Music: J-POP Globalization

Hello world.

So, maybe a lot of the people who end up here are like me, they listened to Japanese music through the Internet, thought it was awesome and were left wanting more, only to find out that it is not available in the local CD shops (yeah, the World Music section has a very deceiving name) and it will cost you most of your earnings to import. So, why isn't J-POP exported around the world like American music is? I'd like to explain a few of the reasons why I think this is the case.

1. I've mentioned before that Japan has the number two largest recording industry in the world and the United States has the largest. Japan has reached this position through mostly domestic sales, while the US has secured its place through its global appeal. Basically, there is a very large Japanese population to target with a very strong domestic industry, which eliminates the need to expand to foreign markets.

2. A lot of effort goes into promoting each song and album within Japan, including appearances on music shows, tours, concerts, etc. A lot of time and effort is spent on hooking the local audience, so there's not much time and effort left to try to break into foreign markets.

3. Most audiences are not very accepting of music that is in a foreign language. Some people find it difficult to relate to songs which they don't understand the lyrics and people who are unfamiliar with a particular language may not find its general sound system aesthetically pleasing. Japanese artists also tend to fall into line with the rest of the Japanese population in the sense that English is not really their strongest subject. So, producing all their songs in English could be quite a hassle and not necessarily effective.

Here's an example of a song entirely in English by a Japanese band. 

Lyrics can be found here: http://j-lyric.net/artist/a000673/l00d722.html

4. The J-POP method of marketing is very foreign to the Western world. In the States and other countries, there are actors turned singers and vice-versa, but nothing like the multimedia entertainer which is the idol. Actually, J-POP does enjoy some popularity abroad, but mostly in East and South-East Asia, where Japanese popular culture has always had a big influence, so the whole-package deal is more accessible, rather than just the music.

I'm not saying that there are no fans abroad. There are many fans of Japanese music in North American and Europe, but they make up a fairly limited sub-culture compared to the whole. I think a lot of the reasons I have provided above explain why Japanese music doesn't seem to reach out to foreign audiences as much.

Music: Foreign Music in Japan

Hello Internet!

In Japan, the domestic music industry is fairly strong and there are a lot of different artists and types of music to choose from, who sing (mostly) in Japanese, a language almost the entire population has as their native language and understands best. Looking at it this way, the music needs of Japan can mostly be satisfied by the domestic market. However, that does not mean that foreign artists, from the United States or other countries are not popular in Japan.

If you go to any music store in Japan, you will usually find the music separated into two major categories: 邦楽 hougaku (Japanese music) and 洋楽 yougaku (Western music).

The Japanese music section of one store. 

(Image source: http://www.kirakuza.co.jp/toriatsukai/index.html)

Part of the Western music section of another store.

(Image source: http://nttbj.itp.ne.jp/0523321662/index.html)

Western music is generally kept fairly separate from Japanese music in many ways. Western artists rarely appear on Japanese music programs, like Music Station or Kouhaku, and do not have as many commercial campaigns in Japan. However, certain artists, like Lady Gaga and Avril Lavigne have enjoyed great record sales and popularity in Japan and do occasionally appear on Japanese television programs to promote their music.

There is another type of foreign music that has recently enjoyed great success in Japan, which is South Korean music, or K-POP. If you look around the music stores in Japan, there is really no consistency in the way K-POP is classified. Some have it in a separate K-POP section, some have it with the Japanese music and some have it with the Western music. Official rankings and music sites are the same. Sometimes it seems that they are even classified as both. For the 2011 Japan Gold Disc Award, the Best New Artist - Japanese and Best New Artist - Western awards both went to K-POP bands, Girls' Generation and KARA respectively.

I think part of the confusion is because K-POP is so much more integrated into the Japanese music industry than Western music. These artists generally speak some Japanese, appear on Japanese music shows, TV commercials and national ad campaigns, and sing in Japanese as well. They are almost as heavily promoted and spread throughout Japanese entertainment as the idols. Yet, at the same time, they are obviously not Japanese.

KARA appearing in a commercial for the Japanese cellphone company Docomo.

Either way, one can safely say that K-POP has secured a place in the Japanese music industry that no other foreign music has been able to before. It is hard to say whether or not it will keep this position or fade in popularity over time, but for the moment, K-POP is still sticking around near the top of the charts.

It is possible that perhaps K-POP has started a movement that will blur the boundaries between foreign and Japanese music and categories like yougaku and hougaku might disappear in the future, but the strength of the domestic music industry and the tendency Japan has to separate Japanese things from foreign things might not allow this. We'll just have to watch and find out.

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For further reading:

A summary of K-POP sales in Japan: http://www.6theory.com/forum/index.php/topic/32763-kpop-on-japans-official-music-charts-oricon-singles-chart-oricon-album-chart/

An article theorizing about the reasons for K-POP's popularity in Japan:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/09/how-korean-pop-conquered-japan/244712/

Music: The Force that is the Idol

Hello again!

Continuing along the theme of the Japanese music industry and how music is promoted, it is impossible not to address this one very important trend: idols. Don't be confused by this word. The Japanese idol is not the same as the people who win American Idol. The Japanese idol is a sort of all around entertainer, with music being at the centre in most cases. There are also gravure idols, but they fall into a slightly different category. There is sometimes overlap though, as in the case of AKB48.

Anyway, in recent years, idols have really been dominating the domestic music industry. (1) Although idols have been a part of the Japanese music industry for years, recently their popularity has exploded. The biggest players over the last year or so have been no doubt AKB48 and Arashi. According to Oricon, Arashi and AKB48 had the number one and number two albums of 2011 respectively and the top seven singles of the year were all from the two groups.

So, why are idols hugely successful? I think promotion probably has a lot to do with it, because, seriously, they are EVERYWHERE. You cannot escape them. They host TV shows, they appear in dorama, commercials, public service announcements, variety television shows, magazines, photo books, and in AKB's case, they are the mascots for 7-Eleven Japan as well as their chain of grocery stores.

They also tend to make the top headlines in entertainment news at least a couple times a week. I don't even like them, but I know all the names of the main members. It's scary.

There is also always a slew of merchandise available for any idol or idol group. These include planners, notebook, keychains as well as things like candid photos that sell for quite a price in official shops. For example, in the Johnny's shop, it's 150 yen for one of these candid photos, which generally just look like randomly shot Polaroids. Some people also resell these products over the Internet for more than double the original price, plus shipping.

That's only the start. That's how they sell the whole package, but I haven't even mentioned the music yet. The music is also EVERYWHERE. It is used in a variety of ways on television and the artists will generally go on a tour of music programs after the release of every single, guaranteeing exposure for the track. You're also guaranteed to hear these kinds of songs when you walk into convenience stores or video stores and even if you're not a fan of the music, you're bound to recognize every latest single. They are also incredibly catchy and the types of songs that easily get stuck in your head, whether you like it or not.

Another difference between a regular artist and an idol is that most idols release singles far more often than regular musicians. For example, AKB48 released 6 singles last year (2), NOT including the songs released by the subgroups made up of the same members.

The whole idol model is kind of similar to the idea of cross-media promotion. These groups are not just put together to sing. From the very start they are trained to sing, dance, act, model, host and entertain in a variety of ways. This ensures their survival in other industries even if their music career ends and also makes sure that they are exposed to a wide audience. The way idols can easily cross over into different media also proves once again how interconnected the Japanese entertainment industry is.

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For further reading:

(1) See: http://www.japantoday.com/category/entertainment/view/cd-single-sales-jump-in-2011-thanks-to-akb48 and http://loljapan.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/what-happened-to-the-music-industry-japan/.

(2) See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AKB48_discography

Just for fun, here's a somewhat old, but interesting article on the Japanese music industry, focussing on idols.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2005/aug/21/popandrock3

Music: The Role of Anime and Dorama

Hello!

This is likely going to turn into a recurring theme in this blog, but the Japanese entertainment industry is in general very interconnected. This allows for things like cross-media promotion, where a single story or idea is presented in a variety of media forms, books, movies, dorama, plays, etc. It also allows musicians to easily move into acting and vice-versa, which I'll touch on a little bit later. In this web of interconnected media forms, I think television may be at the centre, just because television is seriously EVERYWHERE in Japan. There are big screens playing commercials and countdown rankings near the stations (see below), 1-SEG allows you to view television on your cellphone and at least 99% of households have TVs in Japan. (1)

You can see the big screen on the right.
(Image source: http://eatlovego.com/tag/tokyoria/)

Television also plays an important role in promoting music and singles in particular. Today, I'm going to talk about one of the ways in which it does so, through television programs like anime and dorama..

Popular television programs will often use a song from a famous artist for its theme song prior to the release of the single. This gets the song exposure even before the CD hits the shelves. Not only is the song used in the opening theme, but instrumental versions and edited versions are often used throughout the show as well, especially during really important or emotional scenes. Its melody is repeated over and over again as you watch the show, guaranteeing that you will become familiar with it and associate it with certain scenes within the show.

Also, particularly in the case of very emotional dorama or anime, or even the nostalgic type, a certain sentimental value is subconsciously attached to the theme song. I remember way back when the popular manga, GTO, was turned into a dorama. The theme song was sung by the main actor, Sorimachi Takashi, who really can't sing to save his life. Seriously, listen to it.

It's pretty horrible when you just think about the song by itself. However, when you connect that song to the dorama that was fun and happy while dealing with many serious issues of the time like bullying and prostitution, all the emotions that were stirred up in you from watching the dorama become associated with that song. By the way, I ended up buying Sorimachi Takashi's best album just for this song...

With anime, many will create theme songs specifically for the show, sung by one of the voice actors or a popular anime song artist. However, some of the popular long-running series, like Crayon Shin-chan, Detective Conan or One Piece, tend to use songs by regular pop and rock artists, once again making it the opening theme before the release of the single. It is also not uncommon for them to advertise the release date for the single during the commercial break or after the show. Often large recording companies, like Sony Music, will sponsor these shows, which gives them some say in the music selection. (2)

In summary, television dramas and anime play a big role in promoting music. If the drama or anime is a hit, it almost always guarantees that the opening theme song will be a hit as well.

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For further reading:

(1) I could easily find statistics in Japanese, but I had trouble finding reliable sources for them in English. The data on this site is a little old (from 2004), but I think it is probably trustworthy.
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/japan/households-with-television-percent-wb-data.html
This report also mentions that the number of households with televisions is almost equal to the total number of households in Japan.
http://www.ntv.co.jp/english/ir/images/ar/2006-05.pdf

(2) Here's a list of anime that Sony has been involved with just to give you an idea.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/company.php?id=539