The "J-x" Label

[Uninstall]

Hi all I want to discuss something little that may be bothering some people;

First of all if any of you come from the Japanese Hip-Hop forum Ongaku Eternal you may be familliar with the issue.

Anyway, it's about the "J-x" label: e.g. J-pop, J-trance, J-Hip-Hop etc. etc.
(Of course it's not only Japanese art, it could also be Korean, etc.

What I particularly am quite intrigued by is the assumption that if something is "J-", it's not taken as seriously as it should be in a global scale.. I mean of course sometimes in the music shop or whatever, it's classified "English pop", "French Rap", and so on, but I'm talking not as a matter of classification (although sometimes in the shop you do see the classification "international music"), but here, I'm talking as a matter of music genre. Why don't we just find out that whoever the Japanese artist is comes from Japan, the same way we find out Immortal Technique is from the U.S.

Reggae doesn't have to be Jamaican to be reggae right? Then why not just label "J-Rock" to just "Rock"? I don't know but it seems kind of unfair to me. As said by the original poster in Ongaku Eternal, the label "J-x" tends to make people focus on the "J" part and not the actual genre. I think in a way this can also help "globalise" international music anymore, who knows we'll see your favourite Japanese artist perform locally in your area (though I doubt that is bound to happen anytime soon)

I don't know, this is just my opinion. My arguments probably suck really hard; I'm not really someone who can communicate socially as easily as others - but I hope you catch my drift. Discuss what you think, why you would agree/disagree to this. Be polite (O'ω'o)

 

[vittusk]

Honestly i get a little lost with what you said, but here i go....
In occident there is a huge feeling of superiority over the asian music & i have confirmed that most people consider that japaneses/koreans/etc are weird so the "J" label is a warning that tells people that they are gonna hear something weird or not cool, but, that's my opinion and think you shouldn't heat up your head with it.

Greetings!.

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You know what!... i gonna put some random example:

If you put in an U.S. cinema a label that says...

[Hotarubi no Mori e (A japanese film)<----------> American Pie: Reunion(our film)]

The 98% of the people is gonna choose to see American Pie even knowing that 10% of their neurons are gonna be destroy.

 

[Uninstall]

Hi Vittusk - I apologise for my unclear arguments as I've stated in the later parts of the first post; I'll try my best to make it as clear as I can and edit as we go along

the "J" label is a warning that tells people that they are gonna hear something weird or not cool

I understand what you may mean here but I think that's the part that bugs me a little - I think it should just be regarded as music (or whatever), just because it's another language shouldn't mean it's pre-justified as "not cool". And yeah I agree with you that I shouldn't get too bugged about it, but I think I should bring it out there as I have heard some Japanese MCs feel that their music isn't really taken too seriously internationally - and I think it could be because of this J-Labelling thing; which makes sense in correlation with what you have said before of a warning that it could be "not cool".

The 98% of the people is gonna choose to see American Pie even knowing that 10% of their neurons are gonna be destroy.

Also quite interesting here, how it's funny but it could be true, hahaha
I suppose I could be completely wrong in my arguments and it could just be because people don't enjoy things that are alienated, or different to what they are used to ヾ (· ω · o)

 

[japespszx]

Lol. What I think is completely different to what [MENTION=25619]vittusk[/MENTION]. I guess I don't have much knowledge of the world. In my perspective, if I see a "J-x" classification of music, I think that "This song is better than Lady Gaga's or Justin Bieber's or Lil Wayne's or <insert English/American artist here> songs" Yeah... I never gave much thought to the "J-x" or "K-x" (No, I don't like Korean music) . I just thought that if the musicians are Japanese, then the instrument combos would be wonderful. Well, that's true for the artists I'm listening to anyway like SFP, Flow, and the like.

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Hmm i would say that people like to hear songs in their own language more than others because they understand the words (i dont give a crap about most of the popular american artists nowadays actually but thats due to various factors/mind set which im trying to change) Dubbed and subbed films tend to not be quite as great as the original (choice of wording and nothing ever translates perfectly to another language) and may be censored more strongly than the original was... I havent really experienced any naive dislike towards a genre that is labeled with J or whatnot but it might just be the group i hang around and where i live :/

 

[Animaksiat]

[MENTION=25346]Uninstall[/MENTION] here's from my experiences... J-x words was used for the first time in late 80s if i recall... just at the start of Heisei era. that time, the genre are very different than a normal pop, so people... not japanese people, labeled them as J-Pop.

and at the 90s japan industrial music became booming... giving birth to J-Rock. and after the economy crisis, japanese music became more and more popular that even china and korea follows their foot steps. it's just about culture. nothing wrong with it by giving a new genre names.

if you're so curious why? i'll ask you this... why people name rock music, Rock? or Metal music as Metal? or Pop? where'd did the name came from?

that's just the kind of question you had in mind!

 

[Uninstall]

Hi Animaksiat,

Thanks for the background information, definately good to know
Anyways I'm not that badly bothered by the fact that it's labelled as "J-x" or whatever, but I'm wondering if it's actually necessary nowadays - as you said, their music wasn't treated the same way as whatever the music was in the West, even if it was practically the same genre. (Because the elements/style was different)

And also about the culture thing; I must disagree with that because I don't really think culture causes the music to be taken not as seriously (although sure, whatever music comes from a country is culture) Also;

the genre are very different than a normal pop, so people... not japanese people, labeled them as J-Pop.

The part that not Japanese people labelled it as "J-Pop" is the part that I'm talking about - it kind of makes it feel "unfair", doesn't it? Why can't their pop-music be treated the same way as the pop-music in the West? The term kind of makes it sound like "Outlandish music", or something.

And also, regarding your question..
Why people call rock music rock music or pop music pop music, it's the genre, right? The name came from whoever decided to name it what it is after noticing a certain stereotype or a norm in the type of music in subject. But, since J-Hip Hop (for example), means Hip-Hop originating from Japan, and if it's "so different" than Western Hip Hop, say I wanted to create a nice Hip Hop song with "J-Hip Hop" styled elements in another country for example Ukraine (and for the sake of example let's say I come from Ukraine), would the music i create be called J-Hip Hop? I doubt it; but it's still Hip-Hop.

Once again sorry if my arguments aren't clear at all, I'm trying my best, but thanks for your opinions everyone ∩▽∩

 

[Animaksiat]

The part that not Japanese people labelled it as "J-Pop" is the part that I'm talking about - it kind of makes it feel "unfair", doesn't it? Why can't their pop-music be treated the same way as the pop-music in the West? The term kind of makes it sound like "Outlandish music", or something.

well i just have to suggest you to listen at 90s J-Pop and you'll understand it yourself... and tell me if it's Pop music that you're listening too... just as i said... they were classified diffirent from normal Pop...

 

[Uninstall]

Hi Animaksiat, I understand where you're coming from, sounds maybe carries a bit more elements of groove music, thus different from whatever the West was used to back in the 90s. But it doesn't make it any less or any more pop than it actually is (it's still pop, just that the artist is Japanese), in my toughts.

Let's go even further back in time for example, let's say classical music - let's take for example classical music (e.g Chopin's piano concerto) and then from the other side of the planet, let's take the music from Tari Legong from Bali - both from the same era, sounding absolutely different - but they are both regarded as classical music - because it has the elements of classical music (even though Chopin's music is regarded as romantic). NOTE: I just realised that this isn't really relevant in my argument *facepalm. I think using another folk/traditional music would be a better example.

Which brings me to the present - if J-Pop was labelled J-Pop just because of its significant difference in the 80s and 90s, what about now? Shouldn't the label just be dropped then?

And not only J-Pop, J-Hip Hop pretty much has the same elements as any other Hip-Hop from anywhere around the world - just the language, same with J-Metal or whatever.. I'll go practical now

This Reggae song performed by Japanese artist RANKIN'TAXI is being labelled as J-Reggae by some.. Yet it still has the elements of reggae from Jamaica, U.S.A., Venezuela, etc., right? There's the rythmic accents by the off beat, there's the ska stroke performed by the generic instrument (not sure what it's called in English)

Keep them coming - very interesting for me, thanks

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Hmm the J could just mean that its in Japanese :/ In that case then some people just dont take Eastern music as seriously which is probably due to some misguided sense of superiority :/

 

[xyzapy]

I think you want to say that music shouldn't be focused on where it comes from. So you think that the "J-x" label is not necessary and the label itself may deter some people from listening the music. I assume this is the general point you want to make.

I can understand your reasoning but I don't really think the label itself is the issue. I think it's more about the mentality that people have that has to change. In my opinion, Japan is usually seen as a weird country or at least not normal (but what is normal nowadays?). This may refrain people to take the "J-x" label seriously.

People are actually quite demanding. For example when looking for information, it is usually prefered to be in the language they understand. Eastern languages may not use the Latin alphabet or people think it sounds weird, which may deter some people from getting in touch with an unknown language. In this sense, we must break down the language barriere.

On a sidenote, I think that English (or even Western) music are getting too much attention. I'm not implying that it is bad music but I'm certain that there is much more music in other languages that are also beautiful.

Writing texts is not my strong point, hopefully you understand my post.

 

[kactaplb]

Cool facts anima. Anyways, the whole west east divide has been going on forever. I seem to see it most prominently in awards and genres. nobel prize-hollywood, bollywood- rpg, jrpg. Sure there might be some negative connotations, but would changing the name help any? In the end, who cares what you call it, just enjoy what you like.

 

[perrypig123]

i think the j infront is for the language it is in.. so if some1 picks it up in a music shop they can expect it to be in japanese rather than the usual english

 

[Uninstall]

i think the j infront is for the language it is in.. so if some1 picks it up in a music shop they can expect it to be in japanese rather than the usual english

I see where you're coming from but it's kind of weird because here in the Netherlands, both Dutch and English music is categorisedd "normally", music from Spain, France, etc. is all "international music"

 

[perrypig123]

maybe its based on where you live. like for a normal person they will expect to understand english ( i think its taught in the majority of primary schools all over the world as well as secondary) and then theyre mother tongue language, but im not sure about japanese/chinese/korean music because i dun really go to the music store often lol xD

 

[orisa]

There is no real reason...
I mean people call songs used in anime "Anison" even though they are same as any other songs.
Pretty much everything that has their own large fanbase is labeled differently from their parent category.
Naruto fans for example are called Narutards. Why not just call them "shonen anime fans"? Because the size of their fanbase calls for it. So instead of saying "that shonen anime fan who likes Naruto", you could just say "that Narutard".
Likewise, instead of saying "I like pop music made in Japan", you could just say "I like J-Pop".

So "J-Pop" is the name of a sub category given to Japanese pop music due to their large fanbase that differentiates them from being generalized as "Pop music". It's the same deal with Japanese people calling Korean music "K-Pop" to signify their growing fanbase in Japan.