From this list here. This was the best I could find when looking for a list of  "classic" Japanese songs. English sources that talk about J-pop mostly focus on idols or anime songs. The list is a bit outdated, but it covers a good variety of genres.

1. Southern All-Stars
tsunami (2000)
涙の海で抱かれたい　～sea Of Love～  (2003)

2. YMO (Yellow Magic Orchestra)
firecracker (1978)
solid state survivor (1979)

3. Yumi Matsutoya
ひこうき雲 (1973)
ルージュの伝言 (1975)

4. Happy End
風をあつめて (1971)
夏なんです (1971)

5. Hibari Misora
川の流れのように (1988) - voted best Japanese song of all time in 1997
愛燦燦 (1986)

6. Tatsuro Yamashita
Ride On Time (1980)
Christmas Eve (1983)

7. Momoe Yamaguchi
さよならの向こう側 (1980)
秋桜 (1977)

8. Yosui Inoue
夢の中へ (1989)
少年時代 (1990)

9. Eiichi Ohtaki (member of Happy End)
君は天然色 (1981)
さらばシベリア鉄道 (1980)

10. Seiko Matsuda
風は秋色 (1980)
あなたに逢いたくて ～Missing You～ (1996)

11. Ryuichi Sakamoto (member of YMO)
Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (1983)
bibo no aozora (1996)

12. Keisuke Kuwata (member of Southern All-Stars)
明日晴れるかな (2007)
白い恋人達 (2001)

13. Motoharu Sano
Visitors (1984)
アンジェリーナ (1980)

14. Eikichi Yazawa
止まらないHA～HA (1986)
I LOVE YOU, OK (1975)

15. Flipper's Guitar
恋とマシンガン (1990) - highlight of this quarter of the list for me.
Groove Tube (1991)

16. RC Succession
I LIKE YOU (1990)
Transistor Radio (1980)

17. Kenji Sawada
時の過ぎゆくままに (1975)
勝手にしやがれ (1977)

18. Kyu Sakamoto
上を向いて歩こう (1961) - aka Sukiyaki. The only Japanese song to top the Billboard 100.
坂本九見上げてごらん夜の星を (1963)

19. The Blue Hearts
Linda Linda (1987) - heard it in Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan
Train-Train (1988)

20. Miyuki Nakajima
わかれうた (1977)
地上の星 (2000)

21. Tetsuya Komura
Running to Horizon (1989)
I want you back (1989)

22. Boowy
Marionette (1987)
わがままジュリエット (1986)

23. Yutaka Ozaki
I Love You (1991)
Oh My Little Girl (1991)

24. Hikaru Utada
First Love (1999)
travelling (2001)

25. Tamio Okuda
愛のために (1994)
息子 (1995)

2015 Releases

Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
This is super hyped, but I'm not totally won over yet. I like the songs that are on Spotify, so there's hope.

Courtney Barnett - Depreston
"If you've got a spare half a million, you could knock it down and start rebuilding" makes me think of my friend who is knocking down his house and splitting the lot in half. Early contender for song of the year for me. Future Australian classic, even.

Susanne Sundfor - Ten Love Songs
This is fun. Current highlight for me is Kamikaze.

The Grates - 7-Eleven
Used to hate this band. But this song was just what I needed after coming back from two weeks in Japan, which involved a lot of hanging around in convenience stores. "I light up like a NightOwl in Brisbane" gets it some points too.


Vocaloid - Because I actually heard Vocaloid songs playing in shops in Japan.

rerulili - Spinal Fluid Explosion Girl
This is it, this is my theme song. Those lyrics are on point. There should be more pop songs with jazz piano and chiptune together.

hachi - Panda Hero
Does this song have two bridges? Excellent. Covers don't hold up to the original, because I think it works better with the deadpan, robot voice. Everyone seems to think it needs to be shouted because of the rollicking backing track.

Jin - Kagerou Days
Worth watching the PV and reading the subs.


Other things

Halfway - Dulcify
Won Song of the Year at the Queensland Music Awards. Improves my opinion of QLD slightly. But they seem to have misplaced 2014 on the website.

I don't know what this is, but whatever, this looks like a Asian, crappier Eurovision. Racism alert. Or cultural cringe, I guess, since I'm Asian too. Wikipedia link!

This week in music: this and one prominent response. Now there's a response to that response!

I could be all, "I'm under twenty and I pay for music," but that would be as bad as "I'm a girl and I play computer games." I have nothing to contribute to this debate. Let me find something else to talk about.

Oddly enough, the majority of my acquaintances aren't torrenting music: they don't know how to do that. From what I've heard, most of their music comes from a few of their more technologically competent brothers. That, or they're using a Youtube-to-MP3 converter, which results in terrible low-res files. If I were a musician, I'd really prefer for you to be downloading V0 mp3s ripped from the CD, just so you wouldn't assume it was bad because of the shitty file quality. If you're going to pirate, do it properly, geez.


Spotify? Probably better than pirating, even if you're giving money to "evil corporations". The point is, you're showing that there's demand for an artist, making it more likely for them record and release new stuff. You're not doing that by getting stuff from "alternative sources".

I've read a bit of arguing about clapping and classical music lately. They're essentially saying that people don't like going to concerts because they're not allowed to clap between movements, or cheer at solos, etc. and that this tradition contributes to the perception that the culture around classical music is elitist. I'd never even thought of this before.

I agree that the elitism is a big deal. If you don't like someone, you're not going to try and get into something that they like. (See also: hipsters and indie rock.) In fact, I'm into contemporary classical just because the annoying classical elitists I knew didn't like it. However, not clapping isn't snobby or anything. It's common sense that you wouldn't want people to be noisy while you're trying to listen to quiet music. If you're an interested newbie, you should probably realize this.

This argument is probably happening because it's getting old to say that kids these days have no attention span. But as a young person, I seriously think that is the main reason. Who gives a crap about clapping? The issue is, people don't want to listen to something that goes for an hour. It all sounds the same to them because all of the instruments are the same. There are no lyrics to be posted on Facebook, and dynamic range isn't practical with iPods on public transport.

What will make people go to concerts? The generic answer is education, but look at Asians. That isn't working (though they are pretty great business for music teachers). I am Asian, and I can confirm that compulsory instrument lessons will not make you like music. I like the idea of free public performances. Free samples are always great. Play more than just those same snippets that everybody already knows, because that isn't going to win new fans. Okay, I just want to see things for free, can you blame me?

(For the record, my first concert was the Vienna Philharmonic playing Bruckner 4 last year. I confess that I went just so I could say that I did. There was an Asian family with a kid that fell asleep. People clapped between movements. Bloody Queenslanders.)