Japanese music.

Hey there, I've seen quite the amount of thread about anime, manga and japan itself here, but I'd like to go more specific into the
Music. I'm from The Netherlands, and I only listen to Japanese music on my iPod. It just has so many more soul in it, more feeling, more melody. My questions are:
1. What is your favorite band/ who is your favorite singer/composer ( that's right, composers are allowed too). You may add more than one. Also add why you like about their music.
2. What is/are your favorite song(s)?

My answers:
1. My favorite bands are One Ok Rock, Nico touches the walls and my favorite singer is Yui.
One ok rock has some good guitars in their songs and have a pretty hard sound. But they can also play really softly.
Nico touches the walls, is an awesome band which has done several anime intros. My favorite is Matouryoshika from the anime '[C]: the money of soul and possibility control'.
Yui is just an amazing singer, even live is her quality great.

2. One ok rock - 'yokubou ni michita seinendan'(youth filled with desire)
Nico touches the walls - 'Passenger' and 'Diver'
YUI - 'rolling star' and 'again'

I've been listening to Japanese music for around 4 years now, mainly all of my mp3 and laptop are filled with Japanese music in different genres, etc. However, I usually prefer stuff with guitars and with a rock-like style.

My favourite Japanese bands are SCANDAL, Bump of Chicken, High and Mighty Color, heidi., Stereopony and my favourite artists are Utada Hikaru, Koda Kumi (her earlier works, I find her newer works...boring and mainstream), Hirano Aya, Bonnie Pink, Rie Fu, Wakeshima Kanon, misono and Lia.
However, I also like songs that use Vocaloids as the main singers.

My favourite songs at the minute are ;
Karma - Bump of Chicken
Love is War - Hatsune Miku
Tattoo - Koda Kumi
Yokan - heidi.
Hi-Hi-Hi - SCANDAL
Romantic (Original ver & Strings ver) - Rie Fu

Oooh, I know! Bump of chicken definitely has a unique sound, I've had them on my iPod for a while, but didn't like them as much as my other music, so I had to replace them. Karma would definitely be my favorite song from them.

Bump of Chicken is pretty good. Not at the top of my list, but then I have and listen to a lot of Japanese music. There are too many artists I like for me to name them all so I'll stick to my top two: Sakanaction (サカナクション) and Maaya Sakamoto (坂本真綾).

Sakanaction I first heard while I was living in Hokkaido. They were a local band from Sapporo who'd just started a short tour of some other bigger cities and long story short I got to see them live and I fell in love with their music. It's a great kind of dancy-rock-electronic-mix thing they do and if you like any kind of Japanese music you should check them out.

• Some music videos [here] and [here]
• Some footage of the show I was actually at [here]

Maaya Sakamoto I first heard in the opening to Escaflowne and I've always loved her voice and have followed her music ever since then. She's got talent in spades.

• Some music videos [here], [here], [here], and [here]
• A really beautiful song performed live [here]

Wow, Scarf, thanks for introducing me to Sakanaction! They're amazing!

Most of the Japanese music I listen too is that catchy anime opening I heard the other day although for j-pop I've been a big Nana Muzuki fan for a few years now. Also away from anime I loved Dir en Grey, I've actually seen them live.