group sounds

{{Short description|Genre of Japanese rock music}}

{{About|the music genre|the Rocket from the Crypt album|Group Sounds (album)}}

{{Infobox music genre

| name = Group sounds

| stylistic_origins = {{hlist|Rock and roll|rockabilly|rhythm and blues|beat|psychedelia|kayōkyoku}}

| cultural_origins = Mid-1960s, Japan

| derivatives = J-pop

| subgenrelist =

| subgenres =

| fusiongenres =

| regional_scenes =

| other_topics =

}}

{{nihongo|Group sounds|グループ・サウンズ|Gurūpu Saunzu|lead=yes}}, often abbreviated as GS, is a genre of Japanese rock music which became popular in the mid to late 1960s and initiated the fusion of Japanese kayōkyoku music and Western rock music.{{cite web|url=http://www.bounce.com/article/article.php/1708/ALL/ |script-title=ja:第38回 ─ グループ・サウンズ |publisher=Bounce |date=2004-12-16 |access-date=2009-03-07 |language=ja |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080819173957/http://www.bounce.com/article/article.php/1708/ALL |archive-date=August 19, 2008 }} Their music production techniques were regarded as playing a pioneering role in modern Japanese popular music.

Group sounds arose following the Beatles performance at the Budokan in 1966, and was strongly influenced by British beat music of the 1960s.{{Cite book| last = Martin | first = Ian F. | title = Quit Your Band: Musical Notes From the Japanese Underground | publisher = Awai Books | year = 2016 | page = 42| isbn = 978-1-937220-05-1}} Group sounds acts included the Tigers, the Tempters, the Spiders, the Mops, and the Golden Cups. The movement peaked in late 1967 when Jackey Yoshikawa and His Blue Comets won the Japan Record Award.