#36 J-pop Cultural Project
- 5 日前
- 読了時間: 10分
Artists Interview:
Isekai Stage・Already Late・muque・RETRORIRON
J-pop has been gaining global attention largely through anime, yet as a music genre in its own right, it remains underrepresented on the international stage. The J-pop Cultural Project was launched to explore how Japanese music can resonate with global audiences beyond the world of anime. As part of this initiative, we sat down with four artists who each engage with J-pop culture in their own unique way.
Two of them, Isekai Stage and Already Late, are bands based in the US who cover J-pop. We spoke with them about why they are drawn to Japanese music, and how they envision the future of J-pop.
The other two, muque and RETRORIRON, are bands based in Japan who create original J-pop music. We asked them about their experiences performing overseas, the reactions they receive from international listeners, and what they believe makes J-pop stand out on a global scale.
By bringing these perspectives together, we hope to uncover the true potential of J-pop and share its appeal with audiences around the world.
Isekai Stage
Isekai Stage is an anime and J-rock band formed in 2022, known for their viral performances of anime and game music, amassing over 500,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram. They have performed at major events including Anime Expo, MAGfest, Universal Studios CityWalk, and an LA Dodgers Game, and have opened for Uchikubigokumon-Doukoukai. They have also collaborated with Sony Music Japan, Pony Canyon, Fuji TV, Crunchyroll, and HoYoverse.
－I watched your cover performance of "Lilac," originally by Mrs. GREEN APPLE, a popular Japanese band, at Dodger Stadium. It seems to have gained a lot of views on Instagram. What made you decide to perform this song?
Xabier (Gt): I'm a big anime fan myself. I just have a deep love and appreciation for this type of music.
Nox (Vo): The whole idea of playing "Lilac" at Dodger Stadium came about because it's the theme song for a baseball anime called "Oblivion Battery." That day also happened to be Shohei Ohtani's birthday, so it felt like an exciting alignment of coincidences.
－I noticed that your recent cover songs aren't only anime-related. What made you expand beyond anime?
Nox (Vo): The truth is, we listen to a lot more Japanese music than just anime. R3M, for example, is a huge ONE OK ROCK fan.
Xabier (Gt): Before coming together as a band, each of us had our own distinct influences from Japanese music. When I first started exploring it, I was really into instrumental math rock. I also discovered Sakanaction and Gesu no Kiwami Otome, who have shaped my sound as a musician for over 10 years now.
－What do you think is the unique strength of J-pop?
Xabier (Gt): I think J-pop and J-rock appeal to a more musically inclined crowd. There's a certain level of expectation from the listener, a lot of it is complex, with very detailed arrangements and so many things happening at once. Take OFFICIAL HIGE DANDISM, for example. Their vocals and arrangements are incredible. It's different from K-pop in that sense. I think there has to be a balance between how accessible the artist tries to make the music and what the listener expects.
Nox (Vo): I'd add that playing live is a huge part of J-pop. A lot of bands and artists get discovered that way, whether through live shows or by posting cover performances online. Because of that, you end up with music that's really tailored for live performance.
－How do you see J-pop evolving in the future?
R3M (Dr): I feel like there's a really big change happening. Look at the artists who've finally taken the leap to come to America. ONE OK ROCK started doing smaller Warped Tour shows here around 2014 or 2015, and now they're playing massive venues. It's incredible. A lot of bands seem to have that same momentum.
Nox (Vo): I'd add that it's not just about Japanese artists coming over here. People are now writing music inspired by Japanese music, too. Some bands and artists are creating hybrid Japanese-English songs. Western musicians are collaborating with Japanese musicians and drawing inspiration from J-pop and J-rock with a more modern sensibility. The most recent example I can think of is when guitarist Cory Wong played with VAUNDY.
Xabier (Gt): Whether it's Western music, music from Japan, or music from anywhere, we should all just share the love for good music. Good music is universal, and it evolves.
－What are your goals as a group?
Nox (Vo): Our first EP is coming out soon. It has two songs in English, one hybrid English-Japanese song, and two songs entirely in Japanese. As a band, we're actively trying to introduce J-pop and J-rock sounds into our own work. Beyond that, we're going to keep doing our thing, and we have plenty more shows coming up.
[Watch the full interview on YouTube]
Already Late
Already Late is a Brooklyn-based band known for performing a diverse range of music, including J-pop. They won the "Road to Japan 2025" Open Mic competition hosted by Brooklyn Beauty/Fashion Labo, earning the opportunity to perform live in Tokyo in November 2025.
－What inspired your interest in Japan?
Johnnie (Vo): For me personally, I was always into anime and manga. Once we got to university, we had to pick a foreign language, and I ended up choosing Japanese and got really into it. I was already drawn to the entertainment side of it, but from there my interest expanded to the culture as a whole.
－How was performing in Japan?
Johnnie (Vo): I started studying Japanese in college and studied abroad before my super senior year. That's when I met Hakase, and we actually took a trip to Tokyo Tower during that study abroad trip. It was really cool just visiting and looking around back then. I never even thought about performing there. This was before any of that.
B-Stixx (Dr): When we became a band, Johnnie said, "My goal is to play in Japan." I thought it was a far-off dream, but his partner is from Japan, and her dad is a musician there. They actually set up a show for us back in 2018. That was my first time in Japan, and I fell in love with the culture. Going back last year to perform again in a more elevated way felt incredible. I want to go back.
－What do you think is the unique strength of J-pop?
Hakase (Ba): I feel like J-pop has a deeper connection to American pop culture than K-pop does. They're pulling from an older bag, in a way. When you listen to J-pop, there are a lot of jazz and blues influences. K-pop, on the other hand, tends to lean more towards newer hip-hop and contemporary styles. J-pop has that too, but it's rooted in an older pop history, if that makes sense.
－How do you see J-pop evolving in the future?
Hakase (Ba): I think music in general is going to become more multi-genre. Instead of these big categories like "this is pop, this is rock, this is country," everything is going to feel more blended. I'm cool with that. I feel like music is just going to be more collaborative overall.
－What are your goals as a group?
B-Stixx (Dr): We've been doing the same things for the past eight years, sprinkling in new ways of expressing ourselves along the way. But new music is the main thing on the horizon. We're currently working on new songs that we want to drop and share. And we have a lot of shows coming up too.
[Watch the full interview on YouTube]
muque
muque is a three-piece band formed in Fukuoka, Japan in 2022, known for their unique blend of sounds spanning from US and UK to Asian global beats, with poetic Japanese lyrics and melodies. Their 2nd album "GLHF", released in April 2026, marked a new chapter as their tour expanded to international stages.
－Who influenced your sound from around the world?
takachi (Dr): At first, I mostly listened to Japanese music, but I gradually got into Western music. I started by getting hooked on Western loud rock, and there was a period when Western rock bands were also doing a lot of pop. That's when I really fell deep into Western pop music. From there it branched out further into all kinds of genres, hip-hop, R&B, and back to rock again.
Asakura (Vo): I've loved Troye Sivan since high school. I also listen to The 1975.
－How do you balance Western sounds with J-pop?
takachi (Dr): I personally love catchy music, so I really pursue that catchy quality, while also valuing rhythms that feel good in any setting. When Asakura's vocals are added on top of the tracks I make, it brings out a really unique Japanese atmosphere that creates a nice balance. Rather than aiming for that intentionally, it feels almost miraculous.
－What kind of response have you gotten from international audiences?
Kenichi (Gt): Last year we released "The 1" as the ending theme for One Piece, and at that time, we really felt our music was reaching so many people across borders. On YouTube especially, a lot of overseas listeners posted reaction videos to our music video and the One Piece ending, which made us really happy.
－How do overseas fans receive your tracks differently?
takachi (Dr): Whether people listen for the rhythm or the lyrics is a really decisive difference. For instance, in "The 1," when the snare roll before the chorus and the four-on-the-floor kick come in, a lot of overseas listeners react with a "Whoa!" That's something really unique to them. In Japan, the audience tends to ride the beat, catching the downbeat during the chorus while listening to the melody and lyrics like a wave.
－What do you see as your strengths in reaching overseas audiences?
takachi (Dr): When it comes to making music that resonates overseas, there's usually a process of adjusting your sound in that direction. But in our case, the music we naturally make seems to be appreciated as it is. So even when we take on overseas markets, we don't have to make any major changes to our direction. I think that's our strength.
－What are your goals as a group?
takachi (Dr): In 2025, we ended up doing a lot of thinking while making songs and performing live. But for 2026, we've decided to simply go with whatever excites us the most, to make music driven by pure impulse. Purely doing what gets us most pumped up, with a kind of "innocent" purity, which in Japanese is read as "muque", the very name of our band. That's our goal for this year.
[Watch the full interview on YouTube]
RETTORIRON
RETRORIRON is a genre-defying pop band formed in Tokyo in 2020, known for their heartfelt lyrics that capture the raw emotions of everyday life, addictive soulful vocals, and the diverse musical backgrounds each member brings. To celebrate the release of their 1st full album "Collection Alone," a massive Spotify billboard appeared in Times Square, NY.
－Who influenced your sound from around the world?
Taiki Nagayama (Dr): On the international side, there's a large ensemble called Snarky Puppy. The musicians in that group, including drummers and others, sometimes have around five members on stage, and the lineup changes by season or tour. I've been really inspired by them and still listen to their music.
Kazuaki Iinuma (Ba): I started listening to Michael Jackson's music in middle school after a friend recommended it. I kept listening, watched "This Is It" on DVD ages ago, and I still absolutely love it.
miri (Key): I love Cory Henry's keyboard playing so much that I literally use the same keyboard out of admiration. His phrasing and the way he uses the keys is something I really study and reference.
Suzune (Vo/AG): I love John Mayer. Before forming the band, I was working as a singer-songwriter on my own. Seeing him captivate huge dome-sized crowds with just one acoustic guitar, even just on video, made me study his music intensely, trying to figure out how I could be like that. That inspiration is still with me, and it's the reason we decided to form this band with an acoustic guitar. He plays incredible electric too, but I went with acoustic instead.
－How did the Times Square billboard impact your reach and audience reactions?
Suzune (Vo/AG): Our first reaction was, "Wait, is this for real?" We couldn't actually go check it out in person. But there's that constant live feed of Times Square on YouTube, and Japanese fans saw it through there and posted it on social media. When the news broke, the response was huge, and I think it became a really meaningful opportunity for people to discover us.
－What kind of response have you gotten from international audiences?
Suzune (Vo/AG): What I felt being on stage was that the energy and heat from overseas audiences is incredibly intense. Unlike Japanese listeners, you could really feel how genuinely happy they were that we'd come. It gave me a real sense that the music we'd made had crossed the ocean and reached them, and they reflected that right back to us in person. That's the moment I always feel, even if the language is different, there's something we can connect through.
－What do you see as your strengths in reaching overseas audiences?
Suzune (Vo/AG): Speaking just from my perspective as the composer, I want to convey the beauty of the Japanese language. Not in the sense that Japanese is a superior language, but the way it sounds, the way changing just one character can completely shift the meaning, those small variations that dramatically change expression. That, to me, is what makes Japanese beautiful. The lyrics in J-pop are really something special. There are countries where rhythm is valued more than lyrics, so I want to deliberately push the quality of our lyrics and the sound of the words. Japanese has vowels in every syllable, which makes it harder to produce strong rhythm compared to English. But making international audiences feel rhythm in it, while also appreciating the content of the lyrics and the beauty of Japanese, that's the kind of challenge I want to take on, and that's what we as RETRORIRON want to aim for.
－What are your goals as a group?
Suzune (Vo/AG): Since we've been talking so much in this interview about wanting to share our music with the world, our first goal is to become a truly nationally recognized artist within Japan. That's our first step. With strong support from fans in Japan, we want to take our strengths to people overseas as well. In order to share our music with the world, we first need to become an artist that everyone in Japan knows. That's our current goal as RETRORIRON.
[Watch the full interview on YouTube]
Editor's Note
Through these interviews, we discovered that Japanese artists creating J-pop are deeply proud of their country's culture, language, and identity. They are actively sharing their music with the world through live performances. At the same time, some overseas artists, initially drawn in by anime, have gone on to fall in love with J-pop itself, now spreading its appeal through their own cover performances.
For international readers, we hope this project becomes a gateway to encounter J-pop as the truly unique and vibrant genre it is. We also hope it gives Japanese readers an opportunity to rediscover the pride and richness of their own musical culture.
Interviewer: Kanji Kunihiro
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