That's a bit unimaginative..........Songs with the same name 2 (BLUEBIRD Version)

Hello there~

Seems like a while since I've done a post that's not a video I've subbed. Well there's more of those to come anyway, I'm subbing an episode of Shabekuri 007 featuring child star Ashida Mana and actress Kurashina Kana. These shows take a long time to subtitle (they go for 40minutes or so) but this one is a TV special so is even longer.....Oh well, it's not taking as long as I thought and these shows are fun to translate anyway, as you end up laughing as you do them

Anyway........I'd like to get to the point of this post. It's part two of a series of posts that I started some time ago but forgot about until a friendly reader commented on it haha. Thanks for that and all of your other comments!

So.......unimaginative song titles that everyone seems to use for some reason is what I'm covering with these articles. Last time around was the title 'MARIA' (Click to check the page!) , which is a title also very popular in English and most probably other languages. This time around however, it's something you wouldn't really expect to be popular, and I don't know why there are so many....
The title this time is .........

BLUEBIRD

This is a very popular title among Japanese artists for some reason. I haven't really checked the lyrics for these songs so I don't know if they're actually singing about bluebirds, but if they are then I'm not sure if there's a lot to really sing about them. And even if there is, I've no clue why so many people do it.....

There's also a famous English song by this name too, by Paul McCartney of the Beatles by the way.....

Well, we'll start off with the song that was in my itunes library with this name. I thought I had more than this but surprisingly only a single match came up when I searched for it. Nevertheless I knew that there are loads of other songs called the same......This list isn't necessarily in order of preference like last time, although the ones that I like more would probably be around the start.

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AYUMI HAMASAKI

This was a big hit in Japan and probably one of her most famous songs?
 I'm not particularly a fan of hers but I quite like this song. I don't think this video is the full version but it should be enough.......I hope?

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IKIMONOGAKARI

This is the second one that sprang to my mind when I though about songs called Blue bird. I was surprised to not have it on my computer.......but I found out I actually did. It's title was in Japanese as ブルーバード, so I actually had two Japanese songs by this name. I fairly like Ikimonogakari, the vocalist girl has a nice voice, and they've got several songs that I like. This one was used as an opening or ending theme for the anime Naruto, so people who watched that might recognise it.
I don't watch the anime so couldn't really care about that though....
The manga was also getting pretty lame last time I read it...........I wonder if it's gotten better now?
It used to be one of my favourites....



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KOBUKURO
Kobukuro are a group that I like but don't like........that doesn't really make much sense does it? Basically, depending on how I'm feeling they might sound great, or they might sound boring as hell. I'll admit that they are a good unit, but to me their songs often sound the same and I can't remember what each of their songs are called. I suppose everyone makes music similar to what they've made before though, and is just a matter of preference. Anywayz, this one was again an OP or ED for an anime, this time 'Bakuman', which is a manga that I love. This is a fairly nice song too, although I can't say that I like it.

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COCCO
Cocco is a owner of a beautiful voice, and has many relaxing and nice music. Probably not as famous as she should be, and often sings in quite good English so would be easier to like for Westerners...........probably.
This song is in English.......but isn't about Bluebirds. This was used as a theme for a movie called 'Vital' featuring the famuos actor Asano Tadanobu (starred as Genghis Kahn in 'Mongol', Ichi the Killer etc)

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IMAI MIKI
Imai Miki is a big star of the early to mid 1990's, and I suppose would be classified as an 'idol'. She's also well known for marrying rock star Hotei Tomoyasu, who actually wrote this song and plays the guitar in it.
Although the style is kinda old, it's still a nice track to casually listen to.

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Well that's it for blueb...........ehehe actually it's not.

Japanese people love to use English titles for there songs, but there are still those that decide to keep it Japanese. And so from here on are the songs called 'Aoi Tori' (青い鳥 or 蒼い鳥) 

aka Blue Bird in Japanese.

ONITSUKA CHIHIRO
Onitsuka Chihiro also has a very nice voice and had several hits around the mid 2000's. She went through an image change last year or so, changing from a naturally Asian beauty to dyed hair and heavy make-up wearing lady, to the shock and dismay of many fans. She sort of resembled an old Madonna but I think she toned down a bit since then, judging by this video. This is also quite a nice song with a Celtic feel to it.

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GOSPELLERS
These guys have been around for a while. They're a gospel/ r'n'b type of group where they harmonize, and there's generally always a group like this somewhere in Japanese pop music scene. Well, this type do sound nice so I suppose it's worth having at least one of them around. They're one of my elder sister's favourite groups too from what I remember her saying. Anyway, this is a nice song, although the video is......well kind of lame. Unfortunately this video can't be embedded.....which is also lame....here's the link though
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNKGYJxmTmA&feature=related

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THE TIGERS
Here's an interesting one. Well only because it's so old, and probably something you wouldn't have heard very much of before. It's by 'The Tigers' who were one of the most popular groups in the 1960's, when there was an era called 'The group sounds'. This era was influenced by the Beatles and saw a huge rise in groups of singers playing music. Well this is a fairly nice song, although you might not like the old folksy sound to it?

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FUJIFABRIC
Here's a slightly strange sounding one. It doesn't sound anything like the other bluebirds on this page, but is still nice in it's own way if you listen to it the whole way through. FujiFabric are a group that I've hear about often but haven't really checked out properly yet. They sound interesting here. They seem fairly unique I think?

AAAAAAAAAAAnnnnnnnnnnnnnnndddddd I'm going to end this here. There's actually several more, but I can't really be bothered covering them.....the post is getting pretty long too anyway. I don't think I'd be able to bother listening to all of these if I was a reader who happened to come across this post.
So.........bye!!
See you next time!

That's A Bit Unimaginative.... Songs With The Same Name (MARIA)

Hello fellow humans......... and non-humans too if you're reading. 

Ever since suddenly realising how great music is while I was in high school, I pretty much listen to music for most of the day, and rarely have my ears unplugged. At the moment, from looking at itunes, it reveals that I currently have a collection of 19913 songs, which equals to 90.5 days for of music (I still want more...) Anyway, when you have this much music, you notice that some artists can be quite unoriginal with song titles. Some may be obvious, like "I love you" or something along those lines, but sometimes you come across other names that don't seem as though they would, but for some reason are popular.


SO! As the title says, this post is about songs that have the same name. 
For this time around it's songs titled 'MARIA'

As this is a blog about Japanese stuff I'll just stick to Japanese songs. The list would be too long if I included English songs too anyway.......


Well, it seems that the V-Kei (or at some stage were V-Kei) are the most susceptible to naming their songs 'Maria'. I suppose it's because they're more into that kind of religious type topics compared to more contemporary musicians. Even so.........why do they all name it the same name? Oh well, most of them are pretty good songs anyway. This is probably my order of preference too.......


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1.GACKT

I actually didn't like this song once upon a time....but that was when I didn't really like Gackt that much either. As I gradually got into his music, this one eventually turned into one of my favourites, mainly because of the fast guitars and how powerfully he sings the chorus. This is a slightly different version to the album but is still pretty good.
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It took me a while to find this song in my pile of songs. Although I've got all of Buck-Tick's albums, (regrettably from questionable means), I until a while ago tended to slip past stuff from the first half of their career. So I got a pretty good surprise when I finally got around to giving it a proper listen.
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This is a really nice track that plays near the end of the album Q.E.D. It's a good song to depart the albums with. Unfortunately my file for this song is corrupt for some reason, and suddenly starts doing that ear busting endless loop hell right at the climax..........

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4. D'ERLANGER

There was only a bad quality one on youtube. 
Hmmm.....well don't have a lot to say about this one. I obtained a couple of their albums about a year ago but didn't get around to listening to them properly, but it actually sounds like a good song. Maybe I should start listening to these guys more.
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5. KUROYUME

I'm not really a fan of Kuroyume to be honest. Surprisingly though, this song just happens to be one of theirs that I can bother to listen to the whole way when I feel kind enough. That doesn't mean that I like or particularly enjoy it though.......A bit too old school I think. The vocalist (Kiyoharu)'s other band, SADS, are better, although the way he sings can get annoying for me after a while.

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6. HITOMI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTORh6AScNI

This is just a song I found while looking for the other videos. It's pretty nice for a pop diva. Not as good as 'Samurai Drive' by the same person though.

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7. T-BOLAN

T-Bolan would be a name that's not as well known in the West (probably?). Anyway, they were pretty popular in the early and mid 90's, but quietly disappeared in 1999 after a long hiatus. Although this is a very popular song in Japan, it just sounds to me like another early 90's Japanese rock song.
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SPECIAL MENTION (?)
LUNA SEA -VIRGIN MARY-

I don't know if I should call this a special mention but, this song pretty much should be called 'MARIA'. Besides, the Virgin Mary is Maria anyway. On top of that the vocalist sings 'maria' in the chorus as well. Although I didn't put this in the rankings (as it's technically not Maria) it would fight for 1st spot with Gackt's Maria........I can't really make a clear decision here.