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J-pop - Quiz
Contributed by: Daly
  • 1. Which album broke Globe's sales record in October 1997?
A) Review -The Best of Glay
B) B'z The Best "Pleasure"
C) First Love
D) Ja, Zoo
  • 2. What is the best-selling album in Oricon history?
A) Review -The Best of Glay
B) B'z The Best "Pleasure"
C) Arc and Ray
D) First Love
  • 3. In what year did the Japanese market for physical music sales peak?
A) 1998
B) 2008
C) 1999
D) 1997
  • 4. Which band's album sold 5.12 million copies in 1998?
A) B'z
B) Luna Sea
C) L'Arc-en-Ciel
D) Glay
  • 5. What movement were rock bands like Glay, Luna Sea, and L'Arc-en-Ciel related to in the late 1990s?
A) Onyanko Club
B) Visual kei
C) Kayōkyoku
D) Hello! Project
  • 6. How many people attended the concert Glay played at Makuhari Messe in July 1999?
A) 100,000
B) 50,000
C) 42,000
D) 200,000
  • 7. Which artist had a funeral with 50,000 attendees?
A) Tsunku
B) Zeebra
C) Tetsuya Komuro
D) hide
  • 8. Which production company produced groups like SMAP, Tokio, and Arashi?
A) Oricon
B) Johnny & Associates
C) Hello! Project
D) Sharam Q
  • 9. Who produced the girl group Morning Musume?
A) Tetsuya Komuro
B) Takuya Kimura
C) Zeebra
D) Tsunku
  • 10. Which artist introduced hip-hop to Japanese mainstream music?
A) Ayumi Hamasaki
B) Hikaru Utada
C) Zeebra
D) Ringo Sheena
  • 11. What is the nickname for Takuya Kimura?
A) Takuya
B) Kimutaku
C) Taku
D) Kimu
  • 12. Which girl group announced their disbandment in 1999 and returned in 2008?
A) Arashi
B) Speed
C) Onyanko Club
D) Morning Musume
  • 13. Who is the mother of Hikaru Utada?
A) Keiko Fuji
B) Ringo Sheena
C) Ayumi Hamasaki
D) Hibari Misora
  • 14. Which song by Dragon Ash featured Zeebra and topped the Oricon charts?
A) Pink Spider
B) Pleasure
C) Grateful Days
D) First Love
  • 15. How many copies did L'Arc-en-Ciel's albums Arc and Ray sell in their first week?
A) 4.87 million
B) 7.65 million
C) 3.02 million
D) 5.12 million
  • 16. What genre of music influenced Japanese music in the early 1960s?
A) German classical
B) British rock
C) French pop
D) American folk music
  • 17. Which band became famous in the late 1960s?
A) The Beatles
B) Yellow Magic Orchestra
C) The Folk Crusaders
D) Southern All Stars
  • 18. What shift occurred in music in the early 1970s?
A) From simple folk to complex new music
B) From pop to classical
C) From electronic to acoustic
D) From jazz to heavy metal
  • 19. Which song by Takuro Yoshida was a hit in 1972 despite lacking TV promotion?
A) Sayonara
B) Jikan yo Tomare
C) Onna no Michi
D) Kekkon Shiyouyo
  • 20. What was the highest-selling single of 1972?
A) Onna no Michi
B) Sayonara
C) Kekkon Shiyouyo
D) Ano Hi ni Kaeritai
  • 21. How long did Yōsui Inoue's album 'Kōri no Sekai' stay in the Top 10 on the Oricon charts?
A) 35 weeks
B) 50 weeks
C) 13 weeks
D) 113 weeks
  • 22. Who was Yumi Matsutoya formerly known as?
A) Junko Yagami
B) Amii Ozaki
C) Yumi Arai
D) Saki Kubota
  • 23. Which band released the hit song 'Sayonara' in 1979?
A) Off Course
B) The Folk Crusaders
C) Yellow Magic Orchestra
D) Southern All Stars
  • 24. Who was described as the standard bearer of 'new music'?
A) Takuro Yoshida
B) Saki Kubota
C) Kazumasa Oda
D) Yōsui Inoue
  • 25. Which band gained mainstream success by fusing rock with traditional Japanese music?
A) Southern All Stars
B) Happy End
C) The Folk Crusaders
D) Yellow Magic Orchestra
  • 26. Who released the 1972 album 'Electric Samurai: Switched on Rock'?
A) Eikichi Yazawa
B) Haruomi Hosono
C) Ryuichi Sakamoto
D) Isao Tomita
  • 27. Who was the founder of the Yellow Magic Band?
A) Haruomi Hosono
B) Osamu Kitajima
C) Eikichi Yazawa
D) Isao Tomita
  • 28. Which Eikichi Yazawa single became a smash hit in 1978?
A) Kekkon Shiyouyo
B) Onna no Michi
C) Jikan yo Tomare
D) Sayonara
  • 29. Which band was formed by Keisuke Kuwata in 1978?
A) The Folk Crusaders
B) Southern All Stars
C) Yellow Magic Orchestra
D) Off Course
  • 30. Who were the members of Yellow Magic Orchestra?
A) Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi, and Ryuichi Sakamoto
B) Saki Kubota, Amii Ozaki, and Junko Yagami
C) Takuro Yoshida, Yōsui Inoue, and Yumi Matsutoya
D) Eikichi Yazawa, Keisuke Kuwata, and Kazumasa Oda
  • 31. What term is used for electropop in Japan?
A) Enka
B) New music
C) Fōku
D) Technopop
  • 32. How many consecutive weeks did two YMO albums hold the top two spots on the Oricon charts?
A) Thirty-five weeks
B) Seven weeks
C) Thirteen weeks
D) 113 weeks
  • 33. What were the young fans of YMO known as?
A) YMO Generation
B) Folk Crusaders
C) Rock Pioneers
D) New Music Fans
  • 34. Which two bands symbolized the end of New Music and paved the way for J-pop?
A) Happy End and Yellow Magic Band
B) Pinkara Trio and Happy End
C) Southern All Stars and Yellow Magic Orchestra
D) The Folk Crusaders and Off Course
  • 35. In what year did the Beatles perform at the Nippon Budokan?
A) 1966
B) 1973
C) 1960
D) 1962
  • 36. How did the Japanese government react to the Beatles' performance at the Nippon Budokan?
A) They banned rock music entirely
B) They invited the band to a dinner
C) They declared a national holiday
D) They deployed riot police
  • 37. What music genre was created in Japan due to the influence of the Beatles?
A) Group sounds
B) Modern J-pop
C) Ereki boom
D) Electronic folk
  • 38. Who was the main opponent of Happy End in the Japanese-language rock controversy?
A) Eikichi Yazawa
B) Haruomi Hosono
C) Yōsui Inoue
D) Yuya Uchida
  • 39. Which musician grew up in an underprivileged family after his father died in childhood?
A) Haruomi Hosono
B) Keisuke Kuwata
C) Eikichi Yazawa
D) Yōsui Inoue
  • 40. Who was influenced by the Beatles through his sister's interest in the band?
A) Eikichi Yazawa
B) Keisuke Kuwata
C) Takeshi Terauchi
D) Yōsui Inoue
  • 41. Which musician was a fan of the Beatles but claimed his style was not directly related to them?
A) Yūzō Kayama
B) Haruomi Hosono
C) Yōsui Inoue
D) Happy End
  • 42. In what year did Happy End disband?
A) 1980
B) 1962
C) 1973
D) 1966
  • 43. Who reorganized the concert touring industry during the 1950s and 60s?
A) Keiko Fuji
B) Kyu Sakamoto
C) Kazuo Taoka
D) Chosuke Ikariya
  • 44. Which Elvis Presley song helped fuel the rockabilly trend in Japan?
A) Blue Suede Shoes
B) Jailhouse Rock
C) Heartbreak Hotel
D) Hound Dog
  • 45. What term was used to describe Japanese performers translating lyrics of popular American songs?
A) Rokabirī
B) Cover Pops
C) Enka
D) Wasei Pops
  • 46. Which band did Kyu Sakamoto make his stage debut with in 1958?
A) Candies
B) The Drifters
C) The Wagon Masters
D) The Peanuts
  • 47. What is the English title for Kyu Sakamoto's 'Ue wo Muite Arukō'?
A) Sukiyaki
B) Echoic word tune
C) Don't Turn Around
D) Woman in Shinjuku
  • 48. In what year was 'Sukiyaki' released in the United States?
A) 1966
B) 1961
C) 1970
D) 1963
  • 49. Which female duo became popular singing a song in the movie Mothra?
A) Candies
B) The Drifters
C) The Wagon Masters
D) The Peanuts
  • 50. Which group covered The Peanuts' song 'Furimukanaide'?
A) Momoe Yamaguchi
B) Candies
C) Kosaka Kazuya and the Wagon Masters
D) The Drifters
  • 51. What does the term 'Wasei Pops' mean?
A) Enka pop
B) American style pop
C) Japan-made pop
D) Rockabilly pop
  • 52. Who re-formed The Drifters in 1964?
A) Keiko Fuji
B) Kyu Sakamoto
C) Chosuke Ikariya
D) Kazuo Taoka
  • 53. The Drifters acted as curtain raisers at a concert for which band in 1966?
A) The Monkees
B) The Beach Boys
C) The Rolling Stones
D) The Beatles
  • 54. Which song did The Drifters release in 1969?
A) Furimukanaide
B) Sukiyaki
C) Zundoko-Bushi
D) Ue wo Muite Arukō
  • 55. For how many consecutive weeks did Keiko Fuji's 1970 album stay at Number One on the Oricon chart?
A) 4
B) 20
C) 10
D) 3
  • 56. What was Japanese popular music called before it split into enka and poppusu?
A) Mandopop
B) Kayōkyoku
C) Cantopop
D) Ryūkōka
  • 57. Which period do most Japanese scholars consider the actual starting point of ryūkōka?
A) Edo period
B) Shōwa period
C) Meiji period
D) Taishō period
  • 58. Which instrument was NOT mentioned as being incorporated into ryūkōka?
A) Violin
B) Guitar
C) Piano
D) Harmonica
  • 59. Ichiro Fujiyama used a singing technique sometimes referred to by what name?
A) Opera
B) Falsetto
C) Belting
D) Crooning
  • 60. Who was known as the 'Queen of Blues' in Japan?
A) Hibari Misora
B) Noriko Awaya
C) Izumi Yukimura
D) Chiemi Eri
  • 61. Who is known as the 'Father of Japanese poppusu'?
A) Ryoichi Hattori
B) Mao Zedong
C) Ichiro Fujiyama
D) Louis Armstrong
  • 62. What venue became a popular place for live jazz music in the mid-1950s?
A) Jazz kissa
B) Jazz club
C) Jazz theater
D) Jazz bar
  • 63. What song was performed by Chiemi Eri in 1952?
A) Tennessee Waltz
B) Tokyo Boogie-Woogie
C) Omatsuri Mambo
D) Aoi Sanmyaku
  • 64. Which genre was NOT mentioned as being performed for American troops?
A) Country
B) Boogie-woogie
C) Mambo
D) Classical
  • 65. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Japanese pop was polarized between urban kayō and what else?
A) Traditional folk
B) Revolutionary songs
C) Classical music
D) Modern enka
  • 66. What was the name of the music that preceded modern Japanese pop music?
A) Mandopop
B) Ryūkōka
C) Kayōkyoku
D) Cantopop
  • 67. Shanghainese jazz musicians who fled to Hong Kong helped establish which genre?
A) Ryūkōka
B) Kayōkyoku
C) Cantopop
D) Mandopop
  • 68. What traditional element did ryūkōka melodies often utilize?
A) Diatonic scale
B) Pentatonic scale
C) Chromatic scale
D) Whole tone scale
  • 69. When did J-pop enter the musical mainstream of Japan?
A) 1980s
B) 1960s
C) 2000s
D) 1990s
  • 70. Which producer is credited with making Japanese hip-hop mainstream in the 1990s-2000s?
A) Nujabes
B) Toru Hidaka
C) Mitsuhiro Hidaka
D) Keisuke Kuwata
  • 71. What is the Japanese word for 'body' that Keisuke Kuwata famously pronounced as 'kyerada'?
A) kage
B) karada
C) kokoro
D) kami
  • 72. Which organization defined J-pop in 1990 as all Japanese music belonging to the Recording Industry Association of Japan except independent music?
A) Ito Music City
B) Avex Trax
C) Tower Records
D) J-Wave
  • 73. Which genre is associated with Namie Amuro in the 1990s and 2000s?
A) City pop
B) Technopop
C) J-Euro
D) Shibuya-kei
  • 74. What is the Japanese term used for J-pop in Japan?
A) poppusu
B) kayōkyoku
C) enka
D) gachapoppu
  • 75. What technological advancement in the early 1980s contributed to the spread of city pop?
A) Car stereos
B) Portable cassette players
C) Television broadcasts
D) Internet streaming
  • 76. What is the primary theme associated with city pop music?
A) Rural life
B) Big city
C) Nature
D) Traditional festivals
  • 77. Which city served as a primary inspiration for many city pop songs?
A) Osaka
B) Sapporo
C) Kyoto
D) Tokyo
  • 78. Which genre heavily influenced Japanese music fans and artists during the early 1980s?
A) Classical opera
B) Traditional folk
C) Heavy metal
D) Album-oriented rock
  • 79. To which decade can the origins of city pop be traced?
A) Early 1960s
B) Mid-1970s
C) Early 1990s
D) Late 1980s
  • 80. What event caused the popularity of city pop to plummet?
A) The Japanese asset price bubble burst
B) The emergence of visual kei
C) The end of the Cold War
D) A change in radio regulations
  • 81. When did the popularity of city pop plummet?
A) 1985
B) 1995
C) 1990
D) 1980
  • 82. Which 1990s music genre inherited the musical characteristics of city pop?
A) Shibuya-kei
B) J-rock
C) Enka
D) Kayōkyoku
  • 83. Which band is cited as a Shibuya-kei musician?
A) Pizzicato Five
B) Yellow Magic Orchestra
C) The Tigers
D) Happy End
  • 84. Which of these artists is linked to the early roots of city pop?
A) Tatsuro Yamashita
B) Haruomi Hosono
C) Flipper's Guitar
D) Pizzicato Five
  • 85. What did Shibuya-kei musicians inherit from city pop?
A) The cultural background
B) The car stereo marketing strategy
C) The specific recording studios
D) Musical characteristics
  • 86. Which band was formed from Yosui Inoue's backup band?
A) The Alfee
B) The Checkers
C) The Blue Hearts
D) Anzen Chitai
  • 87. At what age did Yutaka Ozaki make his debut?
A) 17
B) 19
C) 20
D) 18
  • 88. Which band was the first to play to an audience of 100,000 people in Japan?
A) The Alfee
B) TM Network
C) Boøwy
D) X Japan
  • 89. Which of these bands was influenced by New Romanticism?
A) Boøwy
B) Pink Lady
C) The Blue Hearts
D) Onyanko Club
  • 90. Who formed the rock duo B'z with Koshi Inaba?
A) Kyosuke Himuro
B) Tomoyasu Hotei
C) Ryuichi Sakamoto
D) Tak Matsumoto
  • 91. Which 1989 song by Princess Princess reached number one on the Oricon Yearly Single Charts?
A) Sekai de Ichiban Atsui Natsu
B) Paradise Ginga
C) Diamonds
D) Samishii Nettaigyo
  • 92. Which female singer was one of the first to use the special pronunciation characteristic of J-pop?
A) Mari Amachi
B) Seiko Matsuda
C) Momoe Yamaguchi
D) Saori Minami
  • 93. Which debut single was released by Hiromi Go in 1972?
A) Pepper Keibu
B) Kuchibiru Network
C) Otokonoko Onnanoko
D) Kaze wa Aki Iro
  • 94. How many consecutive number-one singles did Pink Lady release?
A) Nine
B) Ten
C) Twenty-four
D) Eight
  • 95. Who became the first artist to make 24 consecutive number-one singles?
A) Shizuka Kudō
B) Akina Nakamori
C) Pink Lady
D) Seiko Matsuda
  • 96. Who won the Japan Record Awards Grand Prix in 1985 and 1986?
A) Yukiko Okada
B) Akina Nakamori
C) Seiko Matsuda
D) Chisato Moritaka
  • 97. Which boy band was known for rollerskating?
A) The Checkers
B) TM Network
C) Hikaru Genji
D) SMAP
  • 98. Which female duo was known for not smiling during performances?
A) Pink Lady
B) BaBe
C) Wink
D) CoCo
  • 99. Which song won the grand prix at the 31st Japan Record Awards in 1989?
A) Equal Romance
B) Diamonds
C) Samishii Nettaigyo
D) Paradise Ginga
  • 100. Which member of TM Network broke Seiko Matsuda's streak of consecutive number-ones?
A) Tak Matsumoto
B) Tetsuya Komuro
C) Koshi Inaba
D) Haruomi Hosono
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