Do you think international Japanese music fandom is dominated by men?

[DocumentaLy]

This is a thought that never really crossed my mind until someone brought it up in the comments on Arama. One of the female readers noted how we had 3 staff members reviewing a song, but they were all male. It was a Johnny's song, and she suggested that maybe a woman would have a different perspective on the song since their songs are geared towards women mostly. And then I thought about how our staff is mostly male. Our main female staff member happens to be our Johnny's writer. Which made me think, is Johnny's fandom the only place where female Japanese music fans are more of a norm? I see it more now with LDH fans too as their fandom has grown.

 

But then I think about the other types of music and their fans. Like with the whole female soloist thing, a lot of their international fans are men, more specifically gay men. Which made me think about how the forum I was on that got me into this scene was pretty much all gay men. It made me think about how a lot of Arama's staff members are gay men. It made me think about how a lot of the Japanese music fans I follow on Tumblr are gay men.

 

But there are also a lot of straight male fans in the scene, specifically when it comes more to rock, urban, and female idols. It is often said that there are a lot of female fans of female idols, but it seems as if the male fans overshadow them, as is the case in pretty much all of international Japanese music fandom it seems. The exceptions, as I said before, just seem to be Johnny's and LDH. Like I was surprised when I first started posting on 6T that there were so many women, but there always seemed to be more men, and it still seems that way. Who do you think this is the case? It seems as if our fandom is much more male-centric than the KPop one which seems to be a lot more female-centric as far as fandom goes. I'm thinking it could be because of people getting into the scene via anime / video games and those tend to be more male pursuits, even though I know a lot of women like those things as well. But even in those circles, I hear about how men are more dominant.

 

Sorry if it sounds like I'm rambling, but this just popped in my head as I listen to the Arashi album so I can write my review. By the way, it sounds strangely mature and not as cheesy as I thought it would be.

[biawakstruus]

Do you think ?

 

[Joga]

Yes? I thought that was obvious haha.

 

This is because the male side of jpop is dominated by Johnny's, which is too inaccessible and not attractive to the average international female, I think. They focus on their guys being "pretty" more than hot or handsome, because thats what the average japanese teen girl wants. (which is the target market for male idol groups in Japan)

[DocumentaLy]

Do you think ?

 

 

The thing is though is that the things presented in that video are a very stereotypical point of view of Japan that fans with a better grip on reality don't have.

[DocumentaLy]

Yes? I thought that was obvious haha.

 

This is because the male side of jpop is dominated by Johnny's, which is too inaccessible and not attractive to the average international female, I think. They focus on their guys being "pretty" more than hot or handsome, because thats what the average japanese teen girl wants. (which is the target market for male idol groups in Japan)

 

But what about the female soloists? There have been a lot of prominent, strong female figures in the industry, which have attracted a lot of gay male fans internationaly. You would think that these women would have more female fans internationally like they do in Japan.

[Stay Away]

 

A friend I have who's into japanese female solo singers is a gay male.

Me, I'm a rare case. I like mostly indie artists and I occasionally enjoy some female solo releases from Japan. I'm a female but I don't particularly fancy Johnny's. To be honest I don't like boybands from kpop that much with a couple of exceptions. 

[Midna]

This is a thought that never really crossed my mind until someone brought it up in the comments on Arama. One of the female readers noted how we had 3 staff members reviewing a song, but they were all male. It was a Johnny's song, and she suggested that maybe a woman would have a different perspective on the song since their songs are geared towards women mostly. And then I thought about how our staff is mostly male. Our main female staff member happens to be our Johnny's writer. Which made me think, is Johnny's fandom the only place where female Japanese music fans are more of a norm? I see it more now with LDH fans too as their fandom has grown.

 

But then I think about the other types of music and their fans. Like with the whole female soloist thing, a lot of their international fans are men, more specifically gay men. Which made me think about how the forum I was on that got me into this scene was pretty much all gay men. It made me think about how a lot of Arama's staff members are gay men. It made me think about how a lot of the Japanese music fans I follow on Tumblr are gay men.

 

But there are also a lot of straight male fans in the scene, specifically when it comes more to rock, urban, and female idols. It is often said that there are a lot of female fans of female idols, but it seems as if the male fans overshadow them, as is the case in pretty much all of international Japanese music fandom it seems. The exceptions, as I said before, just seem to be Johnny's and LDH. Like I was surprised when I first started posting on 6T that there were so many women, but there always seemed to be more men, and it still seems that way. Who do you think this is the case? It seems as if our fandom is much more male-centric than the KPop one which seems to be a lot more female-centric as far as fandom goes. I'm thinking it could be because of people getting into the scene via anime / video games and those tend to be more male pursuits, even though I know a lot of women like those things as well. But even in those circles, I hear about how men are more dominant.

 

Sorry if it sounds like I'm rambling, but this just popped in my head as I listen to the Arashi album so I can write my review. By the way, it sounds strangely mature and not as cheesy as I thought it would be.

 

 

GASP!!!!!!

 

 

anyway...huh. I never thought about that before. You;re right actually O_O I mean, the whole JE and women stanning them is a given, but I never thought about that with LDH o.o

[DocumentaLy]

GASP!!!!!!

 

 

anyway...huh. I never thought about that before. You;re right actually O_O I mean, the whole JE and women stanning them is a given, but I never thought about that with LDH o.o

 

I never thought about it til recently. And the female soloists... In Japan, their fans are mostly female, but overseas it seems to be mostly gay men.

[Midna]

I never thought about it til recently. And the female soloists... In Japan, their fans are mostly female, but overseas it seems to be mostly gay men.

 

I think on 1H, there are more female stans of acts... overall.

 

But, if you look at j-turd, I think there are more men that post in there.

[weregild]

Yes? I thought that was obvious haha.

 

This is because the male side of jpop is dominated by Johnny's, which is too inaccessible and not attractive to the average international female, I think. They focus on their guys being "pretty" more than hot or handsome, because thats what the average japanese teen girl wants. (which is the target market for male idol groups in Japan)

 

tokio, v6, arashi, kat-tun ect. do not focus on being pretty.. lol kpop has the flowerboy concept which is focuses on guys being pretty. 

[Joga]

tokio, v6, arashi, kat-tun ect. do not focus on being pretty.. lol kpop has the flowerboy concept which is focuses on guys being pretty. 

1. Tokio is old-- and an actual band

2. v6 is old

3. Arashi is old-- and are very pretty don't try it.

4. Kat-tun is old-- and very pretty please stop trying it

 

When JE pulls a Dope or a Call Me Baby with similar styling, (and guys that are in their teens or or 20s), then yes they would no longer count as pretty, but there is a reason Jpop doesn't appeal to international fans. And that's because their idols just aren't trendy. 

[weregild]

1. Tokio is old-- and an actual band

2. v6 is old

3. Arashi is old-- and are very pretty don't try it.

4. Kat-tun is old-- and very pretty please stop trying it

 

When JE pulls a Dope or a Call Me Baby with similar styling, (and guys that are in their teens or or 20s), then yes they would no longer count as pretty, but there is a reason Jpop doesn't appeal to international fans. And that's because their idols just aren't trendy. 

 

arashi (trust me they're not considered pretty) and kat-tun aren't old lmao stop pulling blanket statements. just because groups like hey say jump or sz do cute concepts doesn't mean it's all the time. the reason they're not popular is because of the internet constraints that are forced upon them.

[Joga]

arashi (trust me they're not considered pretty) and kat-tun aren't old lmao stop pulling blanket statements. just because groups like hey say jump or sz do cute concepts doesn't mean it's all the time. the reason they're not popular is because of the internet constraints that are forced upon them.

If you show an international fan Ai Wo Sakebe, what concept would you think they would say Arashi was leaning towards? Just think about it. Put that same melody, same dance, and same styling on boys in their teens or early 20s and...

 

 

 

Its pretty!

 

Don't be blind lol. Pretty doesn't mean "bad" or low quality, it just means thats the reason why intl women aren't interested in jpop.

[weregild]

If you show an international fan Ai Wo Sakebe, what concept would you think they would say Arashi was leaning towards? Just think about it. Put that same melody, same dance, and same styling on boys in their teens or early 20s and...

 

 

 

Its pretty!

 

Don't be blind lol. Pretty doesn't mean "bad" or low quality, it just means thats the reason why intl women aren't interested in jpop.

 

....that bf release is way more saccharine than aws not to mention their styling. and i dont think its a bad thing i just find this blanket statement sorta wrong (considering there are loads of flower boys in kpop) when it's more that johnny's don't allow their idols stuff to be put on the internet. exposure goes a long way.

[Joga]

....that bf release is way more saccharine than aws not to mention their styling. and i dont think its a bad thing i just find this blanket statement sorta wrong (considering there are loads of flower boys in kpop) when it's more that johnny's don't allow their idols stuff to be put on the internet. exposure goes a long way.

Flower boys in kpop are fading fast though. That style isn't popular all around anymore. The last (and only) new flower boy band I saw being released was Romeo. If someone was at all interested in jpop, they would and could easily find everything they wanted or needed to find on tumblr or LJ just as they do with the ~korea only~ stuff that happens in kpop. Of course the internet restriction has a ton to do with it, I think its just a lack of international interest in their concepts.

[choa501]

I think things like this are hard to tell in the J-Pop fandom because there are a lot of fans who listen to Japanese music but don't get involved in fandom at all or don't fangirl or fanboy like K-Pop fans do. For example, I know 6 straight guys who like Johnny's and religiously watch their variety shows and know the groups better than some female fans I know but they aren't active on any forums and they do not fanboy. Likewise, I've met a lot of female fans of the 48's and some H!P groups so at least in my experience I don't think you can easily tell if there's really more male fans than female ones.

[dextros]

It could be because you get strong female soloists in America and Europe too, but you don't really get any of the idol stuff anywhere else. Kpop is mostly idols and idols are designed to attract a female fanbase, which leads into their international fans being mostly female. Japan has a lot less idols and while 48 groups do try to some extent attract female fans, their bigger aim is to gain support from their male fans.
Idol fans are very rarely into them only for the music (if they like it at all, I've seen that too) and they specifically look for that stuff, while a person looking for good music from a strong female is much more likely to come across one of the western ones.
I've never really noticed a majority of male fans though, could it be the same as what was said in the kpop thread - male fans just appear more prominent? 

[weregild]

Flower boys in kpop are fading fast though. That style isn't popular all around anymore. The last (and only) new flower boy band I saw being released was Romeo. If someone was at all interested in jpop, they would and could easily find everything they wanted or needed to find on tumblr or LJ just as they do with the ~korea only~ stuff that happens in kpop. Of course the internet restriction has a ton to do with it, I think its just a lack of international interest in their concepts.

 

it's harder to find johnny's stuff than you think tho to my knowledge there's a tiny following if you decide to stan the younger groups +  you can't get subs easily bc you have to pass some test bc j&a is known to snatch anything on theirs on the web. even then, kpop boy groups are still known for being pretty boys than not so they're not so much different from jpop boy band lol.

[Coffee Biscuit]

it's simple really.

 

Internet, video games and computer is a guy thing for the best part of 90's and early 00's.

 

As a result, more guys are logically computer/internet savvy compare to girls.

 

 

Especially with Jpop being not as accessible, guys, by logic have far higher chance of digging them up during their time "surfing" the web.

[IceHism]

Yes, it's practically the same reason why more guys do engineering and science majors than females.  If society decides to tell little girls that it's not cool to be able to use a computer, then you'll notice a trend somewhere 20 years down the line.  Of course, i think that perspective is changing and soon it'll be a bit more even in how many people know how to navigate the internet,

 

Generally, the intl females fans of 48 i meet are pretty cool though.  Most of the people i got to know were females rather than males actually.

 

oh yea, i'm sorry to all the female commentators but i can't take johnny music most of the time :(

[Obelisk]

I never knew that I actually a man, but why do I have
?
But honestly I see completely the opposite. What stuff about Japanese music industry guys can enjoy?
Male idol groups? This stuff is definitely made for girls.

Female idol groups? I know many of you will disagree, but I don't see where guys can enjoy female idol groups. I don't think that guys in first place will be into girl groups, especially when everything about it extremely girly.

JFS? girls also like the image of perfect woman. I never really met a guy who is a fan of female soloist.

There lots of pretty stuff in jpop, and girls like pretty stuff. As I know guys also not that much into stanning. Maybe guys will enjoy bands and vocaloid music.

The only male friend that I have only listen to anison.

Honestly if I ever meet a guy who like this stuff I would question his sexuality, but you said it by yourself that most of the guys were gay man, aren't you gay yourself?

[Obelisk]

I'm a girl, or at least I thought I am.

What I like? Vocaloid, JFS, girl groups, urban, few bands, anison.
I'm not the biggest fan of johnny entertainment, or generally boybands isn't my thing. I also don't like mainstreem Japanese music.

[Obelisk]

If you show an international fan Ai Wo Sakebe, what concept would you think they would say Arashi was leaning towards? Just think about it. Put that same melody, same dance, and same styling on boys in their teens or early 20s and...

 

 

 

Its pretty!

 

Don't be blind lol. Pretty doesn't mean "bad" or low quality, it just means thats the reason why intl women aren't interested in jpop.

There's lots of fans who enjoy jpop for different reason, I personally like jpop for the vocals.

[Midna]

What did I just read in the last page?

[zekkochochou]

Yes, it's practically the same reason why more guys do engineering and science majors than females.  If society decides to tell little girls that it's not cool to be able to use a computer, then you'll notice a trend somewhere 20 years down the line.  Of course, i think that perspective is changing and soon it'll be a bit more even in how many people know how to navigate the internet,

 

Generally, the intl females fans of 48 i meet are pretty cool though.  Most of the people i got to know were females rather than males actually.

 

oh yea, i'm sorry to all the female commentators but i can't take johnny music most of the time :(

Most of the 48 fans that i've met are females... Actually most of the jpop fans in my country are girls and their music interest aren't restricted to only Johnny's. The guys tend to like bands (and anime songs) more than fawning over idol groups.

I do have a guy friend who keeps himself updated on Arashi and Kattun releases and he's straight.