Kpop in a world of Jpop

I'm sure a lot of people reading this blog don't know this about me, because there's never really a time to mention it, but I am a Kpop fan. Now, I'm not a huge, OMG Kpop is the best ever, kind of Kpop fan. But I do enjoy a decent amount of Kpop. The only reason I don't listen to Kpop more is because I can't pronounce Korean. And believe it or not, not being able to sing along to a song or pronounce a singer's name does hinder my love for it a lot. But maybe that's just me. (Also, please don't say, "Just learn to pronounce Korean, seriously it's no big deal," because I have been trying to and it is extremely difficult. I long for the days when I was learning to pronounce Japanese because it's a cake walk in comparison.)

The reason I'm brining this subject up at all, is because, as many of you know, this last year we have an influx of Kpop idols debuting in Japan. Big Bang, CN BLUE, FT Island, KARA, 4MINUTE, T-ara, Supernova, and SNSD. And I actually might be missing some. Now since they're idols in Japan now, and this is an idol blog, I was thinking of maybe covering the Kpop groups' activities in Japan. But I've been stopping myself. And do you want to know the reason for this? It's simple really.

The reason is, the fans themselves. I'm sure most of the Jpop and Kpop fans reading this will instantly know what I'm talking about. And to those that don't might find my reasoning silly. But for some reason there's this tremendous fan war going on between Kpop and Jpop fans. And honestly, I've seen most of the hate on the Kpop side. When I'm bored I like to go on youtube to watch Kpop vs Jpop videos. And 8/10 times the videos are extremely biased for the Kpop side. In one video the actual vs was Morning Musume's Love Machine vs some Kpop girl group's song from 2010. But the worst part of these videos are reading the fan comments.

Over the months of reading fan comments the general consensus among Kpop fans is: that Kpop is superior in every way because they are sexier, not cutesy or cookie cutter like Jpop, can actually sing, are better dancers, and the overall music is better. I even read someone say that Jpop idol groups are for pedophiles who do nothing but watch anime.
And the general consensus among Jpop fan is: Kpop is unoriginal, at least Jpop has it's own style, Jpop lyrics have more meaning, and Kpop copies from America too much.

I think the funniest part to all of this is the so called negatives for each side is why I like Kpop and Jpop. I love Kpop because it's so similar to the kind of American music that I like. And it stands to reason that if I like it sung in English, I'm gonna like it sung in Korean. And I love Jpop because it is a nice escape from the overly sexiness of American music. It's just cute, innocent, and upbeat.

Another thing that I dislike about Korean fans is just how biased they are. Anytime a Korean artist debuts in Japan Korean fans/blogs basically say how this will be the greatest thing to happen to Japanese music ever. Of course this group will totally dominate Japan, obviously because they are Korean. It won't be long before they are beating established artists. Korean fans also basically cried that they are absent from this year's Kohaku. They really think that they should get everything handed to them because of what they did already in Korea. Some artists have only been in Japan for 1 year-a couple months. This is AAA's first time in Kohaku. It took them 5 years to get there. And honestly if Big Bang was there instead of AAA, I would be beyond angry.

In a way, it's outrageous fans like this that make me want to support Jpop more. And sometimes I even hope Kpop artists fail. Which is pretty insane. I'm basically being dragged into a feud that's so shallow and opinionated, that it shouldn't even exist. And since I doubt Kpop fans are going to chill anytime soon, I most likely won't be covering Kpop acts. No matter how much I do like CN BLUE, FT Island, SNSD, and 4MINUTE.

Here's Kpop Vs Jpop female idol version



Here's Kpop Vs Jpop male idol version

BoA aims for the states

 
I'm kind of slow on my BoA news, so bare with me for that. Since I'm not really a huge BoA fan.

Popular Kpop and Jpop singer BoA tries her luck in entering the American market with the single entitled Eat You Up. With a release date for some time in October. She also has the slogan Best of Asia bring on America. She will also have a song with popular rapper Flo Rida.

I am super exciting for this. I really want her to make it big here, so maybe other artists will realize the US is defiantly a possibility. Because I honestly think Koda Kumi, Namie Amuro, or Maki Goto would be huge over her. And BoA has the sort of hip pop feel that is popular right now.

So let me have a mini debate with myself about the cons.

1. A big con is that she does have a noticeable accent singing. A lot of people in the US tend to make fun of anyone with an accent. An artist like Shakira who has an accent when singing is fine because there is a large population of Spanish speaking people in the US. And what about the recently popular German band Tokio Hotel? Since they only have an accent when talking and not singing that's fine. Plus they already had a fanbase here.

2. In the US we don't have that many Asian celebrities or people in the media. There are really only a handful of Asian stars such as: Margaret Cho, George Takei, Jackie Chan, Mike Shinoda, Masi Oka, etc. Asians in the United States haven't really been that successful or had that much espouser. Granted there are Asians who have made a career in the US but not nearly as many as their should be.

3. Another con is many other artists have tried to break into the US market and failed. Utada Hikaru who was born in New York, speaks fluent English, and had a song featured on a movie soundtrack isn't popular here. Puffy Ami Yumi had their on cartoon show and failed to break into the market. Even Dir en grey hasn't been able to increase their fanbase enough and they had headlining tours here. Popular Korean artist rain is trying to break into the US, but I'm not sure how that's going.

4. BoA can't speak english. It would be kind of hard for her to be on TRL, or an tv show for that matter. I think some potential fans may be turned off by constant translators.

BoA has some things to overcome or maybe I'm just being paranoid and she'll made an easy transition into the US. It certainly seems like Tokio Hotel did just that. So good luck to her. She has the looks and the talent to make it here.

Here's the preview enjoy. :D