Once upon a time, I had a plan...
Once upon a time, I meant for this page to be one of my most updated pages, with a different featured band every week and a couple mp3s available each time. Needless to say, that never happened, and all that is left of that once grand ideal is the below blurb about B'z, written sometime in 1999. Ah, the plans of youth.
B'z (~1999)
Though I enjoyed Japanese music in the form of anime mp3s and soundtracks for over a year, it took me a little while to get interested in J-Pop as a genre of its own. The transition occured when I began borrowing B'z cds from Brian; a far cry different from the typical anime theme song (usually sung by a woman with a voice too high to be taken seriously), Takahiro Matsumoto's guitar and Koshi Inaba's vocals took hold of my ears and refused to let go. Their music spans over decades and dozens of albums, which, when added to the fact that many B'z single has gone to number one, makes B'z one of the most long-lasting and successful bands in Japan.
B'z music ranges from pop to rock to blues, with their adventures into each genre being well worth listening to. I've included below a sampling of 4 of their songs, which I hope might inspire someone to investigate B'z more on their own.