[article] We're not listening until you sing in English
 

An article about foreign music in the UK: We're not listening until you sing in English, And that's why we miss out on some of the world's biggest stars.

Excerpt:They also talk a bit about Spanish, Cantonese, and Russian music.

Interesting article, thanks for the link, skal.

Excuse me?

Let me give everyone real knowledge about foreign music in the UK. From my experiences.

When you tell someone you listen to japanese music you know what to expect, confusion/laughing/curiosity and more.

Now yes utada came over to the uk but i only knew because i read it on AHO. She did no performing, no promotion, not even an advert.

Yes most people in the uk are wary of foreign music but they only have 1 example to go on which is brought up always

"Cos im turning japanesa"

That song is what most people think japanese music is about

now im rabling so i'll shut up

I'm not sure what you mean. This article just explains the English attitude towards foreign/Japanese music, and it's undeniable that there's a severe lack of interest towards foreign (mainstream) music in convential music circles. It's the same everywhere though - don't expect any foreign band (other than English or American) to get immensily popular with your average consumer here in Holland. People just don't care, don't understand - so apart from the random one-hit-wonder that climbs the chart every once in a while, foreign music is doomed to stay, well, foreign. It's sad that many people hold on to this attitude, as they're missing out on so much. In that aspect, it's good to see that a band like Dir en Grey may be opening for Korn in the near future - it opens a lot of doors and garners attention. It may even enhance the status of Japanese music outside of Japan. We'll see what the future brings.

As for a lack of promotion: there it's the label to blame. Utada didn't get promoted, but it's not because she didn't want to, it's just that Island didn't want/need/etc. to. And it's important to note that there'll probably need to be more labels like Tofu Records, who release Japanese music outside of Japan and do a fair bit of promotion here as well. You can't, or at least shouldn't, expect Avex or any other major Japanese company to care about foreign music markets - they focus merely on Japan, as it's a big enough market as is. So the whole lack of Japanese music being known outside of Japan itself works kind of two ways - on the one hand, there's the disinterest from people here; on the other hand, there's the disinterest from the labels there.

"When you tell someone you listen to japanese music you know what to expect, confusion/laughing/curiosity and more. "


I agree, I personally have experienced this many times.

I think another thing that is going against people who listen to jpop is that if they listen to it they'll be looked at as "weird" or something.

It´s the same in Germany...most of my friends won´t even try it...the only way to get into Japanese Music in Germany is to be an Anime/Manga/Japan Fa^n^^

I brought it today not knowing Hikki or Ayu would be in it! I was really surprised, the picture of Ayu is really bad, they could have found a nice one like the two other foreign guys. I think it was all shown in a postive light, they should have said about Hikki's non-promotion though, it makes it sound like her English music was bad & it wasn't!

Is this in today's Guardian? I will pick it up just for the Ayu mention! ^_^

interesting article , thanks for the link.

I don't think Utada's Exodus flopping had anything to with the fact that she's 'foreign'. It just isn't an album that the average person here will enjoy imo , and I'm thinking Island feels the same way. I'm sick of seeing the 'no promotion' excuse. They are a business , they will only promote something if they expect it'll sell in return , promotion costs a lot.if the album truly is good & marketable , withouth any promotion it's bound to get somekind of notice in the underground scene prompting the label to promote it more. I guess that didin't happen with Exodus ....

I'm not really fond of Tofu Records idea , because I'm not into anime & If J-pop were to ever gain popularity in the west I'd rather j-pop to gain a respectable image rather than just a "series of themesongs for japanese cartoons".

from a business point of view I can see why no one's gonna risk trying to market japanese music outside Asia. it costs a lot of money and the competition is really tough , mainstream music needs a lot of sales for all the promotion & marketing to be profitable.
I think some legal online digital music stores do actually sell japanese music in the west tho ?

btw I don't think language isn't that big of a issue in continental europe. charts are often topped by songs in french , spanish & etc and the idea of listening music you dont understand isn't strange. I'm sure most europeans grew up listening to english songs before they could understand them.

I think Love Appears mentions a lot of valid points. Personally I think Japanese music will someday break the barriers, but it'll take a while especially since there either needs to be some company overseas which takes serious interest into an artist or else some big company in Japan will take interest in promoting some artist overseas but both seem pretty unlikely. It's risky, plus expensive to invest in something which might not succeed.

cool! thanks ^^

This attitude is big here in the US too. I have so many friends who just wont listen to foreign music because it's not in english :no

That's a really interesting article! I'd love it if there was more popularity for music in other languages, but that's personal preference... not everyone likes foreign langauges in the same way I do ^^

I'm big into foreign pop, my bofriend isnt. He says he likes to understand the lyrics he's listening to, whereas I love lisntening to language itself. He has, however, warmed to some songs not in English, for example various Shakira songs, a German band Silbermond and a Thai singer Lanna Commins. I think if everyone were exposed to it more there'd be more of a market for foreign music, but, until there's more of a market for foreign music, there wont be more exposure ^^ (I'm speaking on behalf of Canada, I can't say how it is elsewhere)

Very intesresting article, thanks for sharing.

If some people don't want to listen to foreign music, then that's their own choice. But I do think that they are missing out on a lot of amazing artists. But what do they care right? Since they don't understand the words. Well, it's not only in the UK that people think that way. My mom (chinese) still don't understand why I'm only listening to J-Pop.

And also... Mary J. Blige? HUH?

Yeah, interesting article.. It could have to do with racism.. Spanish music seems to fare well here with people who don't understand Spanish. But Japanese is considered o_O.. ehh whatever.

They both had negative experiences in their childhood and have written lyrics about it. That's probably the only comparison there lol.

Interesting article, thanks for posting it up.

I agree with AsongforXX. I choose to listen to foreign music, and other people can choose not to listen to foreign music. I personally think they're missing out, but hey, I'm just one person. I really dislike associating Jpop with Anime/Manga because although they intercept, they're different things. I would hate for outsiders to automatically associate them together. If one day people decide to open up, then I'll be happy, but until now, they'll listen to the music they want.

Entirely true and I entirely agree.

I don't think Tofu Records promotes J-music like that - they just release Japanese music outside of Japan. It's just too bad their name's so silly. Otherwise though, I don't see how such labels should be a problem and give J-music a bad image. Moreover, it's still pop music - and when did pop music ever get 'respected'?

This guy points out that japanese music may sound old fashioned to brits. Ì can't find the page now :( but it's from wikipedia, about japanese music in general, where there's a reference to some work by some professor (If my memory serves me right). She points out that in japanses music of today you find a mesh of all styles that every appeared in music from 50s till today. An example of this is all singles of morning mususme, which in some years travels from disco through rock and dance and almost 60s like soft pop. It's also the biggest market for classical music (ever wondered why they picked these three styles:classical, trance and eurobeat, for ayu's remix albums? Obiously because they were the styles that could sell most at the time). The use of guitar solos has become rarer and rarer in western music since the 80's, during which is was as common here as there I think.

I hope that japanese musicians will never give up on this blend of styles to adapt to other countries music. That way I think it'll loose a lot of the creative points. The things he points at as reasons for "foreign" pop not hitting it in the UK are many of the reasons why j-pop blew me away when I first heard it, so although I don't mind japanese artists singing english and making it abroad, I hope they'll preserve the music.

People always say there is no boundary in music but this reflects some facts. Not only Japanese singers but also lots of other non-english singers are faced with the problem. I suppose that is because of the different languages and cultures. And, maybe there is no need to change this because as you know, everyone's got their own choices. Who cares.

Wow! :no

wow, that must suck. considering half the teen population listen to some kind of foreign music (not including hawaiian) in hawaii. I even introduced it to a few of my friends, who are pretty much into it now. I think that people should be more open to this kind of stuff, because what Ayu, Otsuka Ai, Utada Hikaru, or may be Morning Musume even, release is MUCH more meaningful than stuff that win over the teen population here.

yeah...whatever..from what i know japanese song is the best for me
i'm confuse with people that just want to hear a small cup of song in their live

Ａｒｅ ｔｈｅｙ ｆｏｒｃｉｎｇ ｕｓ ｔｏ ｓｐｅａｋ ｅｎｇｌｉｓｈ？ ｏｒ ｔｏ ｌｅａｒｎ ｅｎｇｌｉｓｈ？ ｏ．Ｏ
Ｔｈａｔ ｉｓ ｓｏ ｍｅａｎ．．．．ＴＴ＿ＴＴ

^Yes, it's petty mean...

It seems like many English-speaking people doesn't like to listen to other languages than just English.. but for example, here in Sweden we listen to many languages, not only Swedish and English.. oO
Our local radio even plays some Japanese stuff.. XD

But it was an interesting article, by the way..^_^

actually, sometimes i think Japan's is bigger than the US but that's just my personal opinion. LOL, I mean considering that the music and videos are in much better quality as far as my own ears go.

Umm, hmm...well you know the title of the article is a little cruel when you think about it...BUT; this is what I expect from most people as far as J-pop. Althought Hikki didn't perform in the UK or really (majorly like other artists here in the US) did anyone ever think that maybe she was welcomed to be featured on a show??? I mean I know "easy breezy" was a floppy song; BUT it's was better than anything Sean Paul has put out...HELL; you can't even understand WTF he's saying half the time. But people still listen to him & give him stage time.

The truth is, people don't listen to foreign music is because they don't want to. If they can listen to American music well, that's them...If they listen to outer-space music; that's still them: PEOPLE don't really like stuff that's different or new. & although we have people claiming to be "libreals" & "conservatives" (when it comes 2 change) EVERYBODY; hates change.

This article doesn't really bother me; except the part about Ayu=Mary J??? What's ^ with that? I wonder what was going through his/her head when he/she said that...O.O

Interesting read, thanks for the article.

lol complete opposite for me though. So far my interest in "what's hot" in the UK has gone from minimal to zero. I turn on the radio and have no clue who's singing, honest.

And lol at Aisha's comments on Sean Paul XD He really does mumble a lot doesn't he :P

I'm not sure about this, but if you take the population difference between Japan and the US into account as well as the fact that most American records are sold worldwide and Japanese records are not, then Japan probably is the country with the largest/most successful music industry.

^SS do you mean "America is the biggest" or did u mean Japan??? Ehh, I see it more as a "growing" process. Like to me, Japan has a bigger music industry than ours because they are so creative & know how to mix the old with what American/other countries do to make a totally different experience. It's bigger to me because you never hear of Ayu, Namie, Mika & Koda Kumi all singing the typical love ballad at the same time. Each singer is unique. It's almost like (to me) when I look at TRL or 106 & Park Countdowns every singer in America is singing the same kind of song to the same kind of music in ANY genre. There's just so much confusion for me.

I know it may not make much sense to you or anybody else but I feel that Japan's industry is bigger than ours because of it's variety. Although American is partially responsible for making the variety they've come to this point in the music of today where everything is similar to something else. At least that's how it is 4 me...

basically, i dun think language is a big problem, at least they should try to listen some foreigh music, maybe they will change their mind

What I'm saying, is that America IS considered the biggest music market in the world(meaning more records are bought by American artists than artists in any other country). Japan is ranked #2, yet it has a much smaller population than the USA does. So because of the population difference it is hard to really rank which is more successful. If Japan had the same population as the US, I could see Japan being ranked as the #1 music buying country.

You are talking about the quality of the music, I am talking about the sales. :)

:love u are SO right
:headache and I´m not gonna discuss either.... in Brazil, same thing.

Well, not only because of this but because the war too, I'm currently getting the "I'm all-rightous" vibe from America right now. Even though I am American, it doesn't mean you can control another country's government, even after you take over their dictator.

Kind of the same story with the music. Just because you influence so many countries, it doesn't mean that you can turn deaf ear upon them. I mean, and I did state this before, Japanese artists like Ayu or Ai can put hidden meanings into things that no American artist really can. That's one of the differences, they way lyrics are conveyed in both countries.

Another difference is the composition. I rarely see any REAL instruments in America now; a lot of music is really synthesized with may be one real instrument in the background. The "composers" claim that they have made masterpieces, but to compare something from those so called "composers" to something like "I am...", "M", "Planetarium", or "Kingyo Hanabi" is like punching the American composer in the kidney; it's that mediocre compared to those songs, and that's only a few of what the Japanese REALLY have to offer.

Also, the singing. Most artists in America synthesize their voice, while someone like Koda, Ayu, or Ai can sing naturally live over five times within a month. Plus, Avex pushes their artists to their limits, holding not only "A Nation", but the artist's individual tours. Many American artists can't do that without lip-synching one concert or performance. Japanese artists also sing live on TV much more than American artists. You rarely hear a live of an American artist.

My OTHER two cents. Like it?

quite interesting article, thanks skal

Not true. Do you watch late night TV or morning TV shows? Musicians play on Saturday Night Live and all those late night shows and some play live, outside, on morning TV shows. I admit, I think it’s weird that sometimes a certain artist is aimed at an audience that doesn’t have access to a TV to see that artist play live. I’ve also seen many live or pre-recorded concerts on FUSE.

Not all artist have lip-synching. A lot of artist use back up vocals and for the most part use play back (is that the right term?) when they’re dancing and too active to catch their breath. “Many American Artists” is a term you’re using for pop? Britney, Ashley Simpson and so on. Real bands play live and usually don’t require play back. I just think the American market in general works different.

Also, the use of "real" Instruments in Japanese and Western music is probably the same. Touring is pushed just as hard on Western artists. Unlike Japanese artists, Western artists often tour most of the world for extended amounts of time. Many labels hold tours and the musicians also have their own tours. This especially seen in the more popular Punk-Pop-Emo scene (vans warped tour for example). A lot of those bands happen sound better live than on CD, btw.

I cant speak for R&B and Rap, but I assume all Rap is live and there is no play back, because that would just not be hard core.

I think my summary in one word would be stubborness.
To me, it just seems like people just don't feel like giving music/people/etcetra chances.

I know they perform on late-night and morning shows, but they don't perform as often as Japanese artists, especially around single release time. I watch TV sometimes just to see who's on, but for the most part, I rarely see artists performing more than two to three times a month.

As for the lip-synching, I believe the back up on active dancing. I try singing while dancing, and it is hard. But as for the workload, I find some Americans do less than Japanese artists, like how BoA and Ayu did both Kouhaku and a COUNTDOWN LIVE, or Ayu in her Japan Record Award days. Plus, some artists don't last long enough to even have a tour.

Well, yeah, I guess a lot of bands use "real" instruments, but when you look at mainstream music, they feel much more synthesized to seem real in the first place.

But to be honest, to see the Japanese music economy slum when the music itself is probably at its highest so far is kind of sad, while Americans rap artists that don't even make sense can outsell (even by ratio) someone like Hamasaki Ayumi. T.T

I find that incredibly hard to imagine, especially since indie is such a hype.

Ahh tough. But the fact is that people relate better to their mother tongue better, so you see the British wanting english pop.

Wow, you just got me thinking... US is the biggest music market right? And thus, if an artist wants to make a big profit, it's released in the US. In order to play "safe", artists make stuff that sounds "Us-y" so american music market will affect the world market a lot. Imagine if a different country had been the huget market, like f.ex japan.... ANd what will happen when the chinese market grows bigger? Perhaps chinese music will be the new "mainstream music" affecting the world...