J-POP music

What is J-Pop?

Japanese pop culture has included the musical genre known as J-pop, which is an acronym for Japanese pop or Japanese pop music, since the middle of the 20th century. J-pop encompasses a wide range of musical styles, including pop-rock, folk, jazz, vocal ballads, and “idol pop,” which showcases the highly polished and heavily promoted performers known as Japanese idols and idol groups.

Since the early 1990s, pop bands, pop stars, boy bands, girl groups, and certain performers from the hip-hop and rock worlds have been included in the term "J-pop," which has evolved to refer to music by vocalists and musical groups outside of the hard rock, metal, punk, and electronic music genres.

Similar to its Western equivalent, J-pop music is radio-friendly, uplifting, and easily listened to. Its supporters have an optimistic outlook, and the songs touch on relatable yet basic subjects like striving, happiness, and first love and heartbreak. Similar to Western music, J-pop is promoted with lengthy tours, appearances in advertisements, acting parts in TV dramas, and theme songs for anime series and video games, such as the well-known Kingdom Hearts tune by Hikaru Utada.

J-pop, on the other hand, has a different sound from other Asian pop genres and Western pop since it is more influenced by Japanese musical themes. Because of this, J-pop musicians do not yet have the same level of global recognition and trending as South Korean or K-pop singers such as BTS, Exo, or Blackpink.

History of J-Pop

Beginning in the 1920s and lasting until the 1980s, ryūkōka—a popular music genre influenced by Western jazz and blues—marks the beginning of J-pop history.

Beginnings.

 Before popular music from the West, such as rock & roll and rhythm and blues, started to seep into the Japanese music scene in the late 1950s, enka, a kind of emotive balladry, and kayōkyoku, a more refined and reserved form, replaced ryukoka. The "Group Sounds" movement, which imitated the Beatles and other 1960s pop-rock performers, and the rise of electric guitar-driven instrumental ensembles known as ereki were both influenced by these factors.

The act of producing sound. 

Hard rock, punk, and folk in the vein of singer-songwriters were quickly followed by homegrown variations. Pop expanded into the idol system, where record companies molded artists' personas to maximize public appeal. Growing in popularity were synthesizer-driven electropop and city pop, which was an urban blend of boogie, funk, and soft rock centered on cities like Tokyo. Up until the 1980s and 1990s, J-pop was classified as either kayōkyoku or enka (traditional Japanese music), but the present definition of the term became the standard in the music industry.

Growth of the genre. 

The 1990s saw an exponential growth in the J-pop music scene, partly due to the band-oriented sounds of B'z and Mr. Children, which helped them achieve platinum sales. Dance-oriented singers like Namie Amuro, whose 1997 hit "Can You Celebrate?" became the best-selling single by a female J-pop artist, replaced the group in the late 1990s. During this time, boy band and girl group groups like SMAP, Arashi, and Morning Musume rose to fame, along with pop-rock artists like Glay and L'Arc-en-Ciel.

Changing in the year 2000. 

In the twenty-first century, hip-hop, folk, and techno influences were accepted by J-pop movements. Using a vocal synthesizer, several performers sampled actors' voices from anime TV series to make music. The most well-known J-pop performers of this era were from the idol scene: individual idol performers, such as the Harajuku-influenced model Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, and idol groups, such as AKB48, which is divided into sister groups and rotating teams to enable simultaneous performances in several places.

Characteristics of J-Pop

1. Marketing: Rather of assembling a studio album, J-pop acts typically produce a number of single tracks, or singles, from which they select one to be the lead single. In order to promote sales of both the single and record, J-pop singles are usually included on compilation albums, often with an alternate version of the song.

 
2. Sound: J-pop musicians do not really need to emulate or conform to Western music styles, given the size of the Japanese music-buying market. Because of this, J-pop frequently has vocal delivery and chord changes that are more akin to traditional Japanese music than American pop or rock. The melodies are occasionally quite simple and the vocals are typically higher in pitch. The closest Western analogy would be the hook-heavy "bubblegum rock" of the 1970s.

3. Visuals: Just like in J-rock, one of the most important aspects of J-pop musicians' songs is their appearance. Female musicians often dress fantastically or, as in the case of the girl group NiziU, in a way that is “kawaii,” or cute and innocent, giving in to childhood fantasies while subtly hinting at their sexuality. Male artists use vivid hues and trendy, young looks.

Popular J-Pop artists

 AKB48                                     

 Arashi

 Kyary Pamyu Pamyu

 Official Hige Dandism