Discussions about K-pop in the Japanese market are never dull, primarily because International fans are a passionate bunch with many having their loyalties already cemented.
It’s been interesting for me to observe, because while I actually got into Korean music first, I got into Japanese entertainment prior to that, so I have a love and appreciation for both industries.
Thus, this site revolves around both industries and their issues, and as such, I suppose a question of this nature was inevitable.
Hello Asian Junkie,
I’m a relatively new reader to the site who started following recently after being linked to this article on K-pop in America.
seoulbeats and Omona They Didn’t recently had debates over two articles written on K-pop in Japan, both for and against it, and I was wondering if you had any thoughts on it.
Thanks.
Thanks for the interesting question.
Since it’s a serious one, I’ll give it the serious answer it deserves.
—–
Honestly, I don’t like to critique blogs*, but if the articles in question have their fair share of points, I can do requests like this from now on.
*While I do enjoy critique, I don’t normally tackle editorials from blogs because they are generally about the passion of fans, and harping on that seems like bullying a family member. On the other hand, companies are different entities entirely, and they can be and should be held to a higher standard, hence my focus on them.
=====
The basic premise of the articles is this: Michelle believes K-pop’s success in Japan is overrated and it’s setup to fail in the future. Patricia believes that K-pop is currently using the correct tactics in the Japanese market and that the growth of the Hallyu Wave means Japan no longer needs special treatment.
As for the articles, I’ll tackle them each individually, highlighting both the portions I agree and disagree with. Although they are allegedly in point/counter format, I found that they actually make quite different arguments.
Apologies in advance if it’s hard to follow the debate, but it was hard for me to piece it together as well.
What should be made clear, though, is that a lot of the K-pop acts that entered the Japanese market in 2011 and onwards — if not all — are in no way on par with their seniors BoA and TVXQ in terms of material and popularity, let alone on par with mainstream Japanese artists. In fact, any chance of them staying in the market long-term is rather slim due to their pathetic promotional efforts.
While this is generally true, it’s a bit overstated.
The success of certain K-pop acts in Japan are not a matter of opinion, they are a matter of fact. Kara, SNSD, and TVXQ (two) are currently among the mainstream elite in the market.
1) It’s wrong to say that current K-pop acts aren’t on par with BoA and TVXQ (five) at their peak. Adjusting for market reduction and global recession, the current elite K-pop artists rank quite similar, if not better.
2) For the most part though, she’s right. Despite all the hype, the majority of K-pop acts in Japan aren’t all that close to being mainstream, they just seem to generally coast along around average to good.
In terms of material quality, nearly everyone on the large list of K-pop debutees has been extremely disappointing. Almost everybody had chosen to make their entrance into the Japanese arena with a remake of a certain hit song…However, there’s nothing remotely interesting or respectable about that. It shows no musical growth, let alone creative incentive on the producers’ part. Instead, it’s a blatant commercial exploitation of the Japanese circle of K-pop listeners.
Shitty? Yes. Safe? Yes. Smart? Yes.
While using a remake is shitty for fans, it’s a safe move that has dual benefits. Using a song with a previous track record of success gives a debut a higher chance of being relevant in Japan and drawing attention, thus providing a loud introduction to a new audience while scoring solid monetary returns at the same time.
I know what she’s saying in terms of exploitation, but I think that only applies to groups who release remake after remake after remake (especially groups who aren’t even popular in Korea), who are literally just leeching money from Japanese fans. For the most part though, the initial remake release is simply a market icebreaker before they go off on their own and make their own original Japanese material.
Remember, this is not some new thing that is coming with this new brand of Hallyu Wave, so let’s not revise history here. When BoA first crossed over to Japan, she brought “ID Peace B” with her. A remake. Same shit, different era.
The reason why Korean idols sell well in Japan lies with the fact that their music and concepts are so different. They may be idols, but they are marketed in a rather foreign manner. The Korean acts appear more ‘Western’ in terms of both appearance and musical style much of the time. More often they not, they don’t fit into the Japanese category of an idol, so instead, they must be marketed as hallyu idols.
While I think that’s initially an attention getting positive for Korean acts, I think Japanese tastes will remain Japanese.
That’s why I think Kara has been so disproportionately successful in Japan compared to their popularity in Korea. It’s the same reason I can see IU being popular in Japan if they push her hard.
Being proficient in the Japanese language is only a start in terms of becoming a well-received artist in Japan. Having a grasp on the language allows the artists to appear on shows without a translator and gives the audience the image of the artists in question being serious about selling in Japan.
There’s also a bonus of being capable of pronouncing the lyrics to your songs well (isn’t that ironic, it’s just a bonus). More importantly, since they are being marketed as singers, they must produce good material.
Gonna disagree with the last sentence. They are marketed as pop idols regardless of whether they have a foreign flare to them or not. Japanese audiences see them for what they are, not as in some competition with Hirai Ken and Angela Aki. The musical expectation from Korean artists isn’t all that different from other idols, and let’s be honest, it’s not like the Japanese idol industry has exactly set the bar high…at all.
As for the point about having to adapt to speak Japanese in order to achieve sustainable popularity in Japan, I completely agree. It’s the reason I think Kara is well on their way to continued success as long as they can keep coming up with catchy brainless songs, whereas SNSD is more of a long term worry as their Japanese is generally terrible and they are concentrating on pointless ambitions like America.
Suffice to say, my take on the influx of Korean acts in the Japanese music industry is rather negative. I cannot see any group currently promoting in Japan making it big long-term except for Tohoshinki and KARA.
Disagree.
BoA has already made it big, and despite her declining popularity, she’s still a mainstream name. TVXQ have re-established themselves in the limelight as a duo, and JYJ are mainstream relevant as well. Kara can make it there if they just sustain their levels for a bit longer and if SNSD can come back to reality after their little American dick waving adventure, they can focus on Japan and stick around as well.
With a bit of luck and adjustments, I can see T-ara, IU, and Big Bang finding success as well.
Are K-pop groups ever going to dominate Japan like the Korean media already says they are? Probably not, but I think this new version of the Hallyu Wave can result in more mainstream relevant celebrities in the Japanese music industry than the previous one.
In fact, what the heads of the Korean management companies should be thinking about is how to improve things at home. The reason they are entering the Japanese music industry is essentially to bring back all the money they’ve lost in their Korean promotions, thanks to the current situation of large-scale piracy and pathetic prices of digital sales.
It’s a problem, yes, but that just sounds bitter and is not relevant to the argument at all.
Really, it’s okay to promote in Japan. Just don’t do it with lazily worked remakes because it’s the fast way to make money. You can make a lot more in the long run if you do it right.
Agree.
BoA and DBSK could not rely on their popularity in Korea to propel themselves forward in Japan, because this was a time when the popularity of Korean pop culture wasn’t enough to do any “propelling” of any sort. SM knew this, and thus concluded that the only way that a Korean artist could make a name for themselves in Japan in that kind of environment is to play on the same field as all the other Japanese artists.
Isn’t this a bit of revisionist history though?
BoA’s debut in Korea sold 150,000 copies and charted tenth, which is higher than most Korean acts who are debuting in Japan today. She then proceeded to move over to Japan with “ID Peace B”, a remake of a Korean single, and her debut Japanese album immediately sold over a million copies.
Essentially, there’s no difference in how she went about things in comparison to the new Hallyu Wave. True enough, the reason it was harder is because there was no government sponsored hype machine for her to ride on, but it’s not like she started as a 12-year-old indie artist and finally made it big a decade later with her fifth album release or something.
It’s easy to look at BoA and DBSK’s success and say that this is how all Japanese debuts should be done. In many ways, this claim is legitimate; BoA and DBSK not only put out some of their best material in Japan, but their harsh careers in Japan also helped them become better artists and performers in the long run.
Exactly.
That’s why despite their relative declining popularity, their names still resonate in the mainstream, because their dedication and assimilation garnered them respect from the Japanese market.
But though these new artists hold BoA and DBSK’s work in such high regard, why is it that nearly every K-pop artist is releasing cheap Japanese-language remakes of their old Korean singles in the Japanese market, and more importantly, why are these K-pop artists still respected in the Japanese music industry?
What?
I can’t think of a K-pop group with mainstream respect in Japan that hasn’t put in work and followed the path of those who have had success in Japan before.
Kara released four Japanese singles, two Japanese albums, and have become proficient in Japanese. SNSD has not adapted to the Japanese language to the same level, but their album was predominantly original material, some of the best they’ve ever produced, and they worked hand in hand with Japanese producers and writers.
The trio that rounds out the mainstream respected acts include names we already know adapted to the market: BoA, TVXQ, and JYJ.
I can’t think of a single respected K-pop artist in the Japanese music industry who skated by doing remakes.
Unlike before, where Korean artists had to fully integrate themselves in the Japanese music industry in order to have a chance at success, Japan has become a Hallyu-friendly region where K-pop artists can make a name for themselves simply by riding the Korean Wave.
I agree to a point.
Japan has indeed become more open and aware of Korean music, but I don’t honestly think Korean artists market themselves significantly different from before.
Remember, popular Korean pop acts of the past didn’t even try to crossover. Fly To The Sky, Baby V.O.X., Sechs Kies, g.o.d., and others didn’t even attempt it. S.E.S., one of the few who did try, released five albums in Japan, a majority of it remakes of their Korean work.
Hell, you could argue they used to be worse at the remake tactics before.
Considering the climate of Hallyu in Japan today, there’s really no need for Korean artists to do a BoA/DBSK-styled debut anymore. In fact, to debut a la BoA/DBSK would be rather silly. The conventional route for Korean artists to debut in Japan has already been established, and it would be strange for a K-pop artists to deviate from that convention and make more trouble for themselves without any guarantee of success.
Therefore, it has become virtually impossible for a Korean artist to debut in Japan in the same way as BoA and DBSK and enjoy the same level of success. Groups like DGNA the Boss and Supernova both tried to debut in Japan in the same way as DBSK and BoA, but they have been deemed ‘flops’ in comparison to the hordes of other K-pop artists in Japan who are surfing high on the Korean Wave.
While The Boss and Supernova share certain similarities with BoA and TVXQ, they differ in one important way.
All four started in Korea before migrating to Japan, but the latter two hit it big, while the former two are middling artists. Is it because the Hallyu Wave no longer makes it necessary to dedicate time in Japan? No.
BoA and TVXQ were popular by the time they crossed over and there was some reasonable expectation that they could find success despite it being a brave new world in Japan. By comparison, The Boss and Supernova are largely irrelevant in Korea, so what they actually attempted to do was break new ground by trying to make it in Japan without succeeding in their home market.
If there’s a lesson to be learned here, it’s to not pointlessly debut unsuccessful Korean groups in Japan without finding out if they are actually decent enough to warrant the risk or not.
K-pop and J-pop fans alike seem to be disgruntled over the simplistic and ‘lazy’ approach that many K-pop artists have taken in Japan, but this disgruntlement seems to lie in the belief that the Japanese market deserves special treatment. This ‘special treatment’ might have been deserved and necessary back in the early-mid 2000s when Hallyu was still a budding phenomenon, but not anymore. There was once a time when Japan was held as an unattainable goal for Korean entertainers, but that is no longer the case. As far as Korean entertainment is concerned, Japan has been swept up by Korean fan culture all the same — and that is more than enough for K-pop to establish a solid footing in the Japanese market.
Except that every mainstream Korean artist in the Japanese market has given Japan the “special treatment”.
The “special treatment” is not about selling out to Japan, it’s about knowing your consumer base and developing a foundation for success.
As it currently stands, K-pop is locked into its own Hallyufied, fandomized niche of Japanese culture, where the hard work and detail put into BoA and DBSK’s careers wouldn’t only be unnecessary, but inefficient. The result? Korean idols will be penned into their own “Hallyu” box, with little hope of ever really meshing with the rest of the Japanese music industry.
Doesn’t this argue against her own point?
She basically states that Korean artists who come over to Japan to get their quick cash by pimping remade singles will forever be relegated to a niche and will never find the mainstream.
When working in Japan, one should try to work with Japanese staff and produce songs written by Japanese composers to maximize the chances of achieving an aesthetic that is, at the least, reminiscent with the aesthetic of the current Japanese music scene.
What? How does this not constitute the “special treatment” that she just rallied against?
This is the exact type of thing that BoA and TVXQ did.
Confused.
SNSD has done a relatively good job of this, as their Japanese album was produced by Japanese staff and their MVs are clearly shot in a very J-poppish style. But other groups such as SHINee and U-Kiss seem to be taking songs that would normally go on any other Korean record, creating Japanese lyrics, and slapping the tracks onto a Japanese album or single. The composition credits on SHINee’s first Japanese album are filled with the names of Swedish composers — the same composers that SM routinely employs for their artists’ Korean releases. Korean entertainment companies have complete control over their artists’ material, if nothing else. But the fact that there’s virtually no distinction between SHINee’s Korean material and Japanese material is very disheartening.
Right.
Again, this argues against her “special treatment” point because it shows that an artist who was willing to adapt found popularity (SNSD) and an artist throwing remade shit against the wall struggled (SHINee).
Japan is a unique market for K-pop in many ways, but not because it’s deserving of any kind of special treatment or elevated respect above that of any other Asian market. It’s unique because it’s an extremely profitable market, and many Korean entertainment companies have chosen to release exclusive material in Japan in order to maximize this profit margin.
Don’t you increase that profit margin in both the short and long term by adapting to Japanese market and putting in the effort though?
She spent a paragraph talking about how Japan no longer deserves “special treatment” because the Hallyu Wave gives artists a head start, but then spent the next two paragraphs showing that giving Japan “special treatment” will lead to higher sales, higher relevance, and higher acclaim.
Rather than berating Korean entertainment companies for their ‘cheapness,’ perhaps it would be wiser to consider Hallyu’s current flow in the Japanese market and the ways that are currently most efficient for Korean entertainment companies to make the best of their investments in Japan.
But the most efficient way to achieve mainstream success and monetary returns is to adjust to Japan…like she just argued.
Patricia’s article is better written, but Michelle’s article has the better content.
Michelle’s article fell into quite a few typical J-pop fan hating on K-pop ruts, but at least the overall point was consistent. Patricia writes better, and I think she had a point in there somewhere, but the back half of the editorial essentially argued against the first half of the editorial, which is just bizarre. In the end, Patricia essentially agreed with Michelle’s overall point about how K-pop acts should invest more time and more effort in Japan if they want sustained success, but just made a point that Michelle shouldn’t be pissed at Korean acts who want to make a quick buck as well.
Alrighty then.
—–
As with most things, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
Nobody in Korea is going to become mainstream in Japan by remaking Korean songs, but if that’s what they want to do, they have the right to attempt to leech money from Japanese audiences. However, the fact remains that every mainstream relevant Korean artist in the Japanese market has achieved the accomplishment by assimilating and adjusting to Japan in some significant manner, and that will likely continue to be the recipe for success going forward.
Japan is a land of fads, so there’s always the possibility that Korean music has already peaked, but I think the Korean artists have the talent, support, and incentive to continue thriving in Japan. Perhaps most of them will settle into a niche instead of the mainstream, but they’ll have their audience nevertheless.
Perhaps most importantly, it’s financially beneficial to both Korean and Japanese companies for this relationship to continue, so I don’t see it going away any time soon.
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I have nothing better to do, so send me your questions here: Ask Asian Junkie.
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Enlightening and well-written article as always, IATFB (what does that stand for?!). Long read, but totally worth it.
To be fair, I think SB has a lot of pressure to churn out insightful articles given their readership, but it’s very difficult to do so when you are not a knowledgeable expert on the topic at hand.
As the world’s leading IU expert, I frowned numerous times in bewilderment reading their SB Exchange on IU due to the flawed arguments they based off of an insufficient foundation of IU knowledge.
IATFB is a very provocative term — think 2girls1cup provocative. That’s why he has to use IATFB as an acronym :(
Says the guy named Fobio.
I=I
A=Am
T=The
F=Fucking
B=Boss
:o
What IU discussion was this?
How are they under pressure? It’s just a blog, why should they have to force content?
They’re like me or they should be. If I don’t feel like writing, I don’t.
:o
Personally I kinda get annoyed with the korean songs made into japanese. I prefer original songs. But it is a quick way for the artists to get their name out there and a quick buck. Its a toss up. But I do prefer original songs. But I agree I think Kara has found a great way to market themselves in japan. And if all others find their niche then they are in.
The recipe for success now is to release a Japanese remake of a hit Korean song that most fits Japanese tastes (“Mister” Over “Lupin” For Kara). Then using that springboard and their existing fan base to release original Japanese songs in the market style by using Japanese producers/writers.
Over time, they essentially become more talented versions of Japanese idols if they play it right, much like TVXQ and BoA.
When I first saw Hara, I thought she looked similar to Namie Amuro. I don’t really think that anymore, but that was my first impression. Maybe explains some of Kara’s appeal there.
I don’t really understand Japanese music tastes, in general. Take AKB48, for instance. Cute girls but fucking awful music. I can understand Japanese guys watching a music video and fapping over them, but why would they buy their music?
Is it so that they can get some sort of Pavlovian-response thing where they hear the AKB48 chipmunk music which reminds them of the cute girls and causes them to get a happy boner because of the association? I’m confused.
IU seems like a good fit for the Japanese market if for no other reason than that Japanese people love everything that is cute and IU is the cutest damn thing on the planet.
If her more serious songs don’t do well, she can always fall back on something more cutesy like Marshmallow. I’m sure she doesn’t want to do that, but that seems like it would be a guaranteed success in Japan.
Sending IU to Japan will be like sending a little puppy into a room full of perverted coyotes.
Do you really want her to end up in some casting couch video with some perverted japanese businessman?
Yes.
I’ll explain the difference at some point.
you spelled it out didn’t you?
there are music artists and then are idols in japan
one is expected to be musical and one is expected to be cute girls/boys you want to date
Basically, though I’m not sure if it’s about dating as much as kowtowing.
That was my suspicion but I wasn’t really sure. Still doesn’t make sense to me. I guess I’d have to be Japanese to really get it.
Not really.
If you’ve ever wanted to fuck a woman, you basically get it.
“Not really. If you’ve ever wanted to fuck a woman, you basically get it.”
I want to fuck all 48 of them. Don’t have any desire to buy and/or listen to their music. So, sorry – still don’t get it. And I’m pretty sure most American guys share my view on this.
Wanting to fuck a girl does not equal wanting to hear her sing (especially if she CAN’T sing).
It’s not about that though, it’s about the idol part of it.
Supporting their music is supporting their idol, regardless of how good it is.
Korean fans coordinate ways to win online polls and music shows. Japanese fans spend money.
Kara’s appeal is that they instantly went into J-pop mode and are cute and shake their asses.
I’ll explain this more in depth later, but it’s more about literally being an idol (worshiped) than about making music in Japan for that genre.
I understand Kara’s appeal because I like them, too. Their music doesn’t sound like a bunch of retarded chipmunks singing, as AKB48 does.
However, as simple as the “cute chicks shaking their asses” formula seems, I doubt that many other Korean producers will find it easy to reproduce Kara’s success using that same approach.
Well not anymore. Nobody likes an imitation.
Being first is better than being better.
I’ve always heard tv personalities say things like “Hara is vry popular in Japan, they love her because she looks like Amuro Namie” I actually thought that was why they were popular. Maybe that’s one of the reasons and of course the other reason would be the butt dance.
I don’t think that’s the real reason for all of it, I mean I don’t know if she even their most popular member.
I’ll only disagree disagree with you in this point:
“BoA and TVXQ were popular by the time they crossed over and there was some reasonable expectation that they could find success despite it being a brave new world in Japan. ”
By they time they crossed over they were more about promising than popular. She had a very strong debut with “rookie of the year” awards and all, good. But her comeback to Korea 2 years later with a million seller in Japan pumped her popularity up (plus the perfect timing with the Korea-Japan worldcup).
What I’ve learned is that she was really fresh for Japan standards that time – very young and great solo dancer – no big expectations at all for the fact she was popular in Korea.
I think it was the same for TVXQ, who had to rush a few singles/mini albums during their debut year to prove them popular. They went to Japan with just one korean full-album with good results. Again, their acapella feature might have caught the japanese audience atention despite their korean fame. Not so sure as I’m not an expert bout them.
“Far more popular than the other two used to make the counterpoint, The Boss & Supernova.”
There.
As long as Nana gets to strut the runway more, then I am fine with Kpop failing in Japan :3
I like how you think.
I am always happy to hear well-reasoned discussions of pop culture and pop industry, so I’m very very happy! Especially since I read both of those blog posts before and they made my blood boil. However, I have a couple of issues with some of the topics covered in this post and the two blogs you mentioned. First, I have to say that I don’t have a strong background in kpop in Japan, as the only act I am currently interested in is SNSD.
I have to say that the success that SNSD and Kara currently have in Japan is absolutely amazing. Double and Triple Platinum certifications of Girls Generation and Super Girl plus placing fifth on the annual physical album charts is something that the vast majority of Japanese domestic artists wish they could have. In this day and age, even Jpop royalty such as Ayumi Hamasaki and Utada Hikaru can’t shift 500,000, the results of SNSD and Kara should be recognized.
The idea of selling a remake of a Korean song as being blasphemous is an idea I have trouble with. This concept of ‘authentic Japanese’ or a ‘first release’ of a single in the Japanese market seems stupid and irrelevant to me. In SNSD’s case, ‘Run Devil Run’ and ‘Genie’ were both songs written by European/American composers, originally demoed/released by Western artists, which had Korean lyrics for the Korean market. Yet, there were no allegations of ‘remake’ or non-authenticity when they were originally released. What makes them having a new set of lyrics, new videos, Japanese TV promotions so inherently bad? ‘MR TAXI’ was SNSD’s ‘Japan-first’ release, and I do remember being in Japan and hearing a big fuss made about it. Yet, the b-side was a Japanese version of RDR and SNSD’s biggest hit in Japan sales-wise was ‘Gee’, a Korean-written, made, produced single! Also, Mr. Taxi was then released in Korea, and there didn’t seem to be an issue with that.
The idea of ‘commercial exploitation’ of the Japanese people is ridiculous to me. It feels like a rejection of the ability of Japanese consumers to choose what they want for themselves. The entire music industry is structured in a way that is profit-driven. I’m not quite sure what the problem with that is? I personally love the Japanese ‘Genie’ because I feel that its lyrics are powerful to me. Am I commercially exploited because I choose to like something that wasn’t originally developed for my market, for me?
The idea of ‘musical development’ is interesting, but I don’t quite follow how it is being treated here. I am all for taking risks and advancing in music, but I am also very wary of people demeaning a certain culture or group because it is not ‘developed’, ‘modern’, or ‘right’. This actually has links to colonial discourse and has been used to justify crazy things and I feel that it has been used towards pop and Jpop in particular to demean the groups like AKB48, but that is a tangent. In my opinion, the Girls Generation album tracks are the most advanced, brilliant pop music I have heard to come out of a girl group since Girls Aloud. Its interesting though that one of the producers of the album (I forgot which one, its on youtube but I can’t find it) said that he would consider the album to be at world standards but not ground breaking. I agree with that, since the producers of those tracks are European/American-based producers who also produce many top tracks for other artists, and I suspect UMJ/SM paid top dollar for them. This is also a substantial leap from Johnny’s and AKB groups, although I believe Perfume is the most innovative girl group in the world today.
I also personally believe that SNSD has carved out a niche for itself. While I think that SNSD has been helped by the Hallyu wave and also the girl group wave (think AKB), the way they have marketed themselves is very different. I remembered watching a subbed Japanese tv show discussing SNSD at length (I can’t find it, sorry! I guess you’ll just have to trust me) where a famous editor stated that SNSD had promoted a ‘cool’ and ‘stylish’ image (think runway-ready uniforms and long legs in Genie) whereas AKB48 was ‘girls next door’ (reminiscent of Pink Lady, Candies, Morning Musume, etc.) As such, SNSD had appealed to females in a way that no Japanese girl group had done before. In interviews, SNSD members have stated how surprised they are to see so many female fans at their Japanese shows. AKB48′s fanbase is predominantly male (though there are many female fans, my cousin is one of them heh). This is why I don’t feel that SNSD necessarily needs to adapt to a ‘Japanese aesthetic’. I don’t believe that there is a homogenous Japanese public that only listens to one style of music either. I ask you to listen to Perfume and tell me how in the world does an electro-house girl group fit within your concept of ‘Japanese aesthetic’.
Finally, the concept of mainstream respect in Japan. What is mainstream respect? How can you measure it? How can you quantify it? Is it relevant? I am not a person who is intimately familiar with the Japanese entertainment industry, so I can’t say, but I have a sneaking suspicion that not many people here have an understanding of what ‘mainstream respect in Japan’ means either. To be honest, if an act gets double platinum and devotes so much time and effort into the Japanese market, I think they probably get respect.
Glad to have you here and this is quite the essay.
I’ll go in parts.
—–
1) They are recognized. Kara, SNSD, and TVXQ are the three groups I identified as currently mainstream in Japan.
2) I just think remaking a song sucks because fans outside of both markets (you and me) suffer by having to listen to the same track promoted for double the time.
3) I agree with your exploitation point about how it’s ultimately up to the consumer. However, I make the argument that continually releasing remakes of Korean tracks is nothing but a cash grab meant to force Japanese fans into buying a product to support their favorites. Korean and Japanese companies know Japanese fans will do it, so they take advantage of it.
It has less to do with Japan/Korea and more to do with basically extorting money out of loyal fans. I feel the same way about Japanese artists continually releasing “Best” albums and artists like Koda Kumi releasing 20 singles in a month or whatever she did that one time.
4) Yes, that makes me cringe at times as well. The notion that moving musical styles towards Western tastes makes it inherently better.
5) SNSD have already adapted to Japan though. Their popularity was good but not great while they were releasing their Korean single remakes, and they certainly didn’t win over any fans with their music show appearances because they could barely speak Japanese during interviews.
The release of their album changed a lot of that, and as has been mentioned by you, the writers, and me already, that was a significant adjustment for them, working with Japanese writers and producers to form a sound different from what they’ve done in the past.
One thing that does bother me is the notion that what SNSD is doing (stylish/fierce/cool female idols) has not been done in Japan before.
Perfume fits because they used to be idols (like the cutesy type of idols). I’m not sure how that’s not Japanese adjusted, as I doubt you see anything like them outside of Japan where that mixture of wota and electropop would occur. It’s like if deadmau5 was a trio of cute women.
6) It’s difficult to gauge because it’s subjective.
I would say that “mainstream” is different from “respect”. SNSD/KARA/TVXQ are all mainstream, but I would say only TVXQ has built up a reserve of credibility that would follow them even if their popularity dwindles.
BoA, for example, has had falling sales for a while, but she was still doing ads and commercials at that time.
Same for artists like Hamasaki Ayumi, who could sell only one copy of her next release and still have that respect and mainstream quality for basically…uh…ever.
It’s a thin line between a fad and a legend, but like I said, fads in Japan are common, so getting to that next level is actually important.