Asian music VS. Western music (in terms of creativity)

[AyuRox]

Asian music. Its mostly cuz of how sucky American music is.

Every American song now is R&B pop or alternative, and they all sound similar (within each genre). Not exactly the same, but similar. And the lyrical content is crap. Its all about the same few topics, and none of it has any real meaning. I listen to American music, and I'm like "ugh, gag me with a spoon". American 70s and 80s music was good, but from there, its really gone downhill.

I like some European music, but even then, all Hands-Up and Electro songs at least follow the same formula, even if the music itself is different.

Asian music is more diverse in its genres, at least. And at least with Ayu, the lyrics have some meaning.

[happiholic★]

I dunno what to choose. I love both, but I find that I really like more 'Western-sounding' Asian artists, or even Western songs remixed in Japan. So, I guess Western?

[ayumixfan]

I'm surprised asian music is winning. I like both, but asian music is realy undiverse, at least the mainstream of it anyways. It seems like there's only like 3 different categories of music in asian music. Its always like ballad, bubble gum pop, and the occasional like rock band or hiphop. There's really not that much more. And on top of that the songs aren't really different. I find a lot of singers to be generic. There's like once in awhile a singer that really stands out for me like Utada hikaru and Ai Otsuka, but overall most singers sound the same. Like I find all the JE bands really similar even if their music is in different genres. THey all share this sound that makes me think JE right away XD. Even like Breakerz still reminds me of JE, but thats just my opinion. I find that asian music doesn't change that much over time.. its prettty consistent. Like its like evolution LOL omg XD it has really small changes which changes little by little until sooner or later they add up to a big change haha.

Western music may have a lot of similar artists, but at least there are at least more genres. I mean there's pop,dance, RnB, hiphop, Rap, rock, and country which are all REALLY mainstream. Altho in each genre a lot of singers are similar at least there are still more genres for me to listen to than in asian music. But even within the similar artists, there are so many artists that each like cluster or similar artists have a uniqueness to them. Like Britney,christina, madonna, and Lady Gaga are all under pop, but I find that all three of them are really different musically. And like Chris Brown and Usher are said to be really similar, but I find their music to be different than lets say Ne-yo. I dunno its just my opinion haha.

[lovelism]

asian

[njanjayrp]

Asian. The Western Music simply sucks.

Originally Posted by ayumixfan

I'm surprised asian music is winning. I like both, but asian music is realy undiverse, at least the mainstream of it anyways.

Where did you just get that? I listen to JPOP because it is diverse. Hitomi Shimatani for one has a very colorful discography with many of different genres covered. I am pretty sure that even for mainstream artists like YUI, Koda Kumi, Namie Amuro, NEWS, UVERworld you can't say are similar in any way . While in the States it's quite obvious that epop, RnB, Hip Hop and Alternative rock bands are ruling atm, the Japanese market has a variety of genres selling and being popular at the same time. For example take some of the notable releases from the last year: Perfume was electropop, Namie released her RnB/Dance 3A single, arashi's crossover "truth" sold like crazy, Ayu released an explosive rock single Mirrorcle World etc. Even if the JE music is mostly similar (cuz they could all be singing each others songs with no prob.) you can't say that the whole Japanese market is not diverse.

[ayumixfan]

Originally Posted by njanjayrp

Asian. The Western Music simply sucks.



Where did you just get that? I listen to JPOP because it is diverse. Hitomi Shimatani for one has a very colorful discography with many of different genres covered. I am pretty sure that even for mainstream artists like YUI, Koda Kumi, Namie Amuro, NEWS, UVERworld you can't say are similar in any way . While in the States it's quite obvious that epop, RnB, Hip Hop and Alternative rock bands are ruling atm, the Japanese market has a variety of genres selling and being popular at the same time. For example take some of the notable releases from the last year: Perfume was electropop, Namie released her RnB/Dance 3A single, arashi's crossover "truth" sold like crazy, Ayu released an explosive rock single Mirrorcle World etc. Even if the JE music is mostly similar (cuz they could all be singing each others songs with no prob.) you can't say that the whole Japanese market is not diverse.

Okay it was just an opinion, sorry I didn't put In my opnion but I think I stated later on this was more of my opnion than anything :S. And like I feel the japanese msuic industry isn't diverse at all. With the exception of a few artists it is pretty much uniformed to me, at least mainstream. i don't count non mainstream music because then every country would be diverse :S. A few groups might be popular for RnB and hiphop but overall its not really a mainstream genre =/ Same for epop. YUI is probably one of THE most generic artists in the jpop scene in my opinion. I don't really find her unique at all :S. I think this is just a matter of opinion haha. I really find asian music not that creative at all. I mean seriously I can break the Jmusic scenedown to pop and rock... like there are a few artists in between and such but the majority are usually in these two categories or a mix of it. OH I forgot enka too... I really find it... uniformed... lol. Same for the k-music industry. I mean thats just my opinion. Sure u listed a bunch of artists that are in different genres, but I think I could do the same with the US lol. And for artists like ayu, who jsut experiment in rock and epop, I just personalyl categorize them under pop because they're generally a pop artist. I find that most of the songs taht chart on the top of the yearkly ranks or pop or rock songs, or poprock. Like I said I find the few exceptions, but that doesn't really mean the style is that mainstream there.

I mean I find that at least the US has more than just 2 genres with multiple popular artists. And I think european music is very experimental. its just my opinion, sorry if I didn't make it clear. I wouldn't state anything i say as facts because I'm not going to research about this lol. i'm just surprised asian music is winning because I didn't think it was diverse.

[njanjayrp]

^ while I agree that kpop and cpop are completely generic, I really disagree when it comes to jpop, as I started listening to Japanese music because I thought the "western" music was boring and lacked creativity YUI might be generic, but when you hear a YUI song you will know it's hers. But then again if you're only into mainstream it can't be helped It just happens that the majority of the genres that the western artists do are the ones I like the least. I guess neither of us can prove the other one right or wrong on this one. I am not surprised the Asian music is winning after all it makes sense that the majority of people coming here like Asian music else they wouldn't be here and if nothing JPOP owns everything else in my opinion, I mean whenever the MTV is on, all the songs sound the same to me with random rappers singing about cars, girls and money or girls singing about their hot bodies. Now I know not all the western music is like that ^^ just that the majority of the mainstream stuff is.

[The_Swede]

That is a very hard question, because I was listening to Asian music for like 3 years because I got sick of Western music, but the last two years I have "opened" up for other music too.

Now I don't care what country the music is from, if I like it I listen to it. But I have to say that I looove bands and artists who experiment with music. I have got a little tired of mainstream music XD

And I love Swedish music (nothing mainstream Swedish cuz it sucks!) and other European music and so.. and I love Asian...

I want a both button

[Corybobory]

This question is like asking 'who do you think is more creative- Westerners or Asians?' (which esentially it is, wince Westerners generally make western music and Asians make Asian music....)

Which is why I think this question is kind of ridiculous. Creativity has to do with the individual, and once you analyze it in a group of that size it's incomparable.

[Bad Wolf]

Originally Posted by Corybobory

This question is like asking 'who do you think is more creative- Westerners or Asians?' (which esentially it is, wince Westerners generally make western music and Asians make Asian music....)

Which is why I think this question is kind of ridiculous. Creativity has to do with the individual, and once you analyze it in a group of that size it's incomparable.

Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiis.

Though two of my favorite all time artists are Asian (namely Japanese) I still can't badmouth the entire Western music industry just for a lot of bad apples. I mean, take a look at Sufjan Stevens or St. Vincent, Murder by Death, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Placebo, The Dresden Dolls, Regina Spektor, Rammstein, OOMPH!, Blue Foundation, Portishead, Radiohead... they're all fantastic western acts whose Asian duplicates (or near cousins) I've yet to see. Of course I'm not saying there aren't Asian artists who dapple in the genres the bands above fall into, but I just haven't found them yet!

I still really strongly agree with Cory's point, though. This question is very vague because when you ask a question like this you have to take so many things into account: is the artist motivated by their own creative disposition to create music or are they a manufactured act who gets their songs and lyrics handed to them (effectively making them a mouthpiece for the songs and albums they churn out)? I'd say in terms of mainstream acts, Asian artists win hands down, but Asian artists also have innovators in their genre. Just look at Dir en grey. They started out as a visual kei act and broke away from it by their third album--hell even on their second album they were experimenting with their sound. Today they sound totally unrecognizable from any other Japanese metal/rock band that's on the scene, and you can't really find their western equivalent, either.

Also, the west brought us the geniuses known as Frank Zappa and Mike Patton. Gotta give some love for that, those men were/are phenomenal.

[Ranma Matsuri]

Originally Posted by Corybobory

This question is like asking 'who do you think is more creative- Westerners or Asians?' (which esentially it is, wince Westerners generally make western music and Asians make Asian music....)

Which is why I think this question is kind of ridiculous. Creativity has to do with the individual, and once you analyze it in a group of that size it's incomparable.

Exactly. Every type of music in any country or language has it's generic recycled trends and it's creative innovative individuals. Trying to gauge who has "more" of them or has the better quality is insane and near impossible since not everyone has heard ALL of what both Asian and Western music has to offer. A better question would be: Which one do you think has the most diverse mainstream artists? As mainstream music seems to be what everyone is basing their decisions on.

In any case, I prefer Asian music not necessarily because I feel the artists are more creative or anything (because in all honesty, most of them aren't) but rather it offers a lot more variety and flavor then the music in my own backyard. Where else can you find artists like Kuu, Ayu, alan, Kalafina, GACKT, and Minimoni topping the same charts? I don't even pay attention to half the stuff being playing on American radio now but I bet you I can tell who's going to be up there: Over half are going to be R&B/rap/hip hop artists, Nicki Minaj and Ludacris are going to be featured on at least two of them, some "alternative" band, Gaga, and some other flavor of the month female (nowadays that's Kesha I believe). It may or not be the same if I'd were living in Japan. Probably just the opposite but aside from Britney I've just lost interest in American music completely.

[Maemi]

^Exactly. Some people can't decide, and others can. Some listen to only asian, or both or only western. If you can't decide, don't vote; this poll is for people who actually can choose between asian and western music. Music is music. But they can be so different and make different influence on people - language, lyrics, arrangements. I don't see anything wrong with it, so i didn't want on purpose to add "both"/"neither" options.

[miryoku]

I listen to Japanese pop music when I want to listen to catchy pop music that doesn't depress me. American mainstream pop music blows. Well, I'm not even sure what is big right now, because I don't pay attention to the billboard hits. Kayne West is pretty sweet, but other than that I don't know much of what's going on.

Every other time I listen to Western classic rock or indie music-- not because I think it is fundamentally better than Asian music-- but it just seems all the serious artists in Japan produce really boring music. The biggest indie bands from Japan just produce either soft, mellow music or that Pillows alternative sound that all kind of sounds the same (although there are standouts). So in terms of creativity I think "Western" music is better, but for pop music Japan produces some catchy stuff.

To each his own though. If you think "Asian" music is the shiznit than that's cool too. I just get made fun of by all my friends for listening to Arashi, AAA and Jpop stuff haha.

[noidea]

^ Actually, i think american music often is more catchy(in terms of pop) but also more boring, thats the feel i get by all the american things we have in our charts here, they all sound the same BUT are catchy.

[sugarbasil]

I voted Asian music but now that I think about it, I think I should have chosen Western music. I originally thought Asian music because it has so many traditional influences, but Western music is what influences the rest of the world.

[jbrat2219]

I like Asian music more. I can't really say which is more creative though. Seeing as Western music creates more innovative music but then Asian music takes that and adds a creative twist to it. If you ask me, I think Western music from the 70's, 80's and early 90's beats anything that's out today.

[Ayumi_Hamasaki902]

Asian Music

[JackieRos]

to me is asian they are not afraid to do anything and IMO they are more open minded
IMO IMO

[Yum!Fruit_Salad!]

Western music. Whatever starts hot here, finds its way East. Wouldn't be surprised if debut Japanese artists start having an electropop, techno, dance, R&B sound that's big now in America and Europe. Younha has a song on her latest Korean album that plays like a Just Dance copycat (though I love it <3).

[njanjayrp]

Asian, especially Japanese lyrics are far more creative, imo. Sure Asians might "use/borrow" some ideas from Western Music, but they simply make the final product way better.