Resources

If you want to research Japanese musicians and need some English data, this is a great place to start. I will be adding to this page over time. Two things to note:
1) I do not post press articles for individual artists here because there's just too many of them.
2) If you need articles for a project, paper, or proposal, The AJMR has a full of research service. Please click here for more information.

Lastly - The AJMR is NOT responsible for the content of these websites. This includes any grey legal areas, accuracy, or IT issues.

Please check out our American flier archive on Flickr here!

English Resources:

Livejournal:
-Livejournal.com is a public blogging service. You can post anonymously, but it really helps to join. You will automatically get a blog when you sign on, but you don't have to use it. Just having a username allows you to join and post to communities-
Jrock Scans - a community for posting scans of Japanese rock music magazines.
Morgianasama - this user also posts in Jrock_Scans, but she also cross-posts to her own blog. Her specialty is old, outdated, and discontinued music magazines.
AramaTheyDidn't - a popular gossip & entertainment community.

Other:
AnimeCons - the #1 place for anime convention information
Anime News Network - the #1 place for anime-related news
The History of Japanese Music - it's a bit brief, but a good read
Japanese Rockology - translated lists of accomplished/relevant/important artists published by Japanese sources (and relevant Youtube channel video compilations)
Jrawk.com - a discontinued podcast site, but there's still playlists uploaded. Great variation of artists.
TokyoHive - a Japanese entertainment news website
Pysche Music - a great write up on Japanese psychadelic & independent music
punks is hippies - an "online DIY punk zine archive"; they have a nice collection of Japanese ones
Jagged Visions Zine - more Japanese DIY zines .

People:
Head Heritage - Julian Cope's official website. He wrote Japrocksampler.
McClure Music - the official website of Japan-based ex-Billboard writer Steve McClure.   

General resources:
WorldCat - the world's card catalogue. Your local library's website will only search internally, but WorldCat will look in library systems all over the US, including university libraries. (To give you an idea - in the Los Angeles alone, we have three public library systems - Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, and then there's all of our universities...)
allmusic - a reliable source to find general discography information

Japanese Resources:

Barks - a reliable music news sites (warning: music video autoplay)
Glass Thread - it's absolutely the best stripped-down resource for visual-kei fact-checking. It includes bands, band members, their career paths, releases, tours, labels, events, instruments, etc.
Pop Academy (1997-2005) - a database of synth, techno, and electro bands.
Visunavi - a visual-kei information database, including an extremely detailed live schedule section

YouTube:

The AJMR originally intended to make YouTube channel so that we could provide readers with a list of our subscriptions to various official Jmusic channels. However, you can't actually link to your own subscriptions (sigh). We have a list of official ones on the right side of our channel here, but Youtube won't let us add any more. We'll figure it out eventually. Here's a list of the major labels & distributors for now - subscribing to them is a great way to find new music:

Major
Avex
Emi Music Japan
Nippon Crown
Sony Music Japan (may not be available in your country)
Tokuma Japan Communications
Toy's Factory
Universal Music Japan
Victor Music
Yamaha Music

Minor
A-sketch 
Danger Crue

Darkest Labyrinth & Starwave Records
Domo Music Group
Resistar Records