Popular music in Japan and Korea.

Popular music in Japan and Korea entered the musical mainstream in the 1900s. In both countries pop was considered a loosely defined genre, at first being somewhat a mix of western melodies and traditional music. So it was something new and that is why I like it. Such music is not common and so boring as polish records that take after us artists. Do you agree ?

Hachiro Kasuga,

dubbed "the first

enka singer".

In Japan the first pop-type music was enka, a music genre resembling traditional Japanese music stylistically, but the songs contained political text, being a postwar expession of nationalism. The term 'enka', as well as its meaning, is derived from "enzetsu no uta", which literally means "speech song". Modern enka music developed in the 1960s and took on the form of sentimental ballads. The music has certain resemblance to blues. Enka lyrics are usually about the themes of love and loss, loneliness, enduring hardships, and persevering in the face of difficulties, even suicide or death and the music itself is expressive and emotional.

There is a theory that the modern version of the word 'enka' comes from "enjiru uta", which means "performance song". A few of the more known modern enka singers were, amongst others, Hachiro Kasuga, Hideo Murata and Michiya Mihashi.

The revival of the modern enka is said to have taken place in the year 1969, when the actress Keiko Fuji made her debute as a singer.

There is a large similarity between Trot and the Japanese music genre of Enka, which has led many to believe that Enka has developed from or in parallel with the Trot.

Currently a lot differences have formed between popular music in Korea and Japan. Japanese popular music has devided into J-pop and J-rock, the latter having a stronger, more punk-metal sound to it, while J-pop remains in the climate of commerial pop songs, dance, disco and R&B.

Although both these genres are popular, there is definitely stronger pressure on rock music in Japan than in Korea.These groups were usually labelled as "folk" by the Japanese because of their regular use of the acoustic guitar.

X Japan

During the 80's, the movement known as Visual Kei emerged pioneered by Japanese metal/rock bands such as X Japan, D'erlanger, Luna Sea, Buck-Tick and many others, some of which were successful internationally.

Buck Tick

Visual Kei (literally "visual style") is characterized by the use of make-up, wild and colourful hair styles and extravagant costumes, often combined with androgynous aesthetics. Do you know any their folllowers ?


This sub-genre of J-rock has its own unique sound, a combination of glam-rock, punk and metal. In the 1990s, the popularity of Visual Kei increase throughout Japan, and album sales from Visual Kei bands started to reach record numbers, but by the end of the decade the genre's popularity once again began to decline.

The 90's also brought rock musicians such as B'z, Glay, L'arc-en-Ciel, Judy and Mary, Dragon Ash, some of them having established marks in Japanese music history.








B'z at the Hollywood Rock Walk event.








A good example of this is B'z, being the #1 best selling act in Japanese music since Oricon started counting.

In the mid-90's the emergence of teen idol groups took place, creating a new, different trend in the South Korean music scene. The most popular groups were, amongst others, H.O.T., Shinhwa, g.o.d. and Sechs Kies.





Sechs Kies
















Shinhwa







These groups were know for their extremely strong fanbases and high-selling albums, some of them even having a "million seller" – an album that had sold over one million copies. However, most of these bands slowly began to disband gradually, starting with the break-up of Sechs Kies in 2000. Although some of the artists continued their music careers and were successful in the following years, many new bands have presently taken their places. Do you have any idea what is happening with them now ?

Boa Kwon









There are many artists who are successful on a world scale as well. The female singer BoA is the highest-selling international artist from South Korea, mostly due to her strength i the Japanese music market. Since her success overseas, other performers such as Rain and Se7en have also released albums oputside of their home country, becoming well-known all throughout the Eastern part of Asia.

The situation of Japanese popular music on a global scale is a bit better than that of Korean music. Even if it is only a handful of them, there are artists who have succeded in gaining popularity not only within their own country and Asia, but also in Europe and the USA. A good example is the Japanese singer-songwriter and former actress Ayumi Hamasaki, who has been dubbed the ''Empress of Pop'' due to her popularity and widespread influence. Her style and constantly changing image have brought her popularity all across Asia. She has become a music style and fashion trend-setter in countries such as China, Taiwan and Singapore.

Hamasaki held her first concert outside Japan in 2002 at the MTV Asia music awards ceremony in Singapore, where she received an award for ''Most Influencial Japanese singer in Asia''. Later that year she released her first European single ''Connected'' in Germany under the name ''Ayu''. She continued to release singles in Germany until 2005.

In 2007, her digital album ''Guilty'' was released in twenty-six countries outside Japan, nineteen of them bein Western nations, which has been interpreted as Hamasaki's first step into the global market.

Of course Hamasaki isn't the only internationally successful Japanese artist. Her supposed ''rival'', Utada Hikaru, has an estimated 50 million albums sold worldwide. Is she simmilar any US star ?


She has released several albums in America under the stage name ''Utada'', and many of her songs became smash hits and topped the U.S. music charts.

In 2001, Utada recorded a song with the American rapper Foxy Brown for the film Rush Hour 2, ''Blow My Whistle'', which was written by Utada herself.

She has also made two theme song contributions to the video game series Kingdom Hearts, both songs having Japanese and English versions.

Recently, in 2009, Utada sang a duet of ''Let It Snow'' with the British pop singer Mika.

Japanese rock/metal artist and bands have also been successful in theU.S. and Europe. In 1992, heavy metal band X Japan made an internationalbreakthrough. X Japan's pianist/drummer Yoshiki, who was also the mainsongwriter, collaborated with many foreign performers such as the drummer ofQueen – Roger Taylor and the group Kiss, contributing an orchestral arrangementof the song ''Black Diamond''.

In January 2010, the band shot four new music videos in Hollywood for the songs Rusty Nail, Jade, Endless Rain and I.V.. They also shot a video for the song ''Kurenai'', but the location remains a secret.

A recently revealed fact, is that all the studio releases by the band fron 1990 onwards were actually produced and recorded in Yoshiki's private recording studio in Los Angeles.

Other internationally popular J-rock bands include B'z and Dir En Grey, the latter having toured both in North and South America and all over Europe, performing with bands such as Apocalyptica, Killswitch Engage, Korn, Iron Maiden and Rammstein.








Dir En Grey

Japanese and Korean popular music does not only differ in style and due to the various mainstream genres in both countries. An important aspect are also the additional ways of promotion. In South Korea artists concentrate mainly on live performances, roles in dramas or appearing as often as possible in recreational television programs staring famous people, talk shows, etc. Unlike in Japan, there is a lot more pressure placed on self-promotion.

Dir En Grey vocalist, Kyo performing live at Rock im Park (Germany) in 2006.

In Japan on the other hand, there is a lesser need for music artists to constantly perform, as there are other popular ways of promotion. One of the most effective is composing or performing theme songs for films, anime, commercials, etc. With the current world-wide popularity of japanese animation, artists providing songs as opening or ending themes for anime have a larger chance of gaining recogition in foreign countries.

Another way is game music. There are many famous game music composers that are known all over the world, like Nobuo Uematsu of ''Mystwalker'' and the ''Final Fantasy'' series, Yasunori Mitsuda, known of the games Xenosaga, Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, as well as Koji Kondo the main composer for Nintendo, most famous for the ''Legend of Zelda'' and ''Mario'' themes.

Famous singers such as Hikaru Utada, Ayumi Hamasaki and Gackt sometimes sing songs for games as well, aa this is seen as a way for singers to make a names for themselves.

The Black Mages, an orchestral rock band founded by Nobuo Uematsu, performing Final Fantasy VII's '"ne Winged Angel'' live.

1. How do you find Japan / Korea music?
2. Which music band is the best in your opinion?
3. What do you think about Enka?
4. Do you like and why Visual Key?
5. Do you have any favourite Japanese artist?