Akina Nakamori

Emotive love songs and a constantly shifting image that has often bordered on provocative -- at least for a mainstream artist -- have made Akina Nakamori one of the two queens of Japanese pop of the '80s (the other being Seiko Matsuda, marketed, in opposite fashion, as a girl-next-door type). After some years on the top, Nakamori went through a career crash that's all too familiar to pop scenes anywhere in the world, complete with a nervous breakdown, misfiring media stunts, and a loss of the spotlight. However, she managed to return to the Top Ten in the '90s and 2000s, altho...