Asian Lady Rockers

There seems to be a plethora of Asian all-girl vocal groups where the girls just sing (or lip-sync) while doing choreographed dance routines during performances. However, there aren't as many Asian all-girl bands, where the members are performing the music as well as the vocals. Many of these bands are considered underground, because their music is usually harder and not compatible with the sound of the more "bubble gum" girl groups that are so popular throughout Asia.

Even though Asian all-girl rock bands haven't enjoyed as much widespread media exposure in their countries that their pop counterparts have, some have earned international fanbases. The prime example above is Scandal; four hot female rockers from Osaka, performing "Shunkan Sentimental." They are; Haruna Ono (vocals, guitar), Mami Sasazaki (guitar, vocals), Tomomi Ogawa (bass, vocals), and Rina Suzuki (drums, vocals). You won't find these ladies on the same bill with Morning Musume.

Below are just a select few more examples of Asian all-female groups that rock and look great doing it (and I'm sure readers will add more in the comments). For those of you wanting to add a sample of this genre to your CD collections, anything from these bands is highly recommended.

Now defunct, Lorelei was one of the few Korean rock bands (male or female) who rose above underground status to appear on popular network music shows. As it's common practice for Korean music shows to have groups lip sync, the girls probably didn't have a choice but to fake it here in this "live" SBS television performance from 2003, but they really could and did, play. The members were; Jung Kyung-hee (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Jung Hye-jin (lead guitar, vocals), Bae Soo-young (bass, vocals), and Kim Yeon-joo (drums, vocals). The nurse outfit Kyung-hee is wearing relates to the music video for this song, which is entitled "Diet."

Thai female rockers Pink, with their music video, "Rak Na Dek Ngo" ("Love you, Silly Baby"). Their line-up is; Aey (vocals), Aob (lead guitar), Yam (rhythm guitar), A (keyboards), Kwan (bass), and Been (drums).

Taiwan's Cherry Boom is composed of four former students at Fu Jen Catholic University; Zha-zha (vocals, occasionally guitar), Gua (guitar), Xiao-qian (bass), and Da-tian, (drums). This video is for their song "I Wanna Rock," which is not a cover of the 1984 Twisted Sister song of the same name.

Hailing from Tokyo, visual kei death metal band exist†trace has released three albums to date. Jyou (vocals), Omi (guitar), Miko (guitar), Naoto (bass), and Mally (drums) are slated to make their U.S. debut at Sakura-Con 2011 in Seattle, Washington next month. The above is the video for their single "Resonance."

Even though there are many other notable Japanese all-girl that bands that I'll miss, 60's surf rock-styled lady rockers, The 5.6.7.8's definitely deserve inclusion here. Originally a quartet, there have been several personnel changes within the band and they eventually became a trio. Above are Yoshiko Fujiyama (guitar, vocals), Yoshiko Yamaguchi (bass, vocals), and Sachiko Fujii (drums, vocals) performing "I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield" in the izakaya scene from the 2003 movie Kill Bill.

Another Japanese all-girl group that definitely deserves inclusion here is Shonen Knife. Founded by sisters Naoko and Atsuko Yamano along with their friend Michie Nakatani in 1981, their sound was influenced by 70's punk bands like the Buzzcocks and Ramones. In fact, they even performed a show in the 90s as a sort of Japanese female Ramones tribute band called "The Osaka Ramones." They've also had numerous personnel changes throughout their 30-year history. The current trio is Naoko Yamano (guitar, vocals), Ritsuko Taneda (bass, vocals), and Emi Morimoto (drums, vocals). Above is them performing "Super Group" from a November 2009 gig at Mohawk Place in Buffalo, New York. Former member Etsuko Nakanishi is on drums here.

EDIT: Some, and maybe eventually all, of the above videos have since been deleted by the hosts since this article was posted. Go here to see the original article and videos.

Interesting post. With just a few exceptions, it seems that Asians don't have much of a feel for western pop and (especially) rock - they're almost always derivative, seemingly unable to put their own stamp on it. The most popular stuff in Asia tends toward the easy listening, but even there, I almost never hear originality. The only big name artist I can think of who can be creative is Faye Wong, and even then only very rarely.

I dont speak Japanese or Thai, but these gals are teriffic! And yes, they are hotties too. What good all girls bands do we have here in the States? Umm, I dont know either. God, I miss the Runaways.

... and btw, who http://www.asian-sirens.net/blog/images/KTSo.jpg on the left hand side bar? She is stunning.

interesting but (for me) the best Asian band is :

"54 nude honeys" and they are sexy too !

check please !!!

@Arktik: that would be - drum roll please - K. T. So. :-)

Great post, cute bands. Very sexy to see talented female bands rocking out. Amazing how they found 4 talented girls who look enough alike to be twins (or quads!) for Scandal, they are hot.

"Twelve Girls Band play an eclectic fusion of traditional Chinese music mixed with modern pop, rock and jazz."

And they are absolutely gorgeous! Easy to find UTube vids and pics. Sadly, being in PRC I can't access UTube :-( but you can!

And yes, great post!

a link to 12 Girls Band - pics and vids

http://www.last.fm/music/Twelve+Girls+Band

Here's another all-girl rock band from Japan.

http://www.shonenknife.net/index.html

Although not a girl group but a solo artist i feel i should mention Tsukiko Amano. She is a fantastic singer and gorgeous. I emailed this site asking them to do something on here but got no reply.
Check her out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_zqTShJlfY

Rina Suzuki, drummer with Scandal...she needs a photo set.
I need her to have a photo set.

If you're gonna mention the Runaways, I gotta mention the Bangles. I couldn't love Susanna Hoffs more if she was Asian!

The 5, 6, 7, 8's appearance in kill Bill was probably the highlight of the movie for me.

lol doctor. I could list a billion. Main examples of japan follow with Hyde, Gackt, and Miyavi.

As for visual kei, none of those are visual kei. Visual kei hasn't existed as a style since late 90's simply because wannabe's alike the above started copying it. Just alike punk in the U.S. being ruined.

If you are looking for hot asian women that do musik, you would have to look up, Snsd, speed, and etc... Or just google, hot asian bands. Prolly will have lists upon lists.

@longtack: Yeah, I'm surprised CEC didn't mention Shonen Knife - I thought they were the best known all-girl rock group from Japan. Also, unlike most of their compatriots, they aren't just derivative - I think they bring a distinctly Japanese stamp their music, and are pretty good fun too.

@tezzer220: we have a very lengthy backlog of features, and I typically do not respond to feature requests - we just do them (eventually).

Greetings... I've visited Asian sirens for a long time and frequently, just never comment :). These kind of band is inspiring (although it's kinda hard to see if they will actually make a big change overall on their genre because asian tradition is deep rooted and highly enforced... I'm Indonesian so I know :p... maybe in a generations or two it will as western influence starting to influence the east heavily. But yeah they're genuine and good band... unlike popular but mostly for show group like morning musume whose members barely have a singing voice

There's a rock band out of LA called The Binges. Not all the band members are Japanese but the guitarist and bassist are both sisters from Japan.

Mayuko Okai on guitar...She plays like Slash

Tzusumi Okai on bass

They are strait up rock and roll.

If you're ever in Hollywood you can find them playing at various clubs on Sunset Blvd on any given night during the week.
Check them out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-zdyHvaldY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES4sYGTzAs4&feature=related

Awesome post. Since I mostly listen to metal and classical, I really enjoyed this one.

I think Scandal was hands down the best of the bunch. Those girls not only have looks, but some pretty good chops. Loralei and ExistTtrace weren't bad either.

I can count on one hand all the half way decent Thai bands I've ever come across, and being that I know a lot of Thais, I've heard a ton of Thai music. More than 99% of the Thai music I've ever heard is absolutely horrible.

ExistTtrace certainly isn't death metal, or even black metal for that matter, but its nice to see them covering that aspect of the genre. They kind of have a Within Temptation thing going for them.

Kaila Yu fronts a band now called Nylon Pink. They could certainly be included here as well.

As I stated, there are many other notable female bands (particularly those hailing from Japan) I didn't include in this entry, but I was definitely wrong not to include Shonen Knife, especially after they're still rocking after 30 years and 17 albums. I've edited to include them.

Scandal is a good band, very much ZONE which broke up a few years ago

@Wingdfan19: Yeah, I like Susanna Hoffs too and she still looks great at 52. It's easy to see why she always shined the brightest of the Bangles.

Just the other day, I commented that Michelle Phan looks a bit like an Asian version of Susanna.

Re: Scandal: Patty Smyth is Asian?

Michelle Phan is very cute, I do see a resemblance to Susanna Hoffs.

In Malaysia in the 90's we had all ladies rock band called Candy

here is url
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktf4upBTLfA

Also in the 90's all girl pop/punk group called Intoxicated also from Malaysia

here is the url
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTPHogyFqdM