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[neptunes]

To those who currently reside in japan, I have a question.

How often do you hear and see people listen to american and western music.

I'm talking about Rap to some alternative and rock groups.

Do they know of Puff daddy and 50 cent?

 

[JackFrost2012]

They know 50 Cent because he's connected to Eminem.

Avril Lavigne (Abril-chan!) is popular, as is t.A.T.u.

It's mostly top 40 and super popular acts that make it over, of course. And by-and-large it's the Japanese music that's the most popular.

 

[DCharlie]

although it never ceases to amaze me how many people out here are into Belle and Sebastian... weird.

 

[SolidSnakex]

They know 50 Cent because he's connected to Eminem.

Avril Lavigne (Abril-chan!) is popular, as is t.A.T.u.

It's mostly top 40 and super popular acts that make it over, of course. And by-and-large it's the Japanese music that's the most popular.

t.A.T.u was in the top 10 best selling albums in Japan last year. Although that seem to change after they actually went to Japan. They cancelled a concert at the last minute, then walked out on some Japanese TV show because they didn't like the fact that they had to share their airtime with Japanese artists.

 

[Cerebral Palsy]

I always see a lot of my favorite bands playing Japan here and there on their tour lists. There must be a decent size western music scene there.

 

[Meier]

Every rock band in existence puts out special edition CD/DVDs for Japan. I'm so jealous.

 

[Dead]

Its a stipulation in theire contracts that bands need to include extra an track(s) on an album when its released there.

 

[karasu]

Wu tang gets much love in Japan.

 

[XS+]

Real easy to listen to Western music in Japan. There's that thing about Japan exclusive tracks or albums just getting released in Japan before the rest of the world gets it. As far as Hiphop, every bigtime rapper you can name has done a concert in Japan (Ludacris just did one yesterday). And every year there's a 'Fuji Rock Festival' concert starring a lot of hi-profile rock bands. And Virgin Megastores and HMV seems to sell more western releases than domestic. Plus there are a few decent radio stations in Tokyo that plays mostly rock, pop, r&b and hiphop. So yeah, not hard at all.

 

[MetatronM]

Yeah, Western music is big here. Japanese artists are obviously more widely known/played, but god, I must have seen about 5 different magazine covers with Avril on the front this month. There's definitely plenty of hip hop and R&B to be found too.

I know Janet Jackson was on some late night talk show about a week ago or something.

I also hear a lot of early '90s kind of stuff a lot.

 

[Miburou]

CDs and DVDs are so overpriced in Japan (although recently some western DVDs, such as Last Samurai, are more inline with pricing in North America), that it's a pretty good market for western publishers to release special editions for the Japanese market (imported CDs are actually cheaper).