‘Two Tribes, United by Music: Western Pop in Japan’

How many times has the headline ‘Big in Japan’ been published in relation to some Western (i.e., North American or European) pop act? The reality is that, as an article by Guy De Launey’s in 1995 (‘Not-so-big in Japan: Western pop music in the Japanese market’, Popular Music, 40:1) pointed out, very few Western acts, beyond those such as Madonna and Michael Jackson, are ever big in Japan.

On Friday 23 July 2021, I gave a presentation on this topic as part of the JETAA/MEXT (BAMS) UK Academic Special Interest Group.

Keeping with the theme of auto-ethnographic research of the group so far, this presentation looked at aspects of Western pop music in relation to Japan, in relation to my own experiences of researching, and becoming dragged into some form of collecting, about Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Japan and how this ties to the book, Frankie Fans Say Welcome to our World, that I am writing.

The presentation is now available on YouTube

In relation to the JETAA/MEXT (BAMS) UK Academic Special Interest Group, the organisers would be keen for others who are alumni of the two associations to join the group and to also put themselves forward as potential speakers (at the moment, they are particularly keen to hear from those who have an auto-ethnographic element to any of their research or who could speak about how JET or a MEXT scholarship has helped to shape their academic work). To do this, please either comment on this post or send an email to me at HoodCP@Cardiff.ac.uk and I will forward it on to the organisers.