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J-Pop

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J-pop is an abbreviation of Japanese pop. It refers to Western-influenced Japanese popular music. The term J-pop was coined by J-Wave, an FM radio station, to denote what was once called "New Music." The term is widely used in Japan to describe many different musical genres including pop, rock, dance, hip hop, and soul.

Japanese stores typically divide their music into 4 sections: J-pop, Enka (a traditional form of ballad), classical, and English/International. Some songs, such as those by Miyuki Nakajima and Anzen Chitai, represent a fusion of Enka with J-pop.

Contents

History

J-pop (or Jpop) can be traced to the jazz music which became popular during the early Shōwa period (i.e. the reign of emperor Hirohito). Jazz introduced many musical instruments, previously used only to perform classical music and military marches, to bars and clubs. It also added an element of "fun" to the Japanese music scene. As a result "Ongaku Kissa" (音楽喫茶 - lit. music cafe) became a very popular venue for live jazz music.

Under pressure from the Imperial Army during World War II the performance of jazz music was temporarily halted. After the war ended the United States soldiers—who were occupying Japan at the time—and the Far East Network introduced a number of new musical styles to the country. Boogie-woogie, Mambo, Blues, and Country music were performed by Japanese musicians for the American troops. Songs like Shizuko Kasagi's "Tokyo Boogie-Woogie" (1948), Eri Chiemi's "Tennessee Waltz" (1951), Misora Hibari's "Omatsuri Mambo", and Izumi Yukimura's "Omoide no Waltz" became popular. Foreign musicians and groups including JATP and Louis Armstrong visited Japan to perform. 1952 was declared the "Year of the Jazz Boom" but the genre itself demanded a high level of technical proficiency and was difficult to play. As a result many amateur Japanese musicians turned to country music which was far easier to learn and perform. This in turn led to a proliferation of country-based music.

In 1956 the rock-and-roll craze began thanks to a country music group known as Kosaka Kazuya and the Wagon Masters and their rendition of Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel. The rock-and-roll movement would reach its peak in 1959 with the release of a movie featuring performances by a number of Japanese rock-and-roll bands. However, the demise of rock-and-roll in the United States was quickly followed by its downfall in Japan due to the fact that many groups were heavily influenced by their American counterparts. Some performers attempted to merge traditional Japanese pop music with rock-and-roll. One of few musicians to be successful in this effort was Sakamoto Kyū with the song "Ue wo Muite Arukō" (lit. "Let's Look Up and Walk"), known in other parts of the world as "Sukiyaki". Other performers decided instead to play the music and translate the lyrics of popular American songs resulting in the birth of "cover pop." However, the popularity of these acts faded as radio and television gave every household the opportunity to watch the original musicians perform. The concept of karaoke and its subsequent popularity can arguably be attributed to the cover pop phenomenon.

During the period from the early 70s to the mid 80s the emphasis shifted from simple songs with a single guitar accompaniment to more complex musical arrangements known as New Music. Instead of social messages the songs focused on love and other personal events. Takuro Yoshida and Yosui Inoue are two notable New Music artists.

In the 80s the term City Pop came to describe a type of popular music with a big city theme. Tokyo in particular inspired many songs of this form. It is difficult to draw a distinction between City Pop and New Music and many songs fall under both categories. Wasei Pop (lit. Japan-made pop) quickly became a common word to describe both City Pop and New Music. By the 1990s, J-pop became the common term to describe most popular songs. Rockers like Eikichi Yazawa, a singer who remained popular for decades with a rabidly loyal fan following, loosely fell into this category, along with more mainstream female pop idols such as the "Dance Queens" Yoko Oginome and her successor, singer/songwriter Chisato Moritaka. Hikaru Genji, the highly-influential rollerskating boy band also became popular during this time, with some of its members growing up to fame on their own. In 1980, Eikichi Yazawa, seeking worldwide success, signed a contract with the Warner Pioneer record company and moved to the West Coast of the United States. He recorded the albums Yazawa, It's Just Rock n' Roll, and Flash in Japan, all of which were released worldwide, but were not very commercially successful. Mega-idol Seiko Matsuda extremely popular through the 1980s saw a bit more success with English-only songs released on her 1991 album "Eternal", and was hounded by U.S. tabloids for having a relationship with then red-hot Donnie Wahlberg of New Kids on the Block, who sang the duet "The Right Combination" with Seiko Matsuda. Seiko used to hold the record of the most consecutive No.1 singles for a female artist in Japan. That record was recently shattered by singer Ayumi Hamasaki.

The late 1980s saw the emergence of one of Japan's most famous rock groups of all time, Chage & Aska. A massively popular male singer/songwriter duo consisting of Chage (Shuji Shibata) and Ryo Aska (Shigeaki Miyazaki), they released a string of consecutive monster hits throughout the 1980s and 1990s, establishing themselves as Asia's most popular rock group. Their "Asian Tour II / Mission Impossible" tour was the single largest concert tour ever put on by a Japanese group - the tickets for all 61 concerts in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan sold out on the first day. Ryo Aska is widely considered today to be one of Japan's greatest songwriters. However, with the advent of the Japanese dance-pop music pioneered by Namie Amuro and Tetsuya Komuro in the mid- to late-1990s, the popularity of rock groups like Chage & Aska has declined.

The boy band SMAP hit the Jpop scene in a major way in the 1990s through a combination of TV "Talent" shows and singles, with one of its singers, Kimura Takuya, becoming a popular actor in later years known commonly as "Kimutaku". By the late 1990s an all-female band Morning Musume became wildly popular, with a string of releases that were sales hits before even being released. Female pop groups like SPEED and Morning Musume sold millions of records with their pop-techno sounds. Following the pattern set a decade before by the 1980's all-female Onyanko Club, Morning Musume split into several splinter bands whose members continue to be popular to this day.

R&B became popular in Japan in the late 90's, when young singer-songwriter Utada Hikaru debuted with her 1st single Automatic/time will tell. Her 1st album, First Love sold around 9 500 000 copies, making it the best selling Japanese album of all time, and the best selling debut album ever in the country. While she sold millions with her R&B sounds, pop music was still popular in Japan with solo female singers such as the highest selling female artist in Japan, Ayumi Hamasaki, BoA as well as Kuraki Mai and Ami Suzuki.

Now in the mid 00's, R&B and Hip Hop influences in Japanese music are stronger than ever. In many cases, lyrical content has evolved to be more risqué and provocative in nature. Many artists who started their careers singing about simple-natured topics, have now adapted to this change and included more bold lyrics in their music. J-Hiphop/rock bands such as ORANGE RANGE and Ketsumeishi are at the top of the Oricon charts, with some older pop/rock groups like Mr.Children, B'z and Southern All Stars. The current charts are mainly ruled by male only bands and solo male singers such as Ken Hirai; female pop has declined a lot since the 90's but pop singers like Koda Kumi, BoA, Ayumi Hamasaki, Otsuka Ai, Mika Nakashima, and Utada Hikaru still get to #1 with most of their releases. J-pop also has a growing indies scene, with the likes of pop/R&B female singer Koiko from Miyazaki indies label [It's Oh! Music].

Impact on popular culture

J-pop music is an integral part of Japanese popular culture. It is used everywhere: anime, stores, commercials, movies, radio shows, TV shows, and video games. Some television news programs even run a J-pop song during their end credits.

In anime and television shows, particularly dramas, opening and closing songs are changed up to four times per year. As most programs have both opening and closing songs it is possible for one show to use 8 tracks in a single season. In comparison the hour-long American show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which ran for a total of seven seasons (1997-2003), has only 30 songs on its two albums released in the United States. An anime series of the same length could have up to 56 full songs, at least one single, and it would only fill 30 minutes on TV.

The sheer number of songs that are released means the faces of J-pop are constantly changing. Many artists will only release one album and several singles before fading back into anonymity. It is very difficult to stay prominent for longer than this, and artists who sustain their popularity for a decade are considered outstanding. Groups like Dreams Come True, Chage & Aska, B'z, Southern All Stars, the pillows, SPITZ, and TUBE and individual singers NOKKO, Seiko Matsuda, Chisato Moritaka and Yazawa Eikichi that have been popular for over 15 years are considered to be phenomenal successes.

Recently, Jpop has come to the attention of people around the world through video games. Due to the popular trend of importing games from Japan into other countries to obtain games sometimes up to a year before they are released in countries like the United States, Americans and others have been and continue to be exposed to the theme songs, often J-pop sung by famous singers such as Hikaru Utada in the best-selling Square Co., Ltd. game Kingdom Hearts. Her song "Easy Breezy" was also used to promote the Nintendo DS

Subgenres

J-pop includes most of the music sold in Japan and often includes genres considered separate in other countries.

See also

External links

Styles of pop music
Bubblegum pop - Futurepop - Pop punk - Pop-rap - Power pop - Synthpop/Electropop- Indie pop - Teen pop - Traditional pop - Pop metal
By region: American pop - C-pop (Cantopop, Mandopop) - Europop (Nederpop) - Indian pop - J-pop - K-pop
Other topics
Boy band - Girl group - Popular music - Pop culture

 

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