K-Pop

K-pop is very popular among asian girls, even when they are not Korean. I don't know what it is about K-pop they like so much, but I've had a couple female asian coworkers that were interested in it.

I would say international popularisation of KPOP began around 2008.

Basically, in the beginning, KPOP artists took a lot from the Japanese music scene. If you watch KPOP artists at the time they copied from Visual Kei which is a relatively small indies scene within the Japanese music industry that is characterised by striking aesthetics, highly adrogynous and very reminiscenet of anime characters. During those days Visual Kei was very popular around the world so KPOP producers adopted the more or less the aesthetics of Visual Kei by making KPOP artists look androgynous and like anime characters to appeal to the Japanese market and then jump onto the whole world.

KPOP to some extent still uses Japanese aesthetics to appeal to fans either by adopting androgynous looks or by adopting looks that will immediately speak of anime. They have done things like adopting the looks of anime series like Slam Dunk, for exmple.

In regards to the music, KPOP is very westernised so it is familiar for westerners, it resonates with them. Some western producers work with Korean companies too.

Why Jpop is not as popular as KPOP. Well, the answer is simple. Like I said before, KPOP sounds like western music because it is inspired to appeal to western ears. But Japan is a huge music market of its own that doesn't need the outside world to survive like KPOP and the Japanese produce music for their own taste; not for westerners so Jpop satifies the Japanese taste in music.

Jpop has lots of fans in the west too although not as many as KPOP, but unlike KPOP Jpop makes music for the Japanese and their taste in music o if you like Jpop it is because you ppreciate their taste in music whereas KPOP adapts to westerners and their taste in music.

Visual Kei is the type of music that the west likes the most about Japanese music.

Long live Pink Lady and Jeff.

Don't know, but I hate it. Kpop sounds like music sung by underage sex robots.

That's the perfect description, R4.

Another thing about Japanese music that is interesting and that makes it more "exotic" to western ears is that unlike KPOP which is basically like western pop music in Japanese music there is always some dregree of traditional Japanese scales making their way into the music. Sometimes it is very evident like the video below, but other times it is very subtle but it makes a great difference when compared to KPOP.

j-pop is popular fuck you talking bout! More popular than k-pop :)

Unless you're east or southeast Asian I wouldn't worry about it OP.

Japanese's hyper straight hair is godly.

they both k & j pop are terrible but I did like this one song.

it reminds me of some other song i've heard

This one isn't bad either.

Asian bitches be voguing.

R10 I'm no expert on K-pop but I think it's fairly common for some of the songs to be near carbon copies of western pop songs, or maybe a few of them combined together to try and mask the similarities. I felt like I had already heard this song by openly gay K-pop singer Holland while I was listening to it the first time, I just can't figure out what song(s) it's so close to that I already know. By the way this is the song that South Korea put an age-restriction on in their country, because the boys kiss in the video, so of course it's got over 4 million views on youtube in about one week. Catchy but oh so familiar, or maybe it's just me.

Perfume - One Room Disco

I was unaware of Asian pop, etc. until about 2 years ago, then I got curious about other genres of Asian music (I'm in the US). I wondered... do they also have country, folk, hip hop, etc?. Exploring this took me into a world of Korean girl and boy bands. It was a little overwhelming to see those groups with up to 20 people dancing and singing -- so many members. The songs by the girl groups got redundant - standard poppy dance tunes, but I loved some of the choreography. Not to be racist, but I got a kick out of the "urban" dancing done by the group members.

Then, I came across the song "Mental Breakdown" by the Korean artist CL. She is a rapping goddess, she owns the goddamn stage and the song still swirls through my head at random times after 2 years. Sadly, I don't like anything else she has done, but I always get a chill of excitement when watching this video.

The female members of most of those Asian groups are too saccharine looking - peppy and smiling and dancing and giving the flirty looks. Ugh - looking at those girls, you know that a bunch of men rule the music industry and have groomed all those girls to fulfill some fetish/fantasy they have. I never saw so many short skirts and girls blowing kisses -- they dress like little schoolgirls from a hentai video.

K pop is like a cheap imitation of American pop music. The boys or ladyboys look really feminine. The girls and boys just straight up copy the moves of black American entertainers, no originality what so ever. Culture vulturing turned into a multi million dollar industry in Korea. They all think they are hip hop stars while stealing American rappers swagger.

Kpop is good. Jpop sounds retarded.

I think Jpop is better and original.

Well, the US music world is also highly fetishistic. Female singers sing explicitly about sex and shake the butt explicitly to make heterosexual men horny.

Did somebody say "I PLOP?"

Because I doo!

P-Pop from the Pop Girls

Kpop want to appeal to the whole world and depends on international sucess to be sustainable. Jpop, on the other hand, appeals to Japanese sensibilities and doesn't depend on international success to survive since Japan is literally the largest music industry in the world.

Jpop may not be that popular in the west but Visual Kei is.

The two shirtless buff twink dancers in R14 are quite cute.

Asian trash isn't that different from Western trash.

Talking about Japan, it is pretty different from western musical sensibility.

Western music is rythm based whereas Japanese music is melody based.

Japanese artists have a tendency (consciously or subconsciously) to make their music sound kind of melancholic even when songs are supposed to be happy in principle. Mono no aware (the awe of things) may be exactly the concept that has such influence on Japanese music.

This song by Tommy February6 is a happy song, but if you listen to the melody it evokes melancholic feelings.

Retiring after sex scandal.

This one is cute.

Seungri is adorable. He has a show on Netflix. It's the kpop version of The Office.

This is a catchy song that was included in one of my favorite Kdramas - Something in the Rain. The leading lady dances to this when she's alone in the office and doesn't realize her toyboy boyfriend is watching her through the glass.

[quote]Not to be racist, but I got a kick out of the "urban" dancing done by the group members.

🙄

Kim Jaejoong did a brilliant cover of ‘First Love’, the Utada hit from the 90s:

Far Eastern Asian idols are so eccentric and delicate-looking. Even the male K-Poppers look like they'd keel over if the wind blew too much :).

The difference with Central Asian males is quite stark.

Is BoA still popular??