[tokyoxjapanxfan]

Jpop hasn't been focusing on new endeavors recently. It's still very group oriented, and solo artists past and present are rarely pushed by the media. So in the sense I've fallen out of new jpop acts.

They're not doing anything particularly deep or exciting, and budgets have certainly gone down all around. The variety in top selling acts has also decreased. Since 2008 all the best selling albums and artists are exile tribe, arashi/johnnys, and akb groups. So that has been extremely tiring. Luckily Utada was able to achieve such great success with her new album. But unfortunately I don't see that as a sign for other solo acts.

Youth aren't really looking to music for expression as they used to, so deep lyrics and imagery would be lost on them. Nishino Kana sings about the same topic seemingly every single time, with the same approachable (imo boring) image and safe/simple/basic imagery. And her demographic is very specific and obvious haha. Because really that's what's selling. Now certainly there's nothing wrong with that, in fact i'd liken her to the Taylor Swift of jpop. It's just not my taste.

Kpop influence is still strong for male groups, though female groups have reverted towards the typical jpop idol style.

Japanese media and culture in general has become extremely conservative. Just watching TV shows from the 90s and now it's like...there are no topical issues being touched upon as they used to. Teenage prostitution, gangs, drugs and alcohol, anti-school imagery...things that made 90s and early 2000's tv and music so deep are now very rare to see.

So I think this overall safeness in tv and culture and music has really eaten away at interesting things being created.

I mean, sex appeal in Japan has changed so much since even I got there in 2008. Of course styles change, but girls have largely abandoned sexier fashion for a girlier aesthetic. Which means artists and media are following suit. *i only mention this because if an artist were to be on the sexier side, the public's reaction is more prudish.

The Koda Kumi effect is loooooong gone as well as the LA celeb look that Ayu popularized (casual but still with a hint of sex appeal).



Maybe I went a bit off topic, but for me image and music are very much linked haha.