much that sounds the same, so
much that's so overproduced that all the feeling goes out of it. I
respect that the artists are talented, but I also respect that, say,
Girls Aloud are talented. They are decent singers that make
decent pop music, but that doesn't mean that I'll buy their album.
The thing is their music isn't my cup of tea, and although I can
appreciate they're good at what they do, it doesn't mean I have to like
it. The same is true for me with J-Pop.
I always find it strange when I
meet people that would laugh at you if you liked a manufactured western
pop group like Westlife, but nonetheless like Arashi or
NEWS. Fair enough if it was just the style of music, but what
gets me is that some fans I have spoken to slag off Western bands for
being manufactured yet own several J-Pop CDs. What?!
Check your CD collection! The likes of KAT-TUN, KinKI
Kids, V6 and SMAP are all alumni of pop svengali
Johnny Kitagawa, Japan's answer to Pete Waterman. Some acts, such
as Morning Musume, replace older members with new starlets
recruited through televised audition competitions for god's sake!
For me it should be about the music. Whether
it's manufactured or not should be irrelevant, but if you avoid Western
music for this reason then happily buying similarly manufactured J-Pop
seems more than a little hypocritical. I like some of Rimi
Natsukawa and Ayumi Hamasaki's music, and so I'd buy their
albums. I also like commercial Western acts like Linkin Park
so I'll buy their album. Who they are, what nationality they are
and whether they've formed in a pub somewhere or in a record label's
committee meeting shouldn't matter, the only
question that matters is do you like their music? If the answer is
yes, buy it. Don't feel that you have to because it's Japanese,
just because it's not well known in England doesn't automatically make
it any better than bands that are well known here. And if someone
doesn't like a J-Pop band, deal with it. We're all different and
what floats one person's boat won't necessarily float someone else's.
If you don't like Mr. Children or Gackt that's fine with
me, and if you do that's also fine, just don't look down at someone who
doesn't.
