attention it deserved.
J-Pop golden era was in the late 90s up until the late 00s, J-R&B got its momentum during the 00s, along with J-Rock that peaked during the same decade, while J-rap continuously got slept on, arguably for valid reasons (tiny scene, promotion oversea nonexistent, etc…).
Yet, the Japanese rap scene is brimmed with so many talents that shouldn’t be ignored any longer by Western Jmusic enthusiasts eager to widen their musical repertoire.

The point of this article isn’t to list ALL japanese rappers -to be honest, my knowledge of the J-rap scene wouldn’t be extended enough for me to have this kind of ambition- just to summarize a bunch of relevant & accessible Japanese rappers for anyone willing to start dipping into J-Rap.

On July 13, FNCY will release their debut digital single, “AOI Yoru”, on King Records’ EVIL LINE RECORDS. FNCY is a new unit composed of ZEN-LA-ROCK, G.RINA, and Chinza DOPENESS, friends who have all worked together previously. The new unit recently released the music video for “AOI Yoru”, which was shot in Taiwan. Check it out below, along with the digital single’s cover!

It’s Friday, so it’s Open Post time! Feel free to chat with your fellow readers about whatever you like!

At 2 PM JST on July 14, Ongaku no Hi 2018 will air. There will be peformances by the likes of Utada Hikaru, EXILE, Perfume, DA PUMP, Ken Hirai, Little Glee Monster, Tsuchiya Tao, KAT-TUN, Keyakizaka46, Yu Shirota, and LiSA.

There is a live stream of the show and Arama! Japan will be hosting a chat on Discord so that readers can chat with each other during the show! Links to the show and the chat are after the jump!

We’re back with this week’s edition of Oricon Flashback. This is where we look back on what topped Oricon this week 5, 10, 15, and 20 years ago. Think of it as a way to reminisce and learn about the past of Japanese music.