Catchy music from dramas: The Quiz Show (original)

Pay money to my pain - Paralyzed Ocean

Genre: metal
Song style: pretty heavy with a lot of screaming, a slight punk twist

I remember a couple of years ago watching some random show I saw recommended by some random person, and then this song came on as the theme and wow! It's pretty typical metal but it was a breath of fresh air amongst all the poppily-produced music around tv shows in Japan. It accompanied a great show - The Quiz Show, about a Who Wants to be a Millionaire type show that gradually exposes its contestants' corrupt lives through its questions. I highly recommend you watch the original one (because the new one with Arashi members is overly long, boring, and has terrible acting). Pay money to my pain has a very American feel - all their lyrics are in English and they have a metal / punk mix reminiscent of American metal bands like Trivium. I recommend you check out their other songs which are slightly more melodic.

Catchy music from dramas: Samurai High School

Monobright - 孤独の太陽

Genre: nerd rock, alternative
Song style: a slow-paced but guitar-filled vocal-melody driven song

The reason why I like this song is that the vocal melody is such a Japanese melody (you'd never find this in an American song). I tend to really like these melodies that fluctuate through many notes within minor / Japanese scales. But what really gets to me is that the singer looks like he is in such pain, making the visuo-audal combination of the song slightly tedious. I promise you, their other songs are more fun and dance-y. This song goes along with a drama I really enjoyed over Thanksgiving break (I know, so long ago! But a good counterpoint to the end of spring break) called "Samurai High School". It's a light-hearted high school drama about a talentless student with a split personality as a samurai from many centuries ago. The show brought a lot of laughs. Monobright gained a lot of fame creating the theme song for this show (it got them in the Oricon charts), and has a new single anticipated for mid-April so we'll see if they can keep up their popularity!

Catchy music from dramas: Liar Game

中田ヤスタカ　(Yasutaka Nakata) - Liar Game

I'm a big fan of Japanese dramas, and one of my favorites right now is Liar Game (I'm on season 2 right now). It's a very psychological drama that makes you think and work on your logic skills!

One thing that really impressed me is the soundtrack of the show. The intro to Liar Game 1 is my favorite song of the week, and the way it integrates with the show makes you feel like a super smart detective when you listen to it (hehe). Here's a video showing what the intros of the two seasons looks like. I love how season 2's intro is just a mild variation on the first one.



Here's the entire intro to season one if you want to feel like you're rockin it out in outer space:



The music is composed by 中田ヤスタカ, a really famous artist in the music scene right now. He's most well-known for composing for chart-topping girl electro-pop group Perfume, and also for the more "indie" group capsule. I'll post more of his music as the topic comes around!