BY: C'LONI

It's no secret to my friends and co-workers that I am a shameless Jrock Fangirl. Yes, I am. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, Jrock is Japanese Rock a.k.a. rock bands from Japan.

The particular term "Jrock" encompasses a myriad of different rock stylings, from rock and roll to heavy metal and industrial, but the brilliance of these bands is their willingness to experiment and extend beyond the boundaries of a defined genre. Japanese artists of any media are generally more open to experimentation and are often more daring when it comes to innovation and creativity, which is what really attracts me personally to Jrock.

First, a bit of history. The birth of Jrock can be said to have occured as far back at the late 60's when the Beatles played their first concert in Japan at the Budokan (and I believe they were indeed the first rock band to ever play that venue, which was previously used to showcase martial arts). Quoting Josephine Yun's book, Jrock Inc.: a concise report on the 40 biggest rock acts in Japan, "Every aspect of the Beatles-their 180-degree look, foreign loudness, and individualism, combined with an infectious musical style-alternately upset, ruffled, and fascinated the wholly polite Japanese. And it's not been the same since."

Indeed, it hasn't. But things didn't really get rolling for the Jrock scene until the '80s, when a crazy group of five make-uped, hair-dyed, cross-dressing Japanese guys, heavily influenced by Western rock acts like Kiss and Guns and Roses, formed what would become the most influencial band in Japan's history: X (also called X-Japan). For the first time since Western music became available to Japanese audiences, a Japanese band topped the charts and sold out venues that had previously been dominated by Western acts. Their influence on the Japanese youth was phenomenal and it encouraged future generations of kids to take up guitars, basses and drums and form their own bands in pursuit of their own rockstar dreams.

I will admit: I don't know much about music and can hardly deem myself qualified to give a critical analysis of what exactly makes me like these bands so much, but I'll do my best to introduce some of these artists to anyone who's curious, open-minded and interested in experiencing something new and possibly wierd.

The first band I shall introduce to you today is Buck-Tick.

Members: Atsushi Sakurai (vocals), Hisashi Imai (guitar), Hidehiko "Hide" Hoshino (guitar, keyboards), Yutaka "U-ta" Higuchi (bass), Toll Yagami (drums)

Buck-Tick have been present in the Jrock scene for quite a long time (in Jrock years)-since the early 90's or so, and are often hailed as the most underrated rock band to come out of Japan. Their style is defined as primarily synth rock, but genre descriptions are difficult to trust when it comes to Jrock bands, and Buck-Tick likes to float into the realms of industrial and punk rock every now and again, and Sakurai has a gorgeous floating vibrato that fits both crashing techno and smoky melody very well.

My reason for choosing this band to start off with is because I have just discovered their most recent single "Romance" and have fallen completely in love with the song. It is quite a detour from some of their harsher music, particularly the industrial tones of their latest full release, Mona Lisa Overdrive (named after a William Gibson novel I believe).

If you're interested in hearing some of their music, some of their videos can be found on Youtube.com (my favorite place for discovering new Jrock videos), and here is a link to the beautiful video for "Romance":
http://youtube.com/watch?v=gbI8Jd8KFrM

I also like to share Jrock vids on my personal blog: http://soletree.blogspot.com/
and my Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/averagefury

I hope you enjoy!