Rant: Japan vs. South Korea Round 2

A couple weeks ago, there was a couple reposts from some dumb tumblr site and an inaccurate article on the Atlantic to arama@LJ and the comments I read there were amusing. I guess the battle between jpop and kpop fans won't be dying any time soon...unfortunately. Two things that get brought up in articles like this are how the jpop industry could be more like kpop as in branching out internationally and be more sexy or adult. I want to take this topic and make it two different rants.

Japan has one of the most successful music industries in the world. South Korea is still developing and that's one main reason groups venture to Japan for money. That being said it's obvious that Japan can depend on domestic sells more than South Korea can. Because of this factor, South Korea has more reason to be global and in order to make profit from international activities, artists must have a global versatile sound and image to an extent. This makes people believe that kpop is conquering the world.

I'm sure if the jpop industry wanted to become more globally known, they could. Honestly, I think Japan has the upper hand as they have more variety in the pop scene compared to South Korea. You might not think there's variety if you only focus on Johnny's Entertainment groups and female groups like AKB48. Of course, I will admit that at times Japan gives a vibe of disinterest when it comes to international ventures mainly outside of Asia. I'm not sure why this is happening, especially when jrock/visual kei, a more niche market in and out of Japan, are more ambitious by consistently travelling outside of Asia.

For jpop fans, it would be nice if items and activities were more accessible like kpop, therefore in that sense I can understand why articles want the industry to reflect kpop's global branching. They have the tools to do so and perhaps it will help the economy a little.