Ask John: What is J-Pop?

Question:
What is j-pop?

Answer:
“J-pop” is an abbreviation for “Japanese popular music.” It’s easiest to think of “J-pop” as the equivalent of America’s “Top 40” music. In theory, J-pop would include any music that’s popular in Japan, but just as country/western isn’t usually thought of as American “Top 40,” enka music, for example, isn’t thought of as “J-pop.”

Strict definitions of genre terms, such as the difference between “shonen ai” and “yaoi,” or “ecchi” and “hentai” are a phenomenon much more common among Western fans than Japanese. While contemporary Japanese culture and genre fandom has a tendency to be flexible with classifications and genre identification terms, especially American fans have a tendency to distinguish between “J-pop,” “J-rock,” and “anime music.” According to common American usage, J-pop consists mainly of contemporary Japanese soft-rock, alternative, dance, and soul/R&B music created for radio play. J-rock includes Japanese male dominated rock bands and heavy metal groups. “Anime music” or “Seiyuu” music consists of theme songs to anime and vocal CDs performed by vocalists best known in Japan as voice actors for anime.

The difficulty in trying to maintain such strict classifications lies in the fact many Japanese pop groups simply don’t fit into a single category. Ayumi Hamasaki is generally considered “J-pop” although several of her songs have been used as themes for anime and video games because these songs were released to radio play before they were adopted by anime, and because Ayumi Hamasaki is not an anime voice actress. It’s more difficult to make such a clear distinction with vocalists including Masami Okui and Arai Akino, who likewise have never performed voice acting roles, but have performed many, many anime theme songs. Although these vocalists aren’t employed by the anime industry, it’s difficult to separate their music from “anime music.” Furthermore, groups like Hummingbirds, Deen, Glay and Bz are what most American fans consider “J-rock,” but their music also falls into the best selling, chart topping area known as “J-pop.” So are they one or the other or both?

Personally, I prefer not to employ such compartmental, ambiguous and arbitrary classifications. To me personally, J-pop is simply whatever music happens to be popular with mainstream Japanese teens and young adults.