Topic: The J-pop/J-Rock thread

And I totally agree with WaltzElf about J-pop: When I lived in Japan for 5 months I heard way more American music than Japanese. However if you think Akihabara is the only place with huge otaku culture, I'm guessing you didn't get a chance to visit Yoyogi Park/Harajuku.

I went to Harajuku on a Sunday, when all the weird people are meant to come out. Other than the bridge, though, I found it to be a remarkably plain area, albiet very busy. The shopping streets were normal shopping streets, with normal people walking up and down them.

I experienced no culture shock whatsoever while I was in Japan. There are some neat touches to the culture - such as bento boxes, and the people as a whole are nowhere near as rude as western cultures, especially on public transport, but was there anything "special" about Japan? No. It's just a massively populated island nation with a very big city.

I find it utterly bemusing the fascination many westerns (particually western otaku) have with Japan. It's just not that exotic.

I honestly can't stand J-pop outside of a few songs, though I have heard a few tolerable J-Rock songs here and there. I'm actually surprised by how much I loved the music TWEWY, since most of it was unadulterated J-Pop, and pretty good ones at that.

@newlykate I just meant in the strictest sense, the word doesn't exist. J-pop was a creation of the Japanese media, while J-rock is a name foreigners applied because, well, if there's J-pop there must be J-rock. They don't call it that in Japan AFAIK.

Anyway, everyone here is quite right. Anime, gaming, cosplay, etc. are all subcultures in Japan. They're a minority. Most Japanese people are very normal in their daily lives. You don't see ninja fights on the street or schoolgirls piloting robots. And I'm still surprised by how the word "otaku" has been adopted in the west, when it's a derogatory term in Japan.

And while J-pop is extremely popular in Japan, they listen to a lot of other music of course. Apparently Avril Lavigne has quite a following there.

Japanese fascination with the west matches western fascination of Japan.

That's why Japan's turned into such an insane consumerist society. It took the most prevalent trait in western culture and adopted it wholesale without realising there is meant to be some moderation involved.