Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
NHK has announced the official lineup for the 63rd Kohaku Uta Gassen, and noticeably absent from the lineup are K-pop acts.
Red Team (Female)
aiko (11)
Ayaka (6)
Ikimonogakari (5)
Ishikawa Sayuri (35)
AKB48 (5)
SKE48 (1)
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu (1)
Koizai Kaori (16)
Koda Kumi (8)
Godai Natsuko (19)
Sakamoto Fuyumi (24)
Tendo Yoshimi (17)
Nakashima Mika (9)
Nishino Kana (3)
Perfume (5)
Hamasaki Ayumi (14)
Fuji Ayako (18)
Princess Princess (1)
Mizuki Nana (4)
Mizumori Kaori (10)
Momoiro Clover Z (1)
YUI (1)
YUKI (1)
Yuki Saori (13)
Wada Akiko (36)White Team (Male)
Arashi (4)
Itsuki Hiroshi (42)
HY (2)
EXILE (8)
NYC (4)
Kanjani 8 (1)
Kitajima Saburo (49)
Go Hiromi (25)
Golden Bomber (1)
Kobukuro (7)
Saito Kazuyoshi (1)
Sandaime J Soul Brothers (1)
SMAP (20)
Tachi Hiroshi (2)
TOKIO (19)
Tokunaga Hideaki (7)
AAA (3)
Naoto Inti Raymi (1)
Hikawa Kiyoshi (13)
FUNKY MONKEY BABYS (4)
Fukuyama Masaharu (5)
Hosokawa Takashi (36)
Porno Graffitti (11)
Miwa Akihiro (1)
Mori Shinichi (45)
The exclusion of K-pop acts from the event is interesting for a variety of reasons.
1) Political bullshit.
Japan and Korea aren’t currently getting along as well as in the past, so the speculation is ripe that this is retribution in a way. Petty and stupid? Yeah, but they do enough petty and stupid shit to each other that crap like this is plausible. Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that if anybody was going to be in on shutting down K-pop, it would be NHK since it’s owned by the government of Japan.
With that said though, Kohaku has been rather notorious, especially in recent years, for including basically anybody that companies want in badly enough. It’s always been this way to an extent for people like Johnny’s Entertainment, but it has recently gotten worse (Leah Dizon ring a bell?), which makes me think it might not have as much to do with politics as people think.
Which leads to the next point…
2) Japanese companies benefit from K-pop.
I don’t get why people fail to understand this. In all the bitching and moaning between fans in their arbitrarily-created war between K-pop and J-pop, people seem to forget that K-pop would never thrive in Japan if not for the Japanese companies promoting them and what not. Hell, that’s the exact reason those dumbshit Japanese nationalists do those pointless protests of Japanese companies. Their perception is that the participation of Japanese companies in promoting the Hallyu Wave is tantamount to “selling out” Japanese interests somehow.
So long story short, Japanese companies have no incentive to shut down K-pop. Why? Simple, because the companies basically get free talent developed for them in Korea and then they get to take a significant chunk of the profits those talents make in Japan for essentially only having to deal with promotion and distribution (especially true when they just re-release old K-pop songs). It’s infinitely easier for them than trying to develop their own groups, just ask Avex.
What does this have to do with Kohaku? Well, if the companies wanted them in the event enough, they probably could have got them in, especially given how desperate Kohaku is for ratings recently (hence the lower standards). But I’m not entirely sure the demand is there.
Which segues into the next point…
3) Demand for K-pop has fallen in Japan.
Call it whatever you want, but it’s on a clear downturn now, far ahead of whatever music market fall is currently underway.
I’ve recently written about the disturbing trend for K-pop in Japan, which centered around the two marquee girl groups (SNSD/KARA) that once seemingly had a vague chance of challenging for AKB48‘s crown. Updating even from that article though, KARA is now on pace to sell a sixth of what they did with their last album (that’s being generous), SNSD’s latest single will end up finishing its debut week behind Momoiro Clover Z, Watanabe Mayu, and GENERATIONS (whatever the fuck that is), and SNSD’s album that just dropped today is projected to sell about as well as KARA’s has.
That’s … disturbing, really, and if SNSD’s album sales do end up relatively flopping, it puts both groups on pace to make me look like an idiot for saying that at least SNSD and KARA would be fine in Japan.
—–
In short, while there is sure to be outcry over K-pop’s exclusion, I’m not sure any K-pop act except TVXQ actually has a case for making it into Kohaku to begin with. For now, I guess that’s the harrowing reality for K-pop in the Japanese market.
Well~ I guess it’s time for all K-Pop groups in Japan to jump ship and swim back to South Korea. It’s kind of crazy how sales have plummeted for KARA when they were doing SO well earlier this year. Can a simple trip to Dokdo/Takeshima by the Korean president really make such an impact? o___o
Doubt it.
Japan is a land of trends.
Where shops throw out two week old products just to have place for the new shit…
Anyways, I read about the Kohaku Kpop misery on AKP…
My exact thought was what you mentioned, that if companies really wanted Kpop acts on Kohaku, they would’ve brought them no matter what scandal. Where money talks, national pride is silent.
Secondly it’s not like every group that debuted so far in one way or the other in Japan is involved with this issue. Again, if they really wanted to they would’ve put some Korean act on the list.
I don’t know how much Hallyu is over in Japan but as for now I don’t think anyone could bounce into the Japanese market without flopping…Imo KARA had the best chances and maybe something like Orange Caramel – vaguely remember their efforts and I thought it wasn’t halfway bad for the J-market…
Hallyu Wave was ALWAYS more about their dramas/movies than music.
GENERATIONS is a sub unit of EXILE…D:
Honestly had no idea.
I think they’re kinda new so I wouldn’t be surprised if people who aren’t hardcore ldh fans didn’t know.
Was completely blind to this fact
Fans respond to this new on akp realy surprised me
I don’t see the big deal tbh.
The most important question is what is Kyarypamyupamyu going wear?
The real elephant in the room Lol
IKR?
Something as amazing as her, if that’s possible
I don’t know much about Japanese music market, so please somebody explain to me why SNSD’s and Kara’s sales were so low? Does it have to do anything with politics or is it just because of shitty releases? Also why, for example, Big Bang has lots of sold-out shows in Japanese Domes but constantly flops with album sales? Just want to understand how it works
I thought KARA would’ve had at least a stable place with all the tv shows and promotions from even Japanese celebs but i guess i was also wrong. Like IATFB said tho, Japan is a trend island, i think people just got bored of them. Politically maybe but why would they go into a music industry? also there has been speculations but nothing that can be proven yet. I don’t know how many people the domes can fit but let’s say BB flops with 30,000 album sales and the domes can fit only 1000-2000 people, the domes would be only 1/10 of the fans that bought the album so that’s pretty obvious who would be at the concerts. Then you have to calculate the 90% of normal people who download albums for free which is why most artists flop.
Actually Domes have 50000 seats and Tokyo Dome 55000. If I’m not mistaken they sold out all of them which is strange for 30000 album sales
oh wow did not expect so many seats, which means there’s a lot of more fans but just downloaders.
A friend linked me to this article and it was pretty insightful. I honestly think there is less interest for K-Pop as compared to previous years, but I guess we’ll have to wait to see if that is true or not.
Oh and I think Mochi is confusing The Second with Generations. The Second is EXILE’s new sub-unit and Generations is LDH’s new boy group.
I’m actually surprised they outsold SNSD since this is their debut single and they didn’t even appear on a single music show… You should check them out, they’re pretty good.
Oh thx
Generation is the one with Brave it out song right?
Saw both if their PVs at once so I mixed it up
Yes, that’s them!
I don’t blame you for getting confused. There have been so many releases from LDH lately that even I am getting dizzy lol.
They’re produced by Hiro from EXILE too. I think that’s where my mix up came from lol
I honestly don’t know much of other EXILE members beside the main vocals so when I saw Generation danced, I thought they were EXILE members or something XD
They’re really good tho.
When I saw Mandy (the blasian guy), I thought they were an EXILE sub-unit too, but then I saw the other baby-faced guys and finally figured out it was the new boy group Hiro had formed. XD
Inorite? I wasn’t expecting to like their single, but it’s been on repeat for the last 3 days, and I’ve probably watched all videos there are of Reo’s krump battles more than thrice too lol.
Look, AAA!!! /oh there’s other things in this post?
I freaking love AAA
out of topic,,IATFB..i just wanna tell you that everytime i open AJ via phone,,the comments cut off on the right side..this never happened before you made that mobile view changes in AJ..
It works fine on my phone except the most far right replies (I can’t see them, they are half cut). And the grey strip that scrolls too when I scroll comments is kinda annoying
yeah that’s what i mean,the far right replies!!
but i didnt have problem with scrolls
Okay, I just tried to open this site in another browser. There was no grey strip but the problem with comments was still there
That’s what happens to me
I cant even stalk your glorious comments along with No_Min,Tap,Taro n Schizo properly *sigh*
I’m a long-time-lurker here in AJ,too shy to comment tho..herro there :)
OH WAI TANKUHYEW, OH NEW COMMENT SEX BUD!!!
I must ask…. IZ YEWR AVATAR THAT SEXY CHANGMIN?!?!
YESS,,IT’S CHANGMIN IN ALL HIS GLORIOUSNESS!!
@oppirsrflawless
YOU FANTASTIC PERSON!!!!!!
http://i53.tinypic.com/2zghuvt.jpg
YOU TOOO!!
http://5c.img.v4.skyrock.net/3612/45963612/pics/1937811367_1_3_b4rR6tAT.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5qxpxNALKoo/TlSNe3Xzh2I/AAAAAAAAAQ4/Ip8_tgksaAA/s1600/Changmin-Lolcat-max-changmin-16395888-500-330.jpg
Mine too, I’ve tried scrolling in that direction or zooming outwards on the screen, but it just reloads to the cut-off way.
Hmm… just the fact that not even BoA nor TVXQ is on here just makes me question a bit (well…BoA hasn’t been there for a while, but I think she has some Japanese song she released, right?) Still wouldn’t surprise me if politics had something to do with it but… meh. I just get annoyed with Jpop/Jmusic fans who act like “OMG NO KPOP!?!?!?!?!11111!?! FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Like… shut up. If you don’t like it… don’t watch it……? They live in a different country for crying out loud -____- What difference does it make to them directly (and even indirectly) if they’re in Japan?
(I kinda miss the getting the emails if someone replied to your comment option ;_;)
well i kind of understand their outbursts/disgust. If you had a kpop group trying to get into lets say.. America but then have them sing/promote in English then whats really “Kpop” about it anymore? It would be considered just Pop music for us Americans. It’s not like American pop, kpop, jpop are any different genres, just in different languages, but a lot of people want/thinkof them in a different category when they’re all the same. Same thing applies to Japan. Kpop acts come to Japan, sing/promote in Japanese, now there’s nothing “Korean-pop” about it, but they promote themselves as kpop when they would be considered Jpop in Japan imo.. i guess its like forcing kpop culture into/onto jpop culture and i think that’s why a lot of jpop fans are pissed. Most of them didn’t like kpop to begin with.
I don’t think a group/act change into a different country’s ‘pop’ unless they purposely do so. As there’s like, Kpop songs mostly sung in English anyway, some in complete English, would it still be considered ‘Kpop?’ I think so…. If they’re still bringing their style over into a different country, (which pretty much what all these Kpop groups have been doing, since it’s the same song in Japanese and/or Korean, English) then it’s still Kpop. I think it’s more about the language… (I mean, so is American pop and British Pop the same thing because it’s both in English?) But yeah… I see more of people getting scared that Kpop is ‘taking over’ than anything…
Nah… most of those people are borderline discriminatory towards a different country, make ridiculous claims about what Kpop lacks that Jpop (but then usually compare ALL of Japan’s music with Korean idol pop… which doesn’t equate to all of Korea’s music) supposedly has, and then talks about how greedy Korean companies are (without realizing Japanese companies pretty much are too) They get hypocritical and make absurd thoughts and conclusions
well like u said it’s more about the language thing but why is it that a group like wondergirls who really tried to make it in the states are still considered a k-pop group(in America) when they studied,sung,promoted in english? sure it might be a “korean style pop” from their korean remakes but what about their other new songs after those? Again, there was nothing that emphasizes “kpop” or “korean” about their English songs in which I would consider their American songs just Pop. What i was trying to get at was the common usage of “jpop” or “kpop” towards a groups ethnicity instead of the language like you’ve said ex. Wondergirls,Jin Akanishi, they may have come from their respective countries pop genre but they’re deliberately trying to access the American market yet people/fans keep labeling them as Jpop or Kpop.
If American pop and British pop are the same thing then that also means by your definition that canto pop mandarin pop taiwanese pop are the same right?
Let’s be real here most “fans” are teenagers and haven’t developed to critically think yet.
Well.. put yourself in a jpop fans perspective, they like jpop for a reason right? you tried kpop but didn’t like it then fast forward a couple of years and you got kpop in japanese. Of course they can just ignore it but with all the promotions the kpop acts do even for the irrelevant groups it’s kind of hard not to get sick of it for someone who’s never really liked it. ex. i search jpop shit but i get kpop shit what the hell yo.
Honestly it’s all just pop in the end… so it really doesn’t matter what letter in in front of the “-pop.” I wouldn’t call Jin ‘Jpop” as he breaks into the US because he’s breaking in without using the same exact style as he is in Japan.. he’s making completely different music while WonderGirls is using the same stuff from Korea to the US to… everywhere else. They’re still promoting themselves as “Kpop.” Utada also marketed herself as not being a “Jpop” artist when she debuted in the US (I dunno wtf she was trying to market herself as…. or what she would even be considered now. I just simply see her as a musician doing whatever the heck she wanna) and that’s why she used simply “Utada” in the US the differentiate herself from “Utada Hikaru.” It’s really all about marketing (and then also what’s really considered to be ‘pop’ since when it comes to J/K fans, many think J/Kpop = Japanese/Korean music) How Kpop (idol Kpop really…) is marketing itself, regardless of where its trying to debut, it’s promoting as Kpop no matter what language they speak.
Put myself in a Jpop fan perspective… lol I AM a Jpop fan.. well, J-music fan to be precise. I don’t even listen to Kpop. I just like how delusionalism the fans get in Kpop and how IATFB & Anti-Kpop Fangirl makes articles about them.
Did BoA even release anything in Japan this year? I can see the case for TVXQ, but I think they’ve only released two singles this year.
I… honestly don’t know. But still I’m sure she would have something to perform even if she didn’t release anything. I do know some TVXQ song was used for some drama theme (that’s the only reason why I know)
She hasn’t done much this year in Japan
I’m not so much glad there’s “no kpop”. I’m glad in that there won’t be any CRAPPY kpop performances this year. Last year………. So much cringing that my friend had to mute the computer and turn me away from the screen D: And don’t get me wrong, I’m not questioning their, er, talent, but the groups that I saw last year did not do a worthy job.
Wasn’t it only 3 groups last year? People flipped from 3 groups outta like 50+ other domestic acts like… c’mon… gimme a break -___- It was only Kara, TXQ (who people praise the crap outta and think they’re more for Japan anyway… at least what I see from intl fan comments) and SNSD. I can question some of the Johnnys ‘talent’ on there (esp this NYC group that popped outta nowhere a few years ago) but eh… they’re Johnny groups. (but we also know it’s not just talent that lands an act an invitation)
I actually didn’t like a lot of the performances from last year, I think they had a weaker lineup than usual. Hmm. But I thought KARA and SNSD had bad performances, and I may be biased because I didn’t like that “Keep Your Head Down” song by TVXQ…. but I agree with the new Johnny’s “talent”. They’re not even good looking, or have I turned old?
Anyways, I’m just happy for this lineup. I mean, I will 100% watch one weird, unsatisfying performance from NYC or whatever/whoever they are, if there’s Arashi, Kobukuro, SMAP, EXILE, OMFG this list can go on until I mention everyone on that lineup.
Generations is great. The second coming of Exile.
…Not entirely sure if I’m reading this correctly, but I’m about 95% sure that #3 negates/contradicts #2.
If the demand for K-pop in Japan has dropped, then Japanese companies wouldn’t benefit from signing K-pop groups. That’s money going into producing and promoting some shitty song that people don’t even want. It’s not like it’s pennies to do that.
The argument that Japanese companies have EVER benefitted from signing on K-pop artists is questionable also. When you look at the three most successful Hallyu idols (BoA, DBSK, Kara) they all stumbled around quite a bit—I’m chalking a lot of that up to a language barrier thing—before reaching any kind of success. J-pop was, and still IS, doing quite well on its own without having to bring in K-pop idols for Japanese entertainment companies to make money. However successful BoA and TVXQ were… I really don’t think their popularity combined can even touch that of… SMAP, AKB48, or even Arashi.
The only people that have anything to gain (and lose) are the Korean companies and idols who voluntarily traipse over to the “home of the evil Japanese monkeys” for the sake of making a quick buck because Korea’s economy truly IS that shitty.
Won’t argue with you about #1 (there have been a handful of articles written by various news outlets about how Japan is “boycotting” K-pop), but I’m adding that it’s probably part of the cause of #3. Political reasons and purely because the current Hallyu music being promoted right now is just… terrible.
RIP Hallyu. The jig is up.
Your confusion is simple.
#2 was in the recent past.
#3 is the present reality.
—–
I’m not sure why you think Japanese companies don’t benefit from signing K-pop groups to what essentially boils down to distribution deals. They incur none of the most costly part of developing these K-pop groups, which is developing and training and what not. All they do is take a percentage of the revenue they make, which is sometimes a gigantic percentage. This is especially true when they just re-release a previously made K-pop song, because then they don’t even have to bother with giving them music.
So why wouldn’t they promote them? It’s the easiest money they’ll ever make in the industry.
Not sure what not being as popular as SMAP, AKB48, or Arashi have to do with it either. We’re talking about profitable groups, not ruling Japan, and these K-pop acts with their built-in fanbases are going to be just that.
Wow, IATFB.
WAI YEW SO SMAHT?!?!
There was an article a few months ago saying that due to the “recent” (recent my ass) political differences (they are always fighting for that damned rock) it would be better if there weren’t any korean representatives on this year kohaku uta gassen. As for the flop in some artists sales well SNSD new album just came out. We’ll see how well that goes in a few days.
Posted by allkpop 11 minutes ago: http://www.allkpop.com/2012/11/nhk-clarifies-why-no-korean-artists-are-included-in-the-kohaku-uta-gassen-lineup
So who calls BS?
But the statement actually fits to IATFB’s third point.
Probably partially BS, but SNSD’s latest single just finished fifth on Oricon.
:o
Not even like 30,000
29,065
I was like this o___O
There are no foreign artists on the lineup of any sort, clearly NHK is caving to nationalist tensions against the entire world, this is obviously the first step to re-militarizing and the birth of Japanese neo-imperialism.
Makes about as much sense as singling out the island dispute as The Only Reason That Something Happens and ignoring all the other things that go into complex decisions like this.
I thought that it was only a small group of those cray cray nationalists that were all up in arms about having foreign groups there (?) if that is the case, do you think that is enough to Japan turning into that imperialist state it was?
wtf
?
How is the sarcasm not obvious?
@IATFB
http://arkansoprano.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/shoulder-shrug.jpg
theres so many reasons why a japan would never be like it was in the past, i just dont get why people are scared of japan when you should worry about current china.
That’s what I was saying. Every country has its group of nationalists or whatever, but Japan being like it was before WWII and all….. I don’t see it.
Plus, don’t they not have a military? Can’t go far with becoming an imperial state without one, I imagine…
So many great artists!!! I can’t wait for New Year’s now. Fuck you, end of the world, I wanna watch this
Lol
Looks like the end of the world has passed us by :D