Swift, a Key Pro-American System, Struggles in Japan... What Does Local Media Analyze?

J-Pop Resurgence, Unique Album Sales Culture
Also Due to K-Pop Replacing Demand for Traditional Pop Songs

Pop star Taylor Swift, who has caused a global frenzy and even coined the new term 'Swiftnomics,' struggles particularly in one music market: Japan, the birthplace of J-pop. Since 2008, the popularity of foreign pop songs in Japan has sharply declined, with only J-pop and K-pop now thriving.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) recently analyzed the Japanese music chart 'Billboard Japan Hot 100' and reported that Swift's new song did not make it into the top 100 in Japan.

American pop singer Taylor Swift. [Image source=AP Yonhap News]

Swift is not the only one failing to capture the Japanese market. Western music as a whole is losing ground in Japan. In 2008, Western albums accounted for 29.8% of the Hot 100, but last year, it was only 0.3%. Not a single Western song appeared in the top 100 of Apple Music's streaming service.

Instead, the Japanese music market is dominated by J-pop. The share of K-pop has also steadily maintained the 10% range. The 'foreign music' market, once occupied by Western albums, now seems to have shifted to K-pop.

Why has the Japanese popular music market lost interest in Western music? Nikkei pointed to the strong performance of J-pop and the unique culture of music distribution in Japan as the reasons. First, recent Japanese musicians are active worldwide, supported by social networking services (SNS). The melody-focused songwriting and a tendency to emphasize sound over lyrics make their music suitable as 'background music' for short-form videos.

J-pop singers representing the latest Japanese albums, such as YOASOBI, have benefited from social networking services (SNS). [Image source=Captured from YOASOBI official website]

Also, 60% of Japanese idol albums are sold as physical CDs. In contrast, in Western countries, streaming services like Spotify account for over 90% of sales. In Japan, purchasing physical albums or merchandise often includes a so-called 'handshake ticket' that allows fans to meet the artist in person. Western musicians, unfamiliar with this practice, find it difficult to compete in Japan.

Meanwhile, K-pop has replaced the demand once held by 'Western music.' This is because K-pop is somewhat familiar to Japanese music while mixing English lyrics and reflecting Anglo-American trends, blending the identity of 'foreign music.' Nikkei stated, "K-pop has similarities to Western pop songs" and viewed that "K-pop has supplemented the demand for pop songs among Japanese people."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.