How come K-pop fans don't branch out to AKB48 and J-pop in general?

This makes absolutely no sense at all. I'm sorry but where is the correlation? Honestly... Look, I've been a fan of kpop for years, since 2008. I've been a jpop fan since 2007. As an international fan who really doesn't give a damn about kpop or jpop fans branching out into other countries music, I have no reason to feel any jealously or resentment for any of those questions above. Just because most Jpop fans don't care, doesn't mean they're not unified lol.
I'm going to break it down for you because you clearly don't seem to understand.

Why do kpop fans "unite" to make kpop more popular? Why don't jpop fans do this?

The South Korean music industry is 8th in the music market as of 2015. The majority of Kpop fans are foreign, international, non korean fans. Those fans are the ones who try their hardest to get their groups awards. Why do they do that? Because if BIG BANG can get an international award against One Direction, overseas companies will notice Big Bang and Kpop itself. What that means is that Big Bang get more opportunities overseas to perform. Do you know what that means? FOREIGN FANS GET TO SEE OPPA. That's the main goal.
PSY and his Gangnam Style stint was a free pass for the korean music industry as a whole. It allowed for KPOP to be on the market, and in turn allowed for K-indie, and K-hip hop to become relevant overseas too. It was a free pass for kpop groups to ride the wave he created and benefit from that, which is why Kpop had such a huge boom in fans between 2012-2014, and it's the same reason why Jpop didn't.
Now, let's be honest here, There are only a few KPOP groups who have fandoms that can rival the likes of Directioners, Beliebers and Little Monsters. BTS, Infinite, Girls Day, T-ara, SISTAR?? Even 2NE1?? Do you honestly think that their fandoms can beat out popular western artists fandoms? Alone, definitely not, but bringing all of those fandoms together? Maybe so. Most likely yes.
So why do other fandoms come together to waste their time voting for a group they don't even support, to make that group win an award?
Because if that group, be it T-ara, EXO, or Big Bang, were to win and make it big in America, UK, France, Japan, or even Canada, more people will look at other kpop acts, which means that other kpop acts have the chance to go overseas and perform. Meaning, FOREIGN FANS GET TO SEE OPPA.

So why doesn't the jpop community come together to make Dempagumi.inc or One Ok Rock win the award to receive the same response from overseas? The Japanese music industry is 2nd to only America. The Jpop industry doesn't need to "branch out" into other countries to gain recognition. The majority of Jpop fans are JAPANESE, therefore, the majority of Jpop fans don't feel the need to "promote" their favorite groups through voting on random MTV awards, because it doesn't benefit them within their own country.
I have seen many international jpop fans rally to get groups to come over. Heck even I have done it. Before Dempagumi.Inc and Tokyo Girls Style came to the UK for Hyper Japan (a japanese convention in the uk), me and a group of other people were CONSTANTLY trying to contact Hyper Japan, asking them to invite more artists to the event. And it worked. They came, a TON of artists came. Even goddamn X Japan came! Suddenly, we had Perfume, One Ok Rock and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu coming over for the 2/4th time. We had LadyBaby and Babymetal, we had EXILE's little brother Generations do a tour stop here. And more will come. That is the result of international jpop fans uniting to make jpop more popular. So what I'm saying here is, international jpop fans CAN do it.

Jpop fans, or Wota in their home turf don't NEED to do this, because they can actively see their idols whenever they want. The same goes for Korean kpop fans in their home ground. You live in Korea and like EXO? Well great for you because they will be holding a handshake event next week and a concert the week after, all you need to do is take the train and boom, Your idols at your feet. They don't need to wait for their idols to visit them, they can go directly to them, ESPECIALLY AKB48 fans.

Why don't kpop fans who like huge groups such as I.O.I, EXO, Super Junior and Seventeen not like AKB?
There are many reasons. Some people don't like the childish squeaky voices. Some people don't like how unfair the system is. Some people don't support girls under 16 doing Bikini photoshoots for old men. Some people just don't like AKB. Is that so wrong? But in terms of both "AKB and I.O.I being the same" I'm gonna debunk this theory. Produce I.O.I used a system similar to AKB's to create a STABLE, SOLID LINEUP of girls who will actively promote as a STABLE SOLID GROUP called I.O.I, like SNSD or 4minute. AKB is a system within itself, a group that does not have stable members, is constantly rotating, and is a long ongoing 11 year competition between a bunch of girls in various "teams". Produce I.O.I was the audition process for the girls. AKB48's system is the groups process itself. I honestly dont see how its so hard for people to understand this pretty simple concept.

What you need to understand is that, Japan is pretty conservative. They don't like to branch out too much and they like to keep within their own bubble. The Jpop industry survives mostly on japanese money. They don't need to go above and beyond for international fans when they don't get a huge benefit from them. In the recent years however, Japanese companies HAVE been going above and beyond for international fans by providing full music videos, giving us english sub titles on their content, and making it easier for foreign fans to experience the idol culture when they get into japan (tokyo idol festival).

So like i said, both japanese companies and jpop fans CAN do what kpop fans have been doing for years, but they don't because there is less of a need to do so. And that's fine. Yes, it would be nice to see AKB and other groups be more relevant overseas and yeah, it would be nice to see them winning awards against Little Mix and whatever other big girl group is out there, but at the end of the day, it won't benefit the JPOP industry as much as it does the KPOP one, which is why both japanese companies and jpop fans don't really bother (or care) too much about it. Do I feel resentment or jealousy? Heck no. Frankly i think that's pretty darn childish, and that's coming from me.

Sorry for the insanely long post, but i wanted to get the point across as clearly as possible. Like I said, I've been a fan of both kpop and jpop for a long time and although i wouldn't consider myself a veteran on either sides, i've seen a lot of things and i've come to understand that the way kpop communities work is different to jpop and that's not a bad thing.

But I'm with Kyoto48 on this. Why are you so invested in this conversation? To the point where you have been asking such questions since you created your account (yes i snooped)? Are you doing some sort of investigation or something? or are you just trying to irritate AKB fans? Whatever the case, i don't really care what your intentions are, but i hope what i've written here has made you understand my views on the topic.

What I WILL say, is that this really ins't the forum for you to be asking about such things, 48 group fans and stage48 users don't make up the entirety of the the jpop fandom. If you want to find some more information on a topic like this, try an actual jpop forum that caters for all types of jpop, not just one franchise.

 

Could you insert the survey about that, please. I want to know(lol).
Anyway i am 100% agree it's about the market and access. Japan surely a lot more big market than korea and they are welcoming but not desperate for gaining intl fan. Simply Japan music industry self sufficient.

 

You could argue that Japan doesn't follow modern trends...when speaking in terms of why they are so unpopular to foreign markets, but Perfume is a group that makes a great case for how J-Pop can appeal outside of Japan. They don't have to emulate western music like K-pop, they do their own thing and stand out because of it.

The similarities between Perfume and your average K-Pop group are from making stylish and fashionable music. It's why the average person doesn't need to understand the lyrics...there's an aesthetic to the content as well.

The production quality does matter, but it also lines with the visuals.

As for K-Pop's success, they're playing into a market than trying to innovate.

 

@mdo7
@minaeshi

I like the idea of this thread. I was going to write what minaeshi did but I decided not to contribute to this wall of text problem. Though, I do already have some more or less related posts about these topics on disqus. I link them here for people who are interested...
https://disqus.com/home/discussion/aramajapan/open_post_469/#comment-2616369063
https://disqus.com/home/discussion/...ave_a_talk_about_ladybaby/#comment-2436022064
https://disqus.com/home/discussion/...ut_the_help_of_cool_japan/#comment-2611463495

As for jpop artists, I don't really want them to succeed globally because this usually means that they incorporate more western elements in their music / style to become more acceptable for the western ears / eyes (like kpop does), they would loose their certain Japanese uniqueness this way. Though, I'm okay with some already westernized acts going international, like SCANDAL for example but I'm not really fond of this "everybody, let's get popular world wide!" idea. Music shouldn't work this way. The rest is on disqus...

A very Japanese song + PV for the local Japanese market:
ラブリーサマーちゃん「私の好きなもの」
Precious. This is why I like jpop. *. *


As for those BIGBANG PVs (I mean MVs xD)... I don't know, I don't see anything weird about them. Some stylish asian dudes with makeup and colorful hair, nothing really unusual. What I would call weird are images that are go against the norms (not widely accepted), try to show something to us that it's not really supposed to be shown or not exactly this way. Images with creativity added to them. Some examples from my youtube playlist:

amazarashi 『季節は次々死んでいく』

水曜日のカンパネラ『マッチ売りの少女』

BABYMETAL contert ending

Compared to these, Kpop is an endless copy machine in terms of PVs. I like their eye candy (Kgirls) but still...


That "article" mdo7 was quoting from looks interesting btw:
http://factsanddetails.com/japan/cat20/sub130/item705.html

oh lol xD
tru

 

You are neglecting the facts that majority of 46/48G fans buy extreme amount of CDs to go to akushukai & vote (Me included). Which don't exist in Kpop. They have autograph events but that's for very limited number of fans at hand full of locations. You can't simply compare youtube views and physical record sales and call it a day because like you said so yourself, they have different sales points. For example, Online downloads & Streaming from music streaming sites counts a lot more in Kpop than physical CDs do when it comes to winning weekly trophies nowadays. If online streaming counts 75%, sale of physical copy counts 5%, max. 15% lately. Nowadays it's more focused on online streaming & SNS points, so fans tend to focus on those as well.

Back to the main thread, as a Kpop&48G fan, I really see no point of comparing two. I've been hardcore Kpop fan for more than half of my life and I got into 48G when my friend introduce them to me. I don't know if it's my openminded-ness towards different genres of music, but I ended up liking them. And the very first thing I understood was that they have "completely different system and target audiences". I like them for different reasons. I like 48G because they are bubbly and fun to me. On the other hand I like Kpop Girl groups because they are poised and hot. It shouldn't be a philosophical dilemma.

 

^your point is exactly what I think if I wrote longer hehe. and I love both too so agreed to everything you wrote

 

I would like this if i could haha, you explained it perfectly!

 

I think Japan in general gets this stigma of having very unusual culture, which makes the people I know hesitant to come out of the closet as a wota...
Like Oh your an anime weeb? Ewww

+ Kpop from what I have been exposed to seems alot more mature, refined in their MV. But from what I've heard they have equally wonderful personalities. The 48group has this amazing charm that is kinda lost but the whole watching your idol compete and grow up i guess.

Alot of people that I have shared my passion with have kindly noted that the innocent type that 48group (idols basically) is kinda weird for them, language is different, there are many factors.

...I find the appeal of music and like the idea of idols/boybands/music super interesting culturally and like as a music band structure and would be super excited to disuss this but I took a tiny break just to distract myself from doing my homework at midnight i will read from the sidelines.....

 

I read those article then I felt sad and angry
I read comment Japanese felt a shame about Miichan.

 

Personally I think it's because k-pop right now is very Americanised while j-pop still is very Japanese. If someone from the west listens to k-pop, they're generally more likely to find it good because it feels less foreign/outlandish to them. J-pop however is more likely to come across as strange simply because we can't relate it to our own music culture. And thus, k-pop fans tend to think j-pop is stranger because k-pop is essentially still extremely similar to music from the west.
I used to be a huge fan of k-pop, but there's no doubt the two are very different even though they're from neighbouring countries.
(Edit: spelling)

 

I apologize I haven't come to this thread for a while. I was busy taking care of stuff outside and I'll respond to all your thought and comments left on this thread.

That is what I heard too. But here's the problem that makes me scratch my head. South Korea has (or used to had) weird stuff like you hear the stereotype of Korean eating dogs (additional article here). Yet it didn't turn off people from becoming fans of K-pop and K-dramas. Also South Korea one time wanted to ban mini-skirts (although it didn't pass), but it didn't cause any people to be turn off from K-pop. I mean I can find a lot of weirdness from South Korea and yet it didn't turn off people from falling in love with K-pop and K-dramas. So if people can look through South Korea's dog eating misconceptions and all the other weird stuff from South Korea, then why didn't people just look beyond Japan's weirdness and open their mind to J-pop?

K-pop get a lots of scandal and unbelievable stuff that went viral and they get new fans and not detractors, like for example: When G-friend falling on the stage during one performance last Sept:


if the video does not show watch the video here

The video clip of them falling went viral and international media treated them a bit differently from AKB48. After that G-friend ended up winning 15 times from music shows after that stage slip. The same can be said about Twice when Tzuyu caused a controversy when she showed a Taiwanese flag on a K-variety show and she was forced to apologize to cease tension between China and Taiwan. And yet after the controversy, she became more popular amongst domestic and international fans. So how could G-friend slipping and Twice's Tzuyu flag controversy have made these group got more fans when AKB48's Miichan shaved head turned off people outside of Asia from becoming fans of AKB48. It just doesn't make any damn sense.

Well thank you for being honest, are there any other aspect of K-pop that you get jealous of and wish it existed in J-pop? Just for the record, I get a bit pissed off when J-dramas aren't being picked up on streaming sites like Dramafever and Viki I mean some people on DF have complained about the lack of J-dramas while Korean and Taiwanese dramas are continuing to get pick up.

I could argue the same for K-pop, but yet K-pop still keep it's unique charm even if it was globalize like for example, Hong Jin Young:


if the video does not show watch the video here


if the video does not show watch the video here

Hong Jin Young is a bit different from other K-pop artists/idols her music has traces of trot (a Korean equivalent of Enka), and yet both of her music sound appealing to me and international audiences beyond Asia. I can find other K-pop which has a traditional Korean sound but sound appealing to international audiences.

Topp Dogg was able to add traditional Korean beat into one of their music:


if the video does not show watch the video here

Oh, there's a lot of weird K-pop out there, this one "out-weird" any J-pop I've seen:


if the video does not show watch the video here

When I first watch Girls Generation I got a boy the first time, I thought this wouldn't have gotten accepted by western audiences because of how super weird it was:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq7ftOZBy0E

but after seeing that video won the YTMA in November 2013. That makes me question about J-pop weirdness is not the cause behind people being turned off since K-pop has a lot of weirdness and yet it got accepted by western audiences.

As I said, I don't understand what Japan being #2 has to do not promoting J-pop on a global stage. US is #1 and yet our music is accessible and a lot of US artists are very famous around the world. Actually, J-pop winning international awards can help Japan's images. That's what happen when K-pop win international awards in Asia and outside of Asia, it raises South Korea's profile. It made South Korea "out-cool" Japan. But to be honest, I don't think anime and manga is not enough to keep Japan globally relevent.

OK that's somewhat a good progress. Answer me this: Then why didn't the same J-pop fans raise hell and ask the Japanese music industry to make the music more accessible to foreign audiences? You never answer that, I mean K-pop fandom did this in 2013 when Youtube block K-pop, I didn't see J-pop doing this.

If J-pop and AKB48 fans were that super passionate like their K-pop counterpart, then when are you guys going to demand Itunes to create a J-pop genre when K-pop was able to get this in the US Itunes.



Even though you don't care, that's not going to make some J-pop fans happy that K-pop got it's own genre on Itunes. So if K-pop was able to get a genre on US Itunes, when are the J-pop fans going to petition or demand Itunes to create one for J-pop. Prove to me that J-pop are super-passionate like K-pop fandom are.

Well I like your responses. But just want to remind you that a lot of K-pop fans used to be former J-pop fans (that may include AKB48). But now, it's hard to believe that K-pop fans don't branch out to J-pop despite many K-pop fans are used to be J-pop fans themselves. So it doesn't make sense to me why one branch out and the other one doesn't. There's something in J-pop that seem to be turning off K-pop fans from becoming J-pop fans.

I have heard some J-pop that sound K-pop-ish and I've seen J-pop which sound westernized/americanized and yet it turns off western fans yet they accepted K-pop. It maybe true that J-pop may sound "Japanese", but I can find K-pop which sounds "too Korean" and yet doesn't turn off people from becoming K-pop fans.

As I said, there's still stuff that doesn't make sense why K-pop fans don't branch out to J-pop. Something doesn't add up.

 

You're trying way too hard and missing the point. K-Pop fans don't honestly generalize Korean culture on the level you assume, it's seen through the lens of entertainment on the internet like anything else that makes it's way to the west. Like AKB or anything else on the here, everyone sees what they want to see because it is being produced for us.

momo already gave you your answer, what she says get's to the point without all the needless exaggerations about how similar j-pop and k-pop are...they're not and assuming that would be over-generalizing two cultures on the pretense of them simply being asian. They're very different from one another, with maybe a certain appreciation for cute girls among other things.

Minegishi shaving her head was so extreme from anything anyone could of imagined that it gave many different wrong impressions, so yeah it beats what happened in your examples off of the sole pretense that there was at least some context to read off from, plus no one was abused (which really got everyone's attention in the first place). That affects the brand, and branding is essential in this business.

AKB doesn't try to appeal to westerners, nor does a lot of J-Pop, they're just not trying hard enough and that's your simple answer to digest.

 

jpop have their own section in itunes duh -,-

 

I know very little of both. I started to follow 48G recently. What it hooked me was the BwT's MV. I did some research and i watched like 200 episodes of AKBingo. But members changed very often so I discovered N46 e recently K46.

IT: I watched some Kpop videos. Firstly, I don't understand a single word of korean, secondly they seem like dolls. Artificial (no offense intended). What I like about j-idols is their "human" reaction/side.

As others already said when I watch K-girls I see maturty and sexiness (Just like any MV you can find around the world). J-girls usually go for cute appeal. And I prefer that.

 

I didn't say that K-pop fans generalize Korean culture. Couple of people said Japan being weird turn off people from listening to J-pop and AKB48. If that was the case, then how come the Korea's dog meat stereotype and South Korea having weird stuff didn't turn off normal western audiences from K-pop yet Japan being weird turn off people from trying J-pop?

I don't know if you get what I'm saying: If a person from USA and Europe can become K-pop fans, then why don't they branch out to J-pop? Why are many K-pop fans used to be J-pop fans (and AKB48 fans) but we don't see K-pop fans branching out to J-pop. It's not an exaggerations, I've already mention that some J-pop fans are not really happy that K-pop is getting all that exposure and hype while J-pop is becoming irrelevent.

Actually K-pop has issues like do you know what slave contract are? and K-pop idols suffering from lack of sleep or get little sleep. There was a bit of controversy and rumors going around about how female K-pop idols are getting "sponsors" and trading it for sex:

Girl group member offered benefits for sex

Female stars declare war on prostitution rumors

K-pop girl groups lash out against prostitution rumors

Like you said, this type of incident would've damaged the K-pop brand, and yet it didn't. I don't see any evidence of K-pop fans being turned off by these rumors. If Minegishi head shaving hurt the AKB48 brand, then why didn't the rumor about K-pop girl idol involving sponsors and prostitution hurt K-pop brand on a global scale. I'm telling you something in J-pop is turning off people and K-pop fans from becoming fans of J-pop.

The same can be said about K-pop, and I know cases of K-pop songs that weren't aimed at western audiences and yet become popular amongst non-Asian audiences. PSY's Gangnam Style is one example, PSY said on a interview and said in English that Gangnam Style was never meant to target the western audiences, Gangnam Style was never intended to target the western audiences. The same can be said about K-dramas back in early 2000's.

May I ask where because I don't see it on US Itunes. Also I've already mention on my first post it's hard to find J-pop on Itunes outside of Japan.

Not all K-pop are like that. I take it you never heard of Aegyo. This video may give you a better view of K-pop idols:


if the video does not show watch the video here

I know a lot of K-pop girl group that have cute side, judging from what you wrote sound like you never seen these:


if the video does not show watch the video here


if the video does not show watch the video here


if the video does not show watch the video here


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

My wording was a bit lazy and poor, you got me there. That message was written during my lunch and I didn't even bother to proofread it on top of that.

I think we've both gone overboard on this subject...let's try using some common sense on this one.

How many people in the current generation of 18-30 somethings actually hold those kind of stereotypes? They're old ideas, whereas a lot of stereotypes of Japan are relatively new. Also, Anime and other forms of entertainment that came stateside were representing Japan long before K-Pop was Korea's major export some time later. In fact, I doubt your average person (non K-Pop fan) could tell you anything about South Korea in general, so anyone just getting into the music is probably not finding too many conflicts I can think of, I know I didn't, lol. South Korea is very conservative outside of the entertainment industry, that much I figure. I could go up to everyone I know and get more impressions about Japan than Korea, except for maybe references to Psy. It's just a more popular country in general, music aside.

I think western views on how women are depicted have shaped the influence of Japanese music. The Korean women look more representative of the listener's ideals from a western standpoint, and South Korea's obsession with plastic surgery and love of western appearances has certainly become something of a relationship between themselves and the rest of the world. The visual, professional, and contemporary status they try to achieve with their music puts them well in front of Japan in terms of wanting to "walk along the west as equals". Japan has a more introverted approach to their music, even when AKB was trying to promote themselves on Youtube over here (before Minegishi's incident). It was more like you got to look into their world, not them wanting to be a part of yours like Korea. K-pop's appeal is just as much it's desire to be current in anything and relevant as possible. AKB's methods are more through the events and inner circle of their own singular community, and it's appeal was strong in their prime, but more relevant to the current base now than ever before (at least from my impression).

As for J-Pop in general, I feel their sound is influenced by the west in certain areas, but too divergent from how westerners want to fashion themselves with music. The concepts and themes can be quite different from life over here. Foreign music in general is supposed to be hard to appeal over here, that's normal if you think about it. Many don't really know the lyrics, it's that K-pop's music structure fits a certain framework that suits club culture and hip-hop culture influences in their most basic framework. I will compliment K-pop that my early love of it was over songs like "Gee" and "Pretty Girl" because of how stripped down and to the point they were, not overproduced, and concentrated on carrying member sections into a tight formula. I was all about K-pop for a couple years and liked Kara and Brown Eyed Girls among others...but I got tired of the hits and sometimes they weren't as good as classic ones and I couldn't find much of it fresh anymore. I still like some songs I hear but I don't actively seek the music out, I really like the more J-pop style of idols for their productions and charm without the forceful feeling of how tightly produced K-pop was getting. It got a little too rich for me and i liked the personalities of the AKB girls enough to abandon K-pop almost altogether.

I do still listen to some of the older hits from the early 2010's once in a while though.

Perhaps people just can't get back into J-pop for the same reasons, or similar ones? Maybe K-pop fits more into the lives of most listeners than the broader community and that's all there is to it, K-Pop's music has pretty much forced itself over J-pop without any competition, and it's not enough of a concern for anyone to tip the balance because there is nothing for J-pop to gain. Korea wants the attention more, so why would there be any trouble over it?

Well because Minegishi made headline news with a video on Youtube, and she pretty much caused a worldwide embarrassment for AKB, I think the grand scale of attention she got cannot be topped no matter what we're talking about.

And I say that with sympathy...because I still like her and think she didn't mean to turn it into that.

No online headline news sources are covering any of these K-pop stories because they are rumors, unconfirmed, and no one high-profile has been officially caught, so unless something big comes out like photos or whatever...it's just within the community for those to gossip about. If there was a video of a girl doing something or photos, and it was leaked globally, than yeah...you would see some bad press. Not sure if that would translate into losing fans since K-pop idols have a much different image from J-pop idols, no matter how fabricated it is, since they try to be more iconic to their fans without openly touting the love-ban they themselves also carry. The way in which they are presented is not totally honest for sure.

When I saw how offended feminists were over Minegishi's incident, I knew that had to resonate in some form with a lot of people in one way or another, it's difficult to translate that with how society is changing over here. It's literally almost incompatable with what westerners expect. The slave contracts would be just as bad, but obviously South Korea benefits from how they manage their own scandals much better than their Japanese counterparts. Fans cheer for these groups and are distanced enough not to feel like they are involved in their troubles, and Korea's better at packaging and maintaining their product...it's unfortunate. I would almost argue they make AKB look pretty good in comparison, which is ironic considering what opinions I've come across.

I guess sometimes you have to see the problem to know it's real. News alone makes it hard to get involved.

I almost think I should be separating my argument into Japanese and Korean idol culture, leaving the rest of the Pop world out of it, lol. I'll give Psy credit though, that track was so damn catchy even I had it on my mp3 player, and my dad loved it too. It's a great song in my opinion, even if he wasn't intending to market it here...it's fashioned with a recognizable style, but he certainly adds his own touch that would make someone recognize that K-pop feel to it.

______________________________________________________________________

And Just to add: I don't mind K-pop, I'm just saying it's heavily influenced, which isn't intended to sound bad or unnatural.

Also: I don't feel I would change my original argument on why K-pop is more popular, but you do give an interesting question that makes me think twice about how there is something Japan could do more of to gain a larger presence outside of it's own country. I think it affects their international fanbase as well, when they don't compete, but I feel pretty loyal to AKB and other artists for doing their own thing, I like it that way. So loyal fans are still good fans, if at least looking at wota and AKB anyway. [/QUOTE]

 

This is an interesting fact!

I'm a fan of both genres, kpop and jpop. And I still can not understand it! xD
I'm AKB48 fan and recently fell in love with Produce 101. In my opinion, the style is the same, but the concept is different. Because during the program, the concept that develops more was the "sexy". (although they use many concepts for the fans choose one at the end)

But honestly I think many kpop fans put aside the cute concept. Because kpop fans first start with songs with "power". So groups with a cute concept, are naturally hard to be loved or more supported. What I saw at the time of the WJSN debut, many fans liked but MANY hated. However they released a few days later a new song with a concept COMPLETELY different. And the most of the fans liked xD

if the video does not show watch the video here

Another problem I see is the fact that is Jpop ... unfortunately people accept more easily Kpop than Jpop even if the concept is the same! Ridiculous!
So I voted for "not being open-minded to other Asian pop" [NOTE: many kpop fans are recent-old American pop fans, the mind being a little more closed to others Asian pop musics.]

Then the kpop often depends on person to person, but the most kpop fans think "cute not" or "I don't want to listen this" (That's what my kpopper friends say when I try to show someone cute... even if korean groups )
This is my opinion

 

For a minute, I thought your English was not fluent or you didn't get my point. Apologies accepted (even though you didn't apologize).

Actually you'll be surprised, a long time ago South Korea did became infamous for the dog meat eating and the world look at South Korea the same way the world look at Japan today when it comes to weird and disgusting thing. This was South Korea long time ago. Also I'm going to quote this from a LA Times article I mention on one of my opening post:

And after K-pop and K-dramas got so popular, people that look at South Korea in a negative way already had a change of heart about South Korea, they were impressed. So the dog meat/Korean eating dog stereotype start to get out of westerners' heads and thoughts. So yes South Korea back then just like Japan today was viewed in a negative way and was weird just like how Japan is getting these day.

You don't need a headline news to get it big. I've seen a lot of report from South Korea when BBC, CNN, and other mainstream international media don't talk about it but it becomes big news on social media. I mean when Minzy left 2NE1 permanently, it trended worldwide on Facebook. Did 2NE1 or K-pop fandom suffer from Minzy leaving the group? Nope it didn't. The same can be said about Hyun-seung leaving BEAST recently.

Yes, I'll put this in a way to make it easier for you:

K-pop scandal=international fans come to unite and support the idols and the fandom. They condemn any insult that K-netizens and anti-fans spew out at them.

J-pop scandal=they somehow get hated and J-pop international fanbases don't unite and support the idols unlike K-pop.

And that's the reason why some J-pop fans resent K-pop fandom or even downright become racist against Koreans in general. But you're probably correct, this is the same problem when K-dramas fans won't branch out to other Asian dramas (except Taiwanese dramas). But K-dramas fans seem to branch out to Taiwanese and Chinese dramas if a well-known K-drama got a Chinese or Taiwanese remake, or if Korea remake a well-known Chinese dramas. It's a long story but I'll explain it to you if you want to know what I mean.

But I already mention that K-pop fans are slowly branching out to Taiwanese and Thai music. So they're not close minded. If they're closed minded, then these American pop fans wouldn't listen to K-pop at all. I remember One direction fans were hating on T-ara, and other K-pop groups because they don't sing in English (as a rabid Directioner said online).

You also got to remember many of these K-pop fans used to be one-time J-pop fans (I have mention this on my first 2 opening posts), so if many of these K-pop fans used to be J-pop fans, why didn't they introduce J-pop to current K-pop fandoms, this would've led many K-pop fans to branch out to J-pop and AKB48.

Just to remind you: Many of these former J-pop fans turned K-pop fans never went back to J-pop after they became K-pop fans.

 

Jpop section was created long before kpop section was made. Again, i repeated, jpop section was created long before kpop section was made. bc japan is one of top 5 country with the largest iPhone users.

this jpop section :



iTunes japan heve their own market, they're holding their own share market, wich kpop actually not.

again, i'm not supporting one of the sides. bc i was fan of both. but similiar to how some post already eplained before me. Jpop market tend to be more secluded, like they dont really care with what happen outside japan. and japanese ppl are rlly dont put much concern to international music itself, thats why...

 

Wait, what country is this Itunes set to? Because I don't see this on my Itunes and I'm in the USA just to let you know. This is what I'm getting on my Itunes (and yes it set to USA, nowhere else):



I don't see J-pop as a genres on the US Itunes. So you need to explain that to me?