W. David Marx, who writes both the not-to-be-missed Neomarxisme blog as well as the not-to-be-missed Clast blog, has a fascinating post on the NBR Forum about the impact of Japanese popular music and why Japanese musicians have never "made it big" outside of Japan. Marx studied the Japanese popular music market for his masters thesis at Keio so you are getting insightful commentary. I was going to write about why I felt that Japanese pop musicians would never cross over outside of Japan but Marx explains this a lot better than I could ever do.
As for J-pop's lack of success in the U.S.:
1) First realize that "indie" Japanese artists like Cornelius and Pizzicato
Five have sold way more records in the United States through NY label
Matador Records than Utada Hikaru ever did through giant record company
Universal. American music fans are willing to listen to foreign-language
lyrics when the music is fresh and original and offers something that the
Western markets do not.
...
Japanese artists will probably never break through the "mainstream"
and those that try - like Utada - will fail miserably.
2) Another barrier is that the Japanese music market is not a song-oriented
market like the U.S. or U.K. Fans embrace artists as "brands" and buy
everything related to that artist regardless of quality of content.
...
In the US and UK, artists can have one single or album collect a loose
coalition of different types of consumers who are attracted to the quality
of that specific release. They may buy one single, but not the next. In
Japan, a group like B'z or Kinki Kids still gets to #1 through their massive
fan network, not by attracting new or temporary fans through superior
material. This makes the J-pop market generally interested in creating
"likable artists" rather than "good songs," and makes exporting these
artists very difficult since the emphasis overseas will be on the material
rather than the artist's personality and charm.
3) The Japanese music market is completely oligopolistic at the management
company level, and these "jimusho" management companies have more influence
on songwriting/production than the record company does. In the U.S., there
are only four record companies, but each of these own dozens and dozens of
"labels," which allow for diversity within the market (this is Paul Lopes'
"open system" idea). In Japan, however, you have lots of smaller record
labels, but they essentially act as manufacturing/distribution coordinators
and do not even own master recording rights in most cases.
Great find! I can't wait for a marxy-momus-esque battle to spill over onto your blog :)
I scour the NBR forum for gems. Mostly it is the same people saying the same things over and over again. It's nice to see Marx in the mix over at NBR. Hope he stays a while and adds more to the discussion.
Utada Hikaru is pretty good. I picked up some of her songs and well she was playing in San Francisco's JapanTown.
These guys can break into the mainstream. Just need to partner with some hip-hop/rap and it's a done deal.
Hip-hop/rap are always looking for a new hook and this could be it. End of day it's still all marketing right?
What about Puffy Ami Yumi?
They seem to have had (at least) some success in America these days.
Marxy has a point. There are good musicians in Japan, but being a good musician almost precludes you from being successful in the Japanese pop scene. It doesn't really help that much in the US these days either, but there are still enough independent-minded people buying underground or non-mainstream stuff that you can sell some records and play midsized clubs or something.
To me, one striking difference between the American and Japanese music scenes is that while in the US rampant downloading of music has widened the musical tastes of a lot of people and led to artists from outside the mainstream becoming popular in even greater numbers than in the past, when the same thing could only happen slowly through word of mouth, this is completely impossible in Japan. If I download one cool song from the internet, what's the point really? Unless it has a fan club and t-shirts and concerts and utaban appearances and a whole scene that I can feel like a part of, why even bother? It's really not about the music, so free access to the music makes no difference. Utada Hikaru has some good songs, for example, but they're almost secondary. She was groomed (by her family and not by a Johnny's, which is what makes her special) from childhood to be a star. And god her English album was crap.
Interesting that Sony still tries to block J-Pop, like Hello Project for instance, from the US by offering the DVDs for Region 2 only. If H!P, Morning Musume, Berryz Kobo or C-ute were offered on Region 1 DVDs, those groups would take off in this country. Sony just wants to protect its weaker US artists. That's a fact.
P.S.: Saw Puffy in concert in San Francisco in 2005. Wow!