The origin of modern "J-pop" is said to be Japanese-language rock music inspired by The Beatles. Unlike the Japanese music genre called kayōkyoku, J-pop uses a special kind of pronunciation, which is similar to English language. The notable singer to do so is Keisuke Kuwata, who pronounced the Japanese word "karada" (body) as "kyerada". By adopting a major second (sol and la) which was used in the sounds of The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and The Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", Japanese pop music became more occidental. However, it is also influenced by Japanese pentatonic scale and distortional tetrachord.
At first, the term "J-pop" was only used for Western-style musicians in Japan such as Pizzicato Five and Flipper's Guitar just after Japanese radio broadcasting J-Wave was established. However, the term became a blanket term covering other music genres such as Japanese rock music of 1990s. Although rock music of Japan until the late 1980s was opposed to kayōkyoku music, Japanese rock bands of 1990s such as Glay assimilated kayōkyoku into their music. After the late 1980s, breakbeat and sampler also changed the Japanese music senre where only expert drummers could not play good rhythm.
Japanese Tower Records defined J-pop as all Japanese music belonging to the Recording Industry Association of Japan except Japanese independent music (also known as "J-indie") in 1990, but they began to use more segmentalized classification such as J-club, J-punk, J-hip-hop, J-reggae, J-anime, Johnny's and Visual kei by 2008 after some indie musicians went on to release their works via major labels.
Whereas rock musicians in Japan usually hate the term "pop", Taro Kato, a member of pop punk band Beat Crusaders, pointed out that the encoded pop music was catchier than "J-pop" and he also said that "J-pop" was the pops (ポップス, poppusu?) music remembered by being aired many times in an interview when they completed their first full-length studio album under a major label, P.O.A.: Pop on Arrival, in 2005. According to another member Toru Hidaka, the 1990s influential music for him (such as Nirvana, Hi-Standard and Flipper's Guitar) was not listened by fans of other music in Japan at that time.
On the other hand, Hide of Greeeen described their music genre as "J-pop". He said, "I also love rock, hip hop and breakbeats, but my field is consistently J-pop. For example, hip hop musicians learn 'the culture of hip hop' when they begin their career. We are not like those musicians and we love the music as sounds very much. Those professional people may say 'What are you doing?' but I think that our musical style is cool after all. The good thing is good.
At first, the term "J-pop" was only used for Western-style musicians in Japan such as Pizzicato Five and Flipper's Guitar just after Japanese radio broadcasting J-Wave was established. However, the term became a blanket term covering other music genres such as Japanese rock music of 1990s. Although rock music of Japan until the late 1980s was opposed to kayōkyoku music, Japanese rock bands of 1990s such as Glay assimilated kayōkyoku into their music. After the late 1980s, breakbeat and sampler also changed the Japanese music senre where only expert drummers could not play good rhythm.
Japanese Tower Records defined J-pop as all Japanese music belonging to the Recording Industry Association of Japan except Japanese independent music (also known as "J-indie") in 1990, but they began to use more segmentalized classification such as J-club, J-punk, J-hip-hop, J-reggae, J-anime, Johnny's and Visual kei by 2008 after some indie musicians went on to release their works via major labels.
Whereas rock musicians in Japan usually hate the term "pop", Taro Kato, a member of pop punk band Beat Crusaders, pointed out that the encoded pop music was catchier than "J-pop" and he also said that "J-pop" was the pops (ポップス, poppusu?) music remembered by being aired many times in an interview when they completed their first full-length studio album under a major label, P.O.A.: Pop on Arrival, in 2005. According to another member Toru Hidaka, the 1990s influential music for him (such as Nirvana, Hi-Standard and Flipper's Guitar) was not listened by fans of other music in Japan at that time.
On the other hand, Hide of Greeeen described their music genre as "J-pop". He said, "I also love rock, hip hop and breakbeats, but my field is consistently J-pop. For example, hip hop musicians learn 'the culture of hip hop' when they begin their career. We are not like those musicians and we love the music as sounds very much. Those professional people may say 'What are you doing?' but I think that our musical style is cool after all. The good thing is good.
