Stardust

Welcome to Wota Wonderings! We are a group of english-speaking Japanese music bloggers brought together once a month to answer questions posed by johpan. We strive to be creative and entertaining, and we may even shed a bit of new light on interesting musical and cultural topics. Any questions about how we work should be directed to johpan. Don’t forget to check out the other posts from this month at the bottom of this post. Enjoy!

Ahh~! I’m very excited to be writing this post. I think it’s an awesome idea *kudos Joh!* Anyway, let’s get to my inane ramblings wota wonderings … ^^;

If you were someone in the Japanese music industry who could influence a change, what would your New Year’s resolution be?

To answer this question properly, I have to retell my story of why I am a fan of Japanese music. Despite what it may seem, it’s not because of the cute girls…

or even because of the sexy girls…

& it’s certainly not because of the dreamy Johnny’s guys…

It’s actually mostly about the music!

Living in Australia, our local music scene is generally about indie rock groups with the odd pop one hit wonder. While no doubt we have a lot of great bands and artists, and at one point I did love a lot of Aussie music, it just became very old and stale to me. The Australian music scene is really going down the toilet because of one major thing: The American market.
Being an English speaking country, Australia is infested with American music – the charts are mostly made up of the Britneys and Beyonces of the world and recording labels are wary of signing up Aussie artists when most generally don’t sell too well. While Australia is a large country, our population is small, so it’s hard to compete with America which has such a large population. For American music to turn a profit it doesn’t need to be hugely successful, but for Australia (where our no.1 singles sell almost nothing) you really do need to be selling to a large percentage of the buying public and this doesn’t usually happen.
Now I have nothing against America – I’ve been before and loved the country and the people – but American music taking over the world caused me to look elsewhere for a haven that was untouched by the mega music giant. I found this in Japan.

Japanese music to me had so much variety. All my favourite genres were represented and there were popular male acts and female acts. On top of this, there were years of hits that I had never heard – It was a music paradise for me. I think that’s the main reason I’ve grown to love Japanese music so much.
Because Japan has their own national language, they create their own music, movies and books. It’s difficult to export entertainment made specifically for Japan and so everything is made targeting the Japanese audience, which in turn leads to cultural significance and variety.
Japan just has so many different musical artists with so many different genres. I look towards my favourite artists and I see very mainstream acts like Hamasaki Ayumi and Koda Kumi who both bring their own unique styles of music; I see Morning Musume and the Hello!Project who have their own Idol sound; I see Doujin groups like Sound Horizon and Rokugen Alice who have such incredibly intricate and creative music. Japan offers all these things to me on some wonderfully adorned silver platter. It’s just amazing to me and makes me so happy when I see an artist like Sound Horizon debuting at no.1 on the daily charts. I love it!

The main concern I have though is the Americanization of Japanese music. Recently I’ve noticed that the industry is experimenting much more with America’s popular RnB sounds and artists are being pushed into the American market, trying to make it big. I think record labels are noticing how big the American music boom is and with the recent rapid drop of physical sales in Japan (and around the world), they are reaching out into a more global market. When Japanese music was in its prime, with singles selling millions of copies, the profits were enough to maintain Japanese music’s high standard costs but because these profits are no longer so fruitful, some companies feel the need to globalise their products in a bid to generate a better profit margin.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I know a lot of Japanese people, especially younger teens, really love US music and the RnB sound – and thus the introduction of a more global sound in Japanese music does appeal to them. I guess it is selfish to want the whole industry to cater to my own specific needs, especially when I was praising the variety in the market before. I guess I just don’t want the industry to become SO overrun with this new sound and style. I’d love for the variety to remain in the industry and for that iconic Japanese sound to live on. While Japan and Australia are obviously very different, it’s easy to look toward my own situation to see why I’m so wary. You go back a few decades (not that I’m that old) and Australia had a thriving music scene with lots of popular local acts. Forward to today… and well, I explained earlier. I don’t want the same to happen to Japan.

I know I rant endlessly about Morning Musume becoming more main stream which is where I start to contradict myself. Is it wrong to expect Morning Musume to cater to the more mainstream, popular sound in Japan when I don’t want that mainstream Japanese sound to cater to mainstream global music? Ahhh~ My dilemma!
My tiff with Morning Musume is not really that I hate the idol sound but that the company is not trying to maintain growth and forward thinking. Music is not just about sticking with your niche and riding it out until you decide to hang up your microphone. No, music is about growing as artists, developing new sounds and styles along the way.

Hamasaki Ayumi is a brilliant example of an artist who has grown over her many years. The disturbing thing is that Ayu debuted at pretty much the same time as Morning Musume, with both celebrating their 10th anniversary in the past couple of years. If you look at the diversity and growth in their music though, they could be years apart.
Hamasaki has branched out into so many different genres and styles and it is very commendable. I know lots of people dislike her but you have to admit that she is quite creative and musically forward thinking. She began with a very timid pop sound but has moved on through genres such as dance, electro, classical, alternative, rock – she’s done it all. Because of this, her popularity hasn’t wavered so much. Of course her sales have dropped significantly, like all artists, but she is still one of the most popular artists in the country. She remains fresh and her fans love hearing what she has in store next. They never know what they’re going to get.

With Morning Musume, it’s the exact opposite. I commend the recent move into a more mature sound but their career and sound in general has been too predictable in the past few years. Nearly all their songs revolve around some sort of teenage romance gone awry and their music is idol with a mix of whatever genre Tsunku is interested in currently. It’s so much of the same. That’s not to say I don’t love Morning Musume and their music, because I do – I just think Tsunku has written enough love songs and maybe we need to get some different approaches in other writers. Despite this, like I mentioned in previous blog posts, I think the music is the least of their problems. H!P/UFA has so many issues beyond the music that I can look beyond Tsunku’s consistent teen angst.

While Ayu has explored genres, I do feel she retains a very Japanese sound to her music. It’s fresh and unique and I love that about her. It’s not just something we heard released in the US 6 months ago. As long as artists like Ayu are around I can have faith that the Japanese industry will maintain its uniqueness.

So while I’ve written a huge amount about these issues, I haven’t really answered the question *lol* If I were some Japanese music tycoon – what would be my New Years’ Resolution? I guess I would realize the need to globalise the market but also the importance of maintaining the Japanese sound. Imitation is said to be the best form of flattery, but they also say why go for the copy when you can have the original. Music is such an expressive art form and the Japanese composers seem to have an endless supply of fresh and original ideas. Keep up with them. Take inspiration from all around the world. Yes the RnB sound from America, but also the traditional sounds and styles from around the globe. Use these to create your own, unique sounds. Stay creative and help the Japanese industry thrive!

Check out the other Wota Wonderings below! Lots of interesting discussions ^_^

Wota Wonderings 1: New Year’s Reolutions (Solo Space)
Wota Wonderings 001: New Year’s Resolutions (Merry Go Round)
WOTA WONDERINGS: New Year’s Resolutions (The Groove Music Life)
[Wota Wonderings] New Years Resolution… (Renai Revolution 21)
Wota Wonderings: Resolutions, anyone? (boylikesmusic)