Mr.Children

To the casual observer, it might seem that most Japanese pop and rock bands are somewhere on the axis defined by Shonen Knife and Puffy AmiYumi: from adorabe pop-punk to sugary bubblegum pop, all of it proffered by cute girls in miniskirts and bobby socks. However, as the audience for J-pop has grown and matured, more traditional pop/rock bands like Mr. Children have attracted more notice outside their homeland. One of the most popular rock bands in Japan, with combined album and single sales of over 50 million copies, the quartet of singer/songwriter Kazutoshi Sakurai, lead g...