Does all Japanese music sound similar to anyone else?

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Um, a K-pop fan once told me that listening to K-pop is an excellent way to de-stress because K-pop songs are mostly cheerful and uplifting. Personally, I'm in awe of Japanese composers. (Many Chinese pop songs, especially those considered as oldies, are actually Japanese pop songs with their lyrics altered significantly.) I agree with Wikipedia that enka has strongly influenced Hokkien music in Taiwan and trot music in Korea.

To Ganondox: Here's the Chinese version of Kita Guni no Haru (North Country's Spring). Enjoy! (To be honest, I prefer the Japanese original.)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKv1WkSeQs4[/youtube]

To starryeyedvoyager: Hi, thanks a lot for enlightening me about the pentatonic scale.

I'm pleasantly surprised that so many well-known songs are composed according to the pentatonic scale.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpvfSOP2slk[/youtube]

Thanks for posting those two enka vids, Knives. I was exposed to some enka back when I listened to the Oricon chart weekly in 2010/2011.

@Ganondox; I realise Gangnam Style stands out more, but I find it somewhat amusing that the song became a hit in the West because the artist wasn't actually trying to catch on internationally, while the other acts like Girls Generation were making attempts to do just that, and failed. It reminds me of how there are so many talent shows looking for 'The next pop idol', and then fail to produce a winner that has more than one hit single. There are exceptions, but I guess it goes to show that you can't force fame.

ps. don't think anyone linked to this yet:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlgBjVOn6Ls[/youtube]

At 4:27 - the transition there, I feel like I'm having an orgasm of the soul.

Not to me it doesn't.

I wouldn't say K-Pop sounds exactly like American music. No matter how you look at it, that's not true. There is a distinctive Korean feel in many of the songs, as well as evident influences from J-Pop in many cases.

But J-Pop's definitely unqiue, especially in comparison. J-Rock, too. I've said it before - I have no hope in Japanese music, even mainstream Japanese music, getting any real attention the rest. Not because it's bad, I love Japanese music, above all else (note that my avatar is actually the lead singer of a popular Japanese boyband), but because it's too different to mainstream Western music. It doesn't fit in. While you see people over here giving K-Pop a quick listen and saying it's not that bad, I've only ever heard J-Pop being passed off as 'chingchong music' and, in one case, when someone asked to listen to my MP3 Player when I had been listening to Berryz Koubou's Berryz Fields, 'rave for aliens'.

My favourite thing, though, is when J-Pop is accused of ripping K-Pop off. Sure, the Hallyu Wave means that certain new musical trends have shown themselves in Japanese music, but, people mainly make this claim when songs feature autotune. I'm sorry, I forgot that Perfume have been using that since before most of the current big K-Pop groups even debuted. Or that autotune was first used, mainly, by Michael Jackson, who is neither Korean nor Japanese (though it goes without saying). On top of that, the autotune trend in K-Pop only started around 2009, mainly after BIGBANG started implementing it, I believe. I swear the first major use of it from BIGBANG was in their track, Gara Gara GO! - which was released in Japan for a Japanese audience. However, one of GACKT's most autotuned tracks. GHOST, was released in early 2009, before BIGBANG even debuted in Japan, for the most part. Yamashita Tomohisa released MOLA in 2008 or 2009, either one. Before the K-Pop trend anyway. Koda Kumi uses auotune a lot, too. And there's far more examples, I'm sure, but I'm sick of people making such a stupidly baseless chain. K-Pop didn't make electric pop. Especially seeing as Japan have been working in that genre for longer than Korea.
[[unrelated rant, maybe?]]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOwCIeYAdf4[/youtube]

Love Perfume.