Dear Japan - There are reasons why K-pop is breaking big internationally and J-pop is not

[koganbot]

Added this to my Oral Hygiene post after YouTube yanked the Japanese video I'd embedded for Hara's "Secret Love." (Goo Hara is one of the singers in K-pop band Kara, who are massively popular in Japan as well as Korea and gear some of their material especially for Japan.) Fortunately, I found another full version of the Japanese PV,* and that's up now, though I fear it'll get killed too. The only official Universal Records posting of the vid that I could find on YouTube is a 14-second teaser. And this isn't an isolated incident: the official posting of the video for 2NE1's Japanese single "Scream" only showed the first half.

Japanese music labels keep trying to prevent us from seeing full videos on YouTube. At least I've noticed that some do. DEAR JAPAN - THERE ARE REASONS WHY K-POP IS BREAKING BIG INTERNATIONALLY AND J-POP IS NOT. Well, the Korean market is smaller than the Japanese market, so Korea has to go international if it wants to score big. In any event, Korean labels give us full access to their videos, though some Korean TV networks will put the kibosh on TV performance clips (it being the labels and not the TV stations that benefit from international attention, I suppose). But in general, South Korea has opened itself up to the international eye and ear via YouTube.

*Music vids are called PVs in Japan and MVs in Korea.

Comments

[askbask.livejournal.com]

Risk and reward consideration I guess, as the Japanese physical market is better than anywhere else, although album sales are at risk there as well, and the physical singles include videos, and there are often various editions of a single or album with differing content, and maybe international attention doesn't pay a much as an expensive single purchase. I'm buying Japanese albums in Korean stores and they are considerably cheaper than they are in Japan.

It used to be impossible, now it's semi-possible to find J-pop MVs on youtube. AKB48 even offer subtitles in various languages, only the videos are generally posted in full only after the singles are old news and no longer contending for the top of the chart.

At least all Momoiro Clover Z PVs are uploaded in full from day one.

Meanwhile Perfume made a very deliberate statement of going global, releasing a global compilation, opening up their official fan club globally, doing an Asian tour, but their own channel still mostly only gives us 1.xx long versions of their MV filmography. To be fair, they seem to have stopped removing others' uploads of videos completely, so I can find several glorious HD versions of 'Glitter' there.

For those who do upload videos, through their own channel or a VEVO-ized channel, too often they're 480p at max. Utada's amazing filmography is up in full, but only at that resolution.

One of my favorite Japanese artist of the year, the underselling rnb singer JASMINE, seems to have no official presence at all. I had been enjoying an unofficial upload of her 'Only You' video for months but it was gone this week and I had to resort to a very poor quality Chinese upload to find it _at all_.

Her songs are still there, though.

[koganbot]

"This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Sony Music Japan International Inc."

[arbitrary-greay.livejournal.com]

Avex and Johnny's are notorious for instantly banhammering everything associated in sight.
Japanese TV is even worse, because most of their stuff is never released on DVD, so you better hope someone ripped the broadcast and has it up for download somewhere, but you might as well forget the majority of it ever being streamed. (Thank goodness for pirate-happy China and their bootleg-ridden streaming sites)

But Japan's not going to change any time soon. Why should they? Breaking big internationally would probably hurt their sales.

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

everyone should take a moment to appreciate the fact that avex has posted a full MV in 720p;; (http://omonatheydidnt.livejournal.com/10232041.html)