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

[elvesword]

I love J-POP only XD

[SKYia]

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.

[visionfactory]

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

[channy]

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

[Lanz16]

Ayu looks great there but on this article...

[MeyChan]

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.

[Kazeyomi]

^
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.

[emi♡]

^^that way of thinking is ridiculous

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

[relmy]

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 this effects Ayu's sales not to mention, LOL!

[relmy]

^ 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.

[chu-lips]

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

[setsuka]

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

[C+R+E+AYUMI]

She's really a diva in that pic

[tetsuo69]

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

[emi♡]

Some of you guys are really scary


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.

[RayJason]

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 .

[Andrenekoi]

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.

Originally Posted by tetsuo69

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

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

[relmy]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

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.

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.