Photo of ayumi used in the frontpage of Singapore's The Strait Times's LIFE
 

Saw this 1st thing in the morning when I begin my daily rountine of reading my country's The Strait Times newspaper so I decided to get it scanned before I forget x)

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/5430/imgap.jpg

The article itself is quite depressing (why KPop Beats JPop _|_) ~_~ but it was kinda nice of ST to use this photo of ayumi :3

Which reminds me , where's this photo of ayumi taken from ? :confused

I think it's from her interview in Hong Kong for LOVE & HOPE photobook :)

KPOP beat JPOP,

okay...


WAIT WHAT???!?!!

I must admit there's something about K-pop that's very enticing, but it never did and never will beat J-pop for me.

well it's true :laugh


at least they used Ayu to represent all of jpop lol That's cool.


oh, and ****yeah go tae :heart

they sure are lying on the faces of their readers. why use the face of a jpop legend against some member of an overrated group? loool i can agree ONLY with the title :p

Sad but true...

What does the article say?

Are they not factoring in the fact that Kpop in Japan may be a complete fad?

Yeah, I'm quite interested in the details of the article... Maybe this should be placed on aramatheydidnt and omonatheydidnt...

ooh ok thanks for that

I like the pink dress she wears she looks awesome :yes

the article mentioned why in recent years , kpop has overtaken jpop in Singapore :x

before the closing of the article , they also cited some people's being skeptical about kpop , with it being a fad & that jpop still has longevity since the jpop boom that took place in Singapore happened in the 90's & late 2000s

oh no they didnt just put taeyeon and ayu side by side?!!?
putting TAEYEON on the status of Ayu is like WHOA
and must they deliberately put the jpop in small caps..

didn't really help matters that in the email option , they wrote 'which's better ? jpop or kpop ? ' :o

seriously , Strait Times is asking for trouble big time . Already when Adeline Chia wrote about her dislike towards kpop a while back ago , a whole flood of emails if not angry tweets were fired at her & now this ?

I think ST is running outta ideas on what to write in the LIFE section ~_~ :o

I love J-Pop and K-Pop, I wouldn't place one over the other. I think the Korean wave just really seems to be hot right now.

In general, not smart for this magazine to publish such an article.

Considering the majority of K-pop lovers, i might even think people would support this? And afterall is it a (sad..very very sad) fact. But argh...i told my friend Taeyeon is on the cover but I didnt tell him what the article is about knowing his love for Taeyeon..I mean, I dunno what to feel..It's like now K-pop fans have a reason to...say something about J-Pop because even the papers report it?

uh it's not a magazine but rather , it's my country's English newspaper which's not helping matters :shakehead

it's basically really silly . I don't listen to kpop as I have no interest in it but it doesn't mean I will take any chances to bash kpop in order to make jpop look better which's not right in any single way :no

I personally think the journalists in ST are running outta ideas when comes to writing in the Entertainment section of ST . You can write so many things but why they keep going back to the same old story of kpop vs jpop , which's better & why ?

cos at the end of the day , it's so subjective :x

^ Oh, really!? Sorry, just looked like a magazine to me. ;)

Wait a minute, smh, it only says it at the top of the post. Blind as a bat today, lol.

i rly wanna read that article!

I agree. Well..im from singapore too and I know this isnt the first time. I wished they'd actually write about JPOP NOW vs the PAST persay...
but i guess they just want more younger viewership and to make it seem like they are going the write way and all that...

edit: I've read the article..it basically talks about how K-pop markets itself as a whole. which is what I feel WORKS too. And one of my friends who read it also said, its proabbly because of society now and the ease of mass advertising and marketing that it bringing it to success. Back then, things were more reserved and marketing isnt as large and elaborate as it is now. And...yea...it goes on to talk about K-pop being very strong in Singapore with so many artistes coming..Jpop being more distant from audiences here..and..there's this other section where it says even Jpop fans are converts..and also some jpop fans staying true and saying that K-pop is just a phase

Is there any thread on AHS about "K-pop vs J-pop" ?

^oh more than needed



-----------

Diva of Japan yo better recognize!

Sad but true. Hopefully with the super power AKB48 can beat the power of Kpop in asia

ayu looks gorgeous...

I just think it's funny that, even though Japan has had a much longer history of having high sales and popularity that now, as k-pop artists are selling at like, what, max ~500,000 copies for even their most popuar group's albums (in Japan), that they're now "beating" Jpop.

It's taken Kpop years to get to it's current status.

I don't even understand why people get so up in arms about K-Pop VS J-Pop. Its all music. Its all mass produced. Neither is "better". Its all subjective. Why does the music's country of origin even matter? There are bigger issues in the world. Why focus if one language of music is beating another?

I think both industries are to be congratulated and we have to get used to this new world where we all have to coexist.

for me personally, the more the merrier :yes

true that. considering how hard K-pop has worked towards this, It's definitely good for them.

but maybe..its something only singaporeans can understand that..we dont really see a necessity for such an article to be produced. esp since this ISNT the first time something like that has been said. for the most part of the article, j-pop doesnt even come into play..and it is just celebrating the success of k-pop marketing..while seemingly to downplay j-pop.

I feel it's like a cycle. Just because j-pop doesnt market themselves well, hence they are not popular, which results in other countries (like Singapore) to reduce promotions of jpop because organisers think and see that jpop has lesser fans..and the cycle just goes on...

this :yes

i'm not sure about kpop beating jpop in term of music but it's a fact that kpop beating jpop in term of popularity and most ppl like easy listening music and pretty boys & girls in groups. even in japan itself rite? look at AKB48, those JE's boys.. it's more like group era and most kpop singers are groups, so no wonder people are digging kpop more than jpop these past few years.

I'm glad that ayu as the front cover!

I just saw and read about it too.

I'm glad that they use Ayu to represent Jpop! But still, it's unfair to compare Kpop and Jpop like tat. Kpop is popular because they marketed and promote it a lot. The Japanese didn't do as much as promotion overseas they do. If they really do, I bet the results will be the same.

Jpop still wins for me! Kpop is too commercialised dun u think? It's still hard to say which is better anyway. It's all individual's preference at the end of the day.

Popularity things in Singapore always come and go, just like what happens to the bubble tea craze. Probably one day Kpop will jus die down too. Wait and see!!

I liked K-pop last year, but whenever something becoems trendy, I usually get turned off by it hahaha (not that its bad or anything) K-pop is trendy now. Give it a few times, times always change, and J-pop will return. Music and trends are cycles! K-POp will live on and so will J-pop. They can both exist.

I though this photo was from the AT2010 Rock'n'Roll Circus Cinnema 3D event? I'm quite sure it was somewhere in China though. Probably Hong Kong.

Video.

They ARE both existing but people nowadays esp the newer generation exposed to K-Pop..minds dont change so easily. We gotta wait for an entire new generation for a J-Pop wave. and I think this isnt just a Singapore trend. It's an ASIAN trend..spreading out to the western side as well. Clearly, its definitely not some bubble tea fad haha..

^Well, a new generation always tend to go against the last one... I don't think there is much hope for jpop for a while xD

who's this Korean girl?

Should we J-Pop fans consider ourselves Indie now? Hahaha omg this VS thing is just ridiculous, bye.

@YUKARI: Taeyeon from Girls generation. They include her picture cos she's the leader of the group.

I love J-POP only XD

well, I agree there's more going on in Kpop right now, it was a good year for SoShi and there was few more good songs. I wish some Jpop stars could put more effort in their music, Gackt and Koda Kumi may be the only Jpop stars right now that have been doing a good job recently. Just my opinion of course.

I don't think Kpop will ever reach the sales of Ayu or AKB48, so for me Jpop is still ahead on the competition

In a few years most people that listen to J-Pop/K-Pop nowadays, will forget about it because they grew out of it so neither the one nor the other will play a huge role in their lives anymore.

This makes this whole question useless so why bother :mgagged

:yes

Ayu looks great there but on this article... :no

Sexy Ayu~~
Agh... that k-pop... not bad but... j-pop y waaaaaaay better

it's ridiculous, because eventually K-Pop is going to take over everything.:shrug

^
It's not like the first time kpop artists went to Japan for promoting themselves. And I don't see anything wrong with that.

This is just another japanese music era, I think. Like the electronic trend or the female soloist one.

^^that way of thinking is ridiculous :tired

By that logic, Japan should just go back to all of its isolationist policies and say screw their economy :shrug

I don't get why people get so annoyed about Kpop in Japan. So what if Kpop is popular everywhere? You don't have to listen to it.

I hate how K-Pop is taking the lead on the oricon charts:o this effects Ayu's sales not to mention, LOL!

^ Kpop doesn't affect her sales, it's not like they're "taking away" sales from Ayu. She's been on the decline for years.

So what if they're doing better on the charts, sometimes they deserve it for producing good albums and singles in Japanese. It's just a chart at the end of the day.

not only kpop i read somewhere that korea wanted to
takee over japan in all casees
since they used to lose against Japan for many years
it seems like they compete with japan in every aspects
music economy electronic vehicle even foods LOL

for me kpop isn't my cups of tea

here it's -> http://aramatheydidnt.livejournal.com/3740917.html

so depressing in reading it again :o

she looks so cute, I loved that dress

being in kpop as long as have in Jpop so like 6 years, Jpop is leagues ahead
Kpop is stuck in the mud with idols.... so I can't even compare the two

idols popularity have an expiration date and since Kpop is 90% idol, I give it 3 years top
tho I doubt Japan's pop will make a comeback, they are wayyyyyy too insular a HUGE put off for new fans

She's really a diva in that pic

if kpop was so great why is it that thier singers need to sing in japanese to promote their releases in japan. makes me wonder if kara would still have high sales if they would had stick to korean only. but whatever i really dont care, to me jpop/jrock --> kpop

Some of you guys are really scary :tired


Personally, I'd like to see some Japanese artists out there promoting the way kpop ones do.

Just saying. I've never seen any of my favorite artists doing the sort of things I've seen some of these idol groups do. Amazing, very personalizing things.


And also, I think a lot of people here forget just how many idols Japan has as well.

Anyways, popularity is a two-sided coin imo. I guess we'll see how long this supposed fad lasts.

I never understood the K-POP vs. J-POP thing, to be honest... Doesn't K-POP stand for "Korean pop"? How can they even be compared let alone "beat" J-POP? They're both different languages. (For me J-POP / J-ROCK wins) When I think of J-POP I think, ABC, ayumi hamasaki, Namie Amuro, Koda Kumi, Utada Hikaru (yes), Seiko Matsuda, Koji Wada etc. When I think of K-POP I think don't think of them as individuals but MASSIVE groups.

Add the fact that it's all pretty subjective unless those 48 chicks (not sure if they're Korean or Japanese LOL) and the other 1 million K-POP groups ARE dominating Japan's top 100 or something.

I'm not aware about this subject :thud.

agree -.-

Well... I actually found the article to be pretty good... Don't be too butthurt because you love jpop, it never says kpop is better, or that jpop is better, it just says that Kpop production and marketing are meant to expand while Jpop still is strongly focused on Japan itself, both aesthetic and marketing wise, and this is true.

The Jpop industry still lives on the past, Ayu and Namie never having a proper Asia Tour just shows that. Their videos being in short version on YouTube shows that too, they simply don't get that they could make far more money if they stop treating Asia (and the world) as people who buy their stuff by accident and started seeing them (us) as a possible market. It actually seens they like to make it harder for us to consume their releases, and on an era with internet, an era you can hear music and watch movie from anywhere in the world, and even buy it, the japanese pop industry is being just plain stupid.

About idols... Jpop industry is as idol moved as Kpop industry... Japanese artists has as much a expiring date as Korean artists do. On this past decade we had a handful of "the biggest jpop girl of the moment" that turned into nobody as far as they reached a peak (Mai Kuraki, Ai Otsuka and Mika Nakashima being to mind), the difference is that kpop actually train their idols, jpop just give them beginers singing lessons and throw them on stage... Sound-wise, jpop is more diverse, but talent-wise, kpop performers take the cake IMO (and I don't even like Kpop).

About people bashing kpop over here... Really, k-pop is not something invented by BoA and Rain and whoever crappy kpop idol people liked back in the begining of the 2000s. It's a whole music industry with decades of story and artists that range from the most creative to the biggest puppet... Right now I'm listening to Uhm Jung Hwa a lot, she is known as the "Queen of Kpop" on her homecountry and I tell you she can kick the ass of most jpop (and kpop) idols I ever saw, both music and performance wise.

For the same reason a lot of talented latin pop stars release english albums... Everyone wants to take over a bigger market, being exposed to a bigger public and make more money. Your post just don't make much sense IMO o.O

The K-pop "wave" has already crashed and peaked, people have lost interest, acts have failed to really go International and the market has been totally over saturated with too many groups.

I've never listened to a single K-Pop album so far. I feel so ignorant. I tried 2NE1's newest album though. But it was almost completely japanese except for one track or so.

Any recommendations? xD

After School - Because of You

Besides that song, I entirely dislike everything else K-POP. :roflmao

lol I'm awaiting for this to become another stupid "K-POP SUX J-POP 4EVER LET ME PUT DOWN K-POP FANS" thread.

Ayu lookin' gorgeous though, looks like she's about to snatch that GG girl's poor weave

Exactly, that's why I don't understand people getting angry.

Kpop is more popular and the article is explaining why that is in terms of marketing tactics etc..., not quality of the music.

i will never understand the need to make a battle between jpop and kpop :shrug both genres have amazing and talented artist making awesome music. People shouldn't dislike music because of the country where it comes

btw Andrenekoi i love you for talking about Uhm jung hwa omg she's my fav korean solist :3

Interesting, thanks for sharing!

I just got into her and I'm amazed by her work! My main problem with Kpop is that most of the stars just seens to be... over-trained and over produced, so, IMO it sometimes feels like they sacrifice personality in order to archieve something with a broader appeal and technically flawless performers.
But Uhm just seens to get the best of kpop technical aspect and mix it with a lot of soul and her own personality, so, IMO it sounds like something only she can do!^^

Lee Jung Hyun is pretty awesome too IMO^^

^ Lee Jung Hyun is AMAZING.

I love female soloists, my only complaint about Kpop's popularity is that it's mostly groups. Where are all the amazing Korean soloists hiding?! It's the same in Jpop though. :( Biding time for the female soloists to rule again ♥

At least in regards to Western music there's loads of female soloists right now all doing so many different things ♥

Wow, really? I have a totally different view of that, but maybe it's an Australian thing... Kpop seems to just be growing and growing here.

relmy, do you know Lee Soo Young? She's a ballad singer and she was very popular. You won't hear any bass-thumping dance tracks in her discography but she has a nice collection of emotional songs. She performed the Korean theme song to Final Fantasy X (PS2). Check her out if you like that kind of music.

It kinda makes me wonder what people here actually think of BoA because after all she was one of the first to come to Japan and really make it big.

Try Uhm Jung Hwa... hot dance tracks, sexy performances and succesful 20 years on the industry (and still looks amazing :P)

The Final Fantasy games have different theme songs in Korea?! I am definitely checking her out, thank you!!

I'll look at her discography for sure! My knowledge of female Kpop soloists is pretty limited compared to Jpop.

Thank you both!!

BoA is kinda in a league on her own. She didn't ride on any Hallyu wave to get popular. When I knew BoA, she was already very famous so I don't really know how much promotion and marketing she got earlier (even though now its pathetic as hell). As much as people say BoA was the one that started it all, i beg to differ because following BoA, we probably only had SuJu and DBSK but that itself was also years later. Just my two cents.

THIS.IS.GOLD

Actually..what I see is that..the popular groups will continue to grow their fanbase even by a little every year and those that are not so famous..will just dwindle and eventually disappear. That said, eventually, a new era of idol groups have to emerge, and that's what we are seeing now.

Wasn't there a big kpop boom back in the day when BoA came on the Japanese scene? I found out about her and other kpop artists a decade ago while being really into jpop. I feel sorry for kpop artists anyway.

to the article ----------------->>>> WTF?!?!?! I know that K-Pop is "taking over the world" right now but really, *****? REALLY??? Does those K-Pop have meaningful lyric like our AYU??? Seriously? It piss me off whenever people compare J-Pop and K-Pop!! J-Pop and K-Pop is different and came from two different countries. Stop comparing the two, *******!!!

^Who is talking about lyrics? The article is comparing both music scenes marketing-wise ¬¬

Meh, who cares about idiot reviewers...or kpop for that matter. lol

Oh I saw this.. Didn't bother to read about it tho.. LOL!

^^LOL exactly! Same here. Pshhhhh

I don't get why people who didn't bother reading it are commenting on it... Oh well...

^lol

cause that's the way the world works :)

I'm sorry, have you listened to every song by every Korean singer, and read the lyrics? Ayu is not the only person in the world who is capable of writing emotional lyrics. And who even mentioned lyrics. Japan has its fair share of shallow, crap lyric singers who are only in it for the fame. Ayu doesn't represent all of J-Pop.

Well, stupid to put ayumi and taeyeon in the same pic... Ayu's peak is in year 2000 when she's 22 years old... In 2022, snsd will also be long gone.. Agreed?

^How can we know? I don't think anyone here knows the future...

Also, maybe SNSD will be gone, but Taeyeon will be strong and well on the game... People as Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Diana Ross, Namie Amuro all did that.

who else would they use for the picture?

The article is about SNSD. And even if it wasnt...The only other person I can think of is BoA, and she's not even popular :shrug

Instead of ayu maybe; Namie Amuro? imo ayu and namie are the dominatrixes of Japan!

It's just an article.

Surely I have never imagined that I will be addicted to K-pop when I was a J-pop lover, but it really happens.
K-pop isn't as bad as you think, try it! :D

Arrogant J-pop lovers should calm down.

Ayu looks so stiff.

LOL Kpop IS more popular than Jpop....In Singapore :rolleyes

^And in Japan... and in China... and in Korea... and on the West... :P

I'm going to remember this post forever. So that in 2022 when SNSD releases another song to stun the entire world, I'll make sure to give you the YouTube link.

Fixed it for you.

...the GEE PV on youtube has over 70 million views. TaeTiSeo's new mini album just peaked like #4 on the US album chart...I think it was #1 in Japan...and didnt the PV get like 10 million views or something?

um they're more popular. People need to just get over it :shrug

I love the fact that Ayu is in the picture.
But I think that the picture makes her look a bit older...

Someone is in denial...

Actually, isn't that person admitting that Ayu is no one, saying her peak was 12 years ago?

I guess you just don't understand numeric information ^^


Well, Ayu IS older than the other girl, and considering she is on her early 30s, I don't really think she will look very young on her future pics

I know, I know.
But after seeing her pictures from the new tour, I always thought Ayu would have this youthful glow to her.
HOWEVER, I'm not complaining. She looks really good in the picture. She seems to be full of life, full of emotion. She doesn't look doll-faced (I'm looking at you MOON single, Love songs album >.>:sneaky)

Hahaha... she tends to look... well, human, on public appearences :P

It's always nice to look human in public XD

Unfortunately, Final Fantasy X is the only title to have a Korean version recorded. It was used to promote Final Fantasy X International in South Korea. You're welcome.