Supercar was a Japanese rock band active from 1995 to 2005, who made their debut in 1997. Consisting of composer and vocalist Kōji Nakamura, lyricist and guitarist Junji Ishiwatari, bassist Miki Furukawa, and drummer Kōdai Tazawa, Supercar is best known for combining alternative rock with electronic music and has been characterized as having an "almost foundational importance to 21st century Japanese indie rock". Internationally, Supercar is also known for providing much of the soundtrack for the Japanese film Ping Pong, as well as being featured in the anime series Eureka Seven.
The marquee for Supercar's final concert at Shin-Kiba Studio Coast, Tokyo, Japan
Japanese rock , sometimes abbreviated to J-rock , is rock music from Japan. Influenced by American and British rock of the 1960s, the first rock bands in Japan performed what is called group sounds, with lyrics almost exclusively in English. Folk rock band Happy End in the early 1970s are credited as the first to sing rock music in the Japanese language. Punk rock bands Boøwy and The Blue Hearts and hard rock/heavy metal groups X Japan and B'z led Japanese rock in the late 1980s and early 1990s by achieving major mainstream success.
The Spiders in the Netherlands, 1966
Loudness performing in Hamburg, 2010
Boøwy performing in 1984
X Japan at Madison Square Garden in 2014