As you may have all guessed, this post wraps up our three part series of questioning what would happen if K-Pop and J-Pop increased its relationship with western music than it already has. To recap, we looked at the recent instances of K-Pop and J-Pop artists covering western songs. After that, we went further back in time to view how K-Pop has always had some connections with hip hop and other genres; and how J-Pop as City Pop was more western influenced in the past than it is now. The number of covers discussed in Part One and in this blog are among the numerous amount of covers that K-Pop and J-Pop artists have done.
When I watch modern K-Pop videos, I get the feeling that the performers do much more than singing. They engage in dancing and wear special costumes related to the music video. Therefore, it seems with respect to American singers, that K-Pop performers are adding more content to their songs and music videos to make them more appealing to the rest of the world. It seems based off of this that it is safe to say that K-Pop artists will continue to be innovative in providing the best quality music for their fans and that may mean incorporating music styles and dances from other western genres into K-Pop than just hip hop or pop. Therefore, fusing more western elements into their music would help the artists rather than cause their sales to be lower.
When it comes to modern J-Pop, I tend to get much more eastern vibes in the music compared to K-Pop. The beats, instruments and music styles feel nearly 100% Japanese whereas the music in modern K-Pop feels like more of a mix. Knowing that J-Pop has a somewhat different target audience than K-Pop, I feel that it will be a while before J-Pop artists will want to integrate more styles of music from western artists than K-Pop.
Let me know below in the comments whether you agree or disagree with my views and don't forget to post your opinion.
K-Pop and J-Pop had much of their early beginnings in the late 20th century. K-Pop arose in the early 1990s with a lot of hip hop and western influence. City Pop was a form of J-Pop that arose in the 70's and 80's with a strong western influence including pop, jazz and disco. "Nan Arayo" by Seo Taiji and Boys was known as on of the earliest K-Pop songs that is an example K-Pop music with hip hop and western influence (Seo Taiji and Boys, Seo Taiji and Boys, 1992). It again demonstrates that K-Pop has already had a wide amount of western influence as discussed in the previous post. At the same time it leaves the open-ended analysis of what the future of K-Pop is with regards to its relationship to the West through musical influence. J-Pop was originally more influenced by Western music in the 1970s and 1980s than it is today. This is evident in the City Pop genre of J-Pop which was prominent in Japan up until the early 90's.
"Love Space" by Tatsuro Yamashita is an excellent example of a Japanese City Pop song. There are clear western influences in the chorus vocals and the disco feel of the song. This song is quite groovy and I wish I would have heard it long before I did in 2023 because it is a very positive song. Even if I cannot fully understand the song without translating that lyrics, I feel that the vibe of the song can be applied to many life situations and it is a very nostalgic fitting song for the fans of the genre. I do not have an official link to his song on Youtube due to copyright, so I cannot post his music video here (Tatsuro Yamashita, Spacy, 1977).
"Remember Summer Days" by Anri is another City Pop favorite of mine and was discovered by me at the same time as "Love Space" due to it being featured in a long City Pop video on Youtube that was probably taken down due to copyright. It demonstrates western influence through the beats and it also feels very disco. The music video that Artzie Music posted of Anri's song with Tokyo Tower and the city in the background adds to the summer vibe of the song. The sun in the background and air feel like it is moving on a hot and humid summer day when it probably really is not. All of these effects together with the song make it feel like the artist is presenting melancholic feelings about her life in Japan and meaning to share it with a broader audience beyond the Japanese market in some sense (Artzie Music, Youtube, 2014).
"Street Dancer" by Hiromi Iwasaki is another fine song that is another example of western influence in Japanese City Pop. The song has a lower energy and slower pace to it that "Love Space" and "Remember Summer Days" which is great because it adds to the diversity of the City Pop genre through the song's tempo (not that the other two songs don't add diversity). Lastly, it is also one of the longest songs I have talked about so far which contrasts with Rose's (BLACKPINK) cover of "Eyes Closed" by Halsey. Both Iwasaki's song and Rose's cover add a lot of diversity to J-Pop and K-Pop through the western type of music that influenced both songs (one being a complete cover) (Hiromi Iwasaki Official Youtube Channel, Youtube, 2018).
The reason for the brief mention of an earlier K-Pop song and not listing any more examples of early K-Pop is because I feel that K-Pop still maintains the stronger western influence today compared to modern J-Pop. Understanding modern J-Pop's historical connection with western music helps understand what J-Pop used to be and what it can potentially become in the future. The City Pop songs of this time period had heavier similarities with western music than they do now, but that demonstrates experience with using genres from the U.S. and other western countries as inspiration for Japanese songs.
This time the topic is similar, but is now expanded into a fun version that looks at the potential that both genres have for the entertainment future compared to what has been available to us fans by the artists so far in the 21st century.
Last week, I discussed Tzuyu from TWICE's music highlighting that she did a cover of an Ava Max song and a Taylor Swift song. Covers of western music and K-Pop singing with a western twist are not limited to only Girls Generation and Tzuyu, but many other K-Pop/J-Pop artists have done covers of western songs. K-Pop groups such as A.C.E. performing a cover of Lewis Capaldi's "Someone You Loved" and individual artists like Rose from BLACKPINK singing a cover of "Eyes Closed" by Halsey. Additionally, a J-Pop band such as Goose House performing a cover of "Take Me Home Country Roads" by John Denver.
"Someone You Loved Cover"
There are a lot of things I have to say about this video and cover. In one way I can relate to the message of the song because of the loss of something that mattered to me. Donghun, Jun and Chan had strong masculine voices that fit with the lyrics, at the same time their voices and talent make the song appealing to someone who may not be a fan of either A.C.E., Lewis Capaldi or K-pop. The cover was so great that it nearly caused me to tear up or at least want to because it was so well sung. Lastly, since this is trio of a group of 5 doing a song of one artist, I liked their idea of alternating vocals instead of unison singing. With respect to the original singer and to the idea of unision singing, this was a creative idea that added to the emotional impact of the song (Official A.C.E., Youtube, 2019).
"Eyes Closed" Cover
Rose's voice was enhanced in this cover of Halsey's song, "Eyes Closed" because it was the first time I listed to a solo member of BLACKPINK sing. In contrast to the trio of 5 from A.C.E., this music video cover was great in its own way. It had a great lead in and had fitting vocals for the song type. It was enjoyable to listen to and it was interesting that the cover was shorter than the original version, but the shortening in this cover takes a unique turn to focus on singing ability (BLACKPINK, Youtube, 2018).
"Country Roads" Cover
John Denver was one of my favorite singers growing up. I remember when I was seven that my dad used to have a CD of his in the car. When I used to listen to it before school started, I would ask my mom to replay songs such as "Rocky Mountain High" and "Country Roads". Therefore, it was awesome to sing a Japanese group sing one of my favorite childhood songs growing up in one of my favorite languages. This music video can be enjoyed by anyone! (Goose House, Youtube, 2013)
All of these covers are great examples of eastern music meeting western music, but the idea gets even larger than that. Imagine not only famous K-Pop/J-Pop artists creating covers of popular western artists, but imagine them integrating western music into the genre completely.
The covers in this list serve as an example of what is already happening in modern history of K-Pop/J-Pop singers performing covers of western songs. An interesting answer to my own question would be that it seems like K-Pop is already heavily influenced by western music through a lot of the dancing and style of singing in their albums. J-Pop however is still maintaining its appeal to its own market which is Japan. It can be easily heard through the instruments and tones that J-Pop songs have. I happen to like it a lot, but imagine if western music was more integrated into J-Pop, it would change the production of the music as well as the goal of the marketing to match that of the K-Pop music industry. That would be something new, yet surprising. Coming soon, I will take time to discuss the past influences of western music on Japanese City Pop from the 1970's and 80's to listen to what happened in the past and imagine what would happen if there were modern or future attempts to integrate western music into Japanese Pop.
Don't forget to tell me what you thought of the ideas presented and whether or not you agree with them.
