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

[*Petit*]

Originally Posted by tokyoxjapanxfan

depends on what music you mean.

do i find music like Hello Project, Johnny's, SM creative? Well, unless you mean creative in the sense that they "create" super groups, not so much. Mass produced songs, mass produced images even, given to pretty people to attract buyers isn't what I'd call musically creative. And that goes for girl and boy bands all over the world--it just happens that Asia seems to be the only one with hugely popular groups like this anymore.

Artists that take control of their image and know who they are and create moving music, art even, are creative. If all they do is sit their and sing a song that's handed to them over and over again, that isn't creative no matter what part of the world you're in. People may enjoy that music, but please don't claim that it's creative--or at least say you think the writer of the song is creative.

I don't agree with this notion that the music of a singer who's only singing and beautiful isen't creative. There are producers and song writers and many other creative people contributing along the way and such a view is disregarding all of their effort.

With that in mind, one clearly sees the possibility that a hugely commercialized girl group or boy group releases creative music, or at least pop music with new aspects (which is creative in one way or another. Pop music usually isen't completely reinvented all at once no matter which genre you speak of). The sound invented by max martin for a whole lot of pop artists including britney spears and Backstreet boys had many new aspects at the time, but it was copied and not developed a lot untill it fell out of favour with the public.

The same is true for some of the music released by Morning Musume, especially when viewed within the context of girl/boy band music (esp songs like renai revolution 21).

Is asian music more creative? Probably not, but neither is western pop music. It would be more interesting to point out the differences between the two markets.

I think it's safe to say that the japanese pop music works at a much higher pace than its western counterpart simply due to the release scheduals. Also fans of a certain artist is much more likely to be exposed to more genres of (pop) music due to the faster pace and also because fans are more loyal to the artist more buying the songs "no matter what" leaving the artist with more creative space (to try out new things musically). However I think that japanese mainstream music follows a formula more stricly, a formula that was abandoned somewhat when rap music and also instrumental trance and techno became very popular in europe US no matter what kind of instrumentation/style is adopted for the song.
US pop music in particular has been influenced by what is ultimately african (american) or south american/including the caribbean) music, and as the US is physically much closert those areas than japan, any influence will reach the US before going anywhere else including europe (Actually, when speaking of "western" pop music, one disregards the rather big differences between europe and the US and also within the european nations. French pop music in general is very different from german and so is UK music market from the US). The examples are endless as most of the big changes in popular music in modern times have in some way originated from those areas (latin america afro american music + the caribean) or from the developement in technology/use of new technology.

[Cherry Dynamite]

I voted Western music.

I think Japanese Music is definitely creative like Ayu but I think Chinese and Korean music is basically a rip-off of western music and Japanese Music I'm not saying Japanese Music doesn't copy western music but I think Korean and Chinese Music are generally a copy of western music or Japanese music (btw I'm talking about Pop culture not the entire music of Asia).

I mean seriously what's creative about song who talks about Lollipop and stupid stuffs.

So yeah I voted Western Music because of variety and originality. I would say Japanese acts are creative but I don't agree about Korean and Chinese acts being creative.

[Andrenekoi]

I don't find jpop all that creative... even the "deep" lyrics... most of them are almost the same....

[zyoeru]

^ Please, look up several translations of Ringo Shiina's lyrics of the same song and examine the Japanese lyrics yourself. Especially from her album Kalk Semen Chestnut Flowers.

[gallowsCalibrator]

Asian music, definitely! All Western music seems to be the exact same thing... But Asian music always catches my attention and surprises me ^•^

It depends on what kind of music.

Mainstream western music is absolutely pathetic in terms of creativity. All the rap songs are about sex, all the r&b songs are about cheating, and pop is just miserable to listen to now.

I'm going to go with western music being more creative though because there are so many non-top 40 bands that are awesome. Underground bands are great too. You just can't base western music with what comes on on the radio.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by zyoeru

^ Please, look up several translations of Ringo Shiina's lyrics of the same song and examine the Japanese lyrics yourself. Especially from her album Kalk Semen Chestnut Flowers.

Yeah... Shinna Ringo, Hikaru Utada, Ayumi Hamasaki...

Japan has the 2nd biggest music industry in the world, and 3 creative singers... Sorry, but u can't take any of them as examples of what's jpop is about

[ストロボ・EdGE]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

Yeah... Shinna Ringo, Hikaru Utada, Ayumi Hamasaki...

Japan has the 2nd biggest music industry in the world, and 3 creative singers... Sorry, but u can't take any of them as examples of what's jpop is about

Isn't that the whole point? The fact that you can't fit them into the mold of what Jpop is "about"? It shows that they all have they're own measure of originality...

[zyoeru]

Exactly...they are J pop. They are all Japanese and popular...

Ringo's band's latest album sold 100+ copies, Ayu's sold 300+ and I believe Hikki's sold 500+? That alone shows that they're "pop".

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by ストロボ・EdGE

Isn't that the whole point? The fact that you can't fit them into the mold of what Jpop is "about"? It shows that they all have they're own measure of originality...

The whole point is, u can't use them as example of how creative jpop is compared to western music... Cuz they are only 3 artists, and 3 of those known for being different... U can't take 3 artists and say "hey, see? they are creative, so the whole jpop industry is creative too!".

Not every jpop singer has Ayu's creativity... not every western pop singer fake like Britney or whoever people around here think it's bad...

[teppei_chan92]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

Good point^^

I started listening to asian music cause i though it was very creative compared to western music... but one day i just understand that they are not more creative, they are just different of western artists...

if u compare western artists with western artists, a lot of them sounds generic

but if you compare asian artists to other asian artists, a lot of them sounds VERY generic too

[Mirrorcle Monster]

Asian

[SURREAL__RAINBOW]

I lovee Asian music a lot more than Western music... But, Western music is a lot more creative in all aspects! and the Asian industry in general seems to get ideas out of them

And I also feel that there's more variety in Western music where to pick from... Asian music is very much all similar if not the same :/ seems to be so xD

[..:Hot:Like:Wow:..]

Going beyond the pop music genre I'd have to say western music. Just think it's generally much deeper.

[primavera♥]

when i look at korean music and half of japanese music its soooo similar. like boy bands lol. why would i say asian is mroe creative. its so simple just that certain japanese artists in my opinion are creative, but as a whole not really.

western music can have many variations. . .to me its like a tie. like neither.

rock music however. thats a whole different story.

edit: v-kei is much more creative than jpop

[microphone]

I like classical music. That is western but it is not popular... It is so beautiful. Unfortunately, all popular western music (Including the Beatles. They were the first to make garbage music a popular thing!) is trash.

asian pop music is no different. especially popular korean music... Sounds just like American trash.
In Japanese pop, Ayumi is really the only exception to me. Except her voice nowadays. I like classical Japanese music though. Beautiful!
EDIT: Sorry. all that was unrelated to the topic question...

Anyway, there is nothing creative about pop music. Lady gaga is not creative. She is shocking! But not creative, by any means. Ayumi is not creative either. She is alluring and beautiful, but not creative. I say neither!

[2Hurt]

Asian music is much more creative

[tetsuo69]

i voted for asian , but that was only cause japanese music fits in there, i could careless about chinese/korean music. dont like it and never will, just like i dont like western music.

as for western music, i really dont listen to any of it, out of my over 20k mp3 songs on my pc, only 10 song are in english. and i doubt western music has change for better since 1999 - 2010.

[Andrenekoi]

^Not to bash anyone, but i found it funny when people who admit they don't listen to western music come here to say eastern is better...

[mellody]

In terms of creativity, Asian songs pawns~

I'm not really into Western Music, sometimes most of the times every songs sounds alike