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Period: to
Rock and Roll Craze
At this stage a country music band named Kosaka Kazuya and the Wagon Masters began a rock-and-roll craze with their own version of Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel. This movement had its peak at 1959 with a movie that featured majny rock bands at ther time. -
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The downfall of Rock and the uprise of Pop
In the U.S. rock-and-roll began to become less popular and it mirrored that in Japan also because they were heavily influenced by the American music movements. Japan then moved into a pop and rock-and-roll genre mix. The birth of "cover pop" began in this era also where people would cover pop songs. -
Period: to
A Shift in Music Taste
The taste switched from simple songs with a single guitar to more complex music composition. The songs focused on love and other personal topics. -
Period: to
Chage & Aska
In the late 80's a very famousd Japanese band named Chage & Aska emerged. The two men were singer/song writers. They released a consecutive monster hits throughout the 1980s and 90s. They were eventually called Asia's most popular rock group. -
Period: to
Regae and Pop Ruling Japan
R&B become popular in the late 90's when Utada HIkaru debuted her first sonrg. Utada's first album sold 7.5 million copies, making it the best selling Japanese album ever. However pop was still very popular in Japan with some singers such as: Hamasaki Ayumi, Kuraki Mai and Ami Suzuki. There were also female pop groups like SPEED and Morning Musume which sold millions of albums each. -
Period: to
Modern era
R&B, Hip Hop influences were massive in this era. Bands such as ORANGE RANGE and Ketsumeishi are at the top. While some other groups such as, Mr.Children, B'z and Southern All Stars were in the rear. At the moment the bands are male dominated and female pop has declijned a lot since the 90's. But Hamasaki Ayumi and Otsuka Ai still get to the #1 spot with most of their releases.