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J-pop: From the ideology of creativity to DiY music culture
Abstract
The paper examines the development of J-pop under the post-Fordist condition and its ideological formation over the last two decades. J-pop, invented as a fashionable sub-genre by a FM radio station in the late 1980s, expanded its category throughout the 1990s and covers virtually all musical genres for young people in Japan. However, due to the lasting economic recession, the development of digital technology and the transformation of young people's lifestyle, the record industry faced a serious crisis during the 2000s. The paper explores ideological formations between the success of J-pop and the emergence of freeters' (young part-time workers) culture in Japan, by focusing on their nationalist sentiment and the idea of creativity, and tries to find a new way of reclaiming 'creativity' in DiY (Do it Yourself) music culture today.
... First, while numerous studies have examined K-pop's international success (Jung, 2011;Jin, 2016;Lie, 2015), comparatively few have investigated the limited global reach of Japanese kayokyoku, particularly through cultural psychology frameworks. Existing studies on Japanese popular music (Stevens, 2008;Yano, 2002;Mōri, 2009) have primarily focused on historical development or domestic reception rather than international dynamics. Furthermore, while significant attention has been given to the technical and commercial aspects of music globalization, the spiritual and philosophical dimensions remain underexplored. ...
... Kayokyoku frequently incorporates natural imagery, seasonal references, and cyclical themes that reflect this interconnected perspective. Mōri (2009) observes that Japanese popular music often positions human emotions within broader natural and cosmic contexts, creating meaning through relationship rather than individual expression. This holistic approach extends to musical elements. ...
... Most significantly, Schottmann concludes that the American aesthetic elements in city pop represent not mere imitation of American culture, but rather Japan's unique reconstruction of "America" (Inoue, 2018). This perspective suggests that city pop expresses not America itself, but an "American-style affluence" reinterpreted through a Japanese cultural lens (Mōri, 2009;Ugaya, 2005). This interpretation invites us to reconsider Japanese popular music not as derivative, but as a sophisticated cultural hybrid that reflects Japan's complex relationship with Western influences while maintaining its distinct cultural identity. ...
... Furthermore, Green (2007) has pointed out that informal music learning practices (as opposed to formal education) have been studied mainly in the 'pop and rock music' fields, but less has been done when it comes to electronic music and its creation and production. DIY music production has been studied from different angles, e.g. its potential for low cost, transnational production and distribution of music (Bennett and Peterson 2004;Hoare et al. 2014;Mōri 2009); as a general social phenomena (Gordon 2005) and how it helps musicians to be self-sustainable in terms of artistic and managerial processes (Oliver 2010). ...
... Logic (and similar software) thus seems to have a great potential for a self-taught musician with no formal music training in order to explore their own musical pathways, as it provides a platform to create their own music without requiring cultural, economic or social capital. As others have noted, the developments in digital technology in the 1990s allowed artists to start their own DIY production and distribution both in and from their own living rooms (Bennett and Peterson 2004;Hoare et al. 2014;Mōri 2009). This is how it turned out for Henna; Logic became a powerful tool that allowed her to explore her own musical pathways through self-learning in order to move towards certain desired musical fields. ...
This paper examines informal learning in the context of migrant musicians, through a single case study looking at informal/self-learning and music career development by a DIY electronica artist. Data for the paper comes from an ethnographic study of how migrant musicians in Norway exercise their professional competence and entrepreneurship. Using the concept of the musical pathways I investigate how a migrant musician uses biographical resources to move between different musical fields to sustain a music career. A key aspect was that aesthetics in the music making process were crafted at the same time as identities, partly through re-hearing and re-collecting sounds from the past. The study indicates that there is a potential for DIY music production to develop migrant musicians’ music career when they do not have a lot of (initial) economic or social capital or a formal music education and that music making software can be valuable here.
... Secondly, to explain the mode of operation of the two as cultural industries. In this regard, studies include Hong Yeh's research on the phenomenon of Korean pop music culture driving the "Korean Wave" industry to the world, Yoshitaka Mori's research on the mode of mass distribution of Japanese pop music through digital media, and so on [5,6]. These research results are more professional and comprehensive, which helps the author to grasp the characteristics of the two industries as cultural industries. ...
Currently, in Asia and around the world, Japanese and Korean popular music cultures have a large number of fans and imitators. These two pop music cultures have their own characteristics, both of which have extremely distinctive style characteristics, complete and standardized industrial systems and a large number of creative, young and energetic practitioners. Therefore, the author tries to explore the style and development characteristics of Japanese and Korean pop music. In order to be more precise and efficient, the author selected two representative musicians, Yonezu Kenshi (Japan) and Han JiSung (South Korea) for the study. The author's research method is as follows. The author makes full use of previous theoretical research on Japanese and Korean pop music, combined with professional knowledge of music, and collects statements and social interviews of relevant authors in order to have a comprehensive understanding of their representative music works. Then the author makes a coded analysis and statistical drawing of the melody, rhythm and emotional expression of his representative works. After the study, the author found that the development of Japanese and Korean popular music cultures are similar but also significantly different. Mainly, the former is relatively conservative and traditional, focusing on melody; the latter is more open and tolerant, focusing on rhythm; at the same time, there are quite a lot of similarities and differences between the two in terms of emotional expression and lyrical characteristics. Finally, based on the summarized developmental characteristics, the author draws some inspirations for the development of Chinese pop music.
... Alternatively, removing the tattoos from performers and polishing them up with shiny veneers of cuteness leaves a product that is also attractive and inoffensive. In some way, Kpop and Kcar follow in the footsteps of (Japanese) Jpop and Jcars (Freedman and Blair, 2010;Mōri, 2009). However, unlike Kpop outperforming Jpop (Herman, 2018a(Herman, , 2018bHong, 2012), Kcars continue to be outperformed by Jcars in market share, at least in the US market (Cain, 2017;Hill et al., 2011). ...
Purpose: The 21st century has witnessed an explosive growth of both South Korean popular culture (K-pop) and automobiles (K-car) in Western societies. However, K-pop appears to maintain its success better than K-car. This paper will evaluate the origins of K-pop and K-car and determine the distinguishing factors that led to continued K-pop compared to K-car success. Design/methodology/approach: Suggested claims of artistic/cultural and social/industrial traditions unique to South Korea as causes of the growth in K-pop and K-car success in literature will be evaluated based on historical growth in sales of both products in the US market. Factors of continued success will be evaluated based on how well both industries have been able to maintain their (perceived) brand authenticity, which emphasizes ‘Korean’ cultural values. Findings: Unlike claims regarding the importance of traditional culture in shaping business success in emergent states, this paper shows that the success of Korean music and cars is not due to artistic/cultural values. Rather, while optimally identifying progress within industries such as digitization in music, South Korea’s unique ability is to deploy its industrial machinery to transform bolder performances and designs originating elsewhere into inoffensive forms with broad cross-cultural appeal. Especially, K-pop’s continued success can be explained through better attention to perceived authenticity, without distinguishing its products too much from known, Western perspectives. Results also indicate that Korean products do not perform well when companies attempt to take on a leadership role in the industry or develop bold new designs that deviate strongly from Western principles. Originality/Value: The paper provides unique insights in the similarity of product design and branding, providing tools for evaluating perceived authenticity of a brand and its potential impact on sales. It shows that attention to traditional cultural values may not be a (sufficiently) appropriate strategy for international success. From a Central European perspective, lessons learned by the Korean car and culture industries may lead to new strategic uses of branding and marketing local products and of different forms of governmental/industrial structures to emerge out of the periphery.
... This DIY culture allows subjects to acquire a sense of empowerment and autonomy by constructing their ideal home furnishings. A popular consumption lifestyle growing out of Western societies in the late 1970s (Yoshitaka, 2009;Philips, 2005), this DIY concept inspires Chinese people to try to live like their modern counterparts. This global modernity is related to an automobile culture: IKEA stores usually occupy sizeable spaces in suburban centres, with ample parking and road access (USCBC, 2004). ...
In this chapter, we propose a material–semiotic epistemological approach to understand the changing senses of place resulting from socio-environmental disasters. This perspective involves investigating the simultaneously symbolic, corporeal and geographical relations that characterise the production of new senses of place in post-disaster contexts. We propose the notion of assemblage as a conceptual tool to understand how senses of place are generated within a complex and dynamic network of influences and reciprocal variations between subjective, social and spatial aspects, articulating at the same time the relationship between individual experiences of place and social and institutional processes. To present, discuss and illustrate this material–semiotic approach, we draw on a part of the results of a study conducted in Chile, addressing multiple case studies of post-disaster situations.
... Asimismo, se encuentra el análisis de los discursos mediáticos relativos a la nación y dirigidos a la propagación de una identidad nacional, principalmente en los últimos años, en que Japón ha enfrentado diversas crisis (Mandujano, 2014a;2014b) Relacionados a éstos están las investigaciones acerca de la relevancia de productos específicos de cultura pop para la construcción y representación de una ideología nacional. A través del estudio de casos de productos de cultura de medios dentro del género conocido como J-pop, varios autores argumentan que esa "J" tiene realmente un significado profundo de nacionalismo cultural que queda explícito ya no sólo en la música, sino también en programas televisivos, moda, etc. Ellos consideran que el J-pop constituye un género específicamente diseñado para el mercado japonés, aunque sea consumido también en el exterior, y que expresa la identidad cultural del Japón contemporáneo (Aska, 2010;Lancashire, 2008;Mori, 2009;Yano, 2005). ...
Principales enfoques en el estudio de la cultura de medios japonesa contemporánea: un estado del arte Abstract The present article offers a general view on the different studies done about contemporary Japanese media culture. Since 1990s, there has been an increasing interest in the analysis of the Japanese cultural products. That has encouraged a vast academic production that has crossed not only geographic, but also disciplinary boundaries. Because of the novelty of these studies and their explosive onset around the world, it is needed a map to follow the diverse thought lines developed on the topic. This article intends to offer it, considering also the need of more academic production about the Japanese culture in the Spanish language.
The new capital city of Indonesia (IKN) Nusantara, located in East Kalimantan, was declared a smart city. One of the important enablers in a smart city are smart people as users and innovators of smart technologies. For this purpose, the official new capital documents need to accommodate smart people governance. This study aimed to design smart people governance by applying the concept of knowledge management. Knowledge management has an advantage in managing information into knowledge, therefore very useful in developing smart people governance. The literature review method used in this study resulted in a knowledge management model, system, and contents that are aligned with the three IKN visions. The model designed is a combination of the Zack model (1996) and the Nonaka model (1991). A combination of electronics and the non-electronics system is proposed. The electronic systems involved the support of electronic devices, especially digital technology, whereas non-electronic systems utilised direct communication between individuals or groups, or traditional media. Meanwhile, the managed knowledge content was focused on ten smart technology competencies for smart people of the relocated capital inhabitants.KeywordsNew capitalIndonesiaSmart peopleKnowledge management
This qualitative study examines the production of cultural memory within current or recently active UK-based DIY music spaces. Utilising a critical archival theoretical framework, the thesis builds upon previous work which deconstructs subcultural historiography and archiving, identifying the reproduction of whiteness, masculinity, and affluence in heritage projects. By focusing on current or recently active communities, the study engages with archives and histories before they are deposited and/or formed, acknowledging the role of labour in and the construction of narratives through archival work. My analysis therefore moves discussions about subcultural archives beyond examination of sources and into a discipline which explores archiving as practice and labour, archives as organisations, as well as the archive as concept.
The resulting analysis complicates the positioning of punk and DIY music communities as ahistorical. I surface underpinning information infrastructures and informal archival actions which enable community building and connection across generations through preservation and circulation of memory. Exploration of the intersection of socioeconomic circumstances and archival traces identifies how ongoing experiences of austerity, precarity and lack of resource negatively affect the capacity to create and maintain archival projects or sources. The contemporary temporal focus of the study enables an extended consideration of the born digital traces and web heritage of DIY music communities, which is particularly timely given the loss of data stored on widely-used digital platforms such as Myspace Music and the deletion of information produced by queer communities caused by corporate moderation processes and algorithms.
Global challenges ranging from climate change and ecological regime shifts to refugee crises and post-national territorial claims are rapidly moving ecosystem thresholds and altering the social fabric of societies worldwide. This book addresses the vital question of how to navigate the contested forces of stability and change in a world shaped by multiple interconnected global challenges. It proposes that senses of place is a vital concept for supporting individual and social processes for navigating these contested forces and encourages scholars to rethink how to theorise and conceptualise changes in senses of place in the face of global challenges. It also makes the case that our concepts of sense of place need to be revisited, given that our experiences of place are changing. This book is essential reading for those seeking a new understanding of the multiple and shifting experiences of place.
In Sound Alignments, a transnational group of scholars explores the myriad forms of popular music that circulated across Asia during the Cold War. Challenging the conventional alignments and periodizations of Western cultural histories of the Cold War, they trace the routes of popular music, examining how it took on new meanings and significance as it traveled across Asia, from India to Indonesia, Hong Kong to South Korea, China to Japan. From studies of how popular musical styles from the Americas and Europe were adapted to meet local exigencies to how socialist-bloc and nonaligned Cold War organizations facilitated the circulation of popular music throughout the region, the contributors outline how music forged and challenged alliances, revolutions, and countercultures. They also show how the Cold War's legacy shapes contemporary culture, particularly in the ways 1990s and 2000s J-pop and K-pop are rooted in American attempts to foster economic exchange in East Asia in the 1960s.Throughout, Sound Alignments demonstrates that the experiences of the Cold War in Asia were as diverse and dynamic as the music heard and performed in it.
Contributors. Marié Abe, Michael K. Bourdaghs, Paola Iovene, Nisha Kommattam, Jennifer Lindsay, Kaley Mason, Anna Schultz, Hyunjoon Shin, C. J. W.-L. Wee, Hon-Lun (Helan) Yang, Christine R. Yano, Qian Zhang
In Sound Alignments, a transnational group of scholars explores the myriad forms of popular music that circulated across Asia during the Cold War. Challenging the conventional alignments and periodizations of Western cultural histories of the Cold War, they trace the routes of popular music, examining how it took on new meanings and significance as it traveled across Asia, from India to Indonesia, Hong Kong to South Korea, China to Japan. From studies of how popular musical styles from the Americas and Europe were adapted to meet local exigencies to how socialist-bloc and nonaligned Cold War organizations facilitated the circulation of popular music throughout the region, the contributors outline how music forged and challenged alliances, revolutions, and countercultures. They also show how the Cold War's legacy shapes contemporary culture, particularly in the ways 1990s and 2000s J-pop and K-pop are rooted in American attempts to foster economic exchange in East Asia in the 1960s.Throughout, Sound Alignments demonstrates that the experiences of the Cold War in Asia were as diverse and dynamic as the music heard and performed in it.
Contributors. Marié Abe, Michael K. Bourdaghs, Paola Iovene, Nisha Kommattam, Jennifer Lindsay, Kaley Mason, Anna Schultz, Hyunjoon Shin, C. J. W.-L. Wee, Hon-Lun (Helan) Yang, Christine R. Yano, Qian Zhang
In Sound Alignments, a transnational group of scholars explores the myriad forms of popular music that circulated across Asia during the Cold War. Challenging the conventional alignments and periodizations of Western cultural histories of the Cold War, they trace the routes of popular music, examining how it took on new meanings and significance as it traveled across Asia, from India to Indonesia, Hong Kong to South Korea, China to Japan. From studies of how popular musical styles from the Americas and Europe were adapted to meet local exigencies to how socialist-bloc and nonaligned Cold War organizations facilitated the circulation of popular music throughout the region, the contributors outline how music forged and challenged alliances, revolutions, and countercultures. They also show how the Cold War's legacy shapes contemporary culture, particularly in the ways 1990s and 2000s J-pop and K-pop are rooted in American attempts to foster economic exchange in East Asia in the 1960s.Throughout, Sound Alignments demonstrates that the experiences of the Cold War in Asia were as diverse and dynamic as the music heard and performed in it.
Contributors. Marié Abe, Michael K. Bourdaghs, Paola Iovene, Nisha Kommattam, Jennifer Lindsay, Kaley Mason, Anna Schultz, Hyunjoon Shin, C. J. W.-L. Wee, Hon-Lun (Helan) Yang, Christine R. Yano, Qian Zhang
In Sound Alignments, a transnational group of scholars explores the myriad forms of popular music that circulated across Asia during the Cold War. Challenging the conventional alignments and periodizations of Western cultural histories of the Cold War, they trace the routes of popular music, examining how it took on new meanings and significance as it traveled across Asia, from India to Indonesia, Hong Kong to South Korea, China to Japan. From studies of how popular musical styles from the Americas and Europe were adapted to meet local exigencies to how socialist-bloc and nonaligned Cold War organizations facilitated the circulation of popular music throughout the region, the contributors outline how music forged and challenged alliances, revolutions, and countercultures. They also show how the Cold War's legacy shapes contemporary culture, particularly in the ways 1990s and 2000s J-pop and K-pop are rooted in American attempts to foster economic exchange in East Asia in the 1960s.Throughout, Sound Alignments demonstrates that the experiences of the Cold War in Asia were as diverse and dynamic as the music heard and performed in it.
Contributors. Marié Abe, Michael K. Bourdaghs, Paola Iovene, Nisha Kommattam, Jennifer Lindsay, Kaley Mason, Anna Schultz, Hyunjoon Shin, C. J. W.-L. Wee, Hon-Lun (Helan) Yang, Christine R. Yano, Qian Zhang
In Sound Alignments, a transnational group of scholars explores the myriad forms of popular music that circulated across Asia during the Cold War. Challenging the conventional alignments and periodizations of Western cultural histories of the Cold War, they trace the routes of popular music, examining how it took on new meanings and significance as it traveled across Asia, from India to Indonesia, Hong Kong to South Korea, China to Japan. From studies of how popular musical styles from the Americas and Europe were adapted to meet local exigencies to how socialist-bloc and nonaligned Cold War organizations facilitated the circulation of popular music throughout the region, the contributors outline how music forged and challenged alliances, revolutions, and countercultures. They also show how the Cold War's legacy shapes contemporary culture, particularly in the ways 1990s and 2000s J-pop and K-pop are rooted in American attempts to foster economic exchange in East Asia in the 1960s.Throughout, Sound Alignments demonstrates that the experiences of the Cold War in Asia were as diverse and dynamic as the music heard and performed in it.
Contributors. Marié Abe, Michael K. Bourdaghs, Paola Iovene, Nisha Kommattam, Jennifer Lindsay, Kaley Mason, Anna Schultz, Hyunjoon Shin, C. J. W.-L. Wee, Hon-Lun (Helan) Yang, Christine R. Yano, Qian Zhang
In Sound Alignments, a transnational group of scholars explores the myriad forms of popular music that circulated across Asia during the Cold War. Challenging the conventional alignments and periodizations of Western cultural histories of the Cold War, they trace the routes of popular music, examining how it took on new meanings and significance as it traveled across Asia, from India to Indonesia, Hong Kong to South Korea, China to Japan. From studies of how popular musical styles from the Americas and Europe were adapted to meet local exigencies to how socialist-bloc and nonaligned Cold War organizations facilitated the circulation of popular music throughout the region, the contributors outline how music forged and challenged alliances, revolutions, and countercultures. They also show how the Cold War's legacy shapes contemporary culture, particularly in the ways 1990s and 2000s J-pop and K-pop are rooted in American attempts to foster economic exchange in East Asia in the 1960s.Throughout, Sound Alignments demonstrates that the experiences of the Cold War in Asia were as diverse and dynamic as the music heard and performed in it.
Contributors. Marié Abe, Michael K. Bourdaghs, Paola Iovene, Nisha Kommattam, Jennifer Lindsay, Kaley Mason, Anna Schultz, Hyunjoon Shin, C. J. W.-L. Wee, Hon-Lun (Helan) Yang, Christine R. Yano, Qian Zhang
In Sound Alignments, a transnational group of scholars explores the myriad forms of popular music that circulated across Asia during the Cold War. Challenging the conventional alignments and periodizations of Western cultural histories of the Cold War, they trace the routes of popular music, examining how it took on new meanings and significance as it traveled across Asia, from India to Indonesia, Hong Kong to South Korea, China to Japan. From studies of how popular musical styles from the Americas and Europe were adapted to meet local exigencies to how socialist-bloc and nonaligned Cold War organizations facilitated the circulation of popular music throughout the region, the contributors outline how music forged and challenged alliances, revolutions, and countercultures. They also show how the Cold War's legacy shapes contemporary culture, particularly in the ways 1990s and 2000s J-pop and K-pop are rooted in American attempts to foster economic exchange in East Asia in the 1960s.Throughout, Sound Alignments demonstrates that the experiences of the Cold War in Asia were as diverse and dynamic as the music heard and performed in it.
Contributors. Marié Abe, Michael K. Bourdaghs, Paola Iovene, Nisha Kommattam, Jennifer Lindsay, Kaley Mason, Anna Schultz, Hyunjoon Shin, C. J. W.-L. Wee, Hon-Lun (Helan) Yang, Christine R. Yano, Qian Zhang
In Sound Alignments, a transnational group of scholars explores the myriad forms of popular music that circulated across Asia during the Cold War. Challenging the conventional alignments and periodizations of Western cultural histories of the Cold War, they trace the routes of popular music, examining how it took on new meanings and significance as it traveled across Asia, from India to Indonesia, Hong Kong to South Korea, China to Japan. From studies of how popular musical styles from the Americas and Europe were adapted to meet local exigencies to how socialist-bloc and nonaligned Cold War organizations facilitated the circulation of popular music throughout the region, the contributors outline how music forged and challenged alliances, revolutions, and countercultures. They also show how the Cold War's legacy shapes contemporary culture, particularly in the ways 1990s and 2000s J-pop and K-pop are rooted in American attempts to foster economic exchange in East Asia in the 1960s.Throughout, Sound Alignments demonstrates that the experiences of the Cold War in Asia were as diverse and dynamic as the music heard and performed in it.
Contributors. Marié Abe, Michael K. Bourdaghs, Paola Iovene, Nisha Kommattam, Jennifer Lindsay, Kaley Mason, Anna Schultz, Hyunjoon Shin, C. J. W.-L. Wee, Hon-Lun (Helan) Yang, Christine R. Yano, Qian Zhang
In Sound Alignments, a transnational group of scholars explores the myriad forms of popular music that circulated across Asia during the Cold War. Challenging the conventional alignments and periodizations of Western cultural histories of the Cold War, they trace the routes of popular music, examining how it took on new meanings and significance as it traveled across Asia, from India to Indonesia, Hong Kong to South Korea, China to Japan. From studies of how popular musical styles from the Americas and Europe were adapted to meet local exigencies to how socialist-bloc and nonaligned Cold War organizations facilitated the circulation of popular music throughout the region, the contributors outline how music forged and challenged alliances, revolutions, and countercultures. They also show how the Cold War's legacy shapes contemporary culture, particularly in the ways 1990s and 2000s J-pop and K-pop are rooted in American attempts to foster economic exchange in East Asia in the 1960s.Throughout, Sound Alignments demonstrates that the experiences of the Cold War in Asia were as diverse and dynamic as the music heard and performed in it.
Contributors. Marié Abe, Michael K. Bourdaghs, Paola Iovene, Nisha Kommattam, Jennifer Lindsay, Kaley Mason, Anna Schultz, Hyunjoon Shin, C. J. W.-L. Wee, Hon-Lun (Helan) Yang, Christine R. Yano, Qian Zhang
Since its formation as a girl group in 2005, AKB48 has become a phenomenal success and institution in Japan. Having originally recruited fans with photocopied fliers and daily performances in the Akihabara area of Tokyo, AKB48 now saturates Japan. Its members—nearly 800 of them, including five sister groups and four so-called “rival groups” across Japan, as well as six sister groups in other Asian cities—appear in print, broadcast, online, and social media; in advertisements and on products; at home and on the train; on- and off-screen.
AKB48’s multi-platform omnipresence is characteristic of “idols,” whose intimate relationship to fans and appeals to them for support have made the group dominant on the Oricon Yearly Singles Chart in the 2010s; they hold several records, including most consecutive million-selling singles sold in Japan. A unique business model relentlessly monetizes fans’ affections through meet-and-greet events and elections, which maximize CD sales, and their saturated presence in the media. At a time when affect is more important than ever in economic, political, and social theory, this book explores the intersection of idols and affect in contemporary Japan and beyond.
Since its formation as a girl group in 2005, AKB48 has become a phenomenal success and institution in Japan. Having originally recruited fans with photocopied fliers and daily performances in the Akihabara area of Tokyo, AKB48 now saturates Japan. Its members—nearly 800 of them, including five sister groups and four so-called “rival groups” across Japan, as well as six sister groups in other Asian cities—appear in print, broadcast, online, and social media; in advertisements and on products; at home and on the train; on- and off-screen.
AKB48’s multi-platform omnipresence is characteristic of “idols,” whose intimate relationship to fans and appeals to them for support have made the group dominant on the Oricon Yearly Singles Chart in the 2010s; they hold several records, including most consecutive million-selling singles sold in Japan. A unique business model relentlessly monetizes fans’ affections through meet-and-greet events and elections, which maximize CD sales, and their saturated presence in the media. At a time when affect is more important than ever in economic, political, and social theory, this book explores the intersection of idols and affect in contemporary Japan and beyond.
Since its formation as a girl group in 2005, AKB48 has become a phenomenal success and institution in Japan. Having originally recruited fans with photocopied fliers and daily performances in the Akihabara area of Tokyo, AKB48 now saturates Japan. Its members—nearly 800 of them, including five sister groups and four so-called “rival groups” across Japan, as well as six sister groups in other Asian cities—appear in print, broadcast, online, and social media; in advertisements and on products; at home and on the train; on- and off-screen.
AKB48’s multi-platform omnipresence is characteristic of “idols,” whose intimate relationship to fans and appeals to them for support have made the group dominant on the Oricon Yearly Singles Chart in the 2010s; they hold several records, including most consecutive million-selling singles sold in Japan. A unique business model relentlessly monetizes fans’ affections through meet-and-greet events and elections, which maximize CD sales, and their saturated presence in the media. At a time when affect is more important than ever in economic, political, and social theory, this book explores the intersection of idols and affect in contemporary Japan and beyond.
Since its formation as a girl group in 2005, AKB48 has become a phenomenal success and institution in Japan. Having originally recruited fans with photocopied fliers and daily performances in the Akihabara area of Tokyo, AKB48 now saturates Japan. Its members—nearly 800 of them, including five sister groups and four so-called “rival groups” across Japan, as well as six sister groups in other Asian cities—appear in print, broadcast, online, and social media; in advertisements and on products; at home and on the train; on- and off-screen.
AKB48’s multi-platform omnipresence is characteristic of “idols,” whose intimate relationship to fans and appeals to them for support have made the group dominant on the Oricon Yearly Singles Chart in the 2010s; they hold several records, including most consecutive million-selling singles sold in Japan. A unique business model relentlessly monetizes fans’ affections through meet-and-greet events and elections, which maximize CD sales, and their saturated presence in the media. At a time when affect is more important than ever in economic, political, and social theory, this book explores the intersection of idols and affect in contemporary Japan and beyond.
Since its formation as a girl group in 2005, AKB48 has become a phenomenal success and institution in Japan. Having originally recruited fans with photocopied fliers and daily performances in the Akihabara area of Tokyo, AKB48 now saturates Japan. Its members—nearly 800 of them, including five sister groups and four so-called “rival groups” across Japan, as well as six sister groups in other Asian cities—appear in print, broadcast, online, and social media; in advertisements and on products; at home and on the train; on- and off-screen.
AKB48’s multi-platform omnipresence is characteristic of “idols,” whose intimate relationship to fans and appeals to them for support have made the group dominant on the Oricon Yearly Singles Chart in the 2010s; they hold several records, including most consecutive million-selling singles sold in Japan. A unique business model relentlessly monetizes fans’ affections through meet-and-greet events and elections, which maximize CD sales, and their saturated presence in the media. At a time when affect is more important than ever in economic, political, and social theory, this book explores the intersection of idols and affect in contemporary Japan and beyond.
Since its formation as a girl group in 2005, AKB48 has become a phenomenal success and institution in Japan. Having originally recruited fans with photocopied fliers and daily performances in the Akihabara area of Tokyo, AKB48 now saturates Japan. Its members—nearly 800 of them, including five sister groups and four so-called “rival groups” across Japan, as well as six sister groups in other Asian cities—appear in print, broadcast, online, and social media; in advertisements and on products; at home and on the train; on- and off-screen.
AKB48’s multi-platform omnipresence is characteristic of “idols,” whose intimate relationship to fans and appeals to them for support have made the group dominant on the Oricon Yearly Singles Chart in the 2010s; they hold several records, including most consecutive million-selling singles sold in Japan. A unique business model relentlessly monetizes fans’ affections through meet-and-greet events and elections, which maximize CD sales, and their saturated presence in the media. At a time when affect is more important than ever in economic, political, and social theory, this book explores the intersection of idols and affect in contemporary Japan and beyond.
In this article I examined how “slash” and startup careers have been promoted in the recent call for mass entrepreneurship to further advance the interests of the state; and how the initiatives in Mainland China have provided Hong Kong ideas for tackling its governmentality crisis resulting from youth disgruntlement with deteriorating socio-economic conditions and loss of political autonomy. I adopt the inter-referencing Asia approach to facilitate a conversation between the research on precarity in Beijing and Hong Kong contexts and the large body of literature on precarity that derives mainly from the Western experiences. I base my analysis on discourse analysis and visual analysis of three corpora of textual and visual materials, including materials from interviews and ethnographic research.
Since its formation as a girl group in 2005, AKB48 has become a phenomenal success and institution in Japan. Having originally recruited fans with photocopied fliers and daily performances in the Akihabara area of Tokyo, AKB48 now saturates Japan. Its members—nearly 800 of them, including five sister groups and four so-called “rival groups” across Japan, as well as six sister groups in other Asian cities—appear in print, broadcast, online, and social media; in advertisements and on products; at home and on the train; on- and off-screen.
AKB48’s multi-platform omnipresence is characteristic of “idols,” whose intimate relationship to fans and appeals to them for support have made the group dominant on the Oricon Yearly Singles Chart in the 2010s; they hold several records, including most consecutive million-selling singles sold in Japan. A unique business model relentlessly monetizes fans’ affections through meet-and-greet events and elections, which maximize CD sales, and their saturated presence in the media. At a time when affect is more important than ever in economic, political, and social theory, this book explores the intersection of idols and affect in contemporary Japan and beyond.
Amid the growing sociological interest in cosmopolitanism, Motti Regev seeks to outline in his contribution the major aspects pertaining to the role of music—and pop-rock music in particular—in the consolidation and materialization of cosmopolitanism. Hence Regev explores several dimensions through which pop-rock music has been a key force in propelling cultural cosmopolitanism, especially at the micro level of bodily practices and everyday life. Pop-rock musical styles and genres, as clusters of sonic idioms and as physical entities, have penetrated urban spaces and individual human bodies all over the world and constitute the aesthetic cultures of cosmopolitanism. Regev’s arguments revolve around the idea of the sonic ‘thingness’ of music, how it turns the cultural body into a cosmopolitan body and its effect on various dimensions of culture. Inspiration and insights in this regard are brought from such areas of research and theory as cultural globalization, sociology and anthropology of the cultural body, as well as so-called ‘thing theory’ (Material Culture Studies, ANT—actant network theory, etc.) in order to propose possible foci for investigating how musical cosmopolitanism comes into being and functions as a cultural reality.
Indie music in East Asia has experienced tremendous growth in popularity since the mid-2000s, especially in China and Taiwan. This trend has encouraged a number of indie bands to pursue more radical and alternative ‘do-it-yourself’ (DIY) careers within their local underground music scenes. Taking two bands from Beijing and Taipei as case studies, this article argues that their DIY music careers help them both to survive through their aesthetic freedom and to confront the paradoxical government involvement in the local music market. P.K. 14, a band from China, practice a pragmatic DIY music career with an oblique resistance to political authorities. Touming Magazine, a band from Taiwan, pursue a DIY career through punk ethics to fight against an overwhelming neoliberal discourse and a promotional state policy of developing a cultural and creative industry. While DIY career practitioners have opened up alternative possibilities to preserve the autonomy of making music, such a career path is still challenged by an unsustainable market, a shortage of financing, and the continued dominance of major music companies’ own platforms. The situations these musicians face illustrate a more ambivalent type of politics, beyond mere emancipation, in their pursuit of a DIY career.
Affects such as anger, fear and love have compelled Tokyoites to take to the streets in protest in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster of March 2011. One of the characteristic forms these protests have taken has been the anti-nuclear "sound demonstrations" in which bands, DJs and rappers perform from the backs of trucks that lead demonstrators through the streets. Projecting their emotive music through urban space with the aid of powerful sound systems, these demonstrations disrupt the everyday noises of the neoliberal city and create a public space for the vocalisation of dissent. After the demonstrations, these same artists and demonstrators move to the underground live houses and social centres that constitute a subterranean backbone to the visible demonstrations in the street. Expressing emotions through musical protest is a powerful motor for what Stevphen Shukatitis has called affective composition, the process via which collective political subjectivities are formed through the expression of shared emotions. This paper outlines the emotional geography of anti-nuclear music in post-Fukushima Tokyo. It examines the dynamic interplay between aboveground political protest and the city's subterranean network of musical performance spaces.
Spend time in New York City and, soon enough, you will encounter some of the Japanese nationals who live and work there–young English students, office workers, painters, and hairstylists. New York City is home to one of the largest overseas Japanese populations in the world. Among them are artists and designers who produce cutting-edge work in fields such as design, fashion, music, and art. Part of the so–called “creative class” and a growing segment of the neoliberal economy, they are usually middle–class and college–educated. They move to New York for anywhere from a few years to several decades in the hope of realizing dreams and aspirations unavailable to them in Japan. Yet the creative careers they desire are competitive, and many end up working illegally in precarious, low paying jobs. Though they often migrate without fixed plans for return, nearly all eventually do, and their migrant trajectories are punctuated by visits home. Japanese New York contributes to international migration studies, to the study of contemporary Japanese culture and society, and to the study of Japanese youth, while shedding light on what it means to be a creative migrant worker in the global city today.
In recent years, popular culture production in East and Southeast Asia has undergone major changes with the emergence of a system that organizes and relocates production, distribution, and consumption of cultural goods on a regional scale. Freed from the constraints associated with autonomous national economies, popular culture has acquired a transnational character and caters to multinational audiences. Using insights drawn from a number of academic disciplines, the authors in this wide-ranging volume consider the implications of a region-wide appropriation of cultural formulas and styles in the production of movies, music, comics, and animation. They also investigate the regional economics of transcultural production, considering cultural imaginaries in the context of intensive regional circulation of cultural goods and images. Where scholarship on popular culture conventionally explores the "meaning" of texts, Popular Culture Co-productions and Collaborations in East and Southeast Asia draws on empirical studies of the culture industries of Japan, Korea, China, the Philippines and Indonesia, and use a regional framework to analyze the consequences of co-production and collaboration.
K-pop has been the most commercially successful music genre in South Korea since the mid-1990s, as noted by many Asian popular music scholars. By contrast, an underexplored topic is local indie popular music, which experienced a surge in popularity during the 2000s. This paper examines these indie scenes and Boongaboonga Records—a key organization that originated in the Gwanak region of Seoul, and later relocated to the Hongdae region, known as the hub for Korean indie music. It argues that the unique connection that the label and its indie bands have with these specific locations tie into their collective ability to give voice to a young generation affected by political and social change. It also considers the new business model for the record label and how this has developed from these circumstances and the cultural space it inhabits.
The becoming productive of consumer culture has been an important theme for social research. Within neoliberal discourse, the link between consumer culture and new forms of immaterial production has been conceptualized as “creativity.” This paper uses the experience of Bangkok's fashion markets to begin to articulate an alternative understanding of the relation between consumer culture and immaterial production, a different kind of “creativity.” We suggest that Bangkok's fashion markets manifest a kind of creativity where innovation is highly socialized, as opposed to being oriented around the notion of individual genius and individual intellectual property; where participation is popular as opposed to elite-based and where the ambiguous relation between creation and commercial success that is intrinsic to Western notions of creativity is replaced by an embrace of markets and commerce as vehicles for self-expression. Bangkok's fashion markets represent an example of a market-based commons centered innovation economy.
This paper examines the ways in which hip-hop has taken root in Korean popular culture. The processes that began in the early 1990s include appropriation, adaptation and ‘cultural reterritorialisation’. By looking at recent Korean hip-hop outputs and their associated contexts, this paper explores the ways in which Korean hip-hop has gained its local specificities. This was achieved by combining and recontextualising Afro-American and Korean popular musical elements and aesthetics in its performance and identification in the context of the consumption and commodification of Korean hip-hop as a ‘national(ised) cultural product’.