What's a good way to make a statement today? In the 50s, it was being a Greaser and listening to Elvis and putting Pomade or Brylcreem in your hair... 60s/70s it was growing your hair long and listening to all the Rock bands of the time or becoming a Hippie or becoming a Disco guy in the late 70s; in the 80s it was either being a Prep or being a Metal head or one of the many other '80s trends, in the 90s it was being a Grunge kid, in the 00s it was being into Rap or being Emo...What's a good way to make a statement today?

It appears that in recent months, the "next big thing" will be anything indie/protest/anarchist/non-corporate/non-mainstream/etc. I think this is of course primarily due to the Occupy Wall Street protests (as well as the protests taking place all over the world), the increased popularity in recent years of indie rock bands (Arcade Fire, MGMT, Mumford and Sons, etc; that genre has become quite popular since 2009 or so), and the general "hipster" culture that has emerged in the same years.

To get an idea for the "look", I'd imagine just check out Pitchfork's website or read Spin Magazine; I figure they would be filled with pictures of celebrities or other such "hip" people that characterize our time.

What's a good way to make a statement today? In the 50s, it was being a Greaser and listening to Elvis and putting Pomade or Brylcreem in your hair... 60s/70s it was growing your hair long and listening to all the Rock bands of the time or becoming a Hippie or becoming a Disco guy in the late 70s; in the 80s it was either being a Prep or being a Metal head or one of the many other '80s trends, in the 90s it was being a Grunge kid, in the 00s it was being into Rap or being Emo...What's a good way to make a statement today?



This new decade is having the potential to be far more interesting than I had thought even just one year ago, so much happened in 2011, it is definitely a watermark year for the '10s.
This decade(intentionally or not) could end up being like a sort of "anti-00s"(materialistic, blingy, self-absorbed, lowest common denominator culture), I have a feeling music in particular will get more edgy, harder(especially dance music and rap), and more socially conscious/activist. Just between the beginning of 2010 and late 2011 OWS has inflitrated US culture , people are already comparing 2011 to years like 1968(another year with global protests). I really wonder if hip-hop will capture this protest/activist zeitgeist soon, if any genre has the potential from a early '10s context to roll with this it is hip-hop, hip-hop has a big void right now that needs to be filled, maybe if rap goes this direction it would be called "anarcho-rap" :D. I could see some kind of very aggressive dubstep/Public Enemy influenced rap doing this.

This new decade is having the potential to be far more interesting than I had thought even just one year ago, so much happened in 2011, it is definitely a watermark year for the '10s.
This decade(intentionally or not) could end up being like a sort of "anti-00s"(materialistic, blingy, self-absorbed, lowest common denominator culture), I have a feeling music in particular will get more edgy, harder(especially dance music and rap), and more socially conscious/activist. Just between the beginning of 2010 and late 2011 OWS has inflitrated US culture , people are already comparing 2011 to years like 1968(another year with global protests). I really wonder if hip-hop will capture this protest/activist zeitgeist soon, if any genre has the potential from a early '10s context to roll with this it is hip-hop, hip-hop has a big void right now that needs to be filled, maybe if rap goes this direction it would be called "anarcho-rap" :D. I could see some kind of very aggressive dubstep/Public Enemy influenced rap doing this.


Maybe rap will fade away? Maybe by 2015, it'll be irrelevant to this decade's events.

I guess being a supporter of OWS would be making a cultural statement.

This decade is still young, I think by the middle of 2012, we'll have an ever better understanding of what this decade is about!

The 2000s should go down as the decade where everything was more or less rehashed. The problem is the original genres are almost always better musically (The post punk around 2001 was pretty good though). Otherwise, the 2000s had no "movement", be it music or fashion. Past decades like the 90s had specific musical genres, like alternative rock and hip hop. What do you have for the 2000s? Post punk revival and post grunge carried over from the 90s but in almost hair metal form. Rap music spent the decade slowly merging with pop, and by 2009 everything started sounding like watered down La Bouche or Snap! knockoffs. Emo just about counts as a new genre in my book, its basically a combination of pop punk and goth, and it never maintained popularity for long as it was so maligned. I don't see Indie rock being the future, when that genre has become so intertwined with the past (post punk revival, noise rock revival, freak folk...chillwave?) I do see the potential of the 2000s being backlashed, but if so, Pitchfork landfill Indie is going down with the ship, because the hipster absolutely defined the 2000s regardless of whether that is fair to indie rock or not. The regurgitation of cultural capital into commodities and even the fashion are products of a more affluent time. I don't see how that translates into the 2010s which is already looking a lot different than the 2000s.

The 90s should be getting revived by now, but aren't, even though the 2000s as a whole had "lighter" feel than the 90s. Things are more or less at the tail end of revivals, with the last original movements now some 20 years in the past. Its an interesting time, but I'm not sure its 1968, which was very prosperous (6% GDP growth for the decade) for all the social turmoil and war. I think rap and hip hop could get harder edged, but right now the genre is so wrapped up with pop its hard to say. One would think some kind of music would have to come out that reflects diminished economic realities. Its hard to say, and probably the shift from Generation Y to Z will have to happen before any trend is clear.

The 2000s should go down as the decade where everything was more or less rehashed. The problem is the original genres are almost always better musically (The post punk around 2001 was pretty good though). Otherwise, the 2000s had no "movement", be it music or fashion. Past decades like the 90s had specific musical genres, like alternative rock and hip hop. What do you have for the 2000s?


I would say the music movement for the 2000s is something a lot of people didn't follow. That's why so many people were unaware. It was using the internet to listen to new things and discovering bands you never would have with sites like MySpace and Pandora and subscriptions to Rhapsody. It was ignoring the media and doing your own thing when it came to music.

I would say the music movement for the 2000s is something a lot of people didn't follow. That's why so many people were unaware. It was using the internet to listen to new things and discovering bands you never would have with sites like MySpace and Pandora and subscriptions to Rhapsody. It was ignoring the media and doing your own thing when it came to music.


Thats a pretty good explanation.

I would say the music movement for the 2000s is something a lot of people didn't follow. That's why so many people were unaware. It was using the internet to listen to new things and discovering bands you never would have with sites like MySpace and Pandora and subscriptions to Rhapsody. It was ignoring the media and doing your own thing when it came to music.


This.

When you live in a world of Etewaf: Everything That Ever Was - Available Forever, not only do you get new and inexplicable (at least to RIAA) genres like mash-up, but you get a generation that wasn't raised on "whatever was available on the radio when they hit puberty".  Kids born today will ask "What's a 'radio'?", and parents will answer "It's like the stuff on your MP3 player, but someone else picked the music for you, and 25% of the air time was advertising.  Before the Internet, it was actually pretty neat." :)

If you just want to enjoy good music, explore the best of every decade at random, download whatever you like, and if you don't want to mash it up yourself, find someone who mashes up the stuff you do like, and roll with that.  

Hit YouTube and Bandcamp.  Here's a dubstep remix of some aggro electro-rap that's 20% cooler than anything I've heard on radio lately.  Not one with the Herd?  Fine, how about dubsteppifying that infernal Nyan Cat, transmogrifying it into heavy metal, or playing it live on a violin and somehow managing not to collapse into peals of laughter?

If you want to make a cultural statement in the 2010s, consider that nothing is sacred - so just pick a meme and roll with it.  The sillier the better!

The 2000s should go down as the decade where everything was more or less rehashed. The problem is the original genres are almost always better musically (The post punk around 2001 was pretty good though). Otherwise, the 2000s had no "movement", be it music or fashion. Past decades like the 90s had specific musical genres, like alternative rock and hip hop. What do you have for the 2000s? Post punk revival and post grunge carried over from the 90s but in almost hair metal form. Rap music spent the decade slowly merging with pop, and by 2009 everything started sounding like watered down La Bouche or Snap! knockoffs. Emo just about counts as a new genre in my book, its basically a combination of pop punk and goth, and it never maintained popularity for long as it was so maligned. I don't see Indie rock being the future, when that genre has become so intertwined with the past (post punk revival, noise rock revival, freak folk...chillwave?) I do see the potential of the 2000s being backlashed, but if so, Pitchfork landfill Indie is going down with the ship, because the hipster absolutely defined the 2000s regardless of whether that is fair to indie rock or not. The regurgitation of cultural capital into commodities and even the fashion are products of a more affluent time. I don't see how that translates into the 2010s which is already looking a lot different than the 2000s.

The 90s should be getting revived by now, but aren't, even though the 2000s as a whole had "lighter" feel than the 90s. Things are more or less at the tail end of revivals, with the last original movements now some 20 years in the past. Its an interesting time, but I'm not sure its 1968, which was very prosperous (6% GDP growth for the decade) for all the social turmoil and war. I think rap and hip hop could get harder edged, but right now the genre is so wrapped up with pop its hard to say. One would think some kind of music would have to come out that reflects diminished economic realities. Its hard to say, and probably the shift from Generation Y to Z will have to happen before any trend is clear.


The most definitive musical styles of the '00s was urban-pop/dirty south rap, crunk and emo, the definitive fashion is emo/scenester, boho for women(even if it ripped off hippies and gypsies a little) and the hoodie and tight jeans look, but overall it was a very moderate and bland but clean look. I think the hip-hop and R&B of the decade is pretty different sounding than anything before 2003-ish(hip-hop music and fashion peaked in the mid '00s), it's more on the rock music side where there has been little development besides emo.

The '00s is like the '70s in that it was overshadowed by it's previous decade in many ways, for the '70s it was the late '60s hippie movement and music associated with it, for the '00s it was alternative rock and the influences of Tupac and Kurt Cobain. The pop culture from the '90s-present is just alot more fragmented than the earlier decades so it will be harder to pinpoint trends but they are still there. You might be right about the whole hipster thing, I mean the things associated with hipsters is pretentiousness and fakeness.

The most definitive musical styles of the '00s was urban-pop/dirty south rap, crunk and emo, the definitive fashion is emo/scenester, boho for women(even if it ripped off hippies and gypsies a little) and the hoodie and tight jeans look, but overall it was a very moderate and bland but clean look. I think the hip-hop and R&B of the decade is pretty different sounding than anything before 2003-ish(hip-hop music and fashion peaked in the mid '00s), it's more on the rock music side where there has been little development besides emo.

The '00s is like the '70s in that it was overshadowed by it's previous decade in many ways, for the '70s it was the late '60s hippie movement and music associated with it, for the '00s it was alternative rock and the influences of Tupac and Kurt Cobain. The pop culture from the '90s-present is just alot more fragmented than the earlier decades so it will be harder to pinpoint trends but they are still there. You might be right about the whole hipster thing, I mean the things associated with hipsters is pretentiousness and fakeness.


Interesting observation. Your right about the 00's being overshadowed by the 90s, in retrospect, musically, the 90s were innovative in a way that mirrors the 60s. From a mainstream perspective, the 2000s always did have that "watered down" 90s feel, and probably many people felt the same about the 70s. Emo definitely stands out as a "00's thing" and the same for dirty south rap and crunk. In a way I guess the post punk revival/emo overlaps, though all genre names like "new wave", "grunge" are generalizations. 2006 is sort of a transitional year, like every decade, and the late 2000s is definitely Lady Gaga, autotune/futurist rap, Katy Perry etc. I'm not sure what to make of post grunge, except since we're on 70's references, it might be the new AOR rock format. ;D

Maybe rap will fade away? Maybe by 2015, it'll be irrelevant to this decade's events.


no one will pay attention to rap after 2015.

I would say the music movement for the 2000s is something a lot of people didn't follow. That's why so many people were unaware. It was using the internet to listen to new things and discovering bands you never would have with sites like MySpace and Pandora and subscriptions to Rhapsody. It was ignoring the media and doing your own thing when it came to music.


people these days are now using the internet for just about everything from music, television, shopping, asking for directions, whatever.

people these days are now using the internet for just about everything from music, television, shopping, asking for directions, whatever.


Bleh, sometimes I wish the internet wasn't here, while it has proven useful, its gotten itself into bad situations. /:

You never know when the internet will stop! But at this rate it seems like it wont.

Bleh, sometimes I wish the internet wasn't here, while it has proven useful, its gotten itself into bad situations. /:

You never know when the internet will stop! But at this rate it seems like it wont.


Where were we 30 years ago when we needed the internet? We were busy playing with our Ataris, listening to music through our Sony Walkmans and watching videos with our VCRs and Betamax.

Interesting observation. Your right about the 00's being overshadowed by the 90s, in retrospect, musically, the 90s were innovative in a way that mirrors the 60s. From a mainstream perspective, the 2000s always did have that "watered down" 90s feel, and probably many people felt the same about the 70s. Emo definitely stands out as a "00's thing" and the same for dirty south rap and crunk. In a way I guess the post punk revival/emo overlaps, though all genre names like "new wave", "grunge" are generalizations. 2006 is sort of a transitional year, like every decade, and the late 2000s is definitely Lady Gaga, autotune/futurist rap, Katy Perry etc. I'm not sure what to make of post grunge, except since we're on 70's references, it might be the new AOR rock format. ;D


The '00s were more innovative in hip-hop productions and electronica/dance music, I think alot of people(mostly rock critics/fans who are too unfamilar with/or biased against hip-hop) focuse too much on the alternative/post-grunge and reviving past music(mostly from the indie scene like you said) aspect of the decade that they unfairly categorize the entire decade as lacking in identity or bringing nothing new or distinct. While that post-grunge style was pretty popular the majority of the '00s was completely dominated by hip-hop music and culture. Urban music did meld more with pop throughout the decade until we reached 2009, the Snap! knock offs you mentioned were probably unintentional, the dominant mainstream music from '09-present is basically a very watered down electro-house sound that began in the mid '00s. Electro-house(along with dubstep) is another new music style that appeared in the '00s, but in 2004/2005 that stuff would never have had a chance in US mainstream music when 50 Cent/G Unit was the hottest sound then.

It took until around 2006 when Timbaland started mixing new wave influences with urban-pop/R&B to start the transition, this techno-R&B hybrid was in my opinion quite fresh and cutting edge at the time(songs like Single Ladies and SexyBack sounded like nothing I'd heard before). There was a period around 2007 that a particular style of electro-house started to enter the mainstream, it was the Ed Banger crunchy almost metal-like variety with even Justice's video for D.A.N.C.E being nominated for a VMA. Since 2009 we've had many different flavors of dance music in general become popular, in 2010 it was video game-like bleeps and romanian-house, in 2011 it was dubstep-ish basslines. The dominant music of the early '10s(sanitized electro-house) has so many different influences, mostly electronic, from '80s pop, '90s eurodance, trance, '00s crunk/R&B, industrial, even metal. I've noticed the music is now heading in a glitchy, harder, more aggressive dubstep influenced direction.

The '00s were more innovative in hip-hop productions and electronica/dance music, I think alot of people(mostly rock critics/fans who are too unfamilar with/or biased against hip-hop) focuse too much on the alternative/post-grunge and reviving past music(mostly from the indie scene like you said) aspect of the decade that they unfairly categorize the entire decade as lacking in identity or bringing nothing new or distinct.

Thats because rock is the only real and true music genre. 8)
Just kidding. Eminem pretty much owned 00s hip-hop.

As far as I am concern, the indie rock, dubset  party music will be widely popular for now....let's wait until 2012 to see how culture will really be shaped. All I know is that America will be nazi-like and  police stately and I don't think music will be produced when half the population in the states are either looting or in concentration camps getting gassed to death.

Thats because rock is the only real and true music genre. 8)
Just kidding. Eminem pretty much owned 00s hip-hop.


and Rock has been around for decades.

This might seem like a stupid question, but has the Occupy Wall Street movement really gotten as big as this message board makes it out to be?  I'm currently studying abroad in Japan right now and left the US right as OWS was just getting its feet off the ground.  Has it really exploded into the mainstream like you guys say it has?  If so, then perhaps I should prepare for some definite reverse culture shock when I return to the US next August.  The mass protest movements worldwide seem worlds away from a rather peaceful and complacent Japan.  Most Japanese actually quite dislike their government, but they seem to be taking an "ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist" strategy, for better or for worse.

This might seem like a stupid question, but has the Occupy Wall Street movement really gotten as big as this message board makes it out to be?  I'm currently studying abroad in Japan right now and left the US right as OWS was just getting its feet off the ground.  Has it really exploded into the mainstream like you guys say it has?  If so, then perhaps I should prepare for some definite reverse culture shock when I return to the US next August.  The mass protest movements worldwide seem worlds away from a rather peaceful and complacent Japan.  Most Japanese actually quite dislike their government, but they seem to be taking an "ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist" strategy, for better or for worse.



OWS IMO is just beginning. It is like the American version of Arab Spring. A lot of people are fed up with the fact that Congress is kowtowing to corporations and people with the BIG BUCKS. As for a "culture shock" when you return next year, I don't think so. I don't think we are going to see much change until 2013. But, there may be more masses in the streets fighting for that change.



Cat

OWS IMO is just beginning. It is like the American version of Arab Spring. A lot of people are fed up with the fact that Congress is kowtowing to corporations and people with the BIG BUCKS. As for a "culture shock" when you return next year, I don't think so. I don't think we are going to see much change until 2013. But, there may be more masses in the streets fighting for that change.



Cat


I read the world horoscope, and next year by July the protests are going to get bigger and more intense!

I read the world horoscope, and next year by July the protests are going to get bigger and more intense!


And where are they going to be heading?

As far as I am concern, the indie rock, dubset  party music will be widely popular for now....let's wait until 2012 to see how culture will really be shaped. All I know is that America will be nazi-like and  police stately and I don't think music will be produced when half the population in the states are either looting or in concentration camps getting gassed to death.
You're an idiot.

And where are they going to be heading?


It's worldwide man, WORLDWIDE!! ;D

That's where it's headed....everywhere.

What's a good way to make a statement today? In the 50s, it was being a Greaser and listening to Elvis and putting Pomade or Brylcreem in your hair... 60s/70s it was growing your hair long and listening to all the Rock bands of the time or becoming a Hippie or becoming a Disco guy in the late 70s; in the 80s it was either being a Prep or being a Metal head or one of the many other '80s trends, in the 90s it was being a Grunge kid, in the 00s it was being into Rap or being Emo...What's a good way to make a statement today?



Were these people really trying to "make a statement?" Or were they just following what just happened to be trendy at the time?  ???

It's worldwide man, WORLDWIDE!! ;D

That's where it's headed....everywhere.


Maybe they could come to Queens.

This might seem like a stupid question, but has the Occupy Wall Street movement really gotten as big as this message board makes it out to be?  I'm currently studying abroad in Japan right now and left the US right as OWS was just getting its feet off the ground.  Has it really exploded into the mainstream like you guys say it has?


My evaluation is a qualified "maybe."

On the "yes" side:

They've made it a campaign issue, and it hasn't cost anyone that much money.  In American politics, that's not supposed to happen, and it scares the hell out of whoever's running the show.

On the "no" side:

You won't experience culture shock.

Most Americans have a similar attitude towards their government.  As iindividuals, we have a culture that encourages us to be both skeptical about our government and vocal towards each other about our disagreements.  Our rulers have figured out how to channel disagreements about policy into disagreements about party.  Hence a government composed of representatives who will "stand by their convictions" to the point of financial collapse when it comes to who gets their respective cut of the spending pie, but on something like indefinite detention without trial, it passes 93-7.

And that's the point at which we in America - from the bible-thumper who doesn't care as long as the gays can't marry and he believes it's only moose-limbs who are being rounded up, to the dude who joined #OWS to pick up hippie chicks and score some pot - ignore our government and pretend it doesn't exist. :)

If so, then perhaps I should prepare for some definite reverse culture shock when I return to the US next August.  The mass protest movements worldwide seem worlds away from a rather peaceful and complacent Japan.  Most Japanese actually quite dislike their government, but they seem to be taking an "ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist" strategy, for better or for worse.


You won't experience culture shock.  Shrugging and saying "Meh, 99%" when life goes poorly for you, or "Today we're the 1%" when you and your friends walk by a bum on the street - have become a real-life equivalent catchphrase akin to "Who is John Galt"?  Nobody knows what it means, but everybody understands what you mean when you say it.  

Why is the economy in a shambles?  Why are our representatives bought and paid for?  Meh, we can't fix it, we're the 99%.  Who is John Galt?

And why does the world suck so hard?  Wait, I've got a roof over my head and know where my next meal's coming from.  Hey, you comin' to the company Xmas party?  Full meal service, live band, and open bar, with a view - out the hotel window - of the bums in the alley!  For a few hours, we can feel like the 1%.  Why feel guilty about it?  We didn't make the system the way it is.  Who is John Galt?

Serious question: This is gonna sound horribly racist (but if you're living there and you're not actually Japanese, you're used to it :), do you get the sense that Japanese ignore their leaders' antics out of respect, or out of fear?  In defense of whatever your answer is on behalf of the Japanese, I think the answer in America is that our attitude towards our government arises out of learned helplessness.

My evaluation is a qualified "maybe."

On the "yes" side:

They've made it a campaign issue, and it hasn't cost anyone that much money.  In American politics, that's not supposed to happen, and it scares the hell out of whoever's running the show.

On the "no" side:

You won't experience culture shock.

Most Americans have a similar attitude towards their government.  As iindividuals, we have a culture that encourages us to be both skeptical about our government and vocal towards each other about our disagreements.  Our rulers have figured out how to channel disagreements about policy into disagreements about party.  Hence a government composed of representatives who will "stand by their convictions" to the point of financial collapse when it comes to who gets their respective cut of the spending pie, but on something like indefinite detention without trial, it passes 93-7.

And that's the point at which we in America - from the bible-thumper who doesn't care as long as the gays can't marry and he believes it's only moose-limbs who are being rounded up, to the dude who joined #OWS to pick up hippie chicks and score some pot - ignore our government and pretend it doesn't exist. :)

You won't experience culture shock.  Shrugging and saying "Meh, 99%" when life goes poorly for you, or "Today we're the 1%" when you and your friends walk by a bum on the street - have become a real-life equivalent catchphrase akin to "Who is John Galt"?  Nobody knows what it means, but everybody understands what you mean when you say it.  

Why is the economy in a shambles?  Why are our representatives bought and paid for?  Meh, we can't fix it, we're the 99%.  Who is John Galt?

And why does the world suck so hard?  Wait, I've got a roof over my head and know where my next meal's coming from.  Hey, you comin' to the company Xmas party?  Full meal service, live band, and open bar, with a view - out the hotel window - of the bums in the alley!  For a few hours, we can feel like the 1%.  Why feel guilty about it?  We didn't make the system the way it is.  Who is John Galt?

Serious question: This is gonna sound horribly racist (but if you're living there and you're not actually Japanese, you're used to it :), do you get the sense that Japanese ignore their leaders' antics out of respect, or out of fear?  In defense of whatever your answer is on behalf of the Japanese, I think the answer in America is that our attitude towards our government arises out of learned helplessness.


It is sort of difficult to say why the Japanese ignore their government.  The Japanese government is constantly going through different leaders in recent years (six leaders in five years, the average Japanese prime minister "lifespan" in the 90s was only two years).  Several of these leaders have had approval ratings below 20%, with two of them having approval ratings below 10% (far lower than even Bush and Nixon got).  Heck, Japan basically went through a TEN YEAR LONG RECESSION in the 90s, caused by the bursting of a property/real estate bubble, with government solutions like mass bailouts or enormous never before heard of stimulus packages doing nothing to solve it (sound familiar?).  Despite these conditions, there has been no mass protest or anything of that nature against their government.

I'd say it comes from a feelings of complexity and inevitability.  The belief seems to be that the problems of society are too complex to solve and that it is often times too late to solve such problems.  I've talked to Japanese about their government and they tend to say "it doesn't matter, we'll have a new leader in a year anyway." I also think perception plays a role too.  The average Japanese feels that their government is weak and incompetent, but they don't perceive it as a downright evil entity like many Americans of both OWS and Tea Party stripes perceive.  The Japanese government does have a history of personal money laundering scandals, not to mention some exposed cover ups.  However, Japan has not had a recent history of waging corrupt wars or of actively seeking to deny civil rights.  Police CAN hold you in custody for 21 days without telling anyone, but this civil rights violation has been around for quite some time and is rarely used, though it shouldn't exist to begin with.  

In America, you've at least seen things such as OWS and Indie Rock become popular in the past year.  In Japan, the two big trends of the past year are quite different.  One is AKB48 and their "sister idol groups", large groups with tons of girls in them, each tailored so that every Japanese man can find their "dream girl" in the group, and all singing upbeat, happy, uplifting songs.  The other is the Korean Pop explosion, an image-heavy style too focused on boy groups, girl groups, cool dances, and catchy beats to be socially conscious.  Both these styles weren't popular in the 00s, so this is Japan's 2010s culture.

Will the Japanese start protesting like Europe, America, and the Middle East have done?  I don't think so.  Your average disaffected Japanese youth is too busy singing happy AKB48 songs at a karaoke place to take the streets.  It's not exactly the type of music that hints at a coming "storm" of discontent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkHlnWFnA0c&feature=relmfu

Will the Japanese start protesting like Europe, America, and the Middle East have done?  I don't think so.  Your average disaffected Japanese youth is too busy singing happy AKB48 songs at a karaoke place to take the streets.  It's not exactly the type of music that hints at a coming "storm" of discontent.


I hope they don't.  Japan's pretty cool as it is.  It's the last place on earth where the fun parts of William Gibson's novels can still come to life.  (There was an idol band that in the western news a few weeks/months ago because it was entirely CGI-based, but I can't find it.)  While I'm on the subject of Japanese pop culture, beyond the obligatory Nyan Cat (which became a planetwide meme), whatever happened to vocaloid as a subgenre as music?  Is that still going on, or is Japan up to something even more bizarre (that I'd still put on infinite loop while reading this board :) these days?

I hope they don't.  Japan's pretty cool as it is.  It's the last place on earth where the fun parts of William Gibson's novels can still come to life.  (There was an idol band that in the western news a few weeks/months ago because it was entirely CGI-based, but I can't find it.)  While I'm on the subject of Japanese pop culture, beyond the obligatory Nyan Cat (which became a planetwide meme), whatever happened to vocaloid as a subgenre as music?  Is that still going on, or is Japan up to something even more bizarre (that I'd still put on infinite loop while reading this board :) these days?


I think you might be referring to one of two things.  One is AKB48's "new member" who turned out to be completely CGI.  The other is Hatsune Miku, a completely virtual idol who "performs" at concerts through holograms and is of the Vocaloid trend you mentioned:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTXO7KGHtjI

As far as Vocaloid, as far as I can tell, it's still alive but kind of dying down.  Perfume's kind of semi-Vocaloid-ish in a way with their vocals and they're pretty popular.  A lot of the fans of that genre have attached themselves to AKB48 and the "pop idol girl group" trend that's hit big in the past year.  That trend's probably been the big one this year.  AKB48 has had their albums and singles match sales levels last seen in the late 90s - something that most thought would be impossible to do.   Heck, even phenomenons like Lady Gaga still can't match the sales of NSync and the Backstreet Boys in their prime.  Here's a video of the top 100 best selling songs of the year in Japan, in case you're curious as to what the average Japanese youth is listening to these days.  The top 20 in particular (around 13:30-ish) is telling, have fun telling the difference between NMB48, SKE48, and AKB48.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5VmEQEah7U&feature=g-all-a&list=PL02C671C13746019E&context=G2cff10aFAAAAAAAABAA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5VmEQEah7U&feature=g-all-a&list=PL02C671C13746019E&context=G2cff10aFAAAAAAAABAA

Seems like a mix between bubblegum teenage girl groups, pop-rock, sappy ballads, and some techno-pop style music that is currently popular in the US/europe.
No trace of dubstep though. ;D

Seems like a mix between bubblegum teenage girl groups, pop-rock, sappy ballads, and some techno-pop style music that is currently popular in the US/europe.
No trace of dubstep though. ;D


You say that like one of those things are a bad thing, and I don't know which :)

I've been known to listen to my share of Eurobeat these days.  That and Nyan Cat are how how I stumbled over the whole Vocaloid thing.  Maybe this is where they've been getting it from, or vice versa.  My hunch is Japan being ahead of the curve.  It beats most of the stuff I hear on Clear Channel (there is no more "radio" in the States) these days, if for no reason other than it's something I haven't heard before.  I'm not usually a fan of bubblegum pop, but if you take any style and ckrank it to eleven (warning: anti-bubblegum euro-industrial-rock), you'll end up with something pretty neat.


I think you might be referring to one of two things.  One is AKB48's "new member" who turned out to be completely CGI.  The other is Hatsune Miku, a completely virtual idol who "performs" at concerts through holograms and is of the Vocaloid trend you mentioned:


Thanks - I'm going with Hatsune Miku, because I remember something about live performance in the article.  More thanks for the explanation and the top 100 list.  I've had the top 100 on as background music tonight, and there's a lot more English in there than I'd expected.  How many Japanese know enough English to understand those chorus lines (either by seeing the video or by hearing the words)?  (Disclaimer: I'm the punchline of the joke that ends with "...and what do you call a guy who speaks only one language?" "American!")

With a name like Fighters #81 (maybe?), but definitely with the visual presentation at Why (Keep Your Head Down) at #17, is video game music still alive, albeit as a fringe thing?  (Dammit, you made me look.  SST is still going, reincarnated as Blind Spot?  Awesome!  Not that I think I'm going to have an excuse to be in Japan next year, but... wow!)

The top 20 in particular (around 13:30-ish) is telling, have fun telling the difference between NMB48, SKE48, and AKB48.

Indeed.  Owning about half the top-20 is an impressive achievement!  I googled (Akihabara, I should have known!  Is it still a place where you can just walk into any store, point at a datasheet, and get electronic components instead of the blank stares you get at Radio Shack?)... Although I understand some of the importance of the differences between the geographical locations, I'm still wondering what the "48" (as in "Project 48", which is as far as I got) refers to.

By the way, feel free to laugh!  I've probably done the cross-cultural equivalent of my grandmother asking me why there's a rapper (Eminem) named after M&Ms candies and wondering who the second "M" was.  It's perfectly OK to say that there might not be a reason, and it might not matter.  The last really big thing out of Japan that I paid serious attention to was the VGM soundtrack thing, and that was more than 15 years ago!

(And there are (far (as in way more)) too many parentheses than necessary in this post.  (My bad.))

Yeah in east asia, there's definitely a different movement to the pop culture, evidently since the late 00s where there's bubblegum of K-POP,J-POP of boy and girl bands :p Rock like punk and stuff still exist in those countries but it's sounds and influence are of their own so we can't just assume the worldwide phenomenon about the indie/hipster thing. Movements against government in the middle east have started back around late 00's anyways... remember Iran?

However fashionably we have been globally more similar, everything becomes very edgy as of the late 00's with the design of mix and mash from the past. In a way, despite the differences I would agree in a way 1970's are similar to the 00's in the fact that they are more of a transition kind of decade. In a sense 1970-1973 had very similar feelings of the late 60s and 1977-1979 are similar to the 80s... leaving a very short 1974-1976 gap of a real 70's culture of disco and hypercolour that's developed from the 1960s.

But up until about 1987-ish Most of these fads and pop things are of a baby boomer's culture that began since the 1960s...  1987 were already starting to see some heavy ballads kicking in as well as the raise of underground hip hop and alternative rocks. I reckon these things completely overshadowed the less recognised anarcho-punk rock of the 1970s :p which the 90s kinda developed it into pop punk towards mid 00s. Anyways the baby boomer cultures kinda similar since the 60s - 80s evident in their messages of a more self absorbed culture, despite change in styles. late 80s and now, we still had that echo of self absoprtion culture but what i tend to notice is that towards this decade on wards we slowly leaving this phenomenon.

in summary, making a cultural statement can be hard. Somethings are more popular in certain times but sometimes things just overlaps. rock and roll of the 1960's actually developed from the 1950's anyway and so as jazz of the 1950s and so on. hippies overlapped between mid 1960's - mid 1970's... it's mish mash XD

  In Japan, the two big trends of the past year are quite different. One is AKB48 and their "sister idol groups", large groups with tons of girls in them, each tailored so that every Japanese man can find their "dream girl" in the group, and all singing upbeat, happy, uplifting songs.  The other is the Korean Pop explosion, an image-heavy style too focused on boy groups, girl groups, cool dances, and catchy beats to be socially conscious.  Both these styles weren't popular in the 00s, so this is Japan's 2010s culture.

Will the Japanese start protesting like Europe, America, and the Middle East have done?  I don't think so.  Your average disaffected Japanese youth is too busy singing happy AKB48 songs at a karaoke place to take the streets. 
 

Talk about a disgusting generalization.

NOBODY, ANYWHERE likes AKB48, except a handful of desperate virgins. The massive AKB48 popularity they talk about on TV simply doesn't exist. The K-Wave actually does have some fans, but nothing that explains the"explosion" of airplay it gets on FujiTV. Even the K-fans are aware of the disparity. There is a controversy as to why Korean drama and music so overplayed, the obvious reason is that its cheaper; all of the production costs are paid by the Korean entertainment industry, and alot of those costs are subsidised by the South Korean government. Other theories involve the very left-leaning pro-Korean bias in FujiTV's reporting or conspiracies by Zainichi Koreans.

I think you're viewing interest-group-run Japanese media with through the lens of TRL-style "TV run by the fans" type media. AKB's prevalance has about as much to do with their fame as my grandpa's teeth.

Plus, there were some large demonstration in the last two years, such as the protest against left-biased Fuji Television, and the 2010 anti-China protests (which was covered up by all major media stations).

Talk about a disgusting generalization.

NOBODY, ANYWHERE likes AKB48, except a handful of desperate virgins. The massive AKB48 popularity they talk about on TV simply doesn't exist. The K-Wave actually does have some fans, but nothing that explains the"explosion" of airplay it gets on FujiTV. Even the K-fans are aware of the disparity. There is a controversy as to why Korean drama and music so overplayed, the obvious reason is that its cheaper; all of the production costs are paid by the Korean entertainment industry, and alot of those costs are subsidised by the South Korean government. Other theories involve the very left-leaning pro-Korean bias in FujiTV's reporting or conspiracies by Zainichi Koreans.

I think you're viewing interest-group-run Japanese media with through the lens of TRL-style "TV run by the fans" type media. AKB's prevalance has about as much to do with their fame as my grandpa's teeth.

Plus, there were some large demonstration in the last two years, such as the protest against left-biased Fuji Television, and the 2010 anti-China protests (which was covered up by all major media stations).


First of all, AKB48 has PLENTY of fans.  If they did not, why is it that most college students I meet usually like AKB48 songs?  Why is it that every time we go to karaoke, AKB48 songs are always sung by people of both genders?  AKB48 started out having a fanbase similar to what you mentioned, but they've exploded and have become perfectly acceptable for most people to like.  Also, the fact that there is so much AKB48 merchandise, cross-promotion, etc. means that there is a demand for those things.  If there wasn't a demand, the members wouldn't constantly be on the covers of Japanese magazines, doing cross-promotions and commercials for various products, or have tons of merchandise all over the place.  I've met some people who don't like them at all, every trend has people who highly dislike it.  However, the massive popularity does exist. 

Second of all, I agree that there is a disparity between the actual popularity of K-Pop and the amount of exposure it gets in the media.  I've noticed this disparity myself when certain K-Pop songs debut at #8 on the charts, but get more airplay than the #2 song on the charts, as well as how it seems to be pushed a lot by certain stores (Tower Records is a prominent example imo).  Despite this, it can't be denied that Tohoshinki, SNSD, and Kara all have a ton of mainstream popularity.  SNSD and Kara both got into the top ten highest selling albums of the year.  Tohoshinki would have been in there too if they released a full album instead of just singles, I guarantee it.  Not to mention Korean groups and singers like 2PM, Jang Geun Suk (had a #1 song earlier this year), and even Super Junior (had a #2 song recently) have done great on the music charts and certainly have popularity, albeit overshadowed by the "big three".  I know tons of people who love at least some K-Pop, especially among young girls.  I've been to a few K-Pop themed stores in Japan and the places can be packed.

As for protests, those protests are nothing compared to stuff like Occupy Wall Street, the Arab Spring, and what has been happening in Europe. 


You say that like one of those things are a bad thing, and I don't know which :)

I've been known to listen to my share of Eurobeat these days.  That and Nyan Cat are how how I stumbled over the whole Vocaloid thing.  Maybe this is where they've been getting it from, or vice versa.  My hunch is Japan being ahead of the curve.  It beats most of the stuff I hear on Clear Channel (there is no more "radio" in the States) these days, if for no reason other than it's something I haven't heard before.  I'm not usually a fan of bubblegum pop, but if you take any style and ckrank it to eleven (warning: anti-bubblegum euro-industrial-rock), you'll end up with something pretty neat.

Thanks - I'm going with Hatsune Miku, because I remember something about live performance in the article.  More thanks for the explanation and the top 100 list.  I've had the top 100 on as background music tonight, and there's a lot more English in there than I'd expected.  How many Japanese know enough English to understand those chorus lines (either by seeing the video or by hearing the words)?  (Disclaimer: I'm the punchline of the joke that ends with "...and what do you call a guy who speaks only one language?" "American!")


The general consensus seems to be that English is "cool" and that's why they spam English in the choruses sometimes.  K-Pop is even more guilty of it than J-Pop.  Some understand it, some don't.  General consensus is that they don't pay too much attention to the words.  I found out two weeks ago that "Video Killed The Radio Star" is considered a Christmas song in Japan because the melody has a "Christmasy feel" to it according to them.  I explained the meaning of the lyrics and they were genuinely surprised.

With a name like Fighters #81 (maybe?), but definitely with the visual presentation at Why (Keep Your Head Down) at #17, is video game music still alive, albeit as a fringe thing?  (Dammit, you made me look.  SST is still going, reincarnated as Blind Spot?  Awesome!  Not that I think I'm going to have an excuse to be in Japan next year, but... wow!)

Well, video game music has always been fringe to some degree.  Video games themselves are quite mainstream and the "otaku culture" makes it so that video game soundtracks, at least for more famous games, can easily be found in places like Tsutaya.  That said, most Japanese don't care for it.  I haven't asked, but I imagine that's what the answer would be.


Indeed.  Owning about half the top-20 is an impressive achievement!  I googled (Akihabara, I should have known!  Is it still a place where you can just walk into any store, point at a datasheet, and get electronic components instead of the blank stares you get at Radio Shack?)... Although I understand some of the importance of the differences between the geographical locations, I'm still wondering what the "48" (as in "Project 48", which is as far as I got) refers to.

By the way, feel free to laugh!  I've probably done the cross-cultural equivalent of my grandmother asking me why there's a rapper (Eminem) named after M&Ms candies and wondering who the second "M" was.  It's perfectly OK to say that there might not be a reason, and it might not matter.  The last really big thing out of Japan that I paid serious attention to was the VGM soundtrack thing, and that was more than 15 years ago!

(And there are (far (as in way more)) too many parentheses than necessary in this post.  (My bad.))

The 48 refers to the fact that the original concept was for 48 girls in the group.  Nowadays, the number of girls in the group these days is different so the "48" thing doesn't really have any meaning now.  There's a TON of girls in the various groups, but the general trend seems to be that only a few are the "main girls" and the rest are basically backup dancers and singers.  AKB48 may have 48 or so girls, but the "main girls" that are widely popular, seen everywhere, and get prime real estate in their music videos number around 10.  The other groups are also named after parts of the cities they originate from.  SKE48 is Sakae, a part of Nagoya, and NMB48 is Namba, a part of Osaka.  It's sort of a pop culture phenonmenon that's everywhere these days.

WOW, I guess I am behind the times. I need to get out more (and talk to more real people).

Sorry I yelled like that, its just that what you said about men being able to find their "dream girl," made it sound really gross.

But looking at the sales data, it might actually be the case... apparently teenage males make up a larger percentage of their sales than women of all ages put together  :-[

K-wave does have its fair share of fame though, I wasnt trying to deny that. In fact, I would say that despite its exaggerated fame, the K-wave would probably be the cultural movement of the decade so far, impacting fashion (KARA suspenders), local music (have you SEEN those "SDN48" chicks?), and vacationing habits (more youths visiting South Korea), while I don't see any cultural "effect" from AKB groups.

WOW, I guess I am behind the times. I need to get out more (and talk to more real people).

Sorry I yelled like that, its just that what you said about men being able to find their "dream girl," made it sound really gross.

But looking at the sales data, it might actually be the case... apparently teenage males make up a larger percentage of their sales than women of all ages put together  :-[

K-wave does have its fair share of fame though, I wasnt trying to deny that. In fact, I would say that despite its exaggerated fame, the K-wave would probably be the cultural movement of the decade so far, impacting fashion (KARA suspenders), local music (have you SEEN those "SDN48" chicks?), and vacationing habits (more youths visiting South Korea), while I don't see any cultural "effect" from AKB groups.


I would argue that AKB48 and their spinoff groups have been quite defining.  If you had told people in 2009 (when all top five singles spots belonged to Arashi, king of Johnnys boy bands) or 2008 that girl groups would make up a significant portion of the music charts, it would have been unbelievable in a time when girl idol groups were viewed as completely uncool.  The merchandising and commercialization bonanza also makes them virtually inescapable at times, as they're advertising everything from English and math learning books to apartment finding shops to vending machines and more.

Despite that, I agree with your assertion about the Korean Wave being the more important cultural movement.  AKB48 is largely restricted to just Japan alone, while the Korean Wave has had a significant impact on the Asian music scene as a whole.  Go look at Thai or Vietnamese music ten years ago then fast forward to today: the influence of K-Pop is clear.  On a side note, SDN48 was originally intended to debut in the Korean music market, but that decision apparently didn't go through (the fact that most Koreans have zero interest in Japanese music probably helped with that).  The Korean Wave has also come in two forms: music and tv dramas, so it's had a "double influence" (two forms of entertainment rather than one) that AKB48 can't match.

In any case, it's interesting times for Japanese music.  The combo of AKB48 and K-Pop have created a music scene that's distinctly different from how it was in 2009 or even a year and a half ago, when I first came to Japan for a short study abroad program, a time when AKB48 and K-Pop were just starting to become popular.