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I've been a member of various Asian pop forums since 2002. I've seen threads like these ever since then and it's a shame.
For the record, mainstream Western music isn't all about sex. To say it is such, speaks that many people don't know too much about it other than Britney Spears, Beyonce, and other singers of their ilk.
Pj Harvey, Adele, The Mars Volta, Bjork, Sigur Ros, Massive Attack, Imogen Heap.
If you've never heard of these people give them a listen. Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, even the "sex" concept and dirty lyrics hardly applies to the entire Western music industry.
The musicians I listed are just a small fraction of artists that are mainstream, still active, and have meaningful lyrics and concept albums. Instead, like some people have done in this thread, they get over looked in the category of Western music. Britney Spears is always used as an example of the epitome of all Western music, and it is henceforth downgraded by fans of Asian music. I like Asian pop, particularly Japanese and Korean. But to say Western music has no creativity when the Genre was first started in the West is confounding. The ground work for what the Japanese are currently doing, and continue to do was started by Americans, Canadians, and the Brits. Many musicians in J-pop even sound like their Western counterparts. Their is no difference in their music style other than the language. Their is so much creativity in both industries, and their is also garbage in them. Currently, the U.S. in particular has seen an influx of popular singers and musicians that are mediocre at best. Yet, this doesn't erase musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, The Pixies, Aretha Franklin, The Beetles, Led Zeppelin ... I can go on with talented artist's from the past. It also doesn't erase the many that actually put life and touch others with their clever lyrics like Pj Harvey and Imogen Heap.
The point of music is just like literature or any other artistic medium; it's not to be pitted against Country versus Country. It's supposed to be a uniter not a divider. I'm just sad that 7 years later threads like these still pop up now and again. For all the open mindedness that people have to branch out and listen to music in a language they don't understand, it's saddening that they tear down another; disregarding many talented musicians, mainstream or not, in the process.
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