Breakthrough Asian Popstar Update
Since I was a kid, I always found it interesting how someone could be so famous in Japan, but not in the US. Now we have “Pan Asian” stars, meaning they are famous across Japan, Korea, Taiwan, etc, and not just in their home country. So when, I wonder, will someone break through to the US? Certainly many have tried, and just about as many have failed.
The New York Times (registration required) is reporting today on the Korean singer Rain, who is a “Pan Asian” performer and who is getting ready to put on two concerts at Madison Square Garden. To put Rain’s music in context, the articles states:
At 23, Rain, who has been labeled the Korean Justin Timberlake and the Korean Usher, is a serious and driven performer (with washboard abs, winsome looks and a Gene Kelly-like ability to leap through puddles while performing his hit song, “It’s Raining”). He wants nothing less than to break down barriers, build cultural bridges and become the first Asian pop star to succeed in America.
What I thought was also interesting about the article was this prescient point, which probably applies to many of Japundit’s devoted readers;
Because of the “multidirectional flow of cultural goods around the world,” there is a “new pop cosmopolitanism,” according to Henry Jenkins, professor of comparative media studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In an essay in “Globalization” (University of California Press, 2004), Professor Jenkins writes that “younger Americans are distinguishing themselves from their parents’ culture through their consumption of Japanese anime and manga, Bollywood films and bhangra, and Hong Kong action movies.”
So, there you go “younger Americans.” Your ambassador may have arrived.
Poor Mari….she’s my favorite. If I ever become a j-pop singer and part of the...
Shes definitely at the top of my hot list.
perfeckt 10:10
I’m not particularly trend-savvy. In the past six months or so I recently got cable again, and I’ve noticed an astounding amount of anime and anime-style cartoons on Cartoon Network and the various Disney channels. What really intrigues me is that Teen Titans, drawn in a more American style, has a Japanese theme song, sung by Puffy [AmiYumi]. I first heard Puffy when visiting Japan in 2001. I knew that they’d done the Teen Titans theme, but I didn’t realize they sang it in Japanese. Kinda neat. (They also have their own cartoon, wherein they regularly throw in Japanese words and phrases.)
I wonder if Rain will get his own cartoon? Or perhaps cartoons aren’t his idea of “making it”…
January 31st, 2006 at 1:46 amWell teen titans is american but done in anime style because lets face it, its better =P.
And infact yes rather cooly some episodes of teen tians play the theme tune in japanese while some still play in english. Luckily TT is quite clear that anime inspired it, such as the large amount of references to FLCL.
I can’t say i feel Hong Kong action movies and bollywood are new things. Maybe in America they are. But in the Uk most of my Indian friends have at least seen a few movies and a few of them love it. On a sidenote personally i despise the stuff.
And Hong Kong action movies have been big for ages. I watched them growing up (mostly Jackie Chan but other stuff too) and so did many of my friends.
Im not sure i like these things becoming ‘cool’ though. There are unfortunatly a huge amount of rubbish shows that aren’t even anime which now all the kids are talking about how cool that new anime is. When its not even anime and is awful. Its kind of like the situation with gaming. It used to be for geeks only whereas now its for everyone. Yes its good in some ways because it means games get bigger budgets etc but it doesn’t half mean the amount of rubbish titles selling well increases and the amount of creativity decreases.
On music even me a huge Japan/anime freak i only own 4albums from Japan. 2pillows albums, FLCL soundtrack and trigun soundtrack. I really can’t see an asian star becoming really big in the west either. I would guess the main problem is that they mostly lack the ‘image’ because lets face it thats what a huge amount of the music industry is. Oh Eminem is hardcore man he had to grow up in the hood and i can realte bla bla bla, i just don’t think people will ‘connect’ as well with someone from an entirely different culture.
From the length of this post clearly more than my 2cents =P.
January 31st, 2006 at 3:59 amThe American Pop Idol Machines chug along just as efficiently as their Asian counterparts, turning out product for mass consumption. The Machines are capable of scooping up just about anyone, including RAIN, and turning some sort of profit. The success rate is low for everyone of course – for every 100 bands/artists scooped up, maybe 1 or 2 make it big – but I do not think that RAIN’s chances are any lower just because he is Asian.
But you don’t have to measure the success of an Asian Invasion by unit shifting, filling giant stadiums, and t-shirt sales of a single icon. Myself, I am happy that the DIY scene is expanding, with larger numbers of Asian Indy groups come to America every year and schlepp around in vans and play small clubs and manage to live off the sales of CDs and t-shirts at their shows. I can see 10 of these indy bands for the same cost as seeing 1 Pop Idol in a giant stadium. And I can shake their hands after the show and buy them beers and thank them for making the effort to come to America and talk to them about their music. I feel much better that I am supporting them directly for their efforts, rather than feeding the machine that produces the Pop Idol.
I would like to think that the Asian Invasion will come from below like this on a foundation of many small bands, rather than from above in the form of a single Pop Icon to rally around.
January 31st, 2006 at 7:49 pmOh poor Utada. Born and raised in U.S., then shipped to Japan. She explodes over there and wishes for home coming, alass, the flop. However, thanks to Timberland for some sweet beats, even if the lyrics are bleh.
February 1st, 2006 at 1:30 amTalentless airhead hacks like Ashlee Simpson and Paris Hilton can get propelled to the very top over here and actually good artists can’t just because they originate in a different culture. I wish Rain all the best.. Still tho, my guess is he’s gonna be big with the J-pop crowd, kinda like L’arc~en~Ciel or something but not very much more than that.
BTW, am I the only one who absolutely can’t stand Teen Titans? That show is driving me off the wall!
February 1st, 2006 at 6:20 amIn order for a pop singer to make it in USA, he or she must speak English fluently, as the poster above said, and also he or she must be able to conduct interviews in a fluent manner, and most importantly, the USA white and black kids must be able to identify with the person’s face and personality and English fluency. If he or she cannot meet all 3 requirements, they cannot make it in USA. So RAIN is doomed from the beginning. He is not American. Period. Why should he even care to make it in the USA.
As for Utada, she SHOULD have made it, and so should have COCO LEE. I think there is still some big residue of anti-Asian racism in the USA that allows Chicanos to make it, even Colombians like Shakira, but not any yellow people. Never.
Maybe some USA born Japanese-American singer can make it someday, if he or she ever decides to go for it. But a foreign born Asian, not in this lifetime. Sad to say. It should happen, but it cannot beceause USA remains a race concious country of white Euros and urban blacks.
rain GO HOME!
February 1st, 2006 at 2:17 pmTotally agree that Utada is talented. I still have hope for her!
February 2nd, 2006 at 6:34 pmEnglish fluency? Non-Asians?
Well, he’s not a pop singer, but action star Jackie Chan had a #1 box office hit in the US, and he’s not real fluent.
Ichiro is a hero to many kids, particularly in Washington state, and he seldom speaks English.
White and black kids had no trouble identifying with them. They didn’t need English for interviews. What makes people think English for interviews is required to be a pop star? I don’t think so.
All it takes to sell records is a good song, a promo push, and a video. You don’t need English for that.
Heck, if you’re female, all you need is sex appeal. I don’t think anyone would argue Asian women don’t have that.
Utada. Hmmm…She has talent, I guess, but that style of singing, regardless of nationality, drives me up a wall.
I was just talking on the phone to JP the other day about a similar subject. The Japanese would love to have a pop singer on the charts in the US, and haven’t, yet have had remarkable success in other musical fields.
They’ve had several people make it in jazz. White and black people had no problem accepting them.
Orquesta de la Luz had hits on the *salsa* charts, for pete’s sake. In Spanish that they learned phonetically. Spanish-speaking salsa fans generally accepted them, and some of them can be clannish, too.
Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium have an extremely good reputation in early music circles (baroque and before), and have been widely praised in Europe, where they are very harsh on non-Europeans playing baroque. In fact, one specialty magazine lists one of their recordings as the best for one particular work.
Odd that people would think that disposable, chewing gum music is so important.
February 2nd, 2006 at 8:13 pmAmtpontan,
Athletes and actors can make it because they are eye candy, visual stars, but for a singer like Coco Lee or Dreams Come True or Rain –*by the way his recent SAD TANGO single is fantastic!– or Utada it’s all about words, lyrics, pronuciation, and interviews. And race. Latins have made it in USA because of numbers. Asians still lag behind.
First, some Asian-American has to make it big in music, as lead singer, maybe Vietnamese-American or Japanese-American or Chinese-American like Coco Lee, but until then, it cannot happen. America is racist to the bone. Don’t forget what happened in the internment camps during WWII…
February 3rd, 2006 at 1:36 pmSo? How did he do in NYC?
February 4th, 2006 at 5:33 pm
:arrow::smile::evil::oops::razz:
February 8th, 2006 at 6:18 pm[...] Breakthrough Asian Popstar Update He wants nothing less than to break down barriers, build cultural bridges and become the first Asian pop star to succeed in America. [...]
August 3rd, 2008 at 12:20 pm