So what's Jpop?

Pop music doesn't only exist in countries that speak English, despite the sometimes close minded views of some westerners. Pop music unique to a language or country exists everywhere. First off, Japan.


Image source: hanabisky.tumblr.com
Jpop is sometimes used to abbreviate Japanese pop, but it mainly represents the contemporary pop in today's Japanese music industry. Mainly, the music originates from electropop, new wave, adult contemporary, and glam rock. Although, dependant on the group, insipiration of Jpop can originate from anywhere. The term Jpop came about to mark a difference between Japanese contemporary pop, and trditional Japanese music. These days, Japan has one of the world's biggest music industries, second only to the US.

Unlike most Asian pop industries, Jpop has actually made a significiant mark in Western pop music. Solo artist Utada Hikaru, who has the best selling album in the history of Japan, sang the themes for SquareEnix's popular video game franchise Kingdom Hearts, which gained her recognition and high credibility, particularily amongst gaming fans. Her debut English language Exodus was partly produced by Timbaland and she made a considerable impact with Asian music in the West.
Jpop duo PUFFY (Puffy AmiYumi in the States) are possibly the most popular Japanese act to ever cross over to America. The group consists of Yoshimura Yumi and Onuki Ami, and have been huge in the Japanese music industry since the release of their first singl "Asia no Junshin" in 1996. They first gained overseas notice by singing the theme song to the popular super hero cartoon Teen Titans, broadcast on Cartoon Network. They were then gievn their own animated series on Cartoon Network, in which their music was constantly played, and they made personal appearances in every episode. The show ran for three seasons and helped them to gain a substantial fan base in the US.

Image source: jpopexpress.com
To encourage tourism in Japan, Ami and Yumi were appointed by the Japanese government to Good Will embassadors to the United States.
Japan as a nation is heavily influenced the West, and mainly America, so much of the aspects of Jmusic has been tailored to match artists in the west, apart from one lone aspect of Japanese music: rock.
JRock is one of the most popular styles of music in Japan, with the sub genre of Visual Kei being iconic amongst the younger generation. Jrock and Visual Kei derive inspiration from glam rock, and androgyny is a staple part of the Jrock image.
Naturally, pop music will always have much more impressive fan bases but Jrock is certainly making a notable impact in its own nation.