Sex appeal and JPOP:does it even exist

[SummeryDreams]

I love Japan so much that I've made up my mind to dream of residing there someday.. But in the case of POP music, I guess I'd go for Koreans.. I don't know, but for some reasons this sexy thing is sort of more likely to be portrayed better by the Koreans (my own perspectives) as the Japanese women were sort of like the cute ones and the anime like ones.. And by the way, Koreans are having more perfect outside looks than Japanese, probably because plastic surgeries are Korean's expertise...

[Siegel Clyne]

The Daily Mail published an article on April 25, 2013 about South Koreans complaining about the plastic surgery boom in South Korea, Has plastic surgery made these beauty queens all look the same? Koreans complain about pageant 'clones':

While the popularity of cosmetic surgery in South Korea may come as a surprise to many, the industry there is in fact booming.

Last year, 20 per cent of women aged 19 to 49 in the capital city of Seoul admitted to going under the knife.

One of the most popular surgical procedures is double eyelid surgery - which reduces excess skin in the upper eyelid to make the eyes appear bigger and make them look more 'Western'.

It is believed that the rise of the country's music industry is behind the boom, and many patients visit clinics with photos of celebrities, asking surgeons to emulate American noses or eyes.

Singer PSY, whose song 'Gangnam Style' became a global hit, said his record label had urged him to get plastic surgery.

PSY undergo plastic surgery? Crazy.

Well, even with all the emphasis on female cuteness in Japan, Japan did manage to produce a couple of Miss Universes - Akiko Kojima, Miss Universe 1959, and Riyo Mori, Miss Universe 2007 - as well as Miss Universe 2006 First Runner-Up, Kurura Chibana (a lot of people thought Chibana should have won, a natural beauty with a great, easy going, endearing personality).

A lot of credit for Riyo Mori and Kurara Chibana's successes in the Miss Universe pageant has to go not only to those two women themselves (obviously), but to the French woman who directed the Miss Universe Japan pageant from 1998 to 2009, Ines Ligron.

Ligron, if I recall correctly, stressed for Japanese beauty contestants the international concept of beauty, with its emphasis on womanliness, rather than the Japanese concept of beauty, which emphasizes cuteness.

[NoemiChan]

Originally Posted by Siegel Clyne

The Daily Mail article publicized April 25, 2013 on South Koreans complaining about the plastic surgery boom in South Korea, Has plastic surgery made these beauty queens all look the same? Koreans complain about pageant 'clones':

Hitler is a stinker, everybody knows tha-at...

[Siegel Clyne]

Just stating the obvious, but there are some who still deny that plastic surgery is all that rampant in South Korea, and I am one who likes to back things up with plenty of sources and examples...

[NoemiChan]

Originally Posted by Siegel Clyne

Just stating the obvious, but there are some who still deny that plastic surgery is all that rampant in South Korea, and I am one who likes to back things up with plenty of sources and examples...

Knowing that they all look the same and near perfect skin... I deduction something is wrong....

[Siegel Clyne]

South Korea overtook Brazil as the plastic surgery capital of the world in 2012...

So Brazil used to be the plastic surgery capital of the world...

[SummeryDreams]

I've found some acquintances in some forum sites, and I happened to chat with a Korean. She says that it's really expensive, will take you about 10k to 20k USD excluding the stay as you are in need to stay there for 6 months for your evaluations and stuffs. She also told me that most of the people there after they will graduate from colleges will have plastic surgeries as gifts from their parents. AND! Just recently in my Facebook feeds (I know this doctor), a doctor from our country had practice plastic surgery and made a clinic in South Korea, before he died of lung cancer, he made a testimonial that he earns about 10million per week, and he was able to buy his own Ferrari. So it's a big hit really in Korea.

[Siegel Clyne]

The current plastic surgery boom in South Korea, unfortunately, brings to mind this particular Twilight Zone television episode from 1963, in which a futuristic society demands that everyone undergo the "transformation" (akin to plastic surgery) to look attractive and everyone looks alike:

Twilight Zone: Number Twelve Looks Just Like You with Richard Long S05E17

YouTube

https://youtu.be/UMSF2wUISO4

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

[SummeryDreams]

Amazingly someone still has a copy of that vid and still able to be uploaded in youtube. Either way, I've read some blogs giving sample pictures of korean who had undergone plastic surgery - the result were really breath taking...

[DonQuigleone]

I have to say, if I was to compare mainstream KPop and JPop, there's no contest. KPop is a much slicker product. The girls are prettier, the music videos better made, the dances more coordinated, the marketing apparatus more honed and opportunistic. The videos and dances for JPop idols are just amateurish in comparison, and the tunes are forgettable. Mainstream JPop just feels like a poor knock-off of western trends.

However, overall I do prefer Japanese music, but the strength of the Japanese music industry is not in it's "mainstream" component, but is in the doujin side of things, and the sort of tracks you might get in Anime. They are much more unique. Alas, the Japanese music industry is completely incompetent at harnessing this latent talent, and when you look at the independent Doujin circles, they're often unable to interface with potential western fans due to varying combinations of language barriers and sometimes even outright xenophobia. Korea can't compete with Japan on Vocaloids or Doujin music.