List of songs by Gen Hoshino
Japanese singer-songwriter, musician, and actor Gen Hoshino has written or co-written most songs from his solo discography, which consists of six studio albums, two extended plays (EPs), and twenty-three singles. Within his broader catalogue, he has written songs for other artists and guest performed on singles, cover albums, a remix, and studio albums.
Hoshino began his musical career as the guitarist and marimba player for Sakerock (2000–2015), an instrumental band that he formed with high school classmates. Besides the band, he worked as an actor and wrote music for stage plays. As a solo artist, Hoshino released a CD-R titled Baka no Uta in 2005 and the CD Barabara in 2007, the latter as a bundle to a booklet by photographer Taro Hirano. They included original tracks and Sakerock covers with added lyrics; a cover of Crazy Cats' "Sūdara Bushi" (1961) was included on both. His debut studio album, also titled Baka no Uta (2010), featured two Sakerock covers ("Rōfūfu" and "Ana o Horu") and "Tadaima", co-written by Haruomi Hosono. Hoshino wrote all songs on his following four albums—Episode (2011), Stranger (2013), Yellow Dancer (2015), and Pop Virus (2018)—solely by himself. Same Thing (2019), his first EP, featured British indie band Superorganism, English producer Tom Misch, and Japanese rapper Punpee; his second EP, Lighthouse (2023), featured comedian Masayasu Wakabayashi and American instrumentalists Louis Cole, Sam Gendel, and Sam Wilkes. Hoshino's sixth studio album, eponymously titled Gen, was released in May 2025. It includes a lengthened version of the Lighthouse song with Cole, Gendel, and Wilkes, and new features from Lee Young-ji, Cordae, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Umi, and Camilo.
Aside material for his albums, Hoshino has recorded B-sides exclusives to singles and guest appeared on others' work. He covered Haruomi Hosono's "Rose and Beast" (1973) with Ren Takada for the latter's album 12 Notes (2006), performed the song "Taiyaki" (2006) with Hisashi Yoshino, and played acoustic guitar on the Saho Terao songs "Kakurete Nai de" (2007) and "Otenkiame" (2009). Hoshino covered Raymond Scott's "Lucky Strike" on the tribute album Raymond Scott Songbook (2013) and songs by former members of the Beatles for the compilation Ringo no Komori-uta: Apple of the Best Eye (2014). He remixed Dua Lipa's "Good in Bed" for her Club Future Nostalgia (2020), performed the song "Nomad" with Korean rapper Zion.T for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: The Album (2021), and featured alongside other artists on Superorganism's single "Into the Sun" from World Wide Pop (2022).
Hoshino has written songs for other artists as a non-performer, including "Chingiri-dera" (2004) and "Tingue Bossa Bosa Bossa Nova" (2006) for Tom Miyazaki, "Wuhan no Hito" (2009) for Asa-Chang & Junray, "Banana Oiwake" (2011) for Hosono, "Otona" (2019) for Noritake Kinashi and Toshinobu Kubota, and "Kawaii" (2025) for Le Sserafim. With screenwriter Kankurō Kudō, he wrote four songs from 2010 to 2016 for the NHK series Mītsuketa!, which were released on soundtrack albums. As the alter ego character Akira Nise, Hoshino has performed numerous live covers of singer Akira Fuse's "Kimi wa Bara yori Utsukushī" (1979); he has received original writing credits under the name of the character, such as on Kanjani Eight's "Ima" (2017). Hoshino's discography also consists of annual birthday songs for the comedian Yūki Himura, radio jingles, and various unreleased tracks registered with the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers, and Publishers.