Korean pop music, often abbreviated to K-Pop, has taken the world by a never-ending storm of sleek imagery, melismatic vocals, and virtuosic choreography. Touted as the key ingredient to South Korea’s soft power, K-Pop has found a home in everyone’s playlists, with a strong, influential fanbase.
Because of this international impact, it’s not surprising that the K-Pop acts itself would become international as well. Not all K-Pop acts are Korean, and TWICE, one of the most popular groups, have three members from Japan and Taiwan.
However, this past year, two all-Japanese K-Pop bands have made their debut: a girl group named NiziU, formed by the prolific JYP Entertainment, and JO1, a boy group formed by Lapone Entertainment. Their respective singles, “Step and a Step” and “Protostar” topped the Billboard Japan Hot 100 upon their debut.
Once the smoke of their success lifted, a burning question began to sear through the Internet: Is this K-Pop or J-Pop?
What’s interesting about this dilemma is that if you look at NiZiU and JO1’s Wikipedia pages, it’s listed under both genres. This debate branches off into multiple themes–style vs. nationality, cultural differences, even differences between what’s expected from each respective school of pop music.
Rather than attempt to settle the debate, this essay will attempt to examine what factors would conjure this question in the first place, and what this could mean for such projects in the future. We will look at the core differences between K-Pop and J-Pop, the historical tensions that bleed over into the music industry, followed by an editorial summary.
K-Pop vs. J-Pop
In other words, Japan seldom allows outside influence when it comes to artistic direction, and rarely considers the international market in regards to distribution. Click To TweetBesides their national origins, there are a few fundamental differences between K-Pop and J-Pop, ranging from public image, genre influence, to the layout of the industry itself. Though both are contemporary genres that were arguably inspired by American pop music, the gap between their global popularity grows wider with each passing year.
To start off, we have the matter of public image. As is the nature of entertainment, sex appeal is important. Yet while J-Pop is “cute”, K-Pop is “cool”. There are still instances of the bright, “bubblegum” aesthetic in K-Pop, but it’s underlined with sleek musical production.
As such, the musicality in and of itself is another key difference. The J-Pop industry is a deliberately insular market. As such, it tailors its content and distribution to domestic taste. In other words, Japan seldom allows outside influence when it comes to artistic direction, and rarely considers the international market in regards to distribution.
In some ways, this is a strategic choice: focusing on domestic markets can offer insight into cultural niches, smoother communication, and easier understanding what locals want. Yet the trade-off is a lack of connection to the outside world, and it influences J-Pop’s capacity to excel on the international stage.
In contrast, the K-Pop industry is fervently cognizant of its international fandom, and therefore tailors its aesthetic, production, and especially artistic standards to that market. They collaborate with American, particularly Black American songwriters/producers, and endure an infamously grueling training process.
Both industries wield double-edged swords. K-Pop is globally powerful, yet demands perfection from its artists, even at the cost of their mental health. J-Pop has a loyal domestic fanbase that prioritizes fun over perfection, at the cost of international fame. In addition, while J-Pop idols’ training may not be as painstaking as that of K-Pop’s, the topic of mental health is just as maligned.
The differences and nuances listed above aren’t exhaustive, and are not meant to cause infighting among fandoms of the two genres. Nevertheless, understanding these contrasts are a foundation to what happens when the two genres collide in a way never seen before.
Cultural Tensions
Japan and South Korea have a particularly contentious relationship, mainly because Japan colonized Korea from 1910 to 1945. This was during Japan’s imperial days, which was hellbent on erasing and assimilating the culture of their colonial subjects. Koreans were forbidden from using their native language, and had to pledge “manual labor and loyalty to the Emperor”.
On top of this, “authorities burned over 200,000 Korean historical documents, essentially wiping out the historical memory of Korea”:
“…[The Korean History Compilation Committee at the former Tokyo Imperial University] was established in 1910 by the Japanese colonial government to oversee the production of Korean history. In reality, it distorted ancient Korean history by making Korea a younger brother of Japan. This made Japanese rule over Korea easier because it was considered unethical for younger (Japan) to rule over older (Korea) due to Confucian ethics.”
-Hong Beom Rhee, “Asian Millerianism: An Interdisciplinary Study of the Taiping and Tonghak Rebellions in a Global Context”
Other examples of the strained Japan-South Korea relationship include Japan’s hesitancy to acknowledge the sexual exploitation of Korean “comfort women” during World War II, controversy surrounding clothing depicting Korea’s Liberation Day, and the enshrinement of Imperial war criminals.
There have even been instances where K-Pop songs have been banned by local broadcasters because they used Japanese words, in accordance with the post-colonial Law for Punishing Anti-National Misdeeds.
In contrast, the K-Pop industry is fervently cognizant of its international fandom, and therefore tailors its aesthetic, production, and especially artistic standards to that market. Click To TweetThis is why K-Pop and its seemingly exponential popularity have caused some Korean netizens to question JYP and LaPone Entertainment’s decision to create all-Japanese acts. The main concerns don’t just come from a nationalist perspective, but from an attribution standpoint as well. If a Japanese K-pop band becomes successful, the credit would go to Japan, as opposed to Korea.
The tension about the categorization of NiZiU and JO1’s music hasn’t impeded their success in any way. Nor has it deterred from native K-Pop bands such as BTS from reigning supreme. As stated above, the sound and aesthetic are distinct enough that the average person could pinpoint the contemporary origins of both genres. Unfortunately, because the wounds of war and colonialism are still fresh, conflict always seem to bubble just under the surface between the two countries.
Summary
If we were collectively to catalog every single national influence that K-Pop and J-Pop have ever had, we would be left with unrecognizable sonic fragments. That's not how music works. Click To TweetIn my opinion, the question of whether the music is K-Pop or J-Pop isn’t really what people should be focusing on, because the labeling in and of itself is a non-issue. While saying “it’s both genres” might be seen as a mealy-mouthed response, such is the nature of art, especially if it crosses from one nation to another.
If we were collectively to catalog every single national influence that K-Pop and J-Pop have ever had, we would be left with unrecognizable sonic fragments. That’s not how music works. City pop, arguably the heyday of Japanese pop music, was influenced by American, Caribbean and Polynesian sounds. To sum it up: there is no entitlement to national purity on either side of the spectrum.
As such, the focus should be less on origin, and more on marketing, as this is what causes the gap of influence between K-Pop and J-Pop. Groups such as NiZiU and JO1 could be promising on the international stage. Though Japan has charmed the world with its “Cool Japan” campaign all those years ago, it has difficulty keeping up the changing landscape of entertainment, due to insular and restrictive marketing strategies.
Japanese K-Pop bands are an example of what can manifest from cross-cultural collaboration and savvy marketing. I’m looking forward to see if any similar strategies are using in the future for the rest of Japan’s cultural landscape.
