From ‘Unfair to compare K-pop to J-pop’, 5 May 2012, ST Life!
(Tay Wan Xin): I am writing on behalf of many J-pop supporters regarding the story How K-pop Beat J-pop (Life!, April 26). Although it might be true that K-pop is the in thing now, is there a need to write such a biased article?
Using Ayumi Hamasaki to compare with Girl’s Generation is not fair. Hamasaki is a J-pop icon who has been in the music industry for a long time. Girl’s Generation is an idol group which only recently became famous. Hamasaki definitely wins hands down.
Besides, I do not think that the Japanese culture is dying out. People seem to have forgotten that most of their favourite anime, such as Pokemon and Doreamon, are part of Japanese culture and their childhood. Even popular K-dramas such as Boys Over Flowers, City Hunter, Playful Kiss and many others are adaptations of original Japanese manga.
(Goh Jia Jie): …The article has incited virtual violence in social media such as Facebook and Twitter, drawing a line between J-pop and K-pop and dividing individuals who appreciate music. It has resulted in an even more tense relationship between K-pop and J-pop fans in Singapore.
Not a fan of either, but I hope nobody has died defending their musical turf in what appears to me as a rather harmless rivalry, like the sort between top England football clubs, Britpop bands of the nineties, Mac vs Microsoft users or Zoe vs Fann. Singaporeans generally lack ‘groupie solidarity’ when it comes to supporting their own musical talents. No one will be arguing if Taufik Batistah has more ‘swag’ than Sheik Haikel, nor do our local bands and idols have the kind of obsessive, exclusive following that has earned J and K-pop ‘cult-like’ status. The rest of us who live in the real world tend to differ passionately over who makes the best chicken rice in Singapore instead. Whether fans of J or K pop, without these kids HMV would have disappeared a long time ago and I thank God that their obsession is keeping the CD format alive.
Japanese pop music has been trending in Singapore for much longer than Korean music, long before it was rebranded as J-pop and even before the first Pokemon was born. According to this ST article, the craze was born in the aftermath of the All Japan Red and White festival which was screened on local TV in 1981. K-pop really began to take off at the turn of the millennium (Seoul Music, 22 Aug 2000, ST), with girl groups like SES and Clon setting the stage for future performers. Shinhwa was the first K-pop band to perform here, and that was as late as 2006. The genre is still relatively young and it’s hard to think of a Korean hit song without someone rapping over it, if not auto-tuned. Manufactured to bubblegum perfection, it’s no surprise that K-pop has had greater success here, riding on the tidal wave of pop exports like drama serials and horror movies. Still, it’s unlikely that your slick RnB-heavy Korean boy bands of today could rival 80′s J groups like Shonen-Tai when it comes to versatility and staying power. Or looking like actual men for that matter.
Indeed, it was a time when the hair drew as much attention as the dance movies. Shohjo-Tai, the female version of Shonen-Tai above, look like they actually eat three proper meals a day. You also didn’t need 48 members to launch a single then. Most producers would be happy with trios, not an entire classroom.
What K-pop lacks in wackiness and variety, the Japanese have more than made up for it in style. If pop and RnB isn’t your cup of tea, you have the choice of techno (Steve Aoki), or Ogre You AssHole. Other J-rock/punk bands have names like Maximum the Hormone, Bump of Chicken or Sons of All Pussys. They even made a movie about a death metal band called Detroit Metal City.
If you need more evidence of J-pop’s staying power, look no further than the universally recognised catchy little 1963 ditty that is ‘Sukiyaki’, which singer Johnny Nakamura brought to the region when the word ‘pop-star’ was still in quotation marks. It was also probably the first Japanese contemporary track ever heard by Singaporeans. K-pop fans talk about the genre’s success in ‘crossovers’ into US markets. This guy scored a No 1 on the Billboard Charts before most K-pop fans’ parents were even born. Girls’ Generation could ‘bring all the boys out’ and will never achieve what Sukiyaki did for Asia in the face of legends of the time like the Beatles and Rolling Stones.
And of course, there’s Kitaro, still alive by the way. It’s heartening to see musicians sticking to the dying trade that is New Age Music and not sell-out by dressing like pimps. Alas, only spa owners would use his works now.
Filed under: 1960s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2012, Fun and games, Local music/bands, Music/music videos, Violence Tagged: | local music, music, Violence
