Utada Hikaru (J-Pop, US Release)

The path of an artist in J-Pop has a few paths. There are the chosen ones, the idols that the record companies drop of a fast path and almost never fall off, often artistically vapid but having hit single after hit single (like an Ayumi Hamasaki). Or there are those artists that the labels saw potential in, but grew into their stardom to a point they became the standard (like a Koda Kumi). Then there are those artists that just hit out of nowhere, and become the new thing, changing the entire scene by their presence. Utada Hikaru is one of those artists. Utada hit like a thunderbolt in 1999 with her R&B influenced Single "Automatic" from her debut cd "First Love", a great album that had a string of hit singles that made her not only the most popular artist in Japan, but hugely popular all over asia. My friends who listened to chinese music and no j-pop suddenly because Utada fans and listened to her cd all the time. I was in Taiwan and Hong Kong (as well as Japan) during that year and her songs were played EVERYWHERE. She was a true phenomenon that really has not been matched since. First Love still has the highest sales ever for the first week of an album in Japan (2 million) and the highest sales ever for a debut cd for a Japanese artist (10 million worldwide and counting, 3 million of those copies outside Japan!).

Utada Hikaru - Automatic

Utada followed up that early success with a string of pretty good albums. Her musical style has moved more from R&B to J-Pop, and her personal style from almost alternative looking, rough R&B girl to more Idol looking. (1999 Utada was jeans and a T-Shirt, 2009 Utada is a dress and lots of makeup.) She has had almost continuous success with a string of top selling albums, #1 singles, etc. She's done drama songs, anime songs, a childrens song (Boku Wa Kuma) and unlike many J-Pop artists, is the driving force behind her career, writing songs, etc. She is clearly no product of her record company. (Recently, her personality is a little silly. I can't understand Japanese that well to understand news reports or anything, but I wonder if they touch on her eccentric behavior. She just seems a bit off, almost too happy.)

Utada Hikaru - Can You Keep A Secret? (From her Second Album)

Utada was also the first Asian artist in a long time to make a real attempt to enter the US market, first in 2004 with EXODUS and again in 2009 with THIS IS THE ONE. Exodus was unfortunately a mess, it didn't sound like an Utada cd and the producer Timbaland gave her a lot of experimental sounding beats to work with. It wasn't very good and got little attention outside of Utada trying to crack the market. THIS IS THE ONE is a much better cd (it sounds like a logical extension of the music she has been doing) and the first single has got some decent airplay, but nothing spectacular. Utada has cancelled all her US appearances as she has been sick (virus or something, nothing serious) and her second attempt at US success looks to be almost over before it began. Utada may become a footnote to the whole "Asian Invasion" of pop music in the US as the Wonder Girls (and Se7en to a lesser degree) are getting much more buzz than she did with her album. Her presence definitely helped them get attention though, and she deserves credit for that. Hopefully a later single could hit bigger - she has set the groundwork that something like that remains possible which is a feat in itself. (One of the asian artists needs a hit. Once one has a hit, all their songs will get renewed interest.)

Utada Hikaru - Come Back to Me (Debut Single from 2nd US Album)

This is one the artists I doubt I am introducing to anyone, but she definitely needed to be included. If for some reason you are not yet a Hikki convert, I would suggest you pick up an Utada cd ASAP as I'm sure you will become one soon.

Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utada_Hikaru - Wikipedia Page