Jpop: Tokyo Girls Style - Predawn

Tokyo Girl Style has since the first video I saw ("Cross-Movie") ever been about that slightly gothic and about long and wistful looks from the members, and "Predawn" continues that tradition with lots of melancholic ambience.

• Tokyo Girls Style - Predawn

Jpop: C-ute - Dreamlike Climax(夢幻クライマックス)

The best songs of C-ute has for me always been the ones with some drama and tempo, so its no surprise that their "Dreamlike Climax" with its piano (sampling Beethoven‘s Modschein Sonate) and gothic influences has me feeling mushy inside.

• C-ute - Dreamlike Climax(夢幻クライマックス)

Kpop: Queen B'z

The group previously known as P.O.P Con in 2012, made a "re-debut" as Queen B'z this autumn with the somewhat different bloody vampire-hunter styled "Bad". Come Christmas Day they softened this with a cutesy song "2014 Wishlist" (2014 희망사항). While being a quite ordinary song, it is still better than many other sub-par - holiday offerings from kpop super-groups.

• Queen B'z - Bad (original version)/Bad (performance version)
• Queen B'z ft Byun Jin Sub - 2014 Wishlist (2014 희망사항 )

Jpop: Yousei Teikoku (妖精帝國)

The Japanese group Yousei Teikoku,which literally means the Fairy Kingdom, has been running for 15 years since its formation in 1997. Their music span over several music styles but they are basically what in the west would be described as an emo goth band. Well, sort of.

• Yousei Teikoku - Mischevious of Alice
• Yousei Teikoko - Wahrheit
• Yousei Teikoku - Hades: The bloody rage
• Yousei Teikoku - Rebellion Anthem
• Yousei Teikoko - Filament
• Yousei Teikoko - Fantasy Mythology
• Yousei Teikoko - Last Moment (Live)