A Look at Utada

For this post, I am going to stray from the usual styles of music that I listen to. Most of the time I stick to rock and its many sub-genres. I feel like when someone says "I listen to rock" that could mean so many things nowadays. So when I tell someone about a band, I try and explain as best I can what they specifically sound like. Anyway, this time I would like to talk about pop artist Utada Hikaru. She has had some of her music released in America, most notably her album, "Exodus". However, she is more well known in Japan. In one American interview, the reporter basically equated her to Brittany Spears. Personally I would take this as an insult because, unlike Brittany Spears, Utada can actually sing.

According to online sources, Utada was born in New York in 1983. Both her parents have musical backgrounds, which partially led to Utada's involvement in music. She has been active pretty much since the mid-90's. Utada has had many singles released in Japan and has also acquired many awards throughout her career.

Now usually I am not someone who is a huge fan of Pop music. I think that it all pretty much sounds the same. Sometimes its just a matter of finding that one amongst the crowd who is a little different. For some reason when I listen to Utada, I don't get the feeling that I am listening to just any other Pop artist.

The first place I discovered Utada was in a video game: Kingdom Hearts. She does the theme songs for both of the Playstation 2 games in the series. For some reason I just really enjoyed the two songs, especially "Simple and Clean". From there I decided to start looking up her music on iTunes and such and I was hooked. Like I said, some Pop artists just fade in with the rest, but I feel like Utada is different. Maybe it is because she hasn't really been influenced by our country's crappy mainstream music, but who knows.

I would say that you should certainly look into this artist. Maybe start with the album "Exodus", and also look for her songs "Simple and Clean" (Japanese version is called "Hikari") as well as "Santuary" (Japanese version is called "Passion"). Don't be afraid to try out her songs and albums in Japanese. You may not understand what she is saying, but I would say it is still worth listening too. I feel that sometimes something is lost once the songs are translated to english, but whatever. Listen to Utada Hikaru!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RefdhRjRSM