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Old 2015.07.06, 01:24 PM   #3
FadedSun
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I certainly wouldn't label SR is "Shinjuku-Kei". Shiina dabbled in lots of genres, but is mostly jazz/rock/show tunes now. Many of her early work can be described as rock before she started to experiment more. Tokyo Jihen is mostly a jazz/rock band. How could anyone argue otherwise? Oomori? Started out as a folk artist with the occasional electro-pop song. Started to get more into rock and pop, then fused everything more on Sennou.

I wouldn't try to label Japanese bands using a Japanese district, or by putting "J" in front of the genre, because I find it annoying and I think many Japanese bands might find it insulting to their integrity. For example, do people say Utada is a "j-pop" artist? I wouldn't say so. She's an accomplished pop artist, but dabbles with lots of other genres like dance, electronic, r&b, rock, etc. these are not "Western" ways to describe music, IMO. Aoba Ichiko plays folk. She's also Japanese. Does that make it "Japanese" folk? Hardly.

Just because a band is Japanese doesn't mean they need to be lumped into some "Japanese" category of music.
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