The artists of the 90s who proved so innovative largely grew up in the bubble and shortly-post-bubble economies. That was when Japanese, especially in the big cities, had a certain cultural confidence/pride that enabled the kinds of experimentation/anything-is-possible/japan-is-cool output we saw in that period. The high profits we saw in the 90s were also a side-effect of the general cashed-up population. When you’ve got money in your pocket, your thoughts turn to fashion and self-expression.

As the real hangover started to set in, though, this evaporated. When money is tight, people turn to the familiar, socially-proofed and risk-free, and this holds true for culture as much as anything.

I view the rise and fall of j-pop innovation in the 90s as mostly a socioeconomic phenomenon. Call it “cultural confidence”. They had it, now they don’t. And japanese culture doesn’t permit the nihilism and dog-eat-dog OG blustering of the US hip-hop scene, so that avenue is cut off, too.

I expect the next big wave of interesting pop music to come from Shanghai.

1) the “major” system.

At rockpapershotgun, noted indie game developer Kyle Gabler (world of goo) noted that if his company was a major game studio, they would probably be making 3d platformers because that would be the only thing that would pay the bills. When you have large budgets and large staffs, you’re expected to produce results that pay for your large budget and large staff, and that means aiming for games/artists that sell large numbers. At some point during the whole piracy discussion, the label heads basically said that only the largest sellers made real money for the record company – the problem: the largest sellers only account for something like .2% of the total number of releases.

As markets shrink, the majors focus more and more on ensuring hits, further limiting the amount of “new” “interesting” acts.

2) Industry Capture:

Major labels in Japan have too much control of the market, and have been too successful in capturing independent talent. In america and elsewhere, artists who have either spurned or been spurned by major labels have been able to establish themselves independently of the major label system, allowing artists to survive without the major labels help, and indeed, even dictate terms to the major labels should they sign on. In Japan, artists which develop a following are quickly scooped up by major labels and are thus unable to establish indepedent infrastructure. The indie market is always being captured by the major players.

3) related to the above, lack of distribution of channels for indie players.

One of the dirty secrets behind ford’s pitiful market share in Japan is the fact that Japanese car makers basically control the japanese car distribution (dealer) network, if you try and deal ford cars, toyota quickly shuts you down. I would guess that the same thing happens in major record/cd stores, and the way that burning/avex was able to suceed solely by a) utilizing import market channels, and b) mob money and power would corroborate that.

4) the Jimusho system: In america, succesful artists have been able to establish their own record labels/distribution networks. While this is all the rage currently (everyone has their own label nowadays) its easy to forget that the real reason Atlanta became a hip hop power house was LaFace(L.A. Reid and Babyface’s label) and SoSoDef (Jermain Dupri), and the reason many southern rap artists were able to survive was because Atlantic would distribute their independent releases. I would be willing to bet that most jimusho artists not only cant acquire the resources necessary to establish their own labels, but are contractually prevented from doing so, and even if they could, how would they distribute their music?

5) The livehouse system: Perhaps it has do with high rents, but livehouses in Japan are primarily a scam that feeds off working bands. Rather than working for a portion of door/bar bands are expected to guarantee a certain number of tickets (200 or so) before they see any money. This means higher barriers for entry into the market, and more bands who must work to support their band “hobby” rather than being supported by their music.

Remember that YCMK replicate key qualities but do not work on actual 8-bit hardware. They use the style but do not suffer the limitations of chiptunes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7C74BoQtAc

Listened to a great satellite radio station ( USEN 440, B-2 channel ) in a Y100 store, and kind of revived some hope that something popular and interesting is happening somewhere in Japan.