From May to November of 2020, I created monthly posts about Japanese songs that I had been jamming to.
I wanted to share the tunes I found with you all.

During December, I started thinking of new ways this could evolve in 2021.

If you didn’t already know, I collect all my music together in a Spotify playlist called ‘Shinjuku Sounds‘.

Now populated with 250 plus songs, it’s the perfect to split them out into some new exciting projects.

From today, there are 4 new playlists you can now follow for various flavours of Japanese music (with some extra spice here and there).

Akihabara Anthems

The mecca of anime fans across the world, Akihabara is filled with shrines of our favourite shows, and this playlist is here to celebrate that. Songs you will find here are famous TV Show hits, or inspired from the culture of otaku Japan.

Headline song for this playlist is Ichibanka by Shonan No Kaze and Yasutaka Nakata.

Edo Electronica

The old name for Tokyo, this playlist very much celebrates the new.

Enjoy the future-sounding music that Japan has to offer. From glitchpop to dance music, there’ll be something here for you to get you moving!

Highlight song here is Fly Away by Teddyloid.

Ikebukero Idols

Idols are an important part of Japanese music, it wouldn’t be the same without them. However, they cross a wide range of genres so this playlist will get you engrossed in all of them!

The highlighted band are Malcolm Mask McLaren, a punk rock idol band which you can check out here!

Roppongi Rock

Last but not least, we have Roppongi Rock. This playlist collects some of the greatest J-Rock anthems of all time and some lesser well known ones into one place for you to jam out to.

Highlighted song is Sora ni Utaeba by amazarashi, which is first a rock song, not a My Hero Academia song.

All the songs that get added to a playlist will also be added to Shinjuku Sounds to act as a master playlist of every song. Make sure to follow the playlists you are interested in and maybe you’ll discover some new songs for your own personal lists.

Basically, let me do all the work for you!

Updates of the playlists will now happen every month in place of the ‘Top 5 Blogs’, and some will get their own mini highlights if they are my favourites.

2021 is the year of Japanese music. Enjoy!