What is "j-rock"

n. (context slang English) Japanese rock music.

, sometimes abbreviated to , 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 band The Blue Hearts and heavy metal group X Japan, led Japanese rock bands in the late 1980s and early 1990s by achieving major mainstream success. Japanese rock music has become a cult worldwide, being widely known in Asia and has survived through decades competing with its contemporary derivative local style J-pop.