Read on Twitter
why ‘K-Pop’ and ‘J-Pop’ shouldn’t be compared — a thread
-I- The words themselves
First of all, let’s explain what is K-Pop, because even some fans don’t really understand the real meaning of that word, and we need it to deal with the problem of the comparison with J-Pop.
A lot of people think K-Pop basically means « Korean Pop », and it’s not false, since that is the definition of the abbreviation. But the concept and the sense of that word are deeper than that.
There are some artists in Korea who are making pop music in Korean, but it’s no considered as K-Pop. Why ?
Because ‘K-Pop’ stands for the Korean idol industry, and it is characterized by certain codes more or less easy to define.
Min Yoongi (‘SUGA’ of BTS) describes these codes as a package of visual and auditory elements, and I think his definition is closer to the reality, comparing to just thinking it’s « Korean Pop ».
(Here is his whole point of view about that topic if you are interested)
This marks the major point of difference between the two terms : K-Pop is a singular industry which started in the 90’s, following its own codes, while J-Pop is nothing else than... A music genre.
‘J-Pop’ is a sub-genre of Japanese music. It has its origins in traditional Japanese music, but it’s really influenced by rock and pop music from the 60’s.
Nowadays, that word is used to designate the Japanese music which includes some pop, rock, dance, rap and soul, but it almost always has that ‘J-Pop’ vibe you can feel.
If I take any pop song in English, Korean, French or whatever and I transcribe the lyrics into Japanese, it won& #39;t necessarily sound Jpop though, since the original influences this genre has are very strong.
So, that was basically the first reason why J-Pop and K-Pop can’t be compared. You can’t compare a music genre and an industry.
-II- The comparison with the idol industry in Japan
A lot of people are confusing the terms « J-Pop » and « J-idol ». Yes, J-idols are doing J-Pop. But just like Korean pop singers aren’t all part of the K-Pop industry, many J-Pop artists aren’t idols.
Some people will think « Okay, si let’s compare both idol industries ! », but I’m happy to learn to you that it’s still not relevant.
First of all, let’s talk about the worldwide influence of both industries, because it’s sometimes an argument for some people to think ‘K-Pop is more famous than J-Pop, so it’s necessarily better quality’.
Music is one of the main soft power strategies to make South Korea shine in the world. And it works very well ! For example, according to this article, about 800 000 tourists went to South Korea in 2018 in order to see BTS.
It represented more than 7% of the tourists from overseas for this year. https://n.news.naver.com/mnews/article/081/0002992730?sid=001">https://n.news.naver.com/mnews/art...
But there’s something else : the music market in Korea is kinda small, so the K-Pop industry has to make a lot of international promotion to reach a different public.
This is not a problem in the J-idol industry : Japan is the second biggest market in the world, behind USA. They already have lots of potential customers in their country, so they don& #39;t need to adapt to the international audience.
Of course, many agencies in the J-idol industry appreciate their international public, but they aren’t looking for international results as their main goal just like the K-Pop industry does.
This is a second main difference. J-idols would probably be more popular overseas if they did some music which sounds more « International pop » like many K-Pop songs and promote internationally, but it’s not working like that.
In fact, the marketing strategies of both industries are completely different. K-Pop is betting on big numbers, a buzz effect and very regular releases with a short and intense promotion.
The J-idol industry mainly relies on fan loyalty (by doing a lot of concerts, events, goods sales, ect...) more than creating trends.
-III- The idols’ skills
I often see comments saying things like « J-Idols can’t sing/dance, it’s so bad » and there are a lot of things to explain to those people.
First of all, please do not generalize. There are many Japanese idols who are born performers, and amazing singers or dancers. But this is not the only criterion that the agencies expect from their idols.
Another time, the K-Pop and J-idols industries are adopting a totally different strategy in the way fans admire idols.
Korean Idols have years of training before debuting, and are carefully chosen to form the most perfect group possible in terms of pure performance.
A main part of K-Pop fans get into their idols for these reasons : they think they are almost perfect, beautiful, talented, ect...
But this isn’t really how the J-idols industry works. It is also based on a feeling of belonging to what the group is accomplishing.
The majority of idols who debuts in Japan haven& #39;t had any real training to speak of. They learn on the job and put a lot of effort into improving themselves.
That’s one of the main reasons why they are popular among their fans. They want to support them, and to help them achieve their dreams. But above all, knowing how to dance and sing are far from the only qualities required to be a Japanese idol.
They can be good at doing MCs, modeling, videos, acting, or showing their interesting personality !
And even if these criteria also exist in the K-Pop industry, a Korean trainee who has not already reached an incredible level in singing (or rap) and dancing will probably never debut.
... While there are some legendary artists in the J-idols who weren’t necessarily very good at singing or dancing at first, but who knew how to shine thanks to other skills.
And, again, don’t generalize. There are Japanese idol groups who are as good as Korean idols in term of singing live or dancing.
This was only my own opinion. I decided to write this after seeing some K-Pop fans and articles constantly comparing J-pop (and the J-idol industry) by considering K-Pop criteria which are not the same 
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😕" title="Verwirrtes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Verwirrtes Gesicht">
And I would like to apologize if some of my ideas don’t seem clear, or if I did some grammar/vocabulary mistakes. English isn’t my native language but I tried my best https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🙌🏼" title="Raising hands (mittelheller Hautton)" aria-label="Emoji: Raising hands (mittelheller Hautton)">
