Ongaku

In today's Slate, Paul Collins talks about "Insanely Good Music" that you all outside of Japan are supposedly missing out on on iTunes Japan. But, honestly, he's a bit delusional. Neither Nate nor I have found any really "insanely good" Japanese bands. Maybe if we lived in Tokyo we would have, but we don't. There are bands that have some really good songs and some that have some good songs, but not so many whose every song we love. Which is a bit unlike some Western artists of which either of us happen to be big fans. Mr. Collins' list has 22 songs on it, of which there were only 2 songs that Nate and I were both pretty into. There were a couple more decent ones, but most were sub par or terribly average.
Most Japanese people listen to the Jpop top 40 or whatever crappy English-language pop songs are being marketed here (my coworkers like Hilary Duff and standard hip hop {clutches stomach in pain} or else don't really like music. Although there is one guy who listens to the worst English-language-buttrock bands you've never heard of. Seriously throw-yourself-out-of a-moving-vehicle kind of stuff. ). I'll admit, there are a few popular bands that have a song or two I like, but there's never enough good songs on an album to merit buying the whole thing. Two or three songs, max, is the norm. CD rental is really the way to go, if you're not buying off of iTunes.