The Retard War, Round 90753765

I've avoided this shit for as long as I could...

 

First of all, I have a hard time taking this fat guy who likes to wear drag seriously. Secondly, while he states Kpop sounds like American pop (which is true), he's basically denying that Jpop has a Western sound to it.

Here's a Folder5 PV and a Lee Hyori MV. Oh guess what, both use a Euro beat. Neither Jpop or Kpop are fucking original. They're just Western pop in a different language, and slightly behind the trends in America and Europe.

Fatty in a dress said that Japan is accepting and shit, which everyone knows is a lie. That's for a whole different blog, as there's no need to bring the Japan-Korea political bullshit here.

The majority of the bullshit from the fanwars stems from media sensationalism. Aside from Kara, SNSD, and DBSK, most Korean groups are doing just okay/average compared to other Japanese acts. Aside from some of the idol groups in Japan, CD sales are way down for the rest of the Japanese artists. For example, Orange sold 2 million copies for their MusiQ album in 2004 and only sold 40,000 copies for the World World World album in 2009. The media sites and blogs compare everyone's sales to AKB48, Arashi, Kara, SNSD, etc., where they sell 500K to 1 million, ignoring the reality that the other 99% percent of artists/groups releasing music in Japan are lucky to sell 50,000 copies of an album or single these days.

So no, Kpop isn't taking over Japan. Kpop fans tend to brag about this shit when only a few groups are doing well. The Jpop fans on the other hand, knowing this, still fall for the bait and bring up AKB48 sales. See, it starts with the Jpop fans caving into the stupidity of a lot of Kpop fans and stooping down to their level. When I used to go to Jpop forums, all of the stupidity that I saw was between Ayumi Hamasaki fans against Hikaru Utada fans. I must have been lucky and went to the right forum where that was one of the only fanwars, or else Jpop fans have gotten overly defensive after the anime/Jpop reached its peak in the mid 2000s and the Kpop "boom" was starting.

The other problem is the way the media reports about the fans. The sites tend to quote the radical, nationalistic Korean and Japanese fans, who take their political bullshit out of context and put it into their Jpop vs Kpop fanwars. Quoting and referencing the small minority with the big voice doesn't represent each countries thoughts. There are Koreans that like Jpop and there are Japanese that like Kpop. The nationalistic people from both sides can't set aside their hatred for the other country and bring that into fucking.pop.music.of.all.things. It's fucking pop.

Changing directions, there are some stupid things international Jpop fans say. "I'm tired of Korean groups coming to Japan." So? Are you living in Japan? Does it affect your life any? Does a Korean group releasing music in Japan affect what your favorite Japanese group is going to release? No. Korean groups in Japan doesn't affect my excitement at all for new albums in 2012 from Flow, L'Arc~en~Ciel, capsule, m-flo, etc.

Jpop fans should already know that Japan is the #2 music industry in the world in terms of size. Groups go where the money is. Lots of British rock bands released music in America, because that's where the money was. With bands like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Def Leppard, etc. releasing music in the US, that didn't kill the US music market any. People still bought albums from Aerosmith, Guns 'N Roses, Van Halen, etc. It's the same damn thing when it comes to Korean groups releasing music in Japan. Your nee-sans and nii-sans will still sell albums, so don't fret. Oh, and Jpop fans, you won't have to worry for long about Korean groups going to Japan. Japan's economy has been stagnant for 20 fucking years and their population is aging, so eventually they won't be the #2 music market anymore. Eventually they'll be going to China, and if/when Korea reunites, they'll have a stronger domestic market (though obviously not right away.)

Jpop fans, I can see where you're coming from when it comes to dealing with the annoying Kpop fans who read the sensationalized shit at allkpop about how well Korean groups are doing, but learn to ignore it and don't stoop down to their stupidity level. You also need to accept that Japanese pop is strongly influenced by Western music and stop bringing up that originality card.

To conclude, these fanwars are fucking retarded. If you only enjoy one, just enjoy it. If you enjoy both (like several of the authors here do), that's good. You don't need justification that your music tastes are superior. It's fucking pop music, the most derivative form of music, so it's like comparing two fucking turds. If you feel the need to have an internet dick fight to see who's e-penor is bigger, fine, go ahead, but you're better off just listening to songs and watching MVs of unnie/oppa/noona/hyung/nee-san/nii-san than having dick fights over the internet about which turd (form of pop music) smells the least like shit.