WHAT IS Jpop in 2016?

[KarenPang]

To me the current Japanese music state has been stagnant for a very long time . When I 1st started listening almost 10 years , it was more exciting & fun

Over the years KPop has overtaken JPop in many aspects but what JPop lost out to KPop was marketing & also the KPop artistes who toured extensively worldwide

JPop artistes are still very pigeonholed & I don't know if it's their mentality but most I feel are very contented to just solely tour domestically (aside from GRANRODEO's frontman KISHOW who has a terrible phobia of flying until it's so bad that he only will take train rides within Japan from 1 prefecture to another =__=)

And at times when they do tour overseas , they always felt genuinely surprised they do have fans outside of Japan

Some JPop artistes have the foresight to tour both within & outside Japan but it's still not as good as what KPop artistes have done . Likewise I noticed that KPop concerts tend to be more international geared friendly unlike Japan concerts where provided only if you speak/know Japanese , only then you will thoroughly enjoy yourself

Almost 10 years ago , most if not all will bemoan how Johnnys artistes kept on dominating Oricon . Now that has changed & the spotlight has to be shared/overtaken by idol girl groups who I don't support + I feel the amount of copies on what they sell which's documented on Oricon doesn't tend to justify the quality of their material

Lastly when I 1st started to listen to Japanese music , I only focused on solo female acts . It took me quite a while of coaxing before I decide to listen to male solo acts & eventually JRock groups + Johnnys groups

Typing this makes me a bit sad seeing that abingdon boys school who was the 1st JRock band I know/listen ain't active anymore while on the other hand , not able to go for a girl next door concert is still a big regret for me as I supported them from their debut until when they broke up

[NintendoHTF1242]

For me personally, I just sort of grew out of Japanese pop music. My interest started going towards Western mainstream pop as well as EDM (I'm an EDM junkie at the moment). I really stopped caring for J-Pop starting 2012. A few reasons is because K-Pop started overtaking the Japanese market, and a lot of the artists I loved listening to slowed down on releases or are out of the scene (still waiting on Yuna Ito or Meisa Kuroki...)

In the end, I just don't find any new acts interesting and I'm not interested in boy groups/girl groups. The only artists I honestly follow are Ayu, Utada, Kuu, Namie, and Ai Otsuka. The J-Pop scene to me is stale, while my interest in EDM is at an all-time high.

It's sad, honestly. I used to listen to nothing but J-Pop. It helped me a lot through middle school and high school. But now it's like, okay whatever lol