The Anime Connection
I have this theory about JRock subculture in Australia and it's that its a very isolated experience. I think that you get into it through anime/manga and through people telling you about it. I don't think that the idea of Japanese musicians playing music that we might like crosses people's minds randomly.
Like any subculture there's a certain amount of cultural capital and specific terms that are important and only understandable within the community. In this case some terms are specific to JRock and some are terms adopted from Japanese (sometimes even Japanese subcultures) by the western Anime and Manga fans. These terms can be learnt through glossaries on the web or even from fairly hip language teachers but most terminology comes through initiation into the subculture.
Anime and Manga is much more accessable in the last few years with Tokyopop (one of the largest Manga distributors) increasing its range of titles dramatically. The success of Studio Ghibli (Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away) has also contributed to eyes on the Japan as a new source of products to be repackaged and sold to the West. The increased use of the Internet by teen and geek markets has been able to contribute to its spread. Manga is often bought in Japanese, translated by small groups of fans and then distributed via IRC and 'manga scanlation' sites. Often these are then picked up by Tokyopop and other distribution companies and the 'scanlation' stops. All of this interest, and the accessibility through the internet, leads to an expanded interest in the wider Japanese culture.
In Brisbane, there are two competing anime societies, regular anime film festivals, three comic book stores (and Borders and Dymocks) in the CBD that stock manga and in the last six weeks both the Supanova and Animania fan conventions. There is a very active anime community.
Of course this doesn't necessarily translate into interest in Japanese music as a lot of Anime and Manga fans are not necessarily music fans and can listen to an eclectic and very situational selection of music. So while, in Australia at least, most JRock fans have had a connection with Anime and Manga, not all Anime and Manga fans have a connection to JRock.
Some of this relates to the music style, as previously stated some of it can be quite hard-rock/metal/industrial and some can be quite pop/dance. It's also ridiculed (partially by people who haven't listened to it) as 'Engrish' (really odd misuse of english words - All Your Base are Belong To Us is a famous example). The tones of the language also comes up as a reason why some westerners don't like the music.
JRock fandom is therefore a small section of the Japanophilic geek communities, because these are the people who have access to cultural resources to acquire the cultural capital to search for JRock. Without knowing the terminology, or the names of some of the bands, its nearly impossible to find.
Finding other people who are into the music is as difficult as a quick survey across some of my social network identified two other people in Brisbane that identify (or others identify as) JRock fans. A search on Myspace found four Brisbanites who listed JRock as an interest and MeetUp found thirteen in the Greater Brisbane area. I couldn't find any livejournal communities or Yahoo mailing lists which are Australia specific although I found a club in Perth that plays JRock and Industrial (thumbs up to the mix).
A quick glossary (some of the sites in the last Jrock piece will have better glossaries):
Like any subculture there's a certain amount of cultural capital and specific terms that are important and only understandable within the community. In this case some terms are specific to JRock and some are terms adopted from Japanese (sometimes even Japanese subcultures) by the western Anime and Manga fans. These terms can be learnt through glossaries on the web or even from fairly hip language teachers but most terminology comes through initiation into the subculture.
Anime and Manga is much more accessable in the last few years with Tokyopop (one of the largest Manga distributors) increasing its range of titles dramatically. The success of Studio Ghibli (Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away) has also contributed to eyes on the Japan as a new source of products to be repackaged and sold to the West. The increased use of the Internet by teen and geek markets has been able to contribute to its spread. Manga is often bought in Japanese, translated by small groups of fans and then distributed via IRC and 'manga scanlation' sites. Often these are then picked up by Tokyopop and other distribution companies and the 'scanlation' stops. All of this interest, and the accessibility through the internet, leads to an expanded interest in the wider Japanese culture.
In Brisbane, there are two competing anime societies, regular anime film festivals, three comic book stores (and Borders and Dymocks) in the CBD that stock manga and in the last six weeks both the Supanova and Animania fan conventions. There is a very active anime community.
Of course this doesn't necessarily translate into interest in Japanese music as a lot of Anime and Manga fans are not necessarily music fans and can listen to an eclectic and very situational selection of music. So while, in Australia at least, most JRock fans have had a connection with Anime and Manga, not all Anime and Manga fans have a connection to JRock.
Some of this relates to the music style, as previously stated some of it can be quite hard-rock/metal/industrial and some can be quite pop/dance. It's also ridiculed (partially by people who haven't listened to it) as 'Engrish' (really odd misuse of english words - All Your Base are Belong To Us is a famous example). The tones of the language also comes up as a reason why some westerners don't like the music.
JRock fandom is therefore a small section of the Japanophilic geek communities, because these are the people who have access to cultural resources to acquire the cultural capital to search for JRock. Without knowing the terminology, or the names of some of the bands, its nearly impossible to find.
Finding other people who are into the music is as difficult as a quick survey across some of my social network identified two other people in Brisbane that identify (or others identify as) JRock fans. A search on Myspace found four Brisbanites who listed JRock as an interest and MeetUp found thirteen in the Greater Brisbane area. I couldn't find any livejournal communities or Yahoo mailing lists which are Australia specific although I found a club in Perth that plays JRock and Industrial (thumbs up to the mix).
A quick glossary (some of the sites in the last Jrock piece will have better glossaries):
- JRock/J-Rock - Japanese Rock : JPop/J-Pop - Japanese Pop : CPop - Chinese Pop : KPop - Korean Pop
- Indies - Bands on independent labels, tend to be the harder rockier bands like Dir En Grey, Malice Mizer, X-Japan, Buck Tick
- Visual Kei - The style presented by a subset of the Indies. Cross dressing and androgynous singers, gothic/industrial/glam presentation with lots of dark imagery, Gothic Lolita. Kagrra, Malice Mizer, Alice Nine
- EGL (Elegant Gothic Lolita)/Gothic Lolita - A particular fashion style based on Victorian childrens clothing, often associated with the Harajuku district of Tokyo. Very popular in the west, particulary with the importable Gothic Lolita Bible of which Mana from Malice Mizer is a major presence
- Scanlations - translations of scanned manga
- Shonen Ai - boy love manga
- Yaoi - explicit gay manga aimed mostly at women
- Kawaii - cute in Japanese
posted by Chani Asha at 9:57 pm
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