Japan says ‘Western Pop’?:No thanks, don’t do it

Hood, Christopher ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7477-3944 2024. Japan says ‘Western Pop’?:No thanks, don’t do it. Presented at: 24th BATJ Conference, 09-10 September 2024. BATJ Journal. , vol.24 The British Association for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language, pp. 41-51. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

From time to time, you come across articles and headlines in music magazines suggesting that a particular British/European/American (hereafter referred to as ‘Western’) act is ‘big in Japan’. Although, through my various trips to Japan, I have never really had the impression that (m)any Western acts were successful there, I also had no particular reason to question the popularity of Western acts in Japan. My assumption was that those acts that were successful in English speaking countries, in particular, would also have success in Japan. However, when I began to research the situation in 2020, I found that the reality was very different. The aim of this article is to understand a variety of aspects of Western pop music in Japan, using an example of a particular group in the 1980s. During the COVID19 pandemic I started working on a book related to one Western act from the 1980s, Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Japan was one of the countries that the band, often referred to simply as Frankie or FGTH, toured to. There were also special issues of singles and albums in Japan in addition to the standard releases. Such factors suggested that Frankie had been relatively popular and successful in Japan. However, the reality was that Frankie had made little impression on the charts in Japan. While this was a somewhat surprising discovery, it transpired that it was reflective of a norm for most Western acts in Japan. This presented, therefore, a puzzle. If Western pop music is making such a small impression on the charts in Japan, why do Western acts tour Japan and not only release singles and albums there, but also have versions that are different to those in the rest of the world? This article is significant as it adds to the very small body of literature on Western pop music in Japan. The article uses Frankie Goes To Hollywood as a case study by which to understand a variety of aspects related to pop music in Japan. In 1984, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, made up of five members (Peter Gill, Holly Johnson, Brian Nash, Mark O’Toole, and Paul Rutherford), burst onto the world stage. The first single, Relax, reached Number 1, spawning a plethora of 12-inch remixes, and also helped to launch the ubiquitous FRANKIE SAY T-shirts. Relax’s cover and content were nearly as outrageous as the group itself, including its two openly gay members (Johnson and Rutherford). The second single, Two Tribes, about the threat of nuclear war, shot straight to Number 1 in the UK, where it stayed for nine weeks. An extraordinary double-album, Welcome To The Pleasuredome, followed and the group got their third number one single, The Power Of Love, soon after. And it was still 1984. While Frankie would release four more singles, another album, Liverpool, and go on two tours, they could never match the heights of 1984 and the band split up in 1987. As well as considering the popularity and overall commercial success of Western acts in Japan, or, rather, the lack thereof, the article provides insights into why there are special Japanese releases of albums, some linguist-related issues related to Western music, and how support for Western acts may manifest itself in light of the apparent lack of widespread popularity.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Modern Languages
Publisher:	The British Association for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language
ISSN:	2398-953X
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	6 March 2024
Date of Acceptance:	23 January 2024
Last Modified:	13 Apr 2024 00:24
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/166906

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