Bad year in J-music.

I read a girl's post on her last.fm profile, about how 2008 is a pretty bad year in Jpop/rock music. Now that I list down the artists, there are so many bands going on hiatus/retiring and not enough new acts to make up for it. Besides deluhi and maybe vistlip, I can't really name a new emerging band that really left an impression on me this year.

Here are the artists that are retiring:
1. Ellegarden - on an indefinite hiatus. :( That was the saddest to hear. I can't recall a time where their music didn't make me happy.
2. Chihiro Onitsuka - retiring. I've been a fan of hers for years and it's so sad to hear she won't be making any more music.
3. melody. - Well fuck, where am I going to get my Jpop fix now? With the release of her best of album Timeline, she called it quits this past October. :(
4. Maaki - the girl singer from High and Mighty Color is retiring. I think she's getting married? And she was a relatively new act, I don't think HMC reached their peak yet. Oh well.
5. Amano Tsukiko - She's retiring from singing, but I think she's going to continue to write for other artists. She was amazing, her song Chou for the Fatal Frame video game was beautiful.
6. DJ Ozma - retired. Popular, but I didn't really like him.

Even though there were some notably good albums released, like Diru's Oroborus and Ayu's Guilty, it wasn't really that spectacular. :/ I hope 2009 brings better things.