Deep dive into Japanese R&B

Japanese R&B might be a surprise for many westerns as we enjoyed R&B since the early days of music. From the black churches and gospel fueled artists like Sam Cooke, to Motown, to Whitney Houston, Boyz II Men, R Kelly, Chris Brown, Usher and nowadays to The Weeknd, Tank, and Kehlani.

However little do we know about the impact outside of the US and how it has also have an evolution of artists that have imported the genre and grown to their own crowds.

Here is where Japan opens to R&B from the 90s, with groups such as Toshinobu Kubota, DJHasebe and Sugar Soul, they laid the ground to the explosion that will start at the end of the 90s.

Misia launched in 1997 with her debut album in 1998 as well as the once Duo, Double (althought one of the sisters passed before the launch). Hikaru Utada then launched in 1999 and open the gates to the 2000s.

I think is amazing to learn and discover these whole world of beautiful voices even when you can't tell what they are saying. Browsing through youtube I see these Japanese Soul mixtapes and I wonder about the artists and such, and like that, I want to follow the research to the series of artists that came on in Japan.

m-flo launched in the 2000s with their album Planet Shinning. Momoe Shimano, Soulhead and Silva and AI are part of the 2000s class. They have a more modern and popish sound, similar to what we experience in the US with Jennifer Lopez, Mya, and later Destiny Childs and Beyonce.

A more popish style R&B and more in tune with J-Pop and other sounds that were also popular in the US.

Currently Japan still makes rnb althought both sounds in the US and the world has changed. It has merged more with hiphop, however, if you still on the lookout here is a list of possible artists:

• Fuji Kaze
• SIRUP
• iri & eill
• aimi
• Shota Shimizu
• NOA & Ayumu Imazu

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