official GF blog

The early and mid 2000s marked a time when Japanese artists worked from the shadows. A select few, like Yoshiki from X Japan,  produced backing tracks, instrumentals, and worked in production with only a mere mention in the credits. 

Starting in the 2010s, the industry started to leave behind the dark period and brought these talented Japanese artists to light. 

Artists began to join other mainstream western musicians as features in their songs.

This made for a few low-key, experimental, and barely advertised tracks that serve as the foundation for bigger charting collabs recently like Megan Thee Stallion and Yuki Chiba’s Mamushi. 

HUMAN LOST – J Balvin / m-flo

m-flo and J Balvin collabed for the title song of the movie “HUMAN LOST”.

J Balvin is known for loving Japanese culture – performing in Japan and using Japanese artist’s work for his album covers.

Face My Fears – Utada / Skrillex

Utada, the queen of Jpop who attempted an American solo debut in the 2000s, collabed with Skrillex to make the title song for Kingdom Hearts.

While her debut was too early to be well received by a commercial foreign market, she is still one of, if not the greatest, J-pop artists of all time.

Tokyo – Sekai no Owari / Owl City

There was a huge Sekai no Owari craze in early 2010s Japan. They were topping the charts and had several songs in the karaoke ranking list.

The vocalist, Fukase, even got his own Vocaloid voice bank. Looking back today, SekaOwa really has that early 2010s tumblr vibe. 

Sekai no Owari were always heavily inspired by Owl City’s sound. Their collab, “Tokyo”, is a fun pop song that blends the two group’s styles. I listened to this one a lot when I was feeling homesick as a kid.

Listen – One OK Rock, Avril Lavigne  

Fun fact – the bassist of One OK is married to Avril Lavigne’s sister! One OK is a big fan of Avril and her style of music. 

Rain On Me – Naomi Watanabe / Lady Gaga

While not a music collab, comedian Naomi Watanabe re-created Lady Gaga’s “Rain On Me” music video.

In an interview asking why she made it, Naomi said she just really loves Lady Gaga.

She raised the funds and put together the team to make the video herself. It’s nice to see a mainstream celebrity make a video just because they thought the idea was cool. 

Crazy Crazy – Charli XCX / Kyary Pamyu Pamyu

This collab was made early on in both Kyary and Charli’s career. Ten years later, both have solidified their spot as pop icons.

This is a fun – and dare I say very random – collab that probably wouldn’t happen again today. 

Sad Machine – Porter Robinson / Vocaloid

Porter was a legend in the 2010s rave scene. His use of anime themes was tasteful – and even cool – marking a major first in a scene where anything Asian was wrongfully seen as nerdy. 

He uses Vocaloid for the female voice in this song. Porter took an online subculture and brought it into live spaces, a first for this type of music. 

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The 2010s were a time when these low-key collabs were more of a passion project… only happening because of a mutual respect (or, a marriage) between the artists. This laid the foundation for more mainstream collabs happening in the 2020s. 

I hope you enjoyed listening to my picks, and I hope you got to discover something new! 

Do you know any other collabs that I didn’t mention here? Please share them if you do!! (: Until next time.