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X Singles
''X Singles'' is a compilation album released by X Japan on November 21, 1993. It collects all the singles, and their B-sides, released by the band while still named "X" and under contract with Sony Records, CBS/Sony. The album reached number 2 on the Oricon chart, and charted for 35 weeks. In 1994, with 427,860 copies sold, it was the 36th best-selling album of the year. It was later certified Million by the Recording Industry Association of Japan, RIAJ. In 2014, Sony Music Japan released a Audio mastering, remastered version. Track listing # "Kurenai (song), Kurenai" # "20th Century Boy" (Live) (T. Rex (band), T.Rex cover) # "Endless Rain" # "X" (Live Version) # "Week End (X Japan song), Week End" (New Arrange Version) # "Endless Rain" (Live Version) # "Silent Jealousy" # "Sadistic Desire" (New Version) # "Standing Sex" # "Joker" (Edited Version) # "Say Anything (X Japan song), Say Anything" # "Silent Jealousy" (Live Version) References X Japan compilation albums 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
X Japan
was a Japanese rock band from Chiba, formed in 1982 by drummer and pianist Yoshiki and lead vocalist Toshi. Starting as a predominantly power/speed metal band with heavy symphonic elements, they later gravitated towards a progressive sound with an emphasis on ballads. Besides being one of the first Japanese acts to achieve mainstream success while on an independent label, the group is widely credited as one of the pioneers of visual kei, a movement among Japanese musicians comparable to Western glam. Originally named , they released their debut album ''Vanishing Vision'' (1988) on Yoshiki's own Extasy Records one year after finalizing their line-up including bassist Taiji, lead guitarist Hide and rhythm guitarist Pata. They achieved breakthrough success in 1989 with the release of their second and major debut album '' Blue Blood''. Following 1991's '' Jealousy'', Taiji left the band in early 1992. He was replaced by Heath and the group changed their name to X Japan b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sony Music Japan
, often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation and is operating independently from the United States-based Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment due to its strength in the Japanese music industry. Its subsidiaries include the anime, Japanese animation production enterprise, Aniplex, which was established in September 1995 as a joint-venture between Sony Music Entertainment Japan and Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan, but which in 2001 became a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan. It was prominent in the early to mid '90s producing and licensing music for animated series such as ''Roujin Z'' from acclaimed Japanese comic artist Katsuhiro Otomo and Capcom's ''Street Fighter'' animated series. Until March 2007, Sony Music Japan also had its own North American sublabel, Tofu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Say Anything (X Japan Song)
"Say Anything" is a single released by X Japan on December 1, 1991. Summary It is the band's last single released under the name X and the last to feature Taiji on bass. The B-side is a live version of "Silent Jealousy", recorded on November 12, 1991, at Yokohama Arena. Both songs were originally featured on the album ''Jealousy''. A cover of the title song appears on the album ''Global Trance 2'', by the pop band Globe, of which Yoshiki was briefly a member. It was also used as the theme song for the TV drama . Commercial performance The song reached number 3 on the Oricon charts, and charted for 25 weeks. In 1992, with 537,790 copies sold was the 33rd best-selling single of the year, being certified Platinum by RIAJ. Track listing Personnel ;X * Toshi – vocals *Pata – guitar * hide – guitar *Taiji – bass *Yoshiki Yoshiki is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Yoshiki can be written using many different combinations of kanji characters. Here are so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Standing Sex
"Standing Sex" is a single released by X Japan (then named X) on October 25, 1991. Summary It and " The Last Song" are the only X Japan singles to not appear on one of the band's studio albums. The b-side is an edited version of "Joker", originally on their album ''Jealousy''. Commercial performance The song reached number 4 on the Oricon charts, and charted for 16 weeks. In 1991, with 187,160 copies sold was the 87th best-selling single of the year, being certified Gold by RIAJ The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include p .... Track listing Personnel * Co-Producer – Naoshi Tsuda * Mixed by – Rich Breen * Art Direction and Design – Mitsuo Izumisawa * Photography – Masanori Kato, Michihiro Ikeda, Hideo Canno"Standing Sex" liner notes, 1991. References X Jap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silent Jealousy
"Silent Jealousy" is a single released by X Japan (then named X) on September 11, 1991. Summary The song's structure is comparable to " Kurenai", opening with a calm intro, performed on a single instrument, followed by a speed metal composition with symphonic elements. It also includes a short excerpt of Tchaikovsky's " Swan Lake" during the piano-driven bridge. Yoshiki described the song as very fast and very hard to play, and said that while people may call the guitar riff heavy metal, he thinks of it as punk. On its composition he explained, "I really love punk rock, and I wanted to have it as punk as possible, but as melodious as possible. Which is very contradictory. Punk rock never really sees the orchestra, but I tried to combine those two aims." The single's B-side is an alternate version of "Sadistic Desire", originally featured on the band's debut album '' Vanishing Vision''. Live recordings of "Silent Jealousy" can be found on the "Say Anything" single and various ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Week End (X Japan Song)
"Week End" is a single released by X Japan (then named X) on April 21, 1990. Summary Differences between this single edit and the album edit, found on '' Blue Blood'', include an alternate guitar solo and an additional piano bridge. The B-side is a live performance of "Endless Rain" recorded on February 4, 1990 at the Nippon Budokan. A live performance of "Week End" was included as the B-side of their 1996 single " Crucify My Love". Commercial performance The song reached number 2 on the Oricon charts, and charted for 16 weeks. In 1990, with 291,440 copies sold was the 32nd best-selling single of the year, being certified Gold by RIAJ. Track listing Personnel ;X * Toshi – vocals *Pata – guitar * hide – guitar *Taiji – bass *Yoshiki Yoshiki is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Yoshiki can be written using many different combinations of kanji characters. Here are some examples: *義樹, "justice, tree" *義基, "justice, foundation" *義機, "jus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endless Rain
"Endless Rain" is the fourth single released by Japanese heavy metal band X Japan (then named X) on December 1, 1989. It is their second single on a major record label and reached number 3 on the Oricon chart. Summary The title track is taken from the group's breakthrough album '' Blue Blood'', and is their first ballad released as a single. The B-side is a live version of the song "X", recorded on June 10, 1989 at Hibiya Yagai Ongaku. Yoshiki said that "Endless Rain" is the first ballad he ever wrote, previously he was only writing heavy music and thrash metal. He explained that after members of Sony saw him play a composition by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky on piano while X was waiting to play at a club, they asked him to write a ballad. The resulting song was "Endless Rain". Yoshiki said the song became a hit and was a shock to their fans, but they eventually came to like it and it became "X Japan's theme song." ''Rolling Stone'' referred to the song as "November Rain, minus t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
20th Century Boy
"20th Century Boy" is a song by T. Rex, written by Marc Bolan, released as a stand-alone single on 2 March 1973. It entered in the UK Singles Chart at number 3, on 10 March 1973 and peaked three weeks in a row at that position. It stayed a total of nine weeks in the UK Chart. "20th Century Boy" was not featured on the album ''Tanx'', released at the same time in early March. It was later added as a bonus track in the reissues of ''Tanx'' from year 1985 and on all the following versions released since. The song returned to the UK Top 20 in 1991, peaking at No. 13, after being used in a TV commercial for Levi's starring Brad Pitt. Recording "20th Century Boy" "20th Century Boy" was recorded on 3 December 1972 in Toshiba Recording Studios in Tokyo, Japan at a session that ran between 3:00p.m. and 1:30a.m. Backing vocals, hand claps, acoustic guitar and saxophones were recorded in England when T. Rex returned to the country after their tour. The single version of the track f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kurenai (song)
is a song by Japanese heavy metal band X Japan, written by Yoshiki. One of the band's oldest songs, they have been performing "Kurenai" since 1985, and several versions have been released, most significantly as their major-label debut single on September 1, 1989. Background and release "Kurenai" was first released on X's June 1985 live demo tapes, which were titled "Live" and "Endless Dream". The lyrics are entirely in Japanese, while the next version, released on their April 1988 debut album ''Vanishing Vision'', is entirely in English and begins with an intro played by hide on guitar. A flexi disc included within the June 1988 issue of ''Rockin' f'' magazine, contains "Kurenai (Original Japanese Version)". It begins with an intro played by Yoshiki on piano and contrary to the title, was mostly in English. The version on 1989's '' Blue Blood'' begins with an orchestrated piece, then the guitar intro, and is mostly in Japanese, with only the opening lyrics in English. Only a few ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Audio Mastering
Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via methods such as pressing, duplication or replication). In recent years digital masters have become usual, although analog masters—such as audio tapes—are still being used by the manufacturing industry, particularly by a few engineers who specialize in analog mastering. Mastering requires critical listening; however, software tools exist to facilitate the process. Results depend upon the intent of the engineer, the skills of the engineer, the accuracy of the speaker monitors, and the listening environment. Mastering engineers often apply equalization and dynamic range compression in order to optimize sound translation on all playback systems. It is standard practice to make a copy of a master recording—known as a safety copy—in cas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Recording Industry Association Of Japan
The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include promotion of music sales, enforcement of copyright law, and research related to the Japanese music industry. It publishes the annual ''RIAJ Year Book'', a statistical summary of each year's music sales, as well as distributing a variety of other data. Headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, the RIAJ has twenty member companies and a smaller number of associate and supporting members; some member companies are the Japanese branches of multinational corporations headquartered elsewhere. The association is responsible for certifying gold and platinum albums and singles in Japan. RIAJ Certification In 1989, the Recording Industry Association of Japan introduced the music recording certification systems. It is awarded based on shipment figures of com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heavy Metal (music)
Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and United States. With roots in blues rock, psychedelic rock and acid rock, heavy metal bands developed a thick, monumental sound characterized by distorted guitars, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats and loudness. In 1968, three of the genre's most famous pioneers – Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple – were founded. Though they came to attract wide audiences, they were often derided by critics. Several American bands modified heavy metal into more accessible forms during the 1970s: the raw, sleazy sound and shock rock of Alice Cooper and Kiss; the blues-rooted rock of Aerosmith; and the flashy guitar leads and party rock of Van Halen. During the mid-1970s, Judas Priest helped spur the genre's evolution by discarding much of its blues influence,Walser (1993), p. 6 while Motörhead introduced a punk rock sensibilit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
