[Cosmic Eagle]

So your point is? That fans should make more noise?

No one's blind to the fact that Japanese music is for a niche group but what would you do unless you have a couple million to bankroll a major breakout effort

The Japanese music industry isn't the only industry in Japan suffering. The real answer to its problems is a general improvement in the national economy as a whole.

Would you rather instead a horde of AKB48 clones spreading overseas generating mass-produced works which they themselves don't even make and worse, the singers themselves must suffer because of that "idol behaviour idealism" bullshit instead of being able to produce what they really want to? Because in case you are wondering, that's the way it is with most Korean acts as well.

Your source talks of Japan music industry being corrupt and money grubbing....You honestly believe Korean and American ones are not the same? That the industry there isn't a backstabbing jungle as well? The main reason for Korean success isn't because they are artistically superior (as if such thing can even be ranked as superior or inferior) but because of sheer propaganda advertising and acts catered to what the mass audience can easily soak up instead of them actually producing music by heart and soul.


Besides advertising, the reason why Japanese music is not as well known outside Japan, is because their music targets specific audiences; the AKB48 style sections don't overshadow them as much as Korean idol groups overshadow other music acts from their own nation. It's still not that bad in Taiwan where idol groups are relatively not as major. More money for artists and creators won't happen if their art is not the type that can rake in a mass audience. It's similar to why S.H.E is more popular than A Mei for example. It doesn't mean one is technically or artistically inferior, it's about which one appeals to the masses more. And if you say, replace the current artists with a new generation of specially bred idols.....What help is there when you effectively kill off an entire generation of creators?


Do you actually want the Japan music industry to go down that route? Who wins in the end? Not the performers, not the audiences, but as usual, the bigwigs up at the top, the way it is now, and the way it will continue to be to even greater extent if the industry goes all out "mainstream, mass produce consumer good style." More money for creators in the arts industry has long ceased to be true in almost every capitalist economy since a long time.

Japan's industry has survived in good economic times under this model, with it being more conducive for singer/song writers who write or perform what they want as well as for much more diversity in genres as a result. I don't see why if the economy does recover, they won't continue to survive. If the aforementioned happens and the Japanese music scene loses more of it's soul and what people go to it for....well, I'll say it's even more dead from a fan's point of view.

If Japan's economy does not pick up? Then really, instead of worrying about the music industry, worry about the bigger economic hurdle first