[Article] "Why Japanese pop matters"
 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010...nese-pop-women

I think Ms. Nieman gave a fair assessment of Ayu. And it's the Guardian, so it's not like it's some obscure fanzine. Nice to see Ayu mentioned in a mainstream Western publication once in a while.

Gonna keep my mouth shut on the Lady Gaga comment.

""often used cosmetic surgery"" weh?
Sounds like the writer is a fan of hers but is actually diasppointed. tsk. i mean, she has the shortest paragraph for being one with the longest career?

" Musically, she has married accessible, mainstream hits with over-the-top costumes and high-concept videos long before Lady Gaga did." that's what I wanna hear!

I'm most disappointed with the random assortment of artists that were chosen.

Wtf at the selection imo. It was like they put their J-Pop playlist on shuffle and chose the 4 that came up.

I was gonna post this but got sidetracked lol

Its a good recent article from a western news source which i love, but for them to say shes the Queen of J-pop and then writing 2 tiny paragraphs is disappointing. The cosmetic part wasn't necessary, I mean she's had this amazing career and she focuses on that? (a tiny part be it but its also a tiny article..) but i like that she also puts some focus on her lyrics.

this D:

I mean Nana Kitade? wtf
and omg this cosmetic surgery thing again, that's annoying :|

But yes it's nice to see Ayu featured in a western pop music article lol

The selection actually struck me as very deliberate - each one is a different possible stereotype, and they're definitely the best examples of each. You wouldn't put Koda Kumi or Amuro Namie on a list where Ayu already is, for example. And as far as women who actually have a hand writing their own songs, these are definitely the most talented and most legendary for the music they make. Hikki is the only person who should have been on here but wasn't, although having Ayu on there already as the straight-up pop singer would have made her slightly redundant.

I don't think what she wrote about Ayu was at all good. She pretty much implies her career is basically over and then goes on to say she's the undisbuted queen...Huh?

Plus saying she had cosmetic surgery like it is a total fact. It just doesn't seem like very good writing to me.

Some of the stuff the writer said was good though, especially about the other singers.

alan was mentioned!!! omg

WOW, The Guardian!! O.O

I think they could have chosen a little more mainstream song than Ladies Night though, or something a little more signature which she composed.

I'm not gonna complain though. Good choices, I think.

You can't talk about recent jpop without saying anything about Hikaru Utada, sorry

And you can't talk about recent jpop without saying anything about Ayu too... but it sounded like some biased fan from the I am... era...

The article was weird and sarcastic...

Can you not praise someone without degrading them? like seriously
but I was happy Tomoko Kawase was there, she's not that popular but her music is really diverse.

And lol at the cosmetic surgery she make it sounds like Ayu gets cosmetic surgery when she'll release new stuffs.

Her ballads are "occasionally touching"? What kind of backhanded compliment is that? I guess I should expect it from someone who says Shiina Ringo is her favorite artist ever anywhere.

Usually, I think Shiina fans (even Hikki fans) like to put down the very "pop" female soloists because they've "sold out" or something. It's really weird and I don't understand why they'd do that... blah.

^ Because they think it makes their favourite artist look better and more original, therefore more worthy to listen to.

Some people just hate anything pop or mainstream, often without ever having listened to it.

Idk guys, I think the article was pretty fair. I mean, it wasn't someone from AHS writing it, it obviously wasn't a hardcore Ayu fan, it seemed to be just a casual listener, and taking that into consideration, that's a pretty positive light that she put Ayu in. Like, come on, she's not bashing her. Plus she gets bonus points for liking Ladies Night :laugh

They had some positive stuff in there, but there were also some backhanded compliments not found in any of the other artists' descriptions... -facepalm-

What I really liked was the nod to Ayu's "high-concept music videos". The depth and subtly overt symbolism of Ayu's videos is usually passed over in mainstream media reviews (in fact, her music videos rarely get much mention at all), except by Chinese papers every now and then like the Epoch Times who just give write blurbs about the themes of her music videos.

Oh well, at least she said that Ayu is already weird before Gaga :laugh

Cosmetic surgery :thud

Ayu's section of this was unnecessarily snarky. Way to dedicate the smallest paragraphs to the biggest artist.
And for an article titled "Why Japanese Pop Matters", the author could have mentioned artists other than solo females. I know she tried to be diverse within that group, but there are other bands that could have been represented.

LOL. cosmetic surgery?

Lady Gaga, Halle Berry, Mariah Carey => they all did cosmetic/plastic surgery too! :roflmao

yeah how could she 100% sure that Ayu had plastic surgery bfore?
no one ever knows bout that yet~

yay!! that`s true.
Anyway this article showed lights and shadows, it`s not that disappointing.

That's what I think all the time, too.
So Americans and Europeans that are in the Gaga mood have to love Ayumi and Kumi I think.

But the article is not that great overall....

lol this is so bad. I've read worse articles but this one is just really bad.

The artists chosen are just weird. Nana Kitade had some good songs, but she's pretty much underground and unknown. Having her on the same page as Ayumi Hamasaki is kind of an insult.

i think the opinion in this article is a little bit different from that in asia.
some famous singers are not mentioned in this articale

"...she's often used cosmetic surgery..." --> Everytime I read things like this about Ayu, it really, really (!!) pisses me off! :grumpy

Cosmetic surgery = ayu... That's so boring!
And yeay for Tomoko!!!! <3

I had to wiki her... look through her list of release until I saw the word 'first ending for the anime series Fullmetal Alchemist' then go to youtube to find 'Kesenai Tsumi' then I realise I knew that song:thud

Overall I can just say that the write sure gave her fair shot of positive and negative opinions... It really makes me wonder if these 'female stars of the orient's hippest country deserve to be seen and heard in the west' and if ' Japanese pop matters'?:rolleyes:rolleyes

Nana Kitade isn't very obscure in the west at all thanks to her loligoth fashion and anime themes... as far as the "gothic" rocker chick stereotype, something often thought of when westerners think of Japan, she was the obvious choice to represent that group.

It seemed like the author managed to insult each of the artists in some way. But the article is poorly written, at any rate. :\

I love the Gaga comment, but I really don't like the first sentence... :(
& some of it seems... sarcastic?

i didn't know ladies night is about domestic violence!

^It isn't xD

one person's opinion and lack of knowledge. Meh.

shame this was printed if you ask me.

Well, I appreciate the fact that the title encourages people to look into J-Pop, but the article itself is written poorly. You don't need to place the artists on a pedestal, but you can't really sell a point if you keep criticizing the subject, you know? If I knew nothing about Japanese pop and read this, I wouldn't be convinced.

Thanks for sharing though!

:( I found it okay, but some of it was uncalled for... I mean, there's been controversy over the cosmetic surgery, and then they said it like it was a fact...:no

And her ballads are "occasionally touching?!" Are you a fan or not? :laugh

To me, it just seemed random :(

I found the article quite rude. I'm not sure if I'm being biased cos I'm a fan, but I got quite upset with the sarcastic remarks. And more than anything, I'm annoyed with the point about cosmetic surgery. They have no proof of this and even if it's true, Ayu looks pretty damn amazing, whoever did the job is like a God!!!

This article seems like it was forced to be written by somebody who didn't approve of the topic, for one reason or another.

I found this article kinda bad tbh.
And the cosmetic-surgery part really pisses me off

Did the writer has any proof that she did that?

anyways, wasn't really happy while I read it.

J-Pop Matters
 

Hamasaki's lyrics and delivery – she has an earnest, unpolished singing voice – project a vulnerability that makes her songs strangely endearing and her ballads occasionally touching.

Occasionally touching....Why does that strike a nerve?

Maybe he has occasional feelings.

Ugh. I don't like the cosmetic surgery comment at all. :< While I do believe Ayu has had some work done, there's definitely no absolute proof and I hate when she's introduced as being someone who is a plastic surgery monster. It p's me off.

The choice of artists is totally weird too. Nothing against alan, but no one in Japan really even cares about her, and I like never hear any news about Tommy or Kitade Nana anymore.

reply
 

LMAO! You're probably right! :roflmao

It's one thing to express your opinions on the artist you are writing about, whether it be about their music, PV's or whatever, but it's a completely different thing to go around saying "yep Ayumi Hamasaki is the plastic queen of Japanese pop because of all the cosmetic surgery."
The writer obviously...
A) Doesn't like Ayu, at all.
B) Doesn't KNOW ANYTHING about Ayu.
C) Is just stupid.
It disgusts me that people write things like this and can print them in a worldwide publication, especially since no one has ever publicly said anything about Ayu having anything done cosmetically (besides her teeth of course).

'surgery' and 'occasionnally touching' make me sick too... but the whole article is from outerspace so it's just 1 insane thing among the others

can't believe they forgot to mention Koda Kumi and Namie Amuro (O_o)

hmm I didn't like Ayu's bit that much...

but I'm glad she mentioned Shiina Ringo though ^^

Well, music-wise, they are not really anything different for western people... Their music are very western...

Except for the cosmetic surgery part, I think Ayu got a fair shake. I mean, it's not like everyone is going to be a die-hard fan, y'know. (And it's not like they compared her to Britney Spears or something.)

i believe every artist did a plastic surgery :D :D :D but why ayu so identically with it? cant mention the other name?

The part about cosmetic surgery makes me rage and the selection is a little "wtf?"...they're just too random and the paragraphs aren't really that positive. Alan isn't a good singer but has a good song or two? Nana Kitade disappoints her fans? Ayu is the fallen Queen of Jpop and uses surgery, she's not relevant or talented?

Bah, I hate when this kind of thing happens. I want people to be interested in Jpop through articles in mainstream media, not be confronted by a paragraph of confusing comments that will turn them off.

Thanks for sharing though :)

Idk, the fact that Nana Kitade is even mentioned made me not take the article seriously, lol...

I wonder why no one bothered to read the subheading:

"Eclectic, wide-ranging and unpredictable, some female stars of the orient's hippest country deserve to be seen and heard in the west"

The point of choosing a seemingly random line-up of female artists was already mentioned in this thread: to show the DIVERSITY in female J-pop. If they put Namie or Koda in there it would have been redundant. Ayu is the FACE of female mainstream J-pop and the J-pop idol system, just ask the rest of Asia. And Shiina Ringo trumps Utada Hikaru any day of the week as the important female singer-songwriter of Japanese music.

Why are people here are so sensitive, reacting a bit overdramatically to "backhanded" compliments. Obviously, the fact that the writer wasn't gushing all over Ayu shows an attempt to uphold some standard of journalistic fairness (except for the cosmetic surgery comment, although personally if I weren't a fan I would have been just as suspicious). Obviously, she's not a fan, but she found something positive to say about Ayu, although modulated so that she doesn't come across as a complete fan-idiot. She even managed to balance her opinion of Shiina Ringo, and she was upfront about being her fan. A gushy article would turn most people off Japanese music. They would think it was written by some anime-obsessed Japanese-crazed person with no critical thinking whatsover. This article tries to sell J-pop to people by cautiously recommending music that would otherwise seem or sound completely strange and alien at first to the average Western listener.

Tomoko Kawase belongs in there as well. She is female alt pop-rock personified. The Brilliant Green is the great underrated Japanese music act of the 90s and 00s.

Even Nana Kitade and alan might be justified for appearing on the list. They definitely represent clear and distinct Japanese pop types.

People are just crying because their favorites didn't appear on the list. Sheesh. I don't see Chitose Hajime or Cocco on this list and I'm not praying for divine vindication. I'm just glad SOMEONE is actually interested in putting a spotlight on Japanese pop music in a mainstream Western publication, and thank God for her. J-pop definitely deserves more attention in the culture-deaf West.

"culture-deaf West"?!
Really, that was offensive o_O

@ Uemarasan

Did you even bother reading the other posts? and I'm not going to say about your tiny weeny racist comment.

I'm so glad all the Shiina fans I've met (myself included XD) are both Shiina AND Ayu lovers.

What bothers me about this article is as others have said -- strangely worded, sarcastic, misinformation printed as fact, etc. And yet, this is very sadly commonplace in Western journalism (perhaps globally, too?). I also take issue with the title "Why Japanese Pop Matters" -- as if the West needs to validate Japanese musicians? O_o As if their pop music needs Westerners to endorse and promote it? I don't think the author intended to suggest such a thing with the title, but regardless of her intentions that's what I'm getting from the syntax.

Also, ever since idiots like Perez or the jackals at ONTD, journalism/pop cultured-based articles ALL have this wry, snarky, bitter tone to them, as if they're mocking the very people they're attempting to credit and praise. It's a very, very strange combination of building someone up and tearing them down which I can neither understand nor endorse: it's one thing to write objectively, showing flaws and positive aspects. It's another to be an unnecessary ****.

Reading the whole thing again now... It really seens like...

Alan is there cuz she is exotic
Nana and Tomoko cuz they are influenced by Shiina
Ayu cuz she is the plastic fake jpop diva

And Shiina cuz she is God, influenced 2 girls on the list and is a true artist, the oposite of the plastic surgery monster above her...

i think this is right lol^___^